6533b7d9fe1ef96bd126d310

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Towards visual urban scene understanding for autonomous vehicle path tracking using GPS positioning data.

subject

description

This PhD thesis focuses on developing a path tracking approach based on visual perception and localization in urban environments. The proposed approach comprises two systems. The first one concerns environment perception. This task is carried out using deep learning techniques to automatically extract 2D visual features and use them to learn in order to distinguish the different objects in the driving scenarios. Three deep learning techniques are adopted: semantic segmentation to assign each image pixel to a class, instance segmentation to identify separated instances of the same class and, image classification to further recognize the specific labels of the instances. Here our system segments 15 object classes and performs traffic sign recognition. The second system refers to path tracking. In order to follow a path, the equipped vehicle first travels and records the route with a stereo vision system and a GPS receiver (learning step). The proposed system analyses off-line the GPS path and identifies exactly the locations of dangerous (sharp) curves and speed limits. Later after the vehicle is able to localize itself, the vehicle control module together with our speed negotiation algorithm, takes into account the information extracted and computes the ideal speed to execute. Through experimental results of both systems, we prove that, the first one is capable to detect and recognize precisely objects of interest in urban scenarios, while the path tracking one reduces significantly the lateral errors between the learned and traveled path. We argue that the fusion of both systems will ameliorate the tracking approach for preventing accidents or implementing autonomous driving.