Introducing L-Shaping for a Streamlined Lidar-Based Perception in Urban Platooning

Platooning is a step toward fully automated driving. It refers to a group of vehicles driving in close formation, with the lead-vehicle controlled by a human driver and the others followed by an automated system. The technology behind platooning involves communication between vehicles via various sensors and wireless systems that allow the vehicles to drive in close proximity to each other. Knowing the relative position of the vehicles in the platoon is essential to coordinate the movements of all involved vehicles and ensure that the platoon can travel efficiently and safely in a union. The objective of this research is to present a lidar-based method for relative positioning in the context of platooning with significantly reduced modeling effort. To achieve this, we propose a lidar-based method for measuring the relative position of vehicles. For this purpose, the lead-vehicle's cluster has to be detected from lidar point clouds in each measurement. The extracted cluster is fitted into an L shape, with the short side of the L representing the rear of the vehicle and the long side of the L representing one side of the vehicle. Using this method, the relative position of each vehicle can be derived from the L-shape. The system was evaluated both in simulation and on a real-world test track. The results show that the proposed system is capable of determining the relative position of two vehicles in an urban platoon.