Vehicle Localization Based on Visual Lane Marking and Topological Map Matching

International audienceAccurate and reliable localization is crucial to autonomous vehicle navigation and driver assistance systems. This paper presents a novel approach for online vehicle localization in a digital map. Two distinct map matching algorithms are proposed: i) Iterative Closest Point (ICP) based lane level map matching is performed with visual lane tracker and grid map ii) decision-rule based approach is used to perform topological map matching. Results of both the map matching algorithms are fused together with GPS and dead reckoning using Extended Kalman Filter to estimate vehicle's pose relative to the map. The proposed approach has been validated on real life conditions on an equipped vehicle. Detailed analysis of the experimental results show improved localization using the two aforementioned map matching algorithm

Vision-based localization methods under GPS-denied conditions

This paper reviews vision-based localization methods in GPS-denied environments and classifies the mainstream methods into Relative Vision Localization (RVL) and Absolute Vision Localization (AVL). For RVL, we discuss the broad application of optical flow in feature extraction-based Visual Odometry (VO) solutions and introduce advanced optical flow estimation methods. For AVL, we review recent advances in Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (VSLAM) techniques, from optimization-based methods to Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) based methods. We also introduce the application of offline map registration and lane vision detection schemes to achieve Absolute Visual Localization. This paper compares the performance and applications of mainstream methods for visual localization and provides suggestions for future studies.Comment: 32 pages, 15 figure