An extension to the Inverse Perspective Mapping to handle non-flat roads

In this paper, the authors examine the issue of Inverse Perspective Mapping (IPM) which removes the perspective effect from acquired images that are associated with autonomous driving systems. They in turn present an Extended IPM (EIPM) which is based on stereo image processing and which is used to update the road slope ahead of the vehicle. The EIPM removes the assumption of a flat road ahead of the vehicle and allows for the recovery of road texture even in the presence of a slope. The authors describe how this technique is applied to synthetic images and how it has been integrated into the GOLD system on the ARGO autonomous vehicle.