Lidar for Autonomous Driving: The Principles, Challenges, and Trends for Automotive Lidar and Perception Systems

Autonomous vehicles rely on their perception systems to acquire information about their immediate surroundings. It is necessary to detect the presence of other vehicles, pedestrians, and other relevant entities. Safety concerns and the need for accurate estimations have led to the introduction of lidar systems to complement camera- or radar-based perception systems. This article presents a review of state-of-the-art automotive lidar technologies and the perception algorithms used with those technologies. Lidar systems are introduced first by analyzing such a system's main components, from laser transmitter to beamscanning mechanism. The advantages/disadvantages and the current status of various solutions are introduced and compared. Then, the specific perception pipeline for lidar data processing is detailed from an autonomous vehicle perspective. The model-driven approaches and emerging deep learning (DL) solutions are reviewed. Finally, we provide an overview of the limitations, challenges, and trends for automotive lidars and perception systems.