Abstract:The scene of unstructured road is complex and easy to be influenced by many factors. In order to solve the detection difficulty, a road detection algorithm based on contour features and two-dimensional maximum entropy was proposed. Quadratic two-dimensional maximum entropy segmentation method combined with invariant color feature was used for road image segmentation. Afterwards, contour features were extracted from segmentation result by boundary tracking algorithm, and then the maximum contour was chosen. Finally, the improved mid-to-side algorithm was used to search road edge points, then road boundary was reconstructed through road model and road direction was judged. The experimental results show that the detection accuracy rate is improved about 25% in three kinds of unstructured scene compared with traditional algorithm. In addition, this method is robust against shadows and can recognize road direction efficiently.