Advanced thermal camera based system for object detection on rail tracks

• Published in: Thermal science Vol. 22; no. Suppl. 5; pp. 1551 - 1561
• Main Authors: Pavlovic, Milan, Ciric, Ivan, Ristic-Durrant, Danijela, Nikolic, Vlastimir, Simonovic, Milos, Ciric, Milica, Banic, Milan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Belgrade Society of Thermal Engineers of Serbia 2018
• Subjects: Algorithms; Artificial intelligence; Cameras; Edge detection; Image processing; Image segmentation; Infrared imagery; Object recognition; Robustness
• ISSN: 0354-9836; 2334-7163
• DOI: 10.2298/TSCI18S5551P

In this paper, an advanced thermal camera-based system for detection of objects on rail tracks is presented. Developed system is powered by advanced image processing algorithm, in order to achieve greater reliability and robustness, and tested on set of infrared images captured at night conditions. The goal of this system is to detect objects on rail tracks and next to them and estimate distances between camera stand and detected objects. For that purpose, different edge detection methods are tested, and finally Canny edge detector is selected for rail track detection and for determination of region of interest, further used for analysis in object detection process. In determined region of interest, region-based segmentation is used for object detection. For estimation of distances between camera stand and detected objects, homography based method is used. Validation of estimated distances is done, in respect to real measured distances from camera stand to objects (humans) involved in experiment. Distances are estimated with a maximum error of 2%. System can provide reliable object detection, as well as distance estimation, and for improved robustness and adaptability, artificial intelligence tools can be used. nema