5,105 research outputs found
A Deep Learning-based Radar and Camera Sensor Fusion Architecture for Object Detection
Object detection in camera images, using deep learning has been proven
successfully in recent years. Rising detection rates and computationally
efficient network structures are pushing this technique towards application in
production vehicles. Nevertheless, the sensor quality of the camera is limited
in severe weather conditions and through increased sensor noise in sparsely lit
areas and at night. Our approach enhances current 2D object detection networks
by fusing camera data and projected sparse radar data in the network layers.
The proposed CameraRadarFusionNet (CRF-Net) automatically learns at which level
the fusion of the sensor data is most beneficial for the detection result.
Additionally, we introduce BlackIn, a training strategy inspired by Dropout,
which focuses the learning on a specific sensor type. We show that the fusion
network is able to outperform a state-of-the-art image-only network for two
different datasets. The code for this research will be made available to the
public at: https://github.com/TUMFTM/CameraRadarFusionNet.Comment: Accepted at 2019 Sensor Data Fusion: Trends, Solutions, Applications
(SDF
Perception architecture exploration for automotive cyber-physical systems
2022 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.In emerging autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles, accurate environmental perception by automotive cyber physical platforms are critical for achieving safety and driving performance goals. An efficient perception solution capable of high fidelity environment modeling can improve Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) performance and reduce the number of lives lost to traffic accidents as a result of human driving errors. Enabling robust perception for vehicles with ADAS requires solving multiple complex problems related to the selection and placement of sensors, object detection, and sensor fusion. Current methods address these problems in isolation, which leads to inefficient solutions. For instance, there is an inherent accuracy versus latency trade-off between one stage and two stage object detectors which makes selecting an enhanced object detector from a diverse range of choices difficult. Further, even if a perception architecture was equipped with an ideal object detector performing high accuracy and low latency inference, the relative position and orientation of selected sensors (e.g., cameras, radars, lidars) determine whether static or dynamic targets are inside the field of view of each sensor or in the combined field of view of the sensor configuration. If the combined field of view is too small or contains redundant overlap between individual sensors, important events and obstacles can go undetected. Conversely, if the combined field of view is too large, the number of false positive detections will be high in real time and appropriate sensor fusion algorithms are required for filtering. Sensor fusion algorithms also enable tracking of non-ego vehicles in situations where traffic is highly dynamic or there are many obstacles on the road. Position and velocity estimation using sensor fusion algorithms have a lower margin for error when trajectories of other vehicles in traffic are in the vicinity of the ego vehicle, as incorrect measurement can cause accidents. Due to the various complex inter-dependencies between design decisions, constraints and optimization goals a framework capable of synthesizing perception solutions for automotive cyber physical platforms is not trivial. We present a novel perception architecture exploration framework for automotive cyber- physical platforms capable of global co-optimization of deep learning and sensing infrastructure. The framework is capable of exploring the synthesis of heterogeneous sensor configurations towards achieving vehicle autonomy goals. As our first contribution, we propose a novel optimization framework called VESPA that explores the design space of sensor placement locations and orientations to find the optimal sensor configuration for a vehicle. We demonstrate how our framework can obtain optimal sensor configurations for heterogeneous sensors deployed across two contemporary real vehicles. We then utilize VESPA to create a comprehensive perception architecture synthesis framework called PASTA. This framework enables robust perception for vehicles with ADAS requiring solutions to multiple complex problems related not only to the selection and placement of sensors but also object detection, and sensor fusion as well. Experimental results with the Audi-TT and BMW Minicooper vehicles show how PASTA can intelligently traverse the perception design space to find robust, vehicle-specific solutions
Sensor Fusion for Object Detection and Tracking in Autonomous Vehicles
Autonomous driving vehicles depend on their perception system to understand the environment and identify all static and dynamic obstacles surrounding the vehicle. The perception system in an autonomous vehicle uses the sensory data obtained from different sensor modalities to understand the environment and perform a variety of tasks such as object detection and object tracking. Combining the outputs of different sensors to obtain a more reliable and robust outcome is called sensor fusion. This dissertation studies the problem of sensor fusion for object detection and object tracking in autonomous driving vehicles and explores different approaches for utilizing deep neural networks to accurately and efficiently fuse sensory data from different sensing modalities.
In particular, this dissertation focuses on fusing radar and camera data for 2D and 3D object detection and object tracking tasks. First, the effectiveness of radar and camera fusion for 2D object detection is investigated by introducing a radar region proposal algorithm for generating object proposals in a two-stage object detection network. The evaluation results show significant improvement in speed and accuracy compared to a vision-based proposal generation method. Next, radar and camera fusion is used for the task of joint object detection and depth estimation where the radar data is used in conjunction with image features to generate object proposals, but also provides accurate depth estimation for the detected objects in the scene. A fusion algorithm is also proposed for 3D object detection where where the depth and velocity data obtained from the radar is fused with the camera images to detect objects in 3D and also accurately estimate their velocities without requiring any temporal information. Finally, radar and camera sensor fusion is used for 3D multi-object tracking by introducing an end-to-end trainable and online network capable of tracking objects in real-time
Radars for Autonomous Driving: A Review of Deep Learning Methods and Challenges
Radar is a key component of the suite of perception sensors used for safe and
reliable navigation of autonomous vehicles. Its unique capabilities include
high-resolution velocity imaging, detection of agents in occlusion and over
long ranges, and robust performance in adverse weather conditions. However, the
usage of radar data presents some challenges: it is characterized by low
resolution, sparsity, clutter, high uncertainty, and lack of good datasets.
These challenges have limited radar deep learning research. As a result,
current radar models are often influenced by lidar and vision models, which are
focused on optical features that are relatively weak in radar data, thus
resulting in under-utilization of radar's capabilities and diminishing its
contribution to autonomous perception. This review seeks to encourage further
deep learning research on autonomous radar data by 1) identifying key research
themes, and 2) offering a comprehensive overview of current opportunities and
challenges in the field. Topics covered include early and late fusion,
occupancy flow estimation, uncertainty modeling, and multipath detection. The
paper also discusses radar fundamentals and data representation, presents a
curated list of recent radar datasets, and reviews state-of-the-art lidar and
vision models relevant for radar research. For a summary of the paper and more
results, visit the website: autonomous-radars.github.io
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