Accurate localization is a critical component of mobile autonomous systems, especially in Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS)-denied environments where traditional methods fail. In such scenarios, environmental sensing is essential for reliable operation. However, approaches such as LiDAR odometry and Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) suffer from drift over long distances, especially in the absence of loop closures. Map-based localization offers a robust alternative, but the challenge lies in creating and georeferencing maps without GNSS support. To address this issue, we propose a method for creating georeferenced maps without GNSS by using publicly available data, such as building footprints and surface models derived from sparse aerial scans. Our approach integrates these data with onboard LiDAR scans to produce dense, accurate, georeferenced 3D point cloud maps. By combining an Iterative Closest Point (ICP) scan-to-scan and scan-to-map matching strategy, we achieve high local consistency without suffering from long-term drift. Thus, we eliminate the reliance on GNSS for the creation of georeferenced maps. The results demonstrate that LiDAR-only mapping can produce accurate georeferenced point cloud maps when augmented with existing map priors.

Current software stacks for real-world applications of autonomous driving leverage map information to ensure reliable localization, path planning, and motion prediction. An important field of research is the generation of point cloud maps, referring to the topic of simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM). As most recent developments do not include global position data, the resulting point cloud maps suffer from internal distortion and missing georeferencing, preventing their use for map-based localization approaches. Therefore, we propose FlexCloud for an automatic georeferencing of point cloud maps created from SLAM. Our approach is designed to work modularly with different SLAM methods, utilizing only the generated local point cloud map and its odometry. Using the corresponding GNSS positions enables direct georeferencing without additional control points. By leveraging a 3D rubber-sheet transformation, we can correct distortions within the map caused by long-term drift while maintaining its structure. Our approach enables the creation of consistent, globally referenced point cloud maps from data collected by a mobile mapping system (MMS). The source code of our work is available at https://github.com/TUMFTM/FlexCloud.

Today's autonomous vehicles rely on a multitude of sensors to perceive their environment. To improve the perception or create redundancy, the sensor's alignment relative to each other must be known. With Multi-LiCa, we present a novel approach for the alignment, e.g. calibration. We present an automatic motion- and targetless approach for the extrinsic multi LiDAR-to-LiDAR calibration without the need for additional sensor modalities or an initial transformation input. We propose a two-step process with feature-based matching for the coarse alignment and a GICP-based fine registration in combination with a cost-based matching strategy. Our approach can be applied to any number of sensors and positions if there is a partial overlap between the field of view of single sensors. We show that our pipeline is better generalized to different sensor setups and scenarios and is on par or better in calibration accuracy than existing approaches. The presented framework is integrated in ROS 2 but can also be used as a standalone application. To build upon our work, our source code is available at: https://github.com/TUMFTM/Multi_LiCa.

Autonomous trucking is a promising technology that can greatly impact modern logistics and the environment. Ensuring its safety on public roads is one of the main duties that requires an accurate perception of the environment. To achieve this, machine learning methods rely on large datasets, but to this day, no such datasets are available for autonomous trucks. In this work, we present MAN TruckScenes, the first multimodal dataset for autonomous trucking. MAN TruckScenes allows the research community to come into contact with truck-specific challenges, such as trailer occlusions, novel sensor perspectives, and terminal environments for the first time. It comprises more than 740 scenes of 20 s each within a multitude of different environmental conditions. The sensor set includes 4 cameras, 6 lidar, 6 radar sensors, 2 IMUs, and a high-precision GNSS. The dataset's 3D bounding boxes were manually annotated and carefully reviewed to achieve a high quality standard. Bounding boxes are available for 27 object classes, 15 attributes, and a range of more than 230 m. The scenes are tagged according to 34 distinct scene tags, and all objects are tracked throughout the scene to promote a wide range of applications. Additionally, MAN TruckScenes is the first dataset to provide 4D radar data with 360{\deg} coverage and is thereby the largest radar dataset with annotated 3D bounding boxes. Finally, we provide extensive dataset analysis and baseline results. The dataset, development kit and more are available online.

State-of-the-art LiDAR calibration frameworks mainly use non-probabilistic registration methods such as Iterative Closest Point (ICP) and its variants. These methods suffer from biased results due to their pair-wise registration procedure as well as their sensitivity to initialization and parameterization. This often leads to misalignments in the calibration process. Probabilistic registration methods compensate for these drawbacks by specifically modeling the probabilistic nature of the observations. This paper presents GMMCalib, an automatic target-based extrinsic calibration approach for multi-LiDAR systems. Using an implementation of a Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM)-based registration method that allows joint registration of multiple point clouds, this data-driven approach is compared to ICP algorithms. We perform simulation experiments using the digital twin of the EDGAR research vehicle and validate the results in a real-world environment. We also address the local minima problem of local registration methods for extrinsic sensor calibration and use a distance-based metric to evaluate the calibration results. Our results show that an increase in robustness against sensor miscalibrations can be achieved by using GMM-based registration algorithms. The code is open source and available on GitHub.

