Remote sensing object detection based on the combination of infrared and visible images can effectively adapt to the around-the-clock and changeable illumination conditions. However, most of the existing infrared and visible object detection networks need two backbone networks to extract the features of two modalities, respectively. Compared with the single modality detection network, this greatly increases the amount of calculation, which limits its real-time processing on the vehicle and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) platforms. Therefore, this paper proposes a local adaptive illumination-driven input-level fusion module (LAIIFusion). The previous methods for illumination perception only focus on the global illumination, ignoring the local differences. In this regard, we design a new illumination perception submodule, and newly define the value of illumination. With more accurate area selection and label design, the module can more effectively perceive the scene illumination condition. In addition, aiming at the problem of incomplete alignment between infrared and visible images, a submodule is designed for the rapid estimation of slight shifts. The experimental results show that the single modality detection algorithm based on LAIIFusion can ensure a large improvement in accuracy with a small loss of speed. On the DroneVehicle dataset, our module combined with YOLOv5L could achieve the best performance.

Multi-Object Tracking (MOT) is an important topic in computer vision. Recent MOT methods based on the anchor-free paradigm trade complicated hierarchical structures for tracking performance. However, existing anchor-free MOT methods ignore the noise in detection, data association, and trajectory reconnection stages, which results in serious problems, such as missing detection of small objects, insufficient motion information, and trajectory drifting. To solve these problems, this paper proposes Noise-Control Tracker (NCT), which focuses on the noise-control design of detection, association, and reconnection. First, a prior depth denoise method is introduced to suppress the fusion feature redundant noise, which can recover the gradient information of the heatmap fusion features. Then, the Smoothing Gain Kalman filter is designed, which combines the Gaussian function with the adaptive observation coefficient matrix to stabilize the mutation noise of Kalman gain. Finally, to address the drift noise issue, the gradient boosting reconnection context mechanism is designed, which realizes adaptive trajectory reconnection to effectively fill the gaps in trajectories. With the assistance of the plug-and-play noise-control method, the experimental results on MOTChallenge 16 &17 datasets indicate that the NCT can achieve better performance than other state-of-the-art trackers.

Improving traffic efficiency and safety is the goal of all countries due to the increasingly congested road environment worldwide. The progress of intelligence has promoted the development of the transportation industry. As the first step to intelligence, perception technology is an important part to realize intelligent transportation. Accurate and efficient traffic management systems, such as the automatic control of traffic lights at urban intersections or highway emergency disposal, need the support of advanced environmental sensing technology. In the application of traffic perception, millimeter wave radar and camera are two important sensors. Radar has been widely used in traffic incident perception due to its all-weather working capability; however, there are problems such as inability to detect stationary targets and poor target classification performance. Camera has the advantages of accurate target angle information measurement and rich details, but there are problems of inaccurate ranging and speed measurement and performance degradation in harsh weather conditions. Considering the complementary characteristics of the two sensors in information, an improved incident detection method based on radar-camera fusion is proposed. This method combines the advantages of millimeter wave radar and camera and improves the robustness of the traffic incident detection system. The detection performance is verified in the real experiment. The results show that the detection accuracy of the proposed fusion system is better than that of a single millimeter wave radar in all scenarios, and the accuracy is improved by more than 50% in some cases.

Intelligent transportation infrastructure has gained significant research attention recently. In this paper, an innovative sensor network of smart road stud (SRS) is developed to enhance traffic detection infrastructure characterized by its functionality in traffic data collection, long/short range wireless data transmission, self-sustained power supply, and remote custom controlled lighting-based traffic guidance. Compared to the traditional traffic detectors and road studs, SRS nodes are installed on lane lines instead of lane center to enable the additional applications besides the detection function, such as traffic monitoring, congestion warning, routing guidance, and so on. SRS detects vehicles based on three-axis geomagnetic sensors. A vehicle detection algorithm is proposed correspondingly under different operation scenarios to count vehicles in two adjacent lanes. Its detecting accuracy can be further improved by a sensor network of multiple SRSs working cooperatively. Field test results show that the vehicle detection accuracy based on the SRS network is about 98% per lane, which is the same level as the commercial detector installed in center of lane, even under the non-standard driving behaviors such as crossing lane line. The high performance, value-added service, and low cost enable wide-range applications of SRS networks as part of intelligent traffic detection infrastructure.

A self-designed AMR detector named Smart Road Stud (SRS) is proposed. SRS, installed along lane markings, is not only a detector but also a lane markings enhancement device. Because a single SRS needs to detect vehicles on two lanes, the vehicle detection method for SRS is different from the AMR detectors installed in the middle of the lane or at the roadside. Based on SRS, an innovative mathematical model based on the magnetic dipole is developed to simulate vehicle magnetic field. According to the model, lane information can be inferred to achieve traffic volume detection. Results show that a single SRS delivers traffic volume detection accuracy of 97%, providing a strong foundation for future research to achieve higher detection performance based on multi-SRS linkage. The significance of this paper is to meet the detection requirements of warning equipment installed on lane markings.