PIDLoc: Cross-View Pose Optimization Network Inspired by PID Controllers

Accurate localization is essential for autonomous driving, but GNSS-based methods struggle in challenging environments such as urban canyons. Cross-view pose optimization offers an effective solution for localization by directly estimating vehicle pose using satellite-view images. However, existing methods primarily rely on cross-view features at a given pose, neglecting fine-grained contexts for precision and global contexts for robustness against large initial pose errors. To overcome these limitations, we propose PIDLoc, a novel cross-view pose optimization approach inspired by the proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller. Using RGB images and LiDAR data, the PIDLoc models cross-view feature relationships through the PID branches and estimates pose via the spatially aware pose estimator (SPE). To enhance localization accuracy, the PID branches leverage feature differences for local context (P), aggregated feature differences for global context (I), and gradients of feature differences for fine-grained context (D). Integrated with the PID branches, the SPE captures spatial relationships within the PID-branch features for consistent localization. Experimental results demonstrate that the PIDLoc achieves state-of-the-art performance in cross-view pose estimation for the KITTI dataset, reducing position error by 37.8% compared with the previous state-of-the-art. Our code is available at https://github.com/url-kaist/PIDLoc