Mixed-Traffic Intersection Management Utilizing Connected and Autonomous Vehicles as Traffic Regulators

Connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) can realize many revolutionary applications, but it is expected to have mixed-traffic including CAVs and human-driving vehicles (HVs) together for decades. In this paper, we target the problem of mixed-traffic intersection management and schedule CAVs to control the subsequent HVs. We develop a dynamic programming approach and a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) formulation to optimally solve the problems with the corresponding intersection models. We then propose an MILP-based approach which is more efficient and real-time-applicable than solving the optimal MILP formulation, while keeping good solution quality as well as outperforming the first-come-first-served (FCFS) approach. Experimental results and SUMO simulation indicate that controlling CAVs by our approaches is effective to regulate mixed-traffic even if the CAV penetration rate is low, which brings incentive to early adoption of CAVs

A Safety-Guaranteed Framework for Neural-Network-Based Planners in Connected Vehicles under Communication Disturbance

Neural-network-based (NN-based) planners have been increasingly used to enhance the performance of planning for autonomous vehicles. However, it is often difficult for NN-based planners to balance efficiency and safety in complicated scenarios, especially under real-world communication disturbance. To tackle this challenge, we present a safety-guaranteed framework for NN-based planners in connected vehicle environments with communication disturbance. Given any NN-based planner with no safety-guarantee, the framework generates a robust compound planner embedding the NN-based planner to ensure overall system safety. Moreover, with the aid of an information filter for imperfect communication and an aggressive approach for the estimation of the unsafe set, the compound planner could achieve similar or better efficiency than the given NN-based planner. A comprehensive case study of unprotected left turn and extensive simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of our framework

Combining Multiple Algorithms for Road Network Tracking from Multiple Source Remotely Sensed Imagery: a Practical System and Performance Evaluation

In light of the increasing availability of commercial high-resolution imaging sensors, automatic interpretation tools are needed to extract road features. Currently, many approaches for road extraction are available, but it is acknowledged that there is no single method that would be successful in extracting all types of roads from any remotely sensed imagery. In this paper, a novel classification of roads is proposed, based on both the roads' geometrical, radiometric properties and the characteristics of the sensors. Subsequently, a general road tracking framework is proposed, and one or more suitable road trackers are designed or combined for each type of roads. Extensive experiments are performed to extract roads from aerial/satellite imagery, and the results show that a combination strategy can automatically extract more than 60% of the total roads from very high resolution imagery such as QuickBird and DMC images, with a time-saving of approximately 20%, and acceptable spatial accuracy. It is proven that a combination of multiple algorithms is more reliable, more efficient and more robust for extracting road networks from multiple-source remotely sensed imagery than the individual algorithms

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (3rd edition)

In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. For example, a key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process versus those that measure fl ux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the complete process including the amount and rate of cargo sequestered and degraded). In particular, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation must be differentiated from stimuli that increase autophagic activity, defi ned as increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (inmost higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium ) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the fi eld understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in many cases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. It is worth emphasizing here that lysosomal digestion is a stage of autophagy and evaluating its competence is a crucial part of the evaluation of autophagic flux, or complete autophagy. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to monitor autophagy. Along these lines, because of the potential for pleiotropic effects due to blocking autophagy through genetic manipulation it is imperative to delete or knock down more than one autophagy-related gene. In addition, some individual Atg proteins, or groups of proteins, are involved in other cellular pathways so not all Atg proteins can be used as a specific marker for an autophagic process. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular autophagy assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field

An Index Based on Joint Density of Corners and Line Segments for Built-Up Area Detection from High Resolution Satellite Imagery

Detection of built-up areas from Very High Spatial Resolution (VHSR) remote sensing images is a critical step in urbanization monitoring. This paper presents a method for extracting built-up areas from VHSR remote sensing imagery by using feature-level-based fusion of right angle corners, right angle sides and road marks. This method has six main steps. First, line segments are detected. Second, the Harris corner points are detected. Third, the right-angle corners and right-angle sides are determined by cross-verification of the above detected Harris corners and line segments. Fourth, the potential road marks are detected by the template matching method. Fifth, a built-up index image is constructed. Finally, the built-up areas are extracted through a binary thresholding of the above index image. Three satellite images with wide coverage are employed for evaluating the above proposed method. The experimental results suggest that the proposed method outperforms the classic PanTex method. On average, the completeness and the quality of the proposed method are respectively 17.94% and 13.33% better than those of the PanTex method, while there is no great difference between the two methods on the correctness

Segmentation-Based Filtering of Airborne LiDAR Point Clouds by Progressive Densification of Terrain Segments

