Abstract
This paper introduces Dr-LiSA, a first-of-its-kind direct method for localizing 2D spinning radar intensity measurements in $SE(3)$ against 3D lidar maps. Radar-lidar localization combines the complementary strengths of the two sensing modalities: radar is robust to adverse weather and precipitation, while lidar provides high-fidelity 3D maps in favourable conditions. However, existing radar-lidar localization methods are restricted to planar $SE(2)$ localization and have generally fallen short of the accuracy achieved by lidar-lidar and even radar-radar systems. A key challenge is the substantial sensing-modality gap between radar and lidar, which observe and represent scene structure in fundamentally different ways. Dr-LiSA bridges this gap using a learned forward model that predicts radar measurements from a lidar submap at a candidate pose, enabling direct photometric alignment of predicted and observed radar scans in $SE(3)$. Dr-LiSA outperforms prior radar-lidar approaches in $SE(2)$ while achieving planar accuracy competitive with state-of-the-art radar-radar localization across more than 90 km of on-road data.
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Publication details
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Cite this article
APA 7
Zhang, A., Lisus, D., Gentil, C. L., & Barfoot, T. D. (2026). Dr-LiSA: Direct Radar-Lidar Scan Alignment for SE(3) Localization. https://omanscience.com/en/articles/dr-lisa-direct-radar-lidar-scan-alignment-for-se-3-localization
MLA 9
Zhang, Alex, et al. "Dr-LiSA: Direct Radar-Lidar Scan Alignment for SE(3) Localization." https://omanscience.com/en/articles/dr-lisa-direct-radar-lidar-scan-alignment-for-se-3-localization.
Chicago (author–date)
Zhang, Alex, Daniil Lisus, Cedric Le Gentil, and Timothy D. Barfoot. 2026. "Dr-LiSA: Direct Radar-Lidar Scan Alignment for SE(3) Localization." https://omanscience.com/en/articles/dr-lisa-direct-radar-lidar-scan-alignment-for-se-3-localization.
Harvard
Zhang, A., Lisus, D., Gentil, C. L. and Barfoot, T. D. (2026) 'Dr-LiSA: Direct Radar-Lidar Scan Alignment for SE(3) Localization', Available at: https://omanscience.com/en/articles/dr-lisa-direct-radar-lidar-scan-alignment-for-se-3-localization.
Vancouver
Zhang A, Lisus D, Gentil CL, Barfoot TD. Dr-LiSA: Direct Radar-Lidar Scan Alignment for SE(3) Localization. https://omanscience.com/en/articles/dr-lisa-direct-radar-lidar-scan-alignment-for-se-3-localization
IEEE
A. Zhang, D. Lisus, C. L. Gentil, and T. D. Barfoot, "Dr-LiSA: Direct Radar-Lidar Scan Alignment for SE(3) Localization," https://omanscience.com/en/articles/dr-lisa-direct-radar-lidar-scan-alignment-for-se-3-localization.