Applying Extended Object Tracking for Self-Localization of Roadside Radar Sensors

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) can benefit from roadside 4D mmWave radar sensors for large-scale traffic monitoring due to their weatherproof functionality, long sensing range and low manufacturing cost. However, the localization method using external measurement devices has limitations in urban environments. Furthermore, if the sensor mount exhibits changes due to environmental influences, they cannot be corrected when the measurement is performed only during the installation. In this paper, we propose self-localization of roadside radar data using Extended Object Tracking (EOT). The method analyses both the tracked trajectories of the vehicles observed by the sensor and the aerial laser scan of city streets, assigns labels of driving behaviors such as "straight ahead", "left turn", "right turn" to trajectory sections and road segments, and performs Semantic Iterative Closest Points (SICP) algorithm to register the point cloud. The method exploits the result from a down stream task -- object tracking -- for localization. We demonstrate high accuracy in the sub-meter range along with very low orientation error. The method also shows good data efficiency. The evaluation is done in both simulation and real-world tests.

Scalable Radar-based ITS: Self-localization and Occupancy Heat Map for Traffic Analysis

4D mmWave radar sensors are well suited for city scale Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) given their long sensing range, weatherproof functionality, simple mechanical design, and low manufacturing cost. In this paper, we investigate radar-based ITS for scalable traffic analysis. Localization of these radar sensors in a city scale range is a fundamental task in ITS. For mobile ITS setups it requires more endeavor. To address this task, we propose a self-localization approach that matches two descriptions of "road": the one from the geometry of the motion trajectories of cumulatively observed vehicles, and the other one from the aerial laser scan. An ICP (iterative closest point) algorithm is used to register the motion trajectory into the road section of the laser scan to estimate the sensor pose. We evaluates the results and show that it outperforms other map-based radar localization methods, especially for the orientation estimation. Beyond the localization result, we project radar sensor data onto city scale laser scan and generate an scalable occupancy heat map as a traffic analysis tool. This is demonstrated using two radar sensors monitoring an urban area in the real world.