Using Monocular Depth Estimation for Distance Estimation in a Moving Vehicle

Accompanying the increase in demand for autonomous systems and robotic solutions is the increase in the relevance of various depth estimation technologies. Monocular Depth Estimation (MDE) is used to predict distances by generating depth maps using only a single RGB camera. However, without out-of-the-box calibration or ground truth reference for generated depth values from MDE models its use case in practical applications is limited. This research introduces a method of actualizing generated depth map values for different applications. The proposed system involves the utilization of machine vision using YOLO for object detection, followed by the computation of the lens optic algorithms to calculate the distance. Results demonstrated a real-time environment detection and depth estimation solution with more than 90% accuracy for measuring object depth in static environments. Furthermore, the system was also successfully tested in a moving vehicle to provide an estimated distance of surrounding vehicles. In the future, further tests will be done to improve the accuracy and calculation speed for use in car safety.