Gaurav Pandey

Akhil Nagariya, Dimitar Filev, Srikanth Saripalli et al.

In the area of autonomous driving, navigating off-road terrains presents a unique set of challenges, from unpredictable surfaces like grass and dirt to unexpected obstacles such as bushes and puddles. In this work, we present a novel learning-based local planner that addresses these challenges by directly capturing human driving nuances from real-world demonstrations using only a monocular camera. The key features of our planner are its ability to navigate in challenging off-road environments with various terrain types and its fast learning capabilities. By utilizing minimal human demonstration data (5-10 mins), it quickly learns to navigate in a wide array of off-road conditions. The local planner significantly reduces the real world data required to learn human driving preferences. This allows the planner to apply learned behaviors to real-world scenarios without the need for manual fine-tuning, demonstrating quick adjustment and adaptability in off-road autonomous driving technology.

Elijah S. Lee, Ankit Vora, Armin Parchami et al.

Vehicle localization is essential for autonomous vehicle (AV) navigation and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). Accurate vehicle localization is often achieved via expensive inertial navigation systems or by employing compute-intensive vision processing (LiDAR/camera) to augment the low-cost and noisy inertial sensors. Here we have developed a framework for fusing the information obtained from a smart infrastructure node (ix-node) with the autonomous vehicles on-board localization engine to estimate the robust and accurate pose of the ego-vehicle even with cheap inertial sensors. A smart ix-node is typically used to augment the perception capability of an autonomous vehicle, especially when the onboard perception sensors of AVs are blocked by the dynamic and static objects in the environment thereby making them ineffectual. In this work, we utilize this perception output from an ix-node to increase the localization accuracy of the AV. The fusion of ix-node perception output with the vehicle's low-cost inertial sensors allows us to perform reliable vehicle localization without the need for relying on expensive inertial navigation systems or compute-intensive vision processing onboard the AVs. The proposed approach has been tested on real-world datasets collected from a test track in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Detailed analysis of the experimental results shows that incorporating ix-node data improves localization performance.

Ankit Vora, Siddharth Agarwal, Gaurav Pandey et al.

This paper presents a localization technique using aerial imagery maps and LIDAR based ground reflectivity for autonomous vehicles in urban environments. Traditional localization techniques using LIDAR reflectivity rely on high definition reflectivity maps generated from a mapping vehicle. The cost and effort required to maintain such prior maps are generally very high because it requires a fleet of expensive mapping vehicles. In this work we propose a localization technique where the vehicle localizes using aerial/satellite imagery, eradicating the need to develop and maintain complex high-definition maps. The proposed technique has been tested on a real world dataset collected from a test track in Ann Arbor, Michigan. This research concludes that aerial imagery based maps provides real-time localization performance similar to state-of-the-art LIDAR based maps for autonomous vehicles in urban environments at reduced costs.

Tom Roussel, Punarjay Chakravarty, Gaurav Pandey et al.

We describe a Deep-Geometric Localizer that is able to estimate the full 6 Degree of Freedom (DoF) global pose of the camera from a single image in a previously mapped environment. Our map is a topo-metric one, with discrete topological nodes whose 6 DoF poses are known. Each topo-node in our map also comprises of a set of points, whose 2D features and 3D locations are stored as part of the mapping process. For the mapping phase, we utilise a stereo camera and a regular stereo visual SLAM pipeline. During the localization phase, we take a single camera image, localize it to a topological node using Deep Learning, and use a geometric algorithm (PnP) on the matched 2D features (and their 3D positions in the topo map) to determine the full 6 DoF globally consistent pose of the camera. Our method divorces the mapping and the localization algorithms and sensors (stereo and mono), and allows accurate 6 DoF pose estimation in a previously mapped environment using a single camera. With potential VR/AR and localization applications in single camera devices such as mobile phones and drones, our hybrid algorithm compares favourably with the fully Deep-Learning based Pose-Net that regresses pose from a single image in simulated as well as real environments.

Tyler G. R. Reid, Sarah E. Houts, Robert Cammarata et al.

Autonomous vehicles require precise knowledge of their position and orientation in all weather and traffic conditions for path planning, perception, control, and general safe operation. Here we derive these requirements for autonomous vehicles based on first principles. We begin with the safety integrity level, defining the allowable probability of failure per hour of operation based on desired improvements on road safety today. This draws comparisons with the localization integrity levels required in aviation and rail where similar numbers are derived at 10^-8 probability of failure per hour of operation. We then define the geometry of the problem, where the aim is to maintain knowledge that the vehicle is within its lane and to determine what road level it is on. Longitudinal, lateral, and vertical localization error bounds (alert limits) and 95% accuracy requirements are derived based on US road geometry standards (lane width, curvature, and vertical clearance) and allowable vehicle dimensions. For passenger vehicles operating on freeway roads, the result is a required lateral error bound of 0.57 m (0.20 m, 95%), a longitudinal bound of 1.40 m (0.48 m, 95%), a vertical bound of 1.30 m (0.43 m, 95%), and an attitude bound in each direction of 1.50 deg (0.51 deg, 95%). On local streets, the road geometry makes requirements more stringent where lateral and longitudinal error bounds of 0.29 m (0.10 m, 95%) are needed with an orientation requirement of 0.50 deg (0.17 deg, 95%).