MULTIPLE-MODEL BASED VERIFICATION OF ROAD DATA

Abstract. This paper describes a semi-automatic system for road verification based on high resolution imagery and 3D surface models. Potential update regions are identified by an object-wise verification of all existing database records. The proposed system combines several road detection and road verification approaches from current literature to form a more general solution. Each road detection / verification approach is realized as an independent module representing a unique road model combined with a corresponding processing strategy. The object-wise verification result of each module is formulated as a binary decision between the classes "correct road" and "incorrect road". These individual decisions are combined by Dempster-Shafer fusion, which provides tools for dealing with uncertain and incomplete knowledge about the statistical properties of the data. For each road detection / verification module a confidence function for the result is introduced that reflects the degree of correspondence of an actual test situation with an optimal situation according to the underlying road model of that module. A comparison with results from an EuroSDR test on road extraction demonstrate the strengths and limitations of the method.