Using Downward-Looking Lidar to Detect and Track Traffic

This paper presents a solution to detect pedestrian and vehicle using a 16-line LIDAR. Unlike prior researches, the downward-looking LIDAR is mounted on a bridge over road lanes instead of mounting on a moving vehicle. The sensor detects motorized and non-motorized traffic and classifies the traffic into different modes. The detected object is tracked with the Kalman filter method. Compared with the high-end sensor of high resolution, the 16-line LIDAR is affordable and cost-effective, and the experiment demonstrates its acceptable detection rate and trajectory estimation precision. Beside detection range, the application of downward-looking LIDAR has a satisfied result.