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.