Vehicle Pose Estimation System Base on Pressure Sensor Array for Clamping Parking Robot

Vehicle pose estimation is one of the most essential functions for the clamping parking robot. In order to detect the parameter information of a car accurately, laser scanners are used widely for their highly precise distance measurements. However, the price of laser scanners, especially 3D laser scanners, is usually very expensive, and the pose estimating algorithm is complex. In this paper, an innovative vehicle pose estimation system based on pressure sensor array is proposed. In order to improve the estimation accuracy, a rectangle fitting based on the least square method are applied. The suggested algorithm is simple and effective, it can not only estimate the pose of a car, but also achieve the parameters of wheel width, wheel tread, wheel base, weight and gravity center position. In addition, whether the steering wheel is back can also be detected. All the information above is important for clamping parking robot. What is more, it's much cheaper than laser scanners. In order to verify the algorithm, two experiment prototypes were built. The results proved that the proposed system provides an effective method of vehicle pose estimation for clamping parking robot.