Lane Centerline Extraction Based on Surveyed Boundaries: An Efficient Approach Using Maximal Disks

Maps of road layouts play an essential role in autonomous driving, and it is often advantageous to represent them in a compact form, using a sparse set of surveyed points of the lane boundaries. While lane centerlines are valuable references in the prediction and planning of trajectories, most cente...

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Main Authors: Chenhui Yin, Marco Cecotti, Daniel J. Auger, Abbas Fotouhi, Haobin Jiang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-04-01
Series:Sensors
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/8/2571
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author Chenhui Yin
Marco Cecotti
Daniel J. Auger
Abbas Fotouhi
Haobin Jiang
author_facet Chenhui Yin
Marco Cecotti
Daniel J. Auger
Abbas Fotouhi
Haobin Jiang
author_sort Chenhui Yin
collection DOAJ
description Maps of road layouts play an essential role in autonomous driving, and it is often advantageous to represent them in a compact form, using a sparse set of surveyed points of the lane boundaries. While lane centerlines are valuable references in the prediction and planning of trajectories, most centerline extraction methods only achieve satisfactory accuracy with high computational cost and limited performance in sparsely described scenarios. This paper explores the problem of centerline extraction based on a sparse set of border points, evaluating the performance of different approaches on both a self-created and a public dataset, and proposing a novel method to extract the lane centerline by searching and linking the internal maximal circles along the lane. Compared with other centerline extraction methods producing similar numbers of center points, the proposed approach is significantly more accurate: in our experiments, based on a self-created dataset of road layouts, it achieves a max deviation below 0.15 m and an overall RMSE less than 0.01 m, against the respective values of 1.7 m and 0.35 m for a popular approach based on Voronoi tessellation, and 1 m and 0.25 m for an alternative approach based on distance transform.
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institution OA Journals
issn 1424-8220
language English
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spelling doaj-art-0f9638d2a40141f094126beb928ce7182025-08-20T02:25:07ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202025-04-01258257110.3390/s25082571Lane Centerline Extraction Based on Surveyed Boundaries: An Efficient Approach Using Maximal DisksChenhui Yin0Marco Cecotti1Daniel J. Auger2Abbas Fotouhi3Haobin Jiang4School of Automotive and Traffic Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, ChinaAdvanced Vehicle Engineering Centre, Cranfield University, Cranfield MK43 0AL, UKAdvanced Vehicle Engineering Centre, Cranfield University, Cranfield MK43 0AL, UKAdvanced Vehicle Engineering Centre, Cranfield University, Cranfield MK43 0AL, UKAutomotive Engineering Research Institute, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, ChinaMaps of road layouts play an essential role in autonomous driving, and it is often advantageous to represent them in a compact form, using a sparse set of surveyed points of the lane boundaries. While lane centerlines are valuable references in the prediction and planning of trajectories, most centerline extraction methods only achieve satisfactory accuracy with high computational cost and limited performance in sparsely described scenarios. This paper explores the problem of centerline extraction based on a sparse set of border points, evaluating the performance of different approaches on both a self-created and a public dataset, and proposing a novel method to extract the lane centerline by searching and linking the internal maximal circles along the lane. Compared with other centerline extraction methods producing similar numbers of center points, the proposed approach is significantly more accurate: in our experiments, based on a self-created dataset of road layouts, it achieves a max deviation below 0.15 m and an overall RMSE less than 0.01 m, against the respective values of 1.7 m and 0.35 m for a popular approach based on Voronoi tessellation, and 1 m and 0.25 m for an alternative approach based on distance transform.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/8/2571maximal diskdistance transformvoronoi tessellationcenterline extraction
spellingShingle Chenhui Yin
Marco Cecotti
Daniel J. Auger
Abbas Fotouhi
Haobin Jiang
Lane Centerline Extraction Based on Surveyed Boundaries: An Efficient Approach Using Maximal Disks
Sensors
maximal disk
distance transform
voronoi tessellation
centerline extraction
title Lane Centerline Extraction Based on Surveyed Boundaries: An Efficient Approach Using Maximal Disks
title_full Lane Centerline Extraction Based on Surveyed Boundaries: An Efficient Approach Using Maximal Disks
title_fullStr Lane Centerline Extraction Based on Surveyed Boundaries: An Efficient Approach Using Maximal Disks
title_full_unstemmed Lane Centerline Extraction Based on Surveyed Boundaries: An Efficient Approach Using Maximal Disks
title_short Lane Centerline Extraction Based on Surveyed Boundaries: An Efficient Approach Using Maximal Disks
title_sort lane centerline extraction based on surveyed boundaries an efficient approach using maximal disks
topic maximal disk
distance transform
voronoi tessellation
centerline extraction
url https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/8/2571
work_keys_str_mv AT chenhuiyin lanecenterlineextractionbasedonsurveyedboundariesanefficientapproachusingmaximaldisks
AT marcocecotti lanecenterlineextractionbasedonsurveyedboundariesanefficientapproachusingmaximaldisks
AT danieljauger lanecenterlineextractionbasedonsurveyedboundariesanefficientapproachusingmaximaldisks
AT abbasfotouhi lanecenterlineextractionbasedonsurveyedboundariesanefficientapproachusingmaximaldisks
AT haobinjiang lanecenterlineextractionbasedonsurveyedboundariesanefficientapproachusingmaximaldisks