SnowyLane: Robust Lane Detection on Snow-covered Rural Roads Using Infrastructural Elements

Lane detection for autonomous driving in snow-covered environments remains a major challenge due to the frequent absence or occlusion of lane markings. In this paper, we present a novel, robust and realtime capable approach that bypasses the reliance on traditional lane markings by detecting roadside features,specifically vertical roadside posts called delineators, as indirect lane indicators. Our method first perceives these posts, then fits a smooth lane trajectory using a parameterized Bezier curve model, leveraging spatial consistency and road geometry. To support training and evaluation in these challenging scenarios, we introduce SnowyLane, a new synthetic dataset containing 80,000 annotated frames capture winter driving conditions, with varying snow coverage, and lighting conditions. Compared to state-of-the-art lane detection systems, our approach demonstrates significantly improved robustness in adverse weather, particularly in cases with heavy snow occlusion. This work establishes a strong foundation for reliable lane detection in winter scenarios and contributes a valuable resource for future research in all-weather autonomous driving. The dataset is available at https://ekut-es.github.io/snowy-lane

DigiT4TAF -- Bridging Physical and Digital Worlds for Future Transportation Systems

In the future, mobility will be strongly shaped by the increasing use of digitalization. Not only will individual road users be highly interconnected, but also the road and associated infrastructure. At that point, a Digital Twin becomes particularly appealing because, unlike a basic simulation, it offers a continuous, bilateral connection linking the real and virtual environments. This paper describes the digital reconstruction used to develop the Digital Twin of the Test Area Autonomous Driving-Baden-W\"urttemberg (TAF-BW), Germany. The TAF-BW offers a variety of different road sections, from high-traffic urban intersections and tunnels to multilane motorways. The test area is equipped with a comprehensive Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication infrastructure and multiple intelligent intersections equipped with camera sensors to facilitate real-time traffic flow monitoring. The generation of authentic data as input for the Digital Twin was achieved by extracting object lists at the intersections. This process was facilitated by the combined utilization of camera images from the intelligent infrastructure and LiDAR sensors mounted on a test vehicle. Using a unified interface, recordings from real-world detections of traffic participants can be resimulated. Additionally, the simulation framework's design and the reconstruction process is discussed. The resulting framework is made publicly available for download and utilization at: https://digit4taf-bw.fzi.de The demonstration uses two case studies to illustrate the application of the digital twin and its interfaces: the analysis of traffic signal systems to optimize traffic flow and the simulation of security-related scenarios in the communications sector.

SCOPE: A Synthetic Multi-Modal Dataset for Collective Perception Including Physical-Correct Weather Conditions

Collective perception has received considerable attention as a promising approach to overcome occlusions and limited sensing ranges of vehicle-local perception in autonomous driving. In order to develop and test novel collective perception technologies, appropriate datasets are required. These datasets must include not only different environmental conditions, as they strongly influence the perception capabilities, but also a wide range of scenarios with different road users as well as realistic sensor models. Therefore, we propose the Synthetic COllective PErception (SCOPE) dataset. SCOPE is the first synthetic multi-modal dataset that incorporates realistic camera and LiDAR models as well as parameterized and physically accurate weather simulations for both sensor types. The dataset contains 17,600 frames from over 40 diverse scenarios with up to 24 collaborative agents, infrastructure sensors, and passive traffic, including cyclists and pedestrians. In addition, recordings from two novel digital-twin maps from Karlsruhe and T\"ubingen are included. The dataset is available at https://ekut-es.github.io/scope