Obstacle Prediction for Automated Guided Vehicles Based on Point Clouds Measured by a Tilted LIDAR Sensor

Environment analysis of automatic vehicles needs the detection from 3-D point cloud information. This paper addresses this task when only partial scanning data are available. Our method develops the detection capabilities of autonomous vehicles equipped with 3-D range sensors for navigation purposes. In industrial practice, the safety scanners of automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and a localization technology provide an additional possibility to gain 3-D point clouds from planar contour points or low vertical resolution. Based on this data and a suitable evaluation algorithm, intelligence of vehicles can be significantly increased without the need for installation of additional sensors. In this paper, we propose a solution for an obstacle categorization problem for partial point clouds without shape modeling. The approach is tested for a known database, as well as for real-life scenarios. In case of AGVs, real-time run is provided by on-board computers of usual complexity.