Improved Traffic Sign Detection Algorithm Based on Faster R-CNN

The traffic sign detection algorithm based on Faster Region-Based Convolutional Neural Network (R-CNN) has been applied to various intelligent-vehicles driving scenarios. However, the model of the current detection algorithm has certain shortcomings, which include the influence of weather and light, the detection of distance traffic signs, and the detection of similar traffic signs. To solve these problems, this paper proposes an improved traffic sign detection method based on Faster R-CNN. First, we propose a fusion method that fuses the feature pyramid into the Faster R-CNN algorithm. This fusion method can extract object features with precision and decrease the influence of weather and light. Second, a deformable convolution (DCN) which can train the algorithm to identify traffic signs with precision and make similar signs more distinguishable, and in particular make it work better with distorted images, is added to the backbone network. Lastly, we apply ROI align to replace the ROI pooling, which can avoid the distant traffic sign detail loss caused by pooling and increase the detection precision of distant traffic signs. The experimental results on both the TT100k dataset and real intelligent vehicle tests demonstrate that the algorithm is superior to the original Faster R-CNN algorithm and four other state-of-the-art methods in traffic sign detection, specifically in small-target traffic sign detection and low-intensity environments such as sunset time and rainy days. Therefore, the proposed method is helpful to improve the traffic sign detection performance in extreme environments (low-light intensity or rainy weather)