A road recognition system using GPS/GIS integrated system

The 3-D geometry of the road ahead of a moving vehicle is of practical importance in the development of intelligent vehicle capabilities such as obstacle and road recognition, cruise control, collision warning systems, and steering control. In this paper, we present a road recognition system that uses two different data sources, a Global Positioning System (GPS) and geographical information system (GIS) data. The desired outputs of the recognition system are the distance of vehicle to the vanishing point and the elevation angle between these two points. The GPS/GIS integrated component makes use of GPS data and digital elevation model (DEM) data from a GIS. The system is capable of determining the geometry of the road ahead with various vehicle speeds and outdoor road conditions. The system is divided into several components including location systems, a reckoning system, map matching, and map database. The experiments and results are described to verify the performance and accuracy of each algorithm. An analysis of various vehicle speeds and outdoor conditions has been tested on the GPS/GIS integrated system.