IP Library Granted Patent US 12,340,514
Granted Patent B2
US 12,340,514 · App. 17/903,383 · Granted Jun 24, 2025

Rut detection for road infrastructure

Inventors: Yi-Hsuan Tsai (Santa Clara, CA); Sparsh Garg (San Jose, CA); Manmohan Chandraker (Santa Clara, CA); Samuel Shulter (New York, NY); Vijay Kumar Baikampady Gopalkrishna (Santa Clara, CA)
Assignee: NEC Corporation
G06T7/11G06T2207/20084G06T2207/30261
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,340,514
App. No.
17/903,383
Granted
Jun 24, 2025
Kind
B2
Abstract

A computer-implemented method for rut detection is provided. The method includes detecting, by a rut detection system, areas in a road-scene image that include ruts with pixel-wise probability values, wherein a higher value indicates a better chance of being a rut. The method further includes performing at least one of rut repair and vehicle rut avoidance responsive to the pixel-wise probability values. The detecting step includes performing neural network-based, pixel-wise semantic segmentation with context information on the road-scene image to distinguish rut pixels from non-rut pixels on a road depicted in the road-scene image.

Claims (32)

1. A computer-implemented method for rut detection, comprising:

detecting, by a rut detection system, areas in a road-scene image that include ruts with pixel-wise probability values, wherein a higher value indicates a better chance of being a rut; and

performing at least one of rut repair and vehicle rut avoidance responsive to the pixel-wise probability values,

wherein said detecting step comprises performing neural network-based, pixel-wise semantic segmentation with context information on the road-scene image to distinguish rut pixels from non-rut pixels on a road depicted in the road-scene image.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the context information includes context categories comprising road, car, ruts, and cracks.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising training a neural network performing the neural network-based, pixel-wise semantic segmentation with (a) pixel-wise ground truths for labeled data pertaining to non-rut categories and (b) pixel-wise annotations for rut categories comprising ruts and cracks.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , further comprising limiting annotation costs during the training using unlabeled data or data with weak annotations, the weak annotations being image-wise labels compared to image-wise ground truths for the unlabeled data or the data with the weak annotations.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , wherein the training comprises using the pixel-wise ground truths as a supervision to optimize a task loss for pixel-wise rut detection.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the neural network-based, pixel-wise semantic segmentation comprises a segmentation convolutional neural network.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein said detecting step uses a weak loss for image classification with respect to an image-wise classification generated for unlabeled data or data with weak annotations comprising image-wise annotations.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle rut avoidance involves controlling a vehicle system directed to at least one of steering, accelerating, and braking, responsive to the pixel-wise probability values.

9. A computer program product for rut detection, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a computer to cause the computer to perform a method comprising:

detecting, by a rut detection system, areas in a road-scene image that include ruts with pixel-wise probability values, wherein a higher value indicates a better chance of being a rut; and

performing at least one of rut repair and vehicle rut avoidance responsive to the pixel-wise probability values,

wherein said detecting step comprises performing neural network-based, pixel-wise semantic segmentation with context information on the road-scene image to distinguish rut pixels from non-rut pixels on a road depicted in the road-scene image.

10. The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein the context information includes context categories comprising road, car, ruts, and cracks.

11. The computer program product of claim 9 , further comprising training a neural network performing the neural network-based, pixel-wise semantic segmentation with (a) pixel-wise ground truths for labeled data pertaining to non-rut categories and (b) pixel-wise annotations for rut categories comprising ruts and cracks.

12. The computer program product of claim 11 , further comprising limiting annotation costs during the training using unlabeled data or data with weak annotations, the weak annotations being image-wise labels compared to image-wise ground truths for the unlabeled data or the data with the weak annotations.

13. The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein the training comprises using the pixel-wise ground truths as a supervision to optimize a task loss for pixel-wise rut detection.

14. The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein the neural network-based, pixel-wise semantic segmentation comprises a segmentation convolutional neural network.

15. The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein said detecting step uses a weak loss for image classification with respect to an image-wise classification generated for unlabeled data or data with weak annotations comprising image-wise annotations.

16. The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein the vehicle rut avoidance involves controlling a vehicle system directed to at least one of steering, accelerating, and braking, responsive to the pixel-wise probability values.

17. A rut detection and repair system, comprising:

a camera for capturing a road-scene image;

a memory device for storing program code therein;

a processor device operatively coupled to the memory device for running the program code to

detect areas in the road-scene image that include ruts with pixel-wise probability values, wherein a higher value indicates a better chance of being a rut; and

control one or more physical machines performing rut repair responsive to the pixel-wise probability values,

wherein the processor device detects areas in the road-scene image by performing neural network-based, pixel-wise semantic segmentation with context information on the road-scene image to distinguish rut pixels from non-rut pixels on a road depicted in the road-scene image.

18. The rut detection and repair system of claim 17 , wherein the context information includes context categories comprising road, car, ruts, and cracks.

19. The rut detection and repair system of claim 17 , wherein the processor device further runs the program code to train a neural network performing the neural network-based, pixel-wise semantic segmentation with (a) pixel-wise ground truths for labeled data pertaining to non-rut categories and (b) pixel-wise annotations for rut categories comprising ruts and cracks.

20. The rut detection and repair system of claim 19 , wherein the processor device further runs the program code to limit annotation costs during the training using unlabeled data or data with weak annotations, the weak annotations being image-wise labels compared to image-wise ground truths for the unlabeled data or the data with the weak annotations.

Assignments (2)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded May 13, 2025
From: NEC LABORATORIES AMERICA, INC.
To: NEC CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 071095/0825 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Sep 6, 2022
From: TSAI, YI-HSUAN; GARG, SPARSH; CHANDRAKER, MANMOHAN; SCHULTER, SAMUEL; GOPALKRISHNA, VIJAY KUMAR BAIKAMPADY
To: NEC LABORATORIES AMERICA INC.
Reel/Frame 060997/0270 →
Continuity (2)
Provisional Application 63242062 · Sep 9, 2021
Related Publication 20230073055A1 · Mar 9, 2023
References Cited (2)
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