VS-Net: A Voxel Encoding and Sparse Convolution Embedded Network for LiDAR 3D Object Detection

Accurate and efficient 3D object detection in LiDAR point cloud is critical for autonomous driving. In this paper, we provide a solution for LiDAR-only detection which employs voxel features and a sparse convolution network. Specifically, we utilized voxel centers to encode point clouds' voxel features. Then, combining the sparse convolution method, we leveraged residual learning to design the backbone network. The detector output predicted results for multi-category and multi-object detection. Our method was evaluated on three popular and challenging datasets (KITTI, nuScence and Waymo). Experimental results demonstrated that the accuracy and speed (27.8 FPS) of our model could effectively support object detection for autonomous driving in various scenarios.