# Sketch and Refine: Towards Fast and Accurate Lane Detection

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.14729 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.14729/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 34 of its 47 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 26 Jan 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 34)

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [PyTorch: An Imperative Style, High-Performance Deep Learning Library](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.01703/) (2019)
- [Faster R-CNN: Towards Real-Time Object Detection with Region Proposal Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1506.01497/) (2015)
- [End-to-End Object Detection with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.12872/) (2020)
- [Mask R-CNN](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.06870/) (2017)
- [Feature Pyramid Networks for Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.03144/) (2016)
- [YOLOv4: Optimal Speed and Accuracy of Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.10934/) (2020)
- [Cascade R-CNN: Delving into High Quality Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.00726/) (2017)
- [EfficientDet: Scalable and Efficient Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.09070/) (2019)
- [Path Aggregation Network for Instance Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.01534/) (2018)
- [Sparse R-CNN: End-to-End Object Detection with Learnable Proposals](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.12450/) (2020)
- [NAS-FPN: Learning Scalable Feature Pyramid Architecture for Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.07392/) (2019)
- [Spatial As Deep: Spatial CNN for Traffic Scene Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.06080/) (2017)
- [Learning Lightweight Lane Detection CNNs by Self Attention Distillation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.00821/) (2019)
- [Keep your Eyes on the Lane: Real-time Attention-guided Lane Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.12035/) (2020)
- [Towards End-to-End Lane Detection: an Instance Segmentation Approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.05591/) (2018)
- [Ultra Fast Structure-aware Deep Lane Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.11757/) (2020)
- [PolyLaneNet: Lane Estimation via Deep Polynomial Regression](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.10924/) (2020)
- [CondLaneNet: a Top-to-down Lane Detection Framework Based on Conditional Convolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.05003/) (2021)
- [Rethinking Efficient Lane Detection via Curve Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.02431/) (2022)
- [CLRNet: Cross Layer Refinement Network for Lane Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.10350/) (2022)
- [CurveLane-NAS: Unifying Lane-Sensitive Architecture Search and Adaptive Point Blending](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.12147/) (2020)
- [AdaMixer: A Fast-Converging Query-Based Object Detector](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.16507/) (2022)
- [Key Points Estimation and Point Instance Segmentation Approach for Lane Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.06604/) (2020)
- [A Keypoint-based Global Association Network for Lane Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.07335/) (2022)
- [Focus on Local: Detecting Lane Marker from Bottom Up via Key Point](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.13680/) (2021)
- [VPGNet: Vanishing Point Guided Network for Lane and Road Marking Detection and Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.06288/) (2017)
- [Glance-and-Gaze Vision Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.02277/) (2021)
- [LaneAF: Robust Multi-Lane Detection with Affinity Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.12040/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [Monocular Lane Detection Based on Deep Learning: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.16316/) (2024)
- [Polar R-CNN: End-to-End Lane Detection with Fewer Anchors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.01499/) (2024)
- [Learning Contextual Runtime Monitors for Safe AI-Based Autonomy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.20666/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Lane detection is to determine the precise location and shape of lanes on the road. Despite efforts made by current methods, it remains a challenging task due to the complexity of real-world scenarios. Existing approaches, whether proposal-based or keypoint-based, suffer from depicting lanes effectively and efficiently. Proposal-based methods detect lanes by distinguishing and regressing a collection of proposals in a streamlined top-down way, yet lack sufficient flexibility in lane representation. Keypoint-based methods, on the other hand, construct lanes flexibly from local descriptors, which typically entail complicated post-processing. In this paper, we present a "Sketch-and-Refine" paradigm that utilizes the merits of both keypoint-based and proposal-based methods. The motivation is that local directions of lanes are semantically simple and clear. At the "Sketch" stage, local directions of keypoints can be easily estimated by fast convolutional layers. Then we can build a set of lane proposals accordingly with moderate accuracy. At the "Refine" stage, we further optimize these proposals via a novel Lane Segment Association Module (LSAM), which allows adaptive lane segment adjustment. Last but not least, we propose multi-level feature integration to enrich lane feature representations more efficiently. Based on the proposed "Sketch and Refine" paradigm, we propose a fast yet effective lane detector dubbed "SRLane". Experiments show that our SRLane can run at a fast speed (i.e., 278 FPS) while yielding an F1 score of 78.9%. The source code is available at: https://github.com/passerer/SRLane.