Rapid position estimation and tracking for autonomous driving

A method is presented for determining the position and orientation of a vehicle from a single, color video taken from the hood of the vehicle, for the purpose of assisting its autonomous operation at very high speeds on rural roads. An implicit perspective transformation allows estimation of the vehicle's orientation and cross-road image features. From these, an adaptive road model is built and the horizontal position of the vehicle can be estimated. This method makes very few assumptions about the structure of the road or the path of the vehicle. In a realistic, simulated environment, good road model construction and vehicle position estimation are achieved at frame rates suitable for real-time high speed driving. © 2012 Copyright Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).