Development of a Calibration Method for 2-dimensional Laser Scanner Mounted on an Automated Vehicle

Abstract

The objective of this study is to develop a calibration method to get the exact position of the 2-dimensional laser scanner mounted at the front of an automated vehicle from a reference coordinate system before the automatic navigation in an orchard application. The research is limited only in calibrating a 2-dimensional laser scanner that gathers distance and angle data of the objects in front of it. The methods used in this research are Hough transform, Euler rotation theorem and LSM (least squares method). The calibration results identified the exact attachment position of the laser scanner with respect to the vehicle coordinates. Finally, field test runs for autonomous guidance with developed calibration was conducted to confirm the travel accuracy improvement. The accuracy of both lateral and heading error for calibrated sensor was higher than run of subjected calibration.