Detection of potholes in autonomous vehicle

Abstract

Pothole avoidance may be considered similar to other obstacle avoidance, except that the potholes are depressions rather than extrusions from a surface. This study discusses a solution for detection of potholes in the path of an autonomous vehicle operating in an unstructured environment. Here, a vision approach is used since the simulated potholes are significantly different from the background surface. Furthermore, using this approach, pothole can only be detected in case of uniform lighting conditions. The solution to the problem is developed in a systematic manner. Initially, a specific camera and frame grabber are chosen, then camera is mounted on top of the autonomous vehicle and the images will be acquired. Then, a software solution is designed using MATLAB. The method is tested under real-time conditions and results demonstrate its reasonable efficiency. © The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2014.