Real-time obstacle detection using stereo vision for autonomous ground vehicles: A survey

One of the most important features for any intelligent ground vehicle is based on how is reliable and complete the perception of the environment and the capability to discriminate what an obstacle is. Obstacle Detection (OD) is one of the most widely discussed topics in literature. Many approaches have been presented for different application fields and scenarios; in last years most of them have been revisited using stereo vision or 2D/3D sensor technologies. In this paper we present a brief survey about Obstacle Detection techniques based on stereo vision for intelligent ground vehicles, describing and comparing the most interesting approaches. In order to provide a generic overview of these techniques, it has been decided to focus the study only on the algorithms that have provided a major contribution through real-time experiments in unsupervised scenarios.