Lidar-based road terrain recognition for passenger vehicles

The road terrain type is important information about a passenger vehicle's surroundings. It suggests an appropriate control algorithm and driving strategy. In this paper, a Lidar sensor is employed to reconstruct the road surface and extract features for terrain classification. The experiment vehicle was driven on four specific road terrains at a variety of speeds. The speed dependency and the effect of using principal component analysis were investigated. The simulation experimental results show that this Lidar sensor-based approach is feasible and robust for passenger vehicles in a range of outdoor scenarios.