Stable Road Lane Model Based on Clothoids

In the following, the main concepts of a road lane model are presented that keeps track of an arbitrary number of lane borders. Information from an existing lane detection device, a gyrosensor, and map data are merged and filtered to create a road model with a desired number of road lines. The model is based on clothoids and continuously provides positions, angles, and curvatures of the border lines of the vehicle’s own lane as well as of several neighboring lanes. Particularly on urban roads, in situations with upcoming turning lanes, or when the lane detection system fails to detect road lines, the model can still provide plausible information. This information significantly simplifies the situation analysis in further algorithms that rely on a lane detection system and require detailed information on current road lanes.