Low-observable targets detection for autonomous vehicles based on dual-modal sensor fusion with deep learning approach

Abstract

Environment perception is a basic and necessary technology for autonomous vehicles to ensure safety and reliable driving. A lot of studies have focused on the ideal environment, while much less work has been done on the perception of low-observable targets, features of which may not be obvious in a complex environment. However, it is inevitable for autonomous vehicles to drive in environmental conditions such as rain, snow and night-time, during which the features of the targets are not obvious and detection models trained by images with significant features fail to detect low-observable target. This article mainly studies the efficient and intelligent recognition algorithm of low-observable targets in complex environments, focuses on the development of engineering method to dual-modal image (color–infrared images) low-observable target recognition and explores the applications of infrared imaging and color imaging for an intelligent perception system in autonomous vehicles. A dual-modal deep neural network is established to fuse the color and infrared images and detect low-observable targets in dual-modal images. A manually labeled color–infrared image dataset of low-observable targets is built. The deep learning neural network is trained to optimize internal parameters to make the system capable for both pedestrians and vehicle recognition in complex environments. The experimental results indicate that the dual-modal deep neural network has a better performance on the low-observable target detection and recognition in complex environments than traditional methods.