Detection and tracking of dynamic obstacle is one of the research hotspot in autonomous vehicles. In this paper, a dynamic obstacle detection and tracking method based on 3D lidar is proposed. The nearest neighborhood method is used to cluster the data obtained by the laser lidar. The characteristic parameters of the clustering obstacles are analyzed. Multiple hypothesis tracking model (MHT) algorithm and the nearest neighbor association algorithm are used for data association of two consecutive frames of obstacle information. The dynamic and static state of obstacles are analyzed through the temporal and spatial correlation of the obstacle. Finally, we use linear Kalman filter to predict the movement state of the obstacle. The experimental results on a low-speed driverless vehicle “small whirlwind” which is an autonomous sightseeing vehicle show that the method can accurately detect the dynamic obstacles in unknown environment with effectiveness and real-time performance.

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