Lidar and Landmark based Localization System for a Wheeled Mobile Driving Simulator

The following work presents the development of a vehicle positioning function using vehicle mounted lidar sensors of the type Ouster OS1-32 and retroreflective landmarks. The function is developed for the use case of a wheeled mobile driving simulator, which is a mobile robot performing driving maneuvers within a virtually limited circular workspace. Nevertheless, the function is transferable to other applications where a vehicle’s dynamic position on a limitable area is to be determined with high dependability and independently of random environmental features. Based on the specific requirements for the simulator operation, a suitable architecture of landmarks, consisting of retroreflective cylinders, is derived. Then, the software architecture is presented, which mainly relies on a map matching algorithm. In comparison with a DGPS reference system and under artificial perturbation of the lidar-landmark-interaction, the performance and robustness of the function is evaluated on a real prototype. The results show high potential of the developed function for a safety relevant positioning of the vehicle.