A Pose Initialization Method for Unmanned Vehicles Based on an Improved Siamese Neural Network and Multi-Stage...

In satellite-denied environments, conventional localization methods struggle with rapid pose initialization due to the absence of global positioning data. To address this challenge, this study presents a high-precision pose initialization framework based on a Siamese Neural Network (SNN) and multi-stage probabilistic registration localization. First, the SNN improved by Convolutional Block Attention Module (CBAM) matches features between real-time radar point clouds and prior map slices, producing candidate positions based on similarity scores. Then, Adaptive Monte Carlo Localization (AMCL) performs probabilistic matching among these candidates to identify the correct slice and refine the position accuracy from tens of meters to meter-level, along with an approximate orientation estimate. Finally, the Normal Distributions Transform (NDT) is applied for point cloud registration, achieving centimeter-level pose estimation. The proposed method is evaluated on self-collected medium-scale and large-scale maps. Experimental results show that the SNN effectively identifies the correct map slice, which is further refined by AMCL and NDT to achieve centimeter-level position accuracy and sub-degree orientation accuracy. The multi-stage method achieves localization success rates of 99% on both 200 × 100 m and 300 × 200 m regions, with distance RMSEs of 0.175 m and 0.348 m, and orientation RMSEs of 0.149° and 0.437°, respectively. Evaluations on the KITTI dataset further demonstrate robust initialization performance in complex outdoor environments. The proposed framework provides a reference for high-precision pose initialization in large-scale satellite-denied scenarios.