Multi-channel lidar processing for lane detection and estimation

Lane recognition is a function which is needed for a variety of driver assistance systems. For example Lane Departure Warning and Lane Keeping rely on information provided by a lane estimation algorithm. One important step of the lane estimation procedure is the extraction of measurements or detections which can be used to estimate the shape of the road or lane. These detections are generated by white lane markers or the road border itself. Lane estimation has for many years been under heavy development using a gray scale camera. Passive camera based systems can be degraded on its performance under certain circumstances, e.g. at dynamic changes of ambient brightness. The fusion with an active sensor can here increase the robustness of these systems significantly. In this paper an approach is presented to detect lane marks using an active light detection and ranging device (lidar). It can be shown that high reflective lane marks can be reliably detected. A polar Lane Detector Grid is used to combine the distance and intensity measurement channel of the lidar sensor.