Vision guided path planning system for vehicles using infrared landmark

Infrared-landmark based vision navigation system is proposed to reliably guide drivers from starting point to goal following a feasible shortest path in a known indoor or outdoor environment no matter whether it is day or night. What´s more, this system is capable of warning drivers about the dangerous zones “like no right turn, no U-turn, damaged road ahead etc” conditions when no visible light is available for human beings, mostly at night. The system consists of Basler camera, designed Infra-Red landmark, our developed software, IR filter and an industrial computer. Each infrared landmark contains a unique ID. Address information and important notes are attached to each ID. Once a landmark is efficiently detected and its ID is recognized, location information related to the corresponding ID is presented. And then Dijkstra´s algorithm is efficiently utilized to find a possible shortest path to destination. After that, path is followed with the aid of vision system. Experimental results demonstrate suitability, effectiveness and feasibility in intelligent transportation system.