Road Extraction from High-Resolution SAR Images via Automatic Local Detecting and Human-Guided Global Tracking

Because of existence of various kinds of disturbances, layover effects, and shadowing, it is difficult to extract road from high-resolution SAR images. A new road center-point searching method is proposed by two alternant steps: local detection and global tracking. In local detection step, double window model is set, which consists of the outer fixed square window and the inner rotary rectangular one. The outer window is used to obtain the local road direction by using orientation histogram, based on the fact that the surrounding objects always range along with roads. The inner window rotates its orientation in accordance with the result of local road direction calculation and searches the center points of a road segment. In global tracking step, particle filter of variable-step is used to deal with the problem of tracking frequently broken by shelters along the roadside and obstacles on the road. Finally, the center-points are linked by quadratic curve fitting. In 1 m high-resolution airborne SAR image experiment, the results show that this method is effective.