Analysis of Factors Affecting Random Measurement Error in LiDAR Point Cloud Feature Matching Positioning

Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) has the advantage of simultaneous localization and mapping with high precision, making it one of the important sensors for intelligent robotics navigation, positioning, and perception. It is common knowledge that the random measurement error of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) observations is usually considered to be closely related to the elevation angle factor. However, in the LiDAR point cloud feature matching positioning model, the analysis of factors affecting the random measurement error of observations is unsophisticated, which limits the ability of LiDAR sensors to estimate pose parameters. Therefore, this work draws on the random measurement error analysis method of GNSS observations to study the impact of factors such as distance, angle, and feature accuracy on the random measurement error of LiDAR. The experimental results show that feature accuracy is the main factor affecting the measurement error in the LiDAR point cloud feature matching positioning model, compared with distance and angle factors, even under different sensor specifications, point cloud densities, prior maps, and urban road scenes. Furthermore, a simple random measurement error model based on the feature accuracy factor is used to verify the effect of parameter estimation, and the results show that the random error model can effectively reduce the error of pose parameter estimation, with an improvement effect of about 50%.