• ETRI Journal
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.603-616
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• 2021

Over the last few years, autonomous vehicles have progressed very rapidly. The odometry technique that estimates displacement from consecutive sensor inputs is an essential technique for autonomous driving. In this article, we propose a fast, robust, and accurate odometry technique. The proposed technique is light detection and ranging (LiDAR)-based direct odometry, which uses a spherical range image (SRI) that projects a three-dimensional point cloud onto a two-dimensional spherical image plane. Direct odometry is developed in a vision-based method, and a fast execution speed can be expected. However, applying LiDAR data is difficult because of the sparsity. To solve this problem, we propose an SRI generation method and mathematical analysis, two key point sampling methods using SRI to increase precision and robustness, and a fast optimization method. The proposed technique was tested with the KITTI dataset and real environments. Evaluation results yielded a translation error of 0.69%, a rotation error of 0.0031°/m in the KITTI training dataset, and an execution time of 17 ms. The results demonstrated high precision comparable with state-of-the-art and remarkably higher speed than conventional techniques.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.1865-1873
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• 2017

The feature-based visual SLAM requires 3D positions for the extracted feature points to perform 3D-2D motion estimation. LiDAR can provide reliable and accurate 3D position information with low computational burden, while stereo camera has the problem of the impossibility of stereo matching in simple texture image region, the inaccuracy in depth value due to error contained in intrinsic and extrinsic camera parameter, and the limited number of depth value restricted by permissible stereo disparity. However, the sparsity of LiDAR data may increase the inaccuracy of motion estimation and can even lead to the result of motion estimation failure. Therefore, in this paper, we propose three interpolation methods which can be applied to interpolate sparse LiDAR data. Simulation results obtained by applying these three methods to a visual odometry algorithm demonstrates that the selective bilinear interpolation shows better performance in the view point of computation speed and accuracy.

• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.107-111
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• 2021

A 3D point cloud map is an essential elements in various fields, including precise autonomous navigation system. However, generating a 3D point cloud map using a single sensor has limitations due to the price of expensive sensor. In order to solve this problem, we propose a precise 3D mapping system using low-cost sensor fusion. Generating a point cloud map requires the process of estimating the current position and attitude, and describing the surrounding environment. In this paper, we utilized a commercial visual-inertial odometry sensor to estimate the current position and attitude states. Based on the state value, the 2D LiDAR measurement values describe the surrounding environment to create a point cloud map. To analyze the performance of the proposed algorithm, we compared the performance of the proposed algorithm and the 3D LiDAR-based SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) algorithm. As a result, it was confirmed that a precise 3D point cloud map can be generated with the low-cost sensor fusion system proposed in this paper.

• Journal of Auto-vehicle Safety Association
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.14-19
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• 2021

This paper presents LiDAR static obstacle map based vehicle dynamic state estimation algorithm for urban autonomous driving. In an autonomous driving, state estimation of host vehicle is important for accurate prediction of ego motion and perceived object. Therefore, in a situation in which noise exists in the control input of the vehicle, state estimation using sensor such as LiDAR and vision is required. However, it is difficult to obtain a measurement for the vehicle state because the recognition sensor of autonomous vehicle perceives including a dynamic object. The proposed algorithm consists of two parts. First, a Bayesian rule-based static obstacle map is constructed using continuous LiDAR point cloud input. Second, vehicle odometry during the time interval is calculated by matching the static obstacle map using Normal Distribution Transformation (NDT) method. And the velocity and yaw rate of vehicle are estimated based on the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) using vehicle odometry as measurement. The proposed algorithm is implemented in the Linux Robot Operating System (ROS) environment, and is verified with data obtained from actual driving on urban roads. The test results show a more robust and accurate dynamic state estimation result when there is a bias in the chassis IMU sensor.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.179-188
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• 2021

Construction monitoring is one of the key modules in smart construction. Unlike structured urban environment, construction site mapping is challenging due to the characteristics of an unstructured environment. For example, irregular feature points and matching prohibit creating a map for management. To tackle this issue, we propose a system for data acquisition in unstructured environment and a framework for Intensity and Ambient Enhanced Lidar Inertial Odometry via Smoothing and Mapping, IA-LIO-SAM, that achieves highly accurate robot trajectories and mapping. IA-LIO-SAM utilizes a factor graph same as Tightly-coupled Lidar Inertial Odometry via Smoothing and Mapping (LIO-SAM). Enhancing the existing LIO-SAM, IA-LIO-SAM leverages point's intensity and ambient value to remove unnecessary feature points. These additional values also perform as a new factor of the K-Nearest Neighbor algorithm (KNN), allowing accurate comparisons between stored points and scanned points. The performance was verified in three different environments and compared with LIO-SAM.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.37 no.5_1
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• pp.1095-1109
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• 2021

The technology used to recognize the location and surroundings of autonomous vehicles is called SLAM. SLAM standsfor Simultaneously Localization and Mapping and hasrecently been actively utilized in research on autonomous vehicles,starting with robotic research. Expensive GPS, INS, LiDAR, RADAR, and Wheel Odometry allow precise magnetic positioning and mapping in centimeters. However, if it can secure similar accuracy as using cheaper Cameras and GPS data, it will contribute to advancing the era of autonomous driving. In this paper, we present a method for converging monocular camera with RTK-enabled GPS data to perform RMSE 33.7 cm localization and mapping on the urban road.