LIDAR-based Long Range Road Intersection Detection

Long range road intersection detection is crucial for localization and local path planning of autonomous vehicle in urban environments. In this paper, a new long-range road intersection detection approach for autonomous vehicle equipped with 3D LIDAR is presented. The approach first analyzes the admissible space in front of the autonomous vehicle, and then a virtual 3D LIDAR is placed in the admissible space 20 meters away from the vehicle. Finally the beam model of range finders and an improved toe-finding algorithm for virtual 3D LIDAR is used to find the road intersection. Experiments are carried out at the autonomous vehicle in campus, and results show the promising performance of the presented method.