EXTRACTION OF ROAD MARKINGS FROM MLS DATA: A REVIEW

Abstract

Nowadays, Mobile Laser Scanning (MLS) systems are more and more used to realize extended topographic surveys of roads. Most of them provide for each measured point an attribute corresponding to a return signal strength, so called intensity value. This value enables to easily understand uncolored MLS as it helps to differentiate materials based on their albedo. In a road context, this intensity information allows to distinguish, among others, the main subject of this paper, i.e. road markings. However, this task is challenging. Road marking detection from dense MLS point cloud is widely studied by the research community. It might concern road management and diagnosis, intelligent traffic systems, high-definition maps, location and navigation services. Dense MLS point clouds provided by surveyors are not processed online, they are thus not directly applicable to autonomous driving, but those dense and precise data can be for instance used for the generation of HD reference maps. This paper presents a review of the different processing chains published in the literature. It underlines their contributions and highlights their potential limitations. Finally, a discussion and some suggestions of improvement are given.