Vision System for Detecting a Small Object with Arbitrary Shape at Far Range

For one of the advanced sensing technologies for the autonomous driving, we have been working on the new vision system. It focuses on detecting the small object at far ranges. It enables to detour a vehicle by avoiding small object. This system is based on the high-resolution mono-camera with narrow FOV and the algorithms for object-detection and lane-detection. Since we have already proposed the system for the traffic cones, we proceed to a new algorithm for an unknown object with arbitrary shape. It can detect the object and estimate its range by using the information on the lane even though the shape and dimension of the object are unknown. Here the system architecture and how the algorithm to detect the object and estimate its range are described. The algorithm is at first validated by a computer-generated image. And then it is applied to real images. For the cones, the accuracy was +/- 4 [m] for the ranges between 50 and 150 [m]. For unknown objects (a tire and a cardboard), the detection was successful and the range estimation was also satisfactory.