While current research and development of autonomous driving primarily focuses on developing new features and algorithms, the transfer from isolated software components into an entire software stack has been covered sparsely. Besides that, due to the complexity of autonomous software stacks and public road traffic, the optimal validation of entire stacks is an open research problem. Our paper focuses on these two aspects. We present our autonomous research vehicle EDGAR and its digital twin, a detailed virtual duplication of the vehicle. While the vehicle's setup is closely related to the state of the art, its virtual duplication is a valuable contribution as it is crucial for a consistent validation process from simulation to real-world tests. In addition, different development teams can work with the same model, making integration and testing of software stacks much easier, significantly accelerating the development process. The real and virtual vehicles are embedded in a comprehensive development environment, which is also introduced. All parameters of the digital twin are provided open-source at https://github.com/TUMFTM/edgar

In this paper, we assess the state of the art in pedestrian trajectory prediction within the context of generating single trajectories, a critical aspect aligning with the requirements in autonomous systems. The evaluation is conducted on the widely-used ETH/UCY dataset where the Average Displacement Error (ADE) and the Final Displacement Error (FDE) are reported. Alongside this, we perform an ablation study to investigate the impact of the observed motion history on prediction performance. To evaluate the scalability of each approach when confronted with varying amounts of agents, the inference time of each model is measured. Following a quantitative analysis, the resulting predictions are compared in a qualitative manner, giving insight into the strengths and weaknesses of current approaches. The results demonstrate that although a constant velocity model (CVM) provides a good approximation of the overall dynamics in the majority of cases, additional features need to be incorporated to reflect common pedestrian behavior observed. Therefore, this study presents a data-driven analysis with the intent to guide the future development of pedestrian trajectory prediction algorithms.

Reliable detection and tracking of surrounding objects are indispensable for comprehensive motion prediction and planning of autonomous vehicles. Due to the limitations of individual sensors, the fusion of multiple sensor modalities is required to improve the overall detection capabilities. Additionally, robust motion tracking is essential for reducing the effect of sensor noise and improving state estimation accuracy. The reliability of the autonomous vehicle software becomes even more relevant in complex, adversarial high-speed scenarios at the vehicle handling limits in autonomous racing. In this paper, we present a modular multi-modal sensor fusion and tracking method for high-speed applications. The method is based on the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) and is capable of fusing heterogeneous detection inputs to track surrounding objects consistently. A novel delay compensation approach enables to reduce the influence of the perception software latency and to output an updated object list. It is the first fusion and tracking method validated in high-speed real-world scenarios at the Indy Autonomous Challenge 2021 and the Autonomous Challenge at CES (AC@CES) 2022, proving its robustness and computational efficiency on embedded systems. It does not require any labeled data and achieves position tracking residuals below 0.1 m. The related code is available as open-source software at https://github.com/TUMFTM/FusionTracking.

For decades, motorsport has been an incubator for innovations in the automotive sector and brought forth systems like disk brakes or rearview mirrors. Autonomous racing series such as Roborace, F1Tenth, or the Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC) are envisioned as playing a similar role within the autonomous vehicle sector, serving as a proving ground for new technology at the limits of the autonomous systems capabilities. This paper outlines the software stack and approach of the TUM Autonomous Motorsport team for their participation in the Indy Autonomous Challenge, which holds two competitions: A single-vehicle competition on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and a passing competition at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Nine university teams used an identical vehicle platform: A modified Indy Lights chassis equipped with sensors, a computing platform, and actuators. All the teams developed different algorithms for object detection, localization, planning, prediction, and control of the race cars. The team from TUM placed first in Indianapolis and secured second place in Las Vegas. During the final of the passing competition, the TUM team reached speeds and accelerations close to the limit of the vehicle, peaking at around 270 km/h and 28 ms2. This paper will present details of the vehicle hardware platform, the developed algorithms, and the workflow to test and enhance the software applied during the two-year project. We derive deep insights into the autonomous vehicle's behavior at high speed and high acceleration by providing a detailed competition analysis. Based on this, we deduce a list of lessons learned and provide insights on promising areas of future work based on the real-world evaluation of the displayed concepts.

With the rise of AI and automation, moral decisions are being put into the hands of algorithms that were formerly the preserve of humans. In autonomous driving, a variety of such decisions with ethical implications are made by algorithms for behavior and trajectory planning. Therefore, we present an ethical trajectory planning algorithm with a framework that aims at a fair distribution of risk among road users. Our implementation incorporates a combination of five essential ethical principles: minimization of the overall risk, priority for the worst-off, equal treatment of people, responsibility, and maximum acceptable risk. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first ethical algorithm for trajectory planning of autonomous vehicles in line with the 20 recommendations from the EU Commission expert group and with general applicability to various traffic situations. We showcase the ethical behavior of our algorithm in selected scenarios and provide an empirical analysis of the ethical principles in 2000 scenarios. The code used in this research is available as open-source software.