Argo vehicle simulation of motion driven 3D LIDAR detection and environment awareness

This paper presents a method to detect three dimensional (3D) objects using an occupancy grid based mapping technique. This paper adapts the 3D occupancy grid based mapping technique from the two dimensional (2D) occupancy grid based mapping technique commonly used in Simultaneous Localization and Mapping applications. The 3D occupancy mapping technique uses a 3D inverse measurement model and has been developed for a LIDAR based off-road ground rover vehicle that drives on 3D terrain. The technique is developed and simulated in MATLAB to demonstrate its 3D object detection capabilities. This technique was developed as part of off-road autonomous vehicle research being conducted at the University of Waterloo.