Analysis of Automotive Camera Sensor Noise Factors and Impact on Object
Detection
Abstract
Assisted and automated driving functions are increasingly deployed to
support improved safety, efficiency, and enhance driver experience.
However, there are still key technical challenges that need to be
overcome, such as the degradation of perception sensor data due to noise
factors. The quality of data being generated by sensors can directly
impact the planning and control of the vehicle, which can affect the
vehicle safety. This work builds on a recently proposed framework,
analysing noise factors on automotive LiDAR sensors, and deploys it to
camera sensors, focusing on the specific disturbed sensor outputs via a
detailed analysis and classification of automotive camera specific noise
sources (30 noise factors are identified and classified in this work).
Moreover, the noise factor analysis has identified two omnipresent and
independent noise factors (i.e. obstruction and windshield distortion).
These noise factors have been modelled to generate noisy camera data;
their impact on the perception step, based on deep neural networks, has
been evaluated when the noise factors are applied independently and
simultaneously. It is demonstrated that the performance degradation from
the combination of noise factors is not simply the accumulated
performance degradation from each single factor, which raises the
importance of including the simultaneous analysis of multiple noise
factors. Thus, the framework can support and enhance the use of
simulation for development and testing of automated vehicles through
careful consideration of the noise factors affecting camera data.