Potholes and traffic signs detection by classifier with vision transformers

Detecting potholes and traffic signs is crucial for driver assistance systems and autonomous vehicles, emphasizing real-time and accurate recognition. In India, approximately 2500 fatalities occur annually due to accidents linked to hidden potholes and overlooked traffic signs. Existing methods often overlook water-filled and illuminated potholes, as well as those shaded by trees. Additionally, they neglect the perspective and illuminated (nighttime) traffic signs. To address these challenges, this study introduces a novel approach employing a cascade classifier along with a vision transformer. A cascade classifier identifies patterns associated with these elements, and Vision Transformers conducts detailed analysis and classification. The proposed approach undergoes training and evaluation on ICTS, GTSRDB, KAGGLE, and CCSAD datasets. Model performance is assessed using precision, recall, and mean Average Precision (mAP) metrics. Compared to state-of-the-art techniques like YOLOv3, YOLOv4, Faster RCNN, and SSD, the method achieves impressive recognition with a mAP of 97.14% for traffic sign detection and 98.27% for pothole detection.