Integrated obstacle and road tracking using a laser scanner

Autonomous vehicles need sensory input from the environment. Here, a laser scanner mounted on the front bumper is used to provide range data of a horizontal profile in front of the vehicle up to a maximum distance of one hundred meters. Other vehicles are detected and tracked in successive scans yielding their position and velocity vectors. The road boundary consisting of crash barriers and reflector poles is used to estimate the parameters of a clothoid model. The combination of object tracking and boundary estimation results in both a more robust and accurate estimation and enhanced knowledge of the overall traffic situation. By taking a priori assumptions into account a lane marking of vehicles is possible. Results are shown with recorded real traffic data