As the number of vehicles increases, solving a traffic congestion problem and decreasing casualties by automobile accidents become the most important research areas for vehicular researchers. Traffic congestion problem is solved, theoretically, by con...
As the number of vehicles increases, solving a traffic congestion problem and decreasing casualties by automobile accidents become the most important research areas for vehicular researchers. Traffic congestion problem is solved, theoretically, by constructing lots of roads, which is not practically possible due to the limited budget. Instead, researchers are trying to develop a smart traffic signal system that optimizes the traffic flow and to develop a smart highway system that increases the capacity of highways by allowing a shorter distance between adjacent automobiles. To decrease casualties, it is required to develop a collision detection/avoidance system that pre-detects possible collisions and warns the driver or automatically takes the optimal action to avoid the collision if it is too late to notice to the driver.
In this paper, we focus on development a collision detection system, which detects abnormal lane-change such as zig-zag driving or driving while stepping on a lane. First of all, the left and right lanes are recognized from the picture image taken by a camera attached in front of a car. Then, the distance from the center of the car to the left lane is calculated. From this measure, we can detect whether the car is crossing a lane or not. The crossing pattern is analyzed to determine whether it is a normal lane-crossing or a zig-zag driving.
Simulations are done for the cases when a car changes a lane normally, is in zig-zag driving, is driving close to the left lane, and is driving while stepping on a lane. we have used 100 pictures taken with a rate of 3 pictures per 1 second while the car is moving with 60km/hr.