Automated road markings extraction from mobile laser scanning data

Abstract Road markings are used to provide guidance and instruction to road users for safe and comfortable driving. Enabling rapid, cost-effective and comprehensive approaches to the maintenance of route networks can be greatly improved with detailed information about location, dimension and condition of road markings. Mobile Laser Scanning (MLS) systems provide new opportunities in terms of collecting and processing this information. Laser scanning systems enable multiple attributes of the illuminated target to be recorded including intensity data. The recorded intensity data can be used to distinguish the road markings from other road surface elements due to their higher retro-reflective property. In this paper, we present an automated algorithm for extracting road markings from MLS data. We describe a robust and automated way of applying a range dependent thresholding function to the intensity values to extract road markings. We make novel use of binary morphological operations and generic knowledge of the dimensions of road markings to complete their shapes and remove other road surface elements introduced through the use of thresholding. We present a detailed analysis of the most applicable values required for the input parameters involved in our algorithm. We tested our algorithm on different road sections consisting of multiple distinct types of road markings. The successful extraction of these road markings demonstrates the effectiveness of our algorithm.

[1]  Behnaz Bigdeli,et al.  Automatic road extraction from LIDAR data based on classifier fusion , 2009, 2009 Joint Urban Remote Sensing Event.

[2]  George Vosselman,et al.  Advanced point cloud processing , 2009 .

[3]  S K Chaudhary.  Road safety audit and safety impact assessment , 2014 .

[4]  Fadi Dornaika,et al.  EXTRACTING B UILDING FOOTPRINTS FROM 3D POINT CLOUDS USING TERRESTRIAL LASER SCANNING AT STREET LEVEL , 2009 .

[5]  C. Toth,et al.  USING ROAD PAVEMENT MARKINGS AS GROUND CONTROL FOR LIDAR DATA , 2008 .

[6]  George Vosselman,et al.  Mapping curbstones in airborne and mobile laser scanning data , 2012, Int. J. Appl. Earth Obs. Geoinformation.

[7]  Chandran Saravanan,et al.  Automated Road Extraction From High Resolution Satellite Images , 2016 .

[8]  Pankaj Kumar,et al.  Initial Results From European Road Safety Inspection (eursi) Mobile Mapping Project , 2010 .

[9]  Welsh Office.  Traffic signs manual , 1965 .

[10]  Sarah Smith-Voysey,et al.  Geometric validation of a ground-based mobile laser scanning system , 2008 .

[11]  Salman Ahmadi,et al.  An improved snake model for automatic extraction of buildings from urban aerial images and LiDAR data , 2010, Comput. Environ. Urban Syst..

[12]  Harri Kaartinen,et al.  Remote Sensing Radiometric Calibration of Terrestrial Laser Scanners with External Reference Targets , 2022 .

[13]  Xin Chen,et al.  Next generation map making: geo-referenced ground-level LIDAR point clouds for automatic retro-reflective road feature extraction , 2009, GIS.

[14]  F. Rottensteiner,et al.  The Automatic Extraction of Roads from LIDAR data , 2004 .

[15]  G. Vosselman,et al.  AUTOMATIC EXTRACTION OF VERTICAL WALLS FROM MOBILE AND AIRBORNE LASER SCANNING DATA , 2009 .

[16]  Linda G. Shapiro,et al.  Computer and Robot Vision , 1991 .

[17]  Timothy McCarthy,et al.  MIMIC: Mobile mapping point density calculator , 2012, COM.Geo '12.

[18]  Ants Vain,et al.  Use of Naturally Available Reference Targets to Calibrate Airborne Laser Scanning Intensity Data , 2009, Sensors.

[19]  L. Smadja,et al.  ROAD EXTRACTION AND ENVIRONMENT INTERPRETATION FROM LIDAR SENSORS , 2010 .

[20]  Paul H. Lewis,et al.  An automated algorithm for extracting road edges from terrestrial mobile LiDAR data , 2013 .

[21]  J. Li M.A. Chapman.  Terrestrial mobile mapping towards real-time geospatial data collection , 2008 .

[22]  Xiangyun Hu,et al.  Automatic Road Extraction from Dense Urban Area by Integrated Processing of High Resolution Imagery and Lidar Data , 2004 .

[23]  Norbert Haala,et al.  An update on automatic 3D building reconstruction , 2010 .

[24]  S. Mumtaz,et al.  A SEMI-AUTOMATIC APPROACH TO OBJECT EXTRACTION FROM A COMBINATION OF IMAGE AND LASER DATA , 2009 .

[25]  Jon P. Mills,et al.  Factors Influencing Pulse Width of Small Footprint, Full Waveform Airborne Laser Scanning Data , 2010 .

[26]  Juha Hyyppä,et al.  Retrieval Algorithms for Road Surface Modelling Using Laser-Based Mobile Mapping , 2008, Sensors.

[27]  George Vosselman,et al.  Recognizing basic structures from mobile laser scanning data for road inventory studies , 2011 .

[28]  Bisheng Yang,et al.  Automated Extraction of Road Markings from Mobile Lidar Point Clouds , 2012 .

[29]  Timothy J McCarthy,et al.  European Road Safety Inspection (EuRSI) Research Project , 2010 .

[30]  C. Toth,et al.  USING PAVEMENT MARKINGS TO SUPPORT THE QA/QC OF LIDAR DATA , 2012 .

[31]  Boris Jutzi,et al.  NORMALIZATION OF LIDAR INTENSITY DATA BASED ON RANGE AND SURFACE INCIDENCE ANGLE , 2009 .

[32]  N. Pfeifer,et al.  Analysis of the backscattered energy in terrestrial laser scanning data , 2008 .

[33]  Timothy J McCarthy,et al.  Calculating the effect of dual-axis scanner rotations and surface orientation on scan profiles , 2011 .