Review on Vehicle Detection Technology for Unmanned Ground Vehicles
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sensors Review Review on Vehicle Detection Technology for Unmanned Ground Vehicles Qi Liu 1, Zirui Li 1,2 , Shihua Yuan 1,*, Yuzheng Zhu 1 and Xueyuan Li 1 1 School of Mechanical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100089, China; [email protected] (Q.L.); [email protected] (Z.L.); [email protected] (Y.Z.); [email protected] (X.L.) 2 Department of Transport and Planning, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology, Stevinweg 1, 2628 CN Delft, The Netherlands * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +86-10-6891-1307 Abstract: Unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) have great potential in the application of both civilian and military fields, and have become the focus of research in many countries. Environmental perception technology is the foundation of UGVs, which is of great significance to achieve a safer and more efficient performance. This article firstly introduces commonly used sensors for vehicle detection, lists their application scenarios and compares the strengths and weakness of different sensors. Secondly, related works about one of the most important aspects of environmental perception technology—vehicle detection—are reviewed and compared in detail in terms of different sensors. Thirdly, several simulation platforms related to UGVs are presented for facilitating simulation testing of vehicle detection algorithms. In addition, some datasets about UGVs are summarized to achieve the verification of vehicle detection algorithms in practical application. Finally, promising research topics in the future study of vehicle detection technology for UGVs are discussed in detail. Keywords: unmanned ground vehicles; sensor; vehicle detection; simulation platform; dataset Citation: Liu, Q.; Li, Z.; Yuan, S.; Zhu, Y.; Li, X. Review on Vehicle Detection Technology for Unmanned Ground Vehicles. Sensors 2021, 21, 1354. https://doi.org/10.3390/ 1. Introduction s21041354 The unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) is a comprehensive intelligent system that integrates environmental perception, location, navigation, path planning, decision-making Academic Editor: Felipe Jiménez and motion control [1]. It combines high technologies including computer science, data fusion, machine vision, deep learning, etc., to satisfy actual needs to achieve predetermined Received: 15 January 2021 goals [2]. Accepted: 10 February 2021 In the field of civil application, UGVs are mainly embodied in autonomous driving. Published: 14 February 2021 High intelligent driver models can completely or partially replace the driver’s active con- trol [3–5]. Moreover, UGVs with sensors can easily act as “probe vehicles” and perform Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral traffic sensing to achieve better information sharing with other agents in intelligent trans- with regard to jurisdictional claims in port systems [6]. Thus, it has great potential in reducing traffic accidents and alleviating published maps and institutional affil- traffic congestion. In the field of military application, it is competent in tasks such as acquir- iations. ing intelligence, monitoring and reconnaissance, transportation and logistics, demining and placement of improvised explosive devices, providing fire support, communication transfer, and medical transfer on the battlefield [7], which can effectively assist troops in combat operations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. The overall technical framework for UGVs is shown in Figure1. It is obvious that Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. environmental perception is an extremely important technology for UGVs, including the This article is an open access article perception of the external environment and the state estimation of the vehicle itself. An en- distributed under the terms and vironmental perception system with high-precision is the basis for UGVs to drive safely and conditions of the Creative Commons perform their duties efficiently. Environmental perception for UGVs requires various sen- Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// sors such as Lidar, monocular camera and millimeter-wave radar to collect environmental creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). information as input for planning, decision making and motion controlling system. Sensors 2021, 21, 1354. https://doi.org/10.3390/s21041354 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sensors Sensors 2021, 21, x FOR PEER REVIEW 2 of 49 sensors such as Lidar, monocular camera and millimeter-wave radar to collect environmen- Sensors 2021, 21, x FOR PEER REVIEWtal information as input for planning, decision making and motion controlling 2system. of 49 Sensors 2021, 21, 1354 2 of 46 sensors such as Lidar, monocular camera and millimeter-wave radar to collect environmen- tal information as input for planning, decision making and motion controlling system. Figure 1. Technical framework for UGVs. Environment perception technology includes simultaneous localization and map- pingFigure (SLAM 1. Technical), semantic framework segmentation, for UGVs.UGVs. vehicle detection, pedestrian detection, road detec- tion and many other aspects. 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