Detecting Ill-intended Crossing Behaviour of Pedestrians

Keywords

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Issue Date

2022-10-12

Language

en

Document type

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Title

ISSN

Volume

Issue

Startpage

Endpage

DOI

Abstract

This thesis aims to improve future urban traffic by focusing on interactions between Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) and Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) in crossing scenarios. The main research question is “To what extent can ill-intended crossing behaviour of pedestrians be recognized in a morally responsible way, in the context of AVs?” Specifically, the aim is to avoid a Pedestrian Supremacy, the scenario where VRUs are crossing the road illegally, taking advantage of the safety-first AVs, thereby stalling traffic. This scenario might work against the transition towards AVs, which is undesirable as AVs promise a safer traffic when compared to Human-Driven Vehicles (HDVs). In the experiment the Pedestrian Intention Estimation (PIE) dataset, containing video data, is decomposed into categorical, textual data. Binary Logistic Regression (BLR) is used, evaluating the resulting categorical data. It was found that the PIE dataset might suffice for the task, suggesting that there is a potential for a method that can evaluate intentions. Yielding high accuracy of 0.9444 using the sex, action and age predictors, analysed with an inexpensive method such as BLR shows that the method is able to run in real time. Further optimisation and more complex models could improve classification performance. In the current form, improvements to the dataset are necessary to avoid bias. Suggestions to improve the dataset as well as suggestions for further research are made. Special attention is attributed to safety, privacy, lawfullness and moral responsibility. The goal is to lay the foundation for an ethically sound agent that is aiding the transition towards safer, autonomous traffic.

Description

Citation

Faculty

Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen