Measuring Vehicle Profile Size: Lidar-Based System and K-Frame-Based Methodology

At present, light curtain is a widely-used method to measure the vehicle profile size. However, it is sensitive to temperature, humidity, dust and other weather factors. In this paper, a lidar-based system with a K-frame-based algorithm is proposed for measuring vehicle profile size. The system is composed of left lidar, right lidar, front lidar, control box and industry controlling computer. Within the system, a K-frame-based methodology is investigated, which include several probable algorithm combinations. Three groups of experiments are conducted. An optimal algorithm combination, A16, is determined through the first group experiments. In the second group experiments, various types of vehicles are chosen to verify the generality and repeatability of the proposed system and methodology. The third group experiments are implemented to compare with vision-based methods and other lidar-based methods. The experimental results show that the proposed K-frame-based methodology is far more accurate than the comparative methods.