Design and realization of novel measurement procedures and a measurement setup for the characterization of LiDARs for automotive applications

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Autonomous Vehicles are driving the innovation of cars and technology altogether, introducing challenges that require more and more information of the surrounding environment in order to take correct decisions in safety-critical scenarios. In this framework, car manufacturers are looking forward to adopt the best sensors available on the market and integrate them inside their vehicles. LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), and in particular 3D Time-of-Flight (ToF) scanning LiDAR, is thus object of an increasing interest because of its capability to scan the surrounding environment and to represent it in a 3D map. This sensor is of paramount importance for tackling complex problems such as decision making in autonomous driving, and this is why vehicle manufacturers are interested in LiDARs that can ensure the best performance or present the overall best characteristics. Because of the novelty of this technology, however, most LiDAR manufacturers highlight just some features of their devices and do not provide a full, standardized characterization that could allow to compare different products. The aim of this thesis work is to design, realize and ultimately provide both novel measurement procedures and a measurement setup that allow to characterize any LiDAR, assessing the relevant features that manufacturers do not always provide and allowing the comparison between different models. The proposed measurements performed exploiting the setup, in particular, allow to characterize warm-up time, stability, quantization and range error. The modular nature of the unique system developed, however, allows to further expand its capabilities and to easily perform additional characterizations without the need to build a new specific setup from scratch.