Filtering is one of the core post-processing steps for Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) point clouds. A segmentation-based filtering (SBF) method is proposed herein. This method is composed of three key steps: point cloud segmentation, multiple echoes analysis, and iterative judgment. Moreover, the third step is our main contribution. Particularly, the iterative judgment is based on the framework of the classic progressive TIN (triangular irregular network) densification (PTD) method, but with basic processing unit being a segment rather than a single point. Seven benchmark datasets provided by ISPRS Working Group III/3 are utilized to test the SBF algorithm and the classic PTD method. Experimental results suggest that, compared with the PTD method, the SBF approach is capable of preserving discontinuities of landscapes and removing the lower parts of large objects attached on the ground surface. As a result, the SBF approach is able to reduce omission errors and total errors by 18.26% and 11.47% respectively, which would significantly decrease the cost of manual operation required in post-processing

Graph-Based Divide and Conquer Method for Parallelizing Spatial Operations on Vector Data

In computer science, dependence analysis determines whether or not it is safe to parallelize statements in programs. In dealing with the data-intensive and computationally intensive spatial operations in processing massive volumes of geometric features, this dependence can be well utilized for exploiting the parallelism. In this paper, we propose a graph-based divide and conquer method for parallelizing spatial operations (GDCMPSO) on vector data. It can represent spatial data dependences in spatial operations through representing the vector features as graph vertices, and their computational dependences as graph edges. By this way, spatial operations can be parallelized in three steps: partitioning the graph into graph components with inter-component edges firstly, simultaneously processing multiple subtasks indicated by the graph components secondly and finally handling remainder tasks denoted by the inter-component edges. To demonstrate how it works, buffer operation and intersection operation under this paradigm are conducted. In a 12-core environment, the two spatial operations both gain obvious performance improvements, and the speedups are more than eight. The testing results suggest that GDCMPSO contributes to a method for parallelizing spatial operations and can greatly improve the computing efficiency on multi-core architectures

Object-based Morphological Building Index for Building Extraction from High Resolution Remote Sensing Imagery

Building extraction from high resolution remote sensing images is a hot research topic in the field of photogrammetry and remote sensing. In this article, an object-based morphological building index (OBMBI) is constructed based on both image segmentation and graph-based top-hat reconstruction, and OBMBI is used for building extraction from high resolution remote sensing images. First, bidirectional mapping relationship between pixels, objects and graph-nodes are constructed. Second, the OBMBI image is built based on both graph-based top-hat reconstruction and the above mapping relationship. Third, a binary thresholding is performed on the OBMBI image, and the binary image is converted into vector format to derive the building polygons. Finally, the post-processing is made to optimize the extracted building polygons. Two images, including an aerial image and a panchromatic satellite image, are used to test both the proposed method and classic PanTex method. The experimental results suggest that our proposed method has a higher accuracy in building extraction than the classic PanTex method. On average, the correctness, the completeness and the quality of our method are respectively 9.49%, 11.26% and 14.11% better than those of the PanTex

3D Power Line Reconstruction from Airborne LiDAR Point Cloud of Overhead Electric Power Transmission Corridors

3D power line reconstruction is one of the main tasks in power line patrols using LiDAR systems mounted on helicopters. A 3D reconstruction method is proposed to reconstruct the power lines from the airborne LiDAR point clouds of the overhead electric power transmission corridors. Firstly, the pylons' LiDAR points and the initial routine trajectory of the transmission lines are employed to derive the precise information such as the locations and number of the pylons, the real routine trajectory, and the total number of spans. Secondly, the power line corridor is divided into a number of spans, the scope of each span in the XOY plane is determined, and the powerline LiDAR points are allocated into the corresponding spans where they are located. Thirdly, the powerline points of each span are clustered by the k-means algorithm in a normalized projection space, and each cluster corresponds to one power line. Finally, each power line is reconstructed based on a combination of a line model and a parabola model. Two experiments suggest that the proposed method is capable of automatically and correctly reconstructing 3D models of the long power lines with high accuracy. Moreover, it is robust to many factors such as the changing number, types, arrangements, blunders of the power lines, the changing length of the spans, and the irregular breakage of the LiDAR point clouds

Advances and Prospects of Information Extraction from Point Clouds

Point cloud is one type of the widely used data sources in many communities such as photogrammetry, remote sensing, and computer vision etc. Moreover, information extraction is a necessary step in the process of point cloud processing, analysis and applications. As result, the scholars have proposed a great number of methods for point cloud information extraction. According to the three view points of primitive types, extracted features, and methods for feature selection and classification, this review paper summarizes the research status of point cloud information extraction. This paper also point out five main problems and six main trends in point cloud information extraction, especially introduces a new paradigm:fusion of multiple primitives for point cloud information extraction