title: Automotive System for Remote Surface Classification.
abstract: In this paper we shall discuss a novel approach to road surface recognition, based on the analysis of backscattered microwave and ultrasonic signals. The novelty of our method is sonar and polarimetric radar data fusion, extraction of features for separate swathes of illuminated surface (segmentation), and using of multi-stage artificial neural network for surface classification. The developed system consists of 24 GHz radar and 40 kHz ultrasonic sensor. The features are extracted from backscattered signals and then the procedures of principal component analysis and supervised classification are applied to feature data. The special attention is paid to multi-stage artificial neural network which allows an overall increase in classification accuracy. The proposed technique was tested for recognition of a large number of real surfaces in different weather conditions with the average accuracy of correct classification of 95%. The obtained results thereby demonstrate that the use of proposed system architecture and statistical methods allow for reliable discrimination of various road surfaces in real conditions.
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. a.bystrov@bham.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Aleksandr
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bystrov
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. e.g.hoare@bham.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hoare
authors.affiliation: Jaguar Land Rover Research Department, Coventry CV3 4LF, UK. ttran3@jaguarlandrover.com.
authors.forename: Thuy-Yung
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Tran
authors.affiliation: Jaguar Land Rover Research Department, Coventry CV3 4LF, UK. nclarke2@jaguarlandrover.com.
authors.forename: Nigel
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Clarke
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. m.s.gashinova@bham.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gashinova
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. m.cherniakov@bham.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Mikhail
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cherniakov
keywords: artificial neural networks; classification algorithms; multilayer perceptron; parameter extraction; radar remote sensing; sensor fusion; sonar applications; supervised learning