Aerial Imagery based LIDAR Localization for Autonomous Vehicles
This reduces costs for autonomous vehicle deployment in urban environments, but it is incremental as it replaces one map type with another.
The paper tackles the high cost of LIDAR-based localization for autonomous vehicles by using aerial imagery maps instead, achieving real-time performance similar to state-of-the-art methods at reduced costs.
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.