Traffic flow digital twin generation for highway scenario based on radar-camera paired fusion

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 642 - 15
• Main Authors: Li, Yanbing, Zhang, Weichuan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 12.01.2023; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/166; 639/166/987; Cameras; Digital twins; Humanities and Social Sciences; Intelligence; multidisciplinary; Radar; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Sensors; Traffic flow
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-27696-z

Autonomous driving is gradually moving from single-vehicle intelligence to internet of vehicles, where traffic participants can share the traffic flow information perceived by each other. When the sensing technology is combined with the internet of vehicles, a sensor network all over the road can provide a large-scale of traffic flow data, thus providing a basis for building a traffic digital twin model. The digital twin can enable the traffic system not only to use past and present information, but also to predict traffic conditions, providing more effective optimization for autonomous driving and intelligent transportation, so as to make long-term rational planning of the overall traffic state and enhance the level of traffic intelligence. The current mainstream traffic sensors, namely radar and camera, have their own advantages, and the fusion of these two sensors can provide more accurate traffic flow data for the generation of digital twin model. In this paper, an end-to-end digital twin system implementation approach is proposed for highway scenarios. Starting from a paired radar-camera sensing system, a single-site radar-camera fusion framework is proposed, and then using the definition of a unified coordinate system, the traffic flow data between multiple sites is combined to form a dynamic real-time traffic flow digital twin model. The effectiveness of the digital twin building is verified based on the real-world traffic data.