LIDAR based perception solution for autonomous vehicles

In this work, a solution for clustering and tracking obstacles in the area covered by a LIDAR sensor is presented. It is based on a combination of simple artificial intelligence techniques and it is conceived as an initial version of a detection and tracking system for objects of any shape that an autonomous vehicle might find in its surroundings. The proposed solution divides the problem into three consecutive phases: 1) segmentation, 2) fragmentation detection and clustering and 3) tracking. The work done has been tested with real world LIDAR scan samples taken from an instrumented vehicle.