Lane detection using spline model

In this paper, a Catmull±Rom spline-based lane model which describes the perspective e€ect of parallel lines has been proposed for generic lane boundary. Since Catmull±Rom spline can form arbitrary shapes by di€erent sets of control points, it can describe a wider range of lane structures compared with other lane models, i.e. straight and parabolic models. Moreover, the lane detection problem has been formulated here as the problem of determining the set of control points of lane model. The proposed algorithm ®rst detects the vanishing point (line) by using a Hough-like technique and then solves the lane detection problem by suggesting a maximum likelihood approach. Also, we have employed a multi-resolution strategy for rapidly achieving an accurate solution. This coarse-to-®ne matching o€ers us an acceptable solution at an a€ordable computational cost, and thus speeds up the process of lane detection. As a result, the proposed method is robust to noise, shadows, and illumination variations in the captured road images, and is also applicable to both the marked and the unmarked roads. Ó 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.