All-Optical Segmentation via Diffractive Neural Networks for Autonomous Driving

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Li, Yingjie, Robinson, Daniel, Gao, Weilu, Yu, Cunxi
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Li, Yingjie
Robinson, Daniel
Gao, Weilu
Yu, Cunxi
author_facet Li, Yingjie
Robinson, Daniel
Gao, Weilu
Yu, Cunxi
contents Semantic segmentation and lane detection are crucial tasks in autonomous driving systems. Conventional approaches predominantly rely on deep neural networks (DNNs), which incur high energy costs due to extensive analog-to-digital conversions and large-scale image computations required for low-latency, real-time responses. Diffractive optical neural networks (DONNs) have shown promising advantages over conventional DNNs on digital or optoelectronic computing platforms in energy efficiency. By performing all-optical image processing via light diffraction at the speed of light, DONNs save computation energy costs while reducing the overhead associated with analog-to-digital conversions by all-optical encoding and computing. In this work, we propose a novel all-optical computing framework for RGB image segmentation and lane detection in autonomous driving applications. Our experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the DONN system for image segmentation on the CityScapes dataset. Additionally, we conduct case studies on lane detection using a customized indoor track dataset and simulated driving scenarios in CARLA, where we further evaluate the model's generalizability under diverse environmental conditions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_07717
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle All-Optical Segmentation via Diffractive Neural Networks for Autonomous Driving
Li, Yingjie
Robinson, Daniel
Gao, Weilu
Yu, Cunxi
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Emerging Technologies
Semantic segmentation and lane detection are crucial tasks in autonomous driving systems. Conventional approaches predominantly rely on deep neural networks (DNNs), which incur high energy costs due to extensive analog-to-digital conversions and large-scale image computations required for low-latency, real-time responses. Diffractive optical neural networks (DONNs) have shown promising advantages over conventional DNNs on digital or optoelectronic computing platforms in energy efficiency. By performing all-optical image processing via light diffraction at the speed of light, DONNs save computation energy costs while reducing the overhead associated with analog-to-digital conversions by all-optical encoding and computing. In this work, we propose a novel all-optical computing framework for RGB image segmentation and lane detection in autonomous driving applications. Our experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the DONN system for image segmentation on the CityScapes dataset. Additionally, we conduct case studies on lane detection using a customized indoor track dataset and simulated driving scenarios in CARLA, where we further evaluate the model's generalizability under diverse environmental conditions.
title All-Optical Segmentation via Diffractive Neural Networks for Autonomous Driving
topic Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Emerging Technologies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.07717