Vehicle detection for autonomous parking using a Soft-Cascade AdaBoost classifier

This paper presents a monocular algorithm for front and rear vehicle detection, developed as part of the FP7 V-Charge project´s perception system. The system is made of an AdaBoost classifier with Haar Features Decision Stump. It processes several virtual perspective images, obtained by un-warping 4 monocular fish-eye cameras mounted all-around an autonomous electric car. The target scenario is the automated valet parking, but the presented technique fits well in any general urban and highway environment. A great attention has been given to optimize the computational performance. The accuracy in the detection and a low computation costs are provided by combining a multiscale detection scheme with a Soft-Cascade classifier design. The algorithm runs in real time on the project´s hardware platform. The system has been tested on a validation set, compared with several AdaBoost schemes, and the corresponding results and statistics are also reported.