The World Health Organization predicts that by the year 2030, road traffic injuries will be one of the top five leading causes of death. Many of these deaths and injuries can be prevented by driving cars properly equipped with state-of-the-art safety and driver assistance systems.
Some examples are auto-brake and auto-collision avoidance which are becoming more and more popular on the market today. A recent study by a Swedish insurance company has shown that on roads with speeds up to 50 km/h an auto-brake system can reduce personal injuries by up to 64 percent. In fact in an estimated 40 percent of crashes, the auto-brake reduced the effects to the degree that no personal injury was sustained.
It is imperative that these so called Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, to be really effective, have good situational awareness. It is important that they have adequate information of the vehicle’s immediate surroundings. Where are other cars, pedestrians or motorcycles relative to our own vehicle? How fast are they driving and in which lane? How is our own vehicle driving? Are there objects in the way of our own vehicle’s intended path? These and many more questions can be answered by a properly designed system for situational awareness.
In this thesis we design and evaluate, both quantitatively and qualitatively, sensor fusion algorithms for multi-target tracking. We use a combination of camera and radar information to perform fusion and find relevant objects in a cluttered environment. The combination of these two sensors is very interesting because of their complementary attributes. The radar system has high range resolution but poor bearing resolution.
The camera system on the other hand has a very high bearing resolution. This is very promising, with the potential to substantially increase the accuracy of the tracking system compared to just using one of the two. We have also designed algorithms for path prediction and a first threat awareness logic which are both qualitively evaluated.
Source: Linköping University
Author: Andersson Naesseth, Christian