Heavy rain hinders LiDAR sensors

The team from the Intelligent Vehicles Group at Warwick University published its study in the IEEE Sensors Journal, which details how the researchers specifically simulated and evaluated the performance of LiDAR sensors in the rain.

High-level autonomous vehicles (AVs) are promised by Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and technology companies to improve road safety as well as bringing economical and societal benefits. All high-level AVs rely heavily on sensors to operate.

Using the WMG 3xD simulator, researchers tested an autonomous vehicle’s LiDAR sensors in different intensities of rain, driving around a simulation of real roads in and around Coventry. The simulator is used as a safe environment to test autonomous vehicles, as they are required to have been on several million miles of road.

LiDAR sensors work by emitting numerous narrow beams of near-infrared light with circular/elliptical cross sections. These can reflect off objects in their trajectories and return to the detector of the LiDAR sensor.