EXTRACTION OF LANE-RELATED INFORMATION AND A REAL-TIME IMAGE PROCESSING ONBOARD SYSTEM

The purpose of this paper is two-fold: 1) A novel algorithm in order to extract lane-related information from road images is presented; 2) Design specifications of an image processing onboard unit capable of extracting lane­related information in real-time is also presented. Obtaining precise information from road images requires many features due to the effects of noise that eventually leads to long processing time. By exploiting a FPGA and DSP, we solve the problem of real-time processing. Due to the fact that image processing of road images relies largely on edge features, the FPGA is adopted in the hardware design. The schematic configuration of the FPGA is optimized in order to perform 3 $\times$ 3 Sobel edge extraction. The DSP carries out high-level image processing of recognition, decision, estimation, etc. The proposed algorithm uses edge features to define an Edge Distribution Function (EDF), which is a histogram of edge magnitude with respect to the edge orientation angle. The EDF enables the edge-related information and lane-related to be connected. The performance of the proposed system is verified through the extraction of lane-related information. The experimental results show the robustness of the proposed algorithm and a processing speed of more than 25 frames per second, which is considered quite successful.