Rapid motion segmentation of LiDAR point cloud based on a combination of probabilistic and evidential approaches for intelligent vehicles

Abstract

Point clouds from light detecting and ranging (LiDAR) sensors represent increasingly important information for environmental object detection and classification of automated and intelligent vehicles. Objects in the driving environment can be classified as either dynamic or static depending on their movement characteristics. A LiDAR point cloud is also segmented into dynamic and static points based on the motion properties of the measured objects. The segmented motion information of a point cloud can be useful for various functions in automated and intelligent vehicles. This paper presents a fast motion segmentation algorithm that segments a LiDAR point cloud into dynamic and static points in real-time. The segmentation algorithm classifies the motion of the latest point cloud based on the LiDAR’s laser beam characteristics and the geometrical relationship between consecutive LiDAR point clouds. To accurately and reliably estimate the motion state of each LiDAR point considering the measurement uncertainty, both probability theory and evidence theory are employed in the segmentation algorithm. The probabilistic and evidential algorithm segments the point cloud into three classes: dynamic, static, and unknown. Points are placed in the unknown class when LiDAR point cloud is not sufficient for motion segmentation. The point motion segmentation algorithm was evaluated quantitatively and qualitatively through experimental comparisons with previous motion segmentation methods.