Real-time monocular image-based path detection

Abstract

In this work, we present a new real-time imagebased monocular path detection method. It does not require camera calibration and works on semi-structured outdoor paths. The core of the method is based on segmenting images and classifying each super-pixel to infer a contour of navigable space. This method allows a mobile robot equipped with a monocular camera to follow different naturally delimited paths. The contour shape can be used to calculate the forward and steering speed of the robot. To achieve real-time computation necessary for on-board execution in mobile robots, the image segmentation is implemented on a low-power embedded GPU. The validity of our approach has been verified with an image dataset of various outdoor paths as well as with a real mobile robot.