Sensors for Obstacle Detection - A Survey

The obstacle detection field is a very broad one and a lot of obstacle detection systems have been developed in the last years in this domain. We tried to identify the main character of an obstacle detection system from the ruttier scene. Thus, we classified the main types of sensors from this field in passive (visible and infrared spectrum camera) and active (radar, laser-scanner, sonar) sensors and we made a survey in this domain. After a short presentation of every type of sensor, we presented another current and fancy solution for an obstacle detection system: the fusion of different sensor together. Almost all obstacle detection systems use a combination of passive-active technology, and in general the best solution is obtained using a vision system combined with a distance sensor like radar or laser. Maybe the most low-priced system is one combining only vision systems, but the inconvenient in this case is the lack of distance information.