Accurate Cooperative Localization Utilizing LiDAR-equipped Roadside Infrastructure for Autonomous Driving

TL;DR

This paper introduces a cooperative localization method using roadside LiDAR-equipped infrastructure and V2I communication to enhance autonomous vehicle localization accuracy, especially in feature-scarce environments, demonstrating significant improvements in simulations.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel cooperative localization framework leveraging roadside LiDAR and V2I communication, improving accuracy and reliability over traditional methods in autonomous driving.

Findings

Localization accuracy improved by up to 80% in simulations.

Robust against network delays and packet loss.

Effective in environments lacking map features.

Abstract

Recent advancements in LiDAR technology have significantly lowered costs and improved both its precision and resolution, thereby solidifying its role as a critical component in autonomous vehicle localization. Using sophisticated 3D registration algorithms, LiDAR now facilitates vehicle localization with centimeter-level accuracy. However, these high-precision techniques often face reliability challenges in environments devoid of identifiable map features. To address this limitation, we propose a novel approach that utilizes road side units (RSU) with vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications to assist vehicle self-localization. By using RSUs as stationary reference points and processing real-time LiDAR data, our method enhances localization accuracy through a cooperative localization framework. By placing RSUs in critical areas, our proposed method can improve the reliability and precision of vehicle localization when the traditional vehicle self-localization technique falls short. Evaluation results in an end-to-end autonomous driving simulator AWSIM show that the proposed method can improve localization accuracy by up to 80% under vulnerable environments compared to traditional localization methods. Additionally, our method also demonstrates robust resistance to network delays and packet loss in heterogeneous network environments.