LiDAR Extrinsic Calibration Without Accessing 3-D Point Cloud Data: A New Approach for LiDAR-Vehicle Alignment Inspection

Light detection and ranging (LiDAR)-vehicle external calibration involves estimating the relative pose of the LiDAR body from the ego-vehicle coordinate frame, which is required after the LiDAR is assembled on the vehicle. Current methods necessitate direct wiring to the LiDAR controller unit to access 3-D point cloud data. However, situations can limit a third party’s access to the LiDAR control unit for security and other practical reasons. Can the LiDAR-vehicle pose be estimated under such circumstances? Therefore, this study addresses this issue by proposing a new approach to the LiDAR extrinsic calibration method that does not require accessing 3-D point cloud data. The proposed solution uses a designed camera-target board system to capture images of LiDAR beams projected on a cylindrical target. By utilizing geometrical modeling equations, it can estimate the relative 6-D pose of the LiDAR body on the reference frame. Experiments demonstrated accuracy within 0.05° and 0.7 mm. This one-shot LiDAR-vehicle alignment inspection system when accessing 3-D point cloud data are restricted for various practical applications.