High Performance Road Markings: Key to Reliability of ADAS
At the IRF World Congress in Istanbul, SWARCO expert Tomasz Burghardt presented new results on the correlation between road markings and functioning of advanced driver assistance systems.
In road traffic, the human eye is increasingly being assisted by machines. Autonomous vehicles and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are becoming more and more important. Some assistance systems are already mandatory, at least in the European Union. But despite all the connectivity and new technology, one thing remains the same: road markings that can be easily and quickly identified are essential. They guide traffic at all times and help prevent accidents, especially in difficult driving conditions.
High-performance markings can help to ensure that driver assistance systems such as the lane keeping assist system function properly even in difficult conditions.
Copyright: SWARCO Road Marking Systems
Presentation at the IRF World Congress
This is the conclusion of Tomasz Burghardt, R&D Project Manager at SWARCO Road Marking Systems. At the IRF World Congress in Istanbul, he presented the results of a new research project that SWARCO has been working on in cooperation with the Johannes Kepler University (Department Intelligent Transport Systems) in Linz. In this project, the research team had investigated how reliably a camera-based system for lane detection – necessary for a lane keeping assist – works under different visibility conditions (day, night, rain, glare). Under all of these conditions, the team examined how different road markings are processed by the machine vision system and at which point the system can no longer recognise the road markings.
Lane keeping assist (LKA) is an essential driver assistance system in modern vehicles that helps to improve safety by keeping the vehicle in a projected lane. The camera-based sensors of this assistance system need to clearly recognise the road markings. Especially in bad weather (e.g. rain) or difficult light conditions, the contrast ratio between road markings and the road surface can decrease drastically. This results in lane markings not being recognised properly, leading to malfunction of the LKA.
Type II Road Markings offer clear advantages
In challenging situations high performance Type II Road Markings provide real advantages. This was also emphasised by Tomasz Burghardt at the IRF World Congress in Istanbul. The results of the work demonstrated that Type II Road Markings are much better detected by the assistance system than standard markings, especially in wet conditions and at night, which enables lane keeping assist to contribute to road safety even in difficult conditions. Conventional standard markings are much harder for the sensors to detect in adverse conditions, which means that the supporting function of driver assistance systems canot function properly.
The scientific findings highlight the benefits of high performance Type II Road Markings for road safety:
- Visibility in rain and at night: with Type II Road Markings, the micro glass beads remain visible under wet conditions and provide higher retroreflectivity values and also higher contrast ratio.
- Better detection by ADAS: In challenging driving situations, Type II Road Markings can be better detected by machine vision, thus providing the necessary reference points.
- Safety for everyone: Not only do machines benefit - the better visibility of road markings also increases safety for human road users.
In addition to choosing the right marking system, it is also important to inspect road markings regularly and maintain them if necessary. This is the only way to ensure that road markings remain a reliable aid to safe navigation on the road - for both humans and machines.
High performance Type II Road Markings
Copyright: SWARCO Road Marking Systems
About SWARCO Road Marking Systems
Quality products and services from SWARCO Road Marking Systems guide traffic safely from A to B by day and, above all, by night. On all types of roads. Whatever the weather. From a single source. Over 5,000 customers in more than 80 countries place their trust in them.
