Forward Vehicle Detection Algorithm Using Column Detection and Bird`s-Eye View Mapping Based on Stereo Vision

In this paper, we propose a forward vehicle detection algorithm using column detection and bird`s-eye view mapping based on stereo vision. The algorithm can detect forward vehicles robustly in real complex traffic situations. The algorithm consists of the three steps, namely road feature-based column detection, bird`s-eye view mapping-based obstacle segmentation, obstacle area remerging and vehicle verification. First, we extract a road feature using maximum frequent values in v-disparity map. And we perform a column detection using the road feature as a new criterion. The road feature is more appropriate criterion than the median value because it is not affected by a road traffic situation, for example the changing of obstacle size or the number of obstacles. But there are still multiple obstacles in the obstacle areas. Thus, we perform a bird`s-eye view mapping-based obstacle segmentation to divide obstacle accurately. We can segment obstacle easily because a bird`s-eye view mapping can represent the position of obstacle on planar plane using depth map and camera information. Additionally, we perform obstacle area remerging processing because a segmented obstacle area may be same obstacle. Finally, we verify the obstacles whether those are vehicles or not using a depth map and gray image. We conduct experiments to prove the vehicle detection performance by applying our algorithm to real complex traffic situations.