Monday, 28 September 2020
Austroads has published a report examining how the design and maintenance of road markings can impact the performance of advanced driver assistance systems and future automated vehicles.
John Wall, Austroads’ Future Vehicles and Technology Program Manager, says automated vehicles will not be on our roads for some time, but there is a growing range of vehicles with automated-steering functions that rely on road markings to position the vehicle on the road.
“Austroads’ recent research has shown that the journey to vehicle automation will take many years and considerable collaborative efforts in testing, certification, design and legislation,” John said.
“But a growing range of vehicles are already available in the market offering automated-steering functions enabled by Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems. Their performance depends on the technology used and the environment where it’s used,” John said.
The project was undertaken in four key stages: literature review; stakeholder discussions; on-road and off-road trials; and cost impact assessment. The literature review and testing showed that while machine-vision-enabled lane-guidance functions do not operate perfectly, they do provide significant road safety benefits.
The study found that the contrast between longitudinal pavement markings and the surrounding substrate is critical for the operation of machine-vision lane detection. The contrast ratios recommended by Austroads’ Harmonisation of Pavement Markings and National Pavement Marking Specification published in 2018 were found to be appropriate.
The research also found that line width, lane width and continuity impacted performance of machine-vision lane detection.
While many difficult-to-control factors can degrade the machine-vision-system’s ability to detect longitudinal pavement markings, improving maintenance standards and design principles could generate significant network-wide gains. An analysis found that the safety benefits of improving longitudinal pavement markings exceeded the costs by a 3.28 benefits-to-costs ratio.
The authors recommended improvements to design guidelines for continuity lines, exit ramps and intersections and to maintenance practices to ensure the benefits of this new technology can be fully realised for the community.
Download: Implications of Pavement Markings for Machine Vision
Join us for a webinar on Wednesday 21 October 1-2pm AEDT with report authors, Julien Marr, April Zhang, Scott Benjamin and John Wall, to learn more about findings of the research and the future changes road agencies can make to optimise road design, maintenance and operation for automated vehicles in the future.
No charge but registration essential. Can't make the live session? Register and we'll send you a link to the recording.