Temporal preview estimation for design of a low cost lane-following system using a forward-facing monocular camera

Computer-based guidance of passenger vehicles is a common reality today, but cost, computation, and robustness challenges remain to obtain accurate vehicle state estimates. This study builds on previous work by the authors towards the development of a vehicle state estimation framework that uses optimal preview control theory to fuse map, GPS, inertial, and forward-looking camera information in a linear filter that offers a-priori predictions of state estimate accuracy. By designing an optimal preview controller around a preview filter designed to make full use of a test vehicle's low-cost sensors, on-board map, and available visibility, a matched perception and control system is obtained. The resulting preview-based guidance system has a structure similar to LQG algorithms, and is tested both in simulation and on a real vehicle. The closed loop system provides lane-level tracking performance with low cost sensors.