A Simple Setup for the Experimental Verification of Measurement Artifacts Introduced by 3D-LiDAR in in-motion Acquisitions

Nowadays, most of the LiDARs used in the automotive sector are in scanning technology. Such implies that the acquisition of the surrounding environment takes place sequentially. If there is relative motion between the vehicle — the LiDAR — and the surrounding environment, the acquired 3D image is distorted. Theoretically, knowing the scanning frequency and the displacement vectors, such a distortion could be compensated. Nonetheless, as experienced by anyone who has analyzed point clouds (PCs) acquired from moving LiDARs, the distortion observed is often more severe and seemingly unpredictable than expected from the LiDAR scanning frequency and the displacement vectors. Thus, the in-motion performance analysis of LiDARs is significant for automotive applications. In-motion characterization and comparison are challenging. In this paper, we present a testbed for repeatable LiDAR in-motion characterization. The proposed test setup is composed of a track and a cart moving along it, at which the LiDAR is fixed. Since the cart speed is known and the surrounding environment is controlled, it is possible to estimate all the deformations introduced by the relative motion. The experimental examples obtained by analyzing a commercial LiDAR, the VLP 16 by Velodyne, demonstrate how the deformations obtained can be more significant than expected from a simple geometric analysis based on relative motion.