ROADLANE—The Modular Framework to Support Recognition Algorithms of Road Lane Markings

One of the main actions of the driver is to keep the vehicle in a road lane within its markings, which could be aided with modern driver-assistance systems. Forward digital cameras in vehicles allow deploying computer vision strategies to extract the road recognition characteristics in real-time to support several features, such as lane departure warning, lane-keeping assist, and traffic recognition signals. Therefore, the road lane marking needs to be recognized through computer vision strategies providing the functionalities to decide on the vehicle’s drivability. This investigation presents a modular architecture to support algorithms and strategies for lane recognition, with three principal layers defined as pre-processing, processing, and post-processing. The lane-marking recognition is performed through statistical methods, such as buffering and RANSAC (RANdom SAmple Consensus), which selects only objects of interest to detect and recognize the lane markings. This methodology could be extended and deployed to detect and recognize any other road objects.

Efficient Filtering for Edge Extraction under Perspective Effect

Though it is generally believed that edges should be extracted at different scales when using a linear filter, it is still difficult to determine the optimal scale for each filter. In this paper, we propose a novel approach called orientation and scale tuned difference of boxes (osDoB) to solve this problem. For certain computer vision applications, such as lane marking detection, the prior information about the concerned target can facilitate edge extraction in a top-down manner. Based on the perspective effect, we associate the scale of the edge in an image with the target size in the real world and assign orientation and scale parameters for filtering each pixel. Considering the fact that it is very time-consuming to naïvely perform filters with different orientations and scales, we further design an extended integration map technology to speed up filtering. Our method is validated on synthetic and real data. The experimental results show that assigning appropriate orientation and scale parameters for filters is effective and can be realized efficiently.

Road Lane Marking Detection with Deep Learning

Road Lane detection is an important factor for Advanced Driver Assistant System (ADAS). In this paper, we propose a lane detection technology using deep convolutional neural network to extract lane marking features. Many conventional approaches detect the lane using the information of edge, color, intensity and shape. In addition, lane detection can be viewed as an image segmentation problem. However, most methods are sensitive to weather condition and noises; and thus, many traditional lane detection systems fail when the external environment has significant variation.

Automated Assessment of Passing Sight Distance on Rural Highways using Mobile LiDAR Data

Providing sufficient Available Sight Distance (ASD) that meets the minimum design requirements is crucial for highway safety. Previous work on sight distance assessment focused on Stopping Sight Distance (SSD) with little attention given to Passing Sight Distance (PSD). Insufficient PSD could lead to severe collisions such as head-on and sideswipe crashes. To address this gap, this paper introduces an automated method for PSD assessment on two-lane highways using mobile Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data. The procedure involved extracting centerline lane marking, defining passing-allowed and passing-prohibited regions, computing the ASD, and comparing the existing centerline marking pattern (i.e., passing and no-passing zones) to a proposed lane marking that is based on the ASD for passing maneuvers. Regions that meet the design standards, substandard zones, and non-optimal design regions were all defined. A reallocation of PSD zones was conducted based on the ASD including modifying the existing lane marking pattern, which resulted in increasing the total length of passing zones by up to 20%, providing more, but safer, passing opportunities. A high-level safety assessment of historical collisions showed clusters of crashes along regions where passing is currently allowed at locations where the ASD is less than standard requirements. The proposed framework represents a tool by which transportation agencies could assess PSD, upgrade the design of existing highways, and investigate the consequences of PSD limitations to ensure compliance with standards during highway service life.

Advances in lane marking detection algorithms for all-weather conditions

Driving vehicles in all-weather conditions is challenging as the lane markers tend to be unclear to the drivers for detecting the lanes. Moreover, the vehicles will move slower hence increasing the road traffic congestion which causes difficulties in detecting the lane markers especially for advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS). Therefore, this paper conducts a thorough review on vision-based lane marking detection algorithms developed for all-weather conditions. The review methodology consists of two major areas, which are a review on the general system models employed in the lane marking detection algorithms and a review on the types of weather conditions considered for the algorithms. Throughout the review process, it is observed that the lane marking detection algorithms in literature have mostly considered weather conditions such as fog, rain, haze and snow. A new contour-angle method has also been proposed for lane marker detection. Most of the research work focus on lane detection, but the classification of the types of lane markers remains a significant research gap that is worth to be addressed for ADAS and intelligent transport systems.