METHOD AND DEVICE FOR CLASSIFYING END-TO-END WEATHER AND ROAD CONDITIONS IN REAL TIME BY USING LIDAR

A driving environment classification device and method are provided, where the method includes a data collector configured to collect a three-dimensional (3-D) point cloud from a light detection and ranging (LiDAR)sensor, an image generator configured to generate a range image based on the 3-D point cloud, an image processor configured to extract at least one feature from the range image by inputting the range image and a pre-learnt at least one encoder weight to a pre-trained encoder, and a driving environment determiner configured to classify a driving environment by inputting the at least one feature and a pre-learnt at least one classification weight to a pre-trained driving environment classification model.