Model-based curved lane detection using geometric relation between camera and road plane

In this paper, we propose a robust curved lane marking detection method. Several lane detection methods have been proposed, however most of them have considered only straight lanes. Compared to the number of straight lane detection researches, less number of curved-lane detection researches has been investigated. This paper proposes a new curved lane detection and tracking method which is robust to various illumination conditions. First, the proposed methods detect straight lanes using a robust road feature image. Using the geometric relation between a vehicle camera and the road plane, several circle models are generated, which are later projected as curved lane models on the camera images. On the top of the detected straight lanes, the curved lane models are superimposed to match with the road feature image. Then, each curve model is voted based on the distribution of road features. Finally, the curve model with highest votes is selected as the true curve model. The performance and efficiency of the proposed algorithm are shown in experimental results.