# LDTR: Transformer-based Lane Detection with Anchor-chain Representation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.14354 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.14354/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 28 of its 38 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 21 Mar 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 28 of 28)

- [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)
- [You Only Look Once: Unified, Real-Time Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1506.02640/) (2015)
- [Deformable DETR: Deformable Transformers for End-to-End Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.04159/) (2020)
- [YOLOv3: An Incremental Improvement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.02767/) (2018)
- [FCOS: Fully Convolutional One-Stage Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.01355/) (2019)
- [CenterNet: Keypoint Triplets for Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.08189/) (2019)
- [DAB-DETR: Dynamic Anchor Boxes are Better Queries for DETR](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.12329/) (2022)
- [Mask DINO: Towards A Unified Transformer-based Framework for Object Detection and Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.02777/) (2022)
- [MapTR: Structured Modeling and Learning for Online Vectorized HD Map Construction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.14437/) (2022)
- [Spatial As Deep: Spatial CNN for Traffic Scene Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.06080/) (2017)
- [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)
- [End-to-end Lane Shape Prediction with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.04233/) (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)
- [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)
- [LaneAF: Robust Multi-Lane Detection with Affinity Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.12040/) (2021)
- [Laneformer: Object-aware Row-Column Transformers for Lane Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.09830/) (2022)
- [Recursive Video Lane Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.11106/) (2023)
- [PriorLane: A Prior Knowledge Enhanced Lane Detection Approach Based on Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.06994/) (2022)
- [End-to-End Lane detection with One-to-Several Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.00675/) (2023)
- [HoughLaneNet: Lane Detection with Deep Hough Transform and Dynamic Convolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.03494/) (2023)
- [CANet: Curved Guide Line Network with Adaptive Decoder for Lane Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.11546/) (2023)

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

- [RSAR: Restricted State Angle Resolver and Rotated SAR Benchmark](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.04440/) (2025)
- [MapVision: CVPR 2024 Autonomous Grand Challenge Mapless Driving Tech Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.10125/) (2024)
- [GFSR: Geometric Fidelity and Spatial Refinement for Reliable Lane Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.23327/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Despite recent advances in lane detection methods, scenarios with limited- or no-visual-clue of lanes due to factors such as lighting conditions and occlusion remain challenging and crucial for automated driving. Moreover, current lane representations require complex post-processing and struggle with specific instances. Inspired by the DETR architecture, we propose LDTR, a transformer-based model to address these issues. Lanes are modeled with a novel anchor-chain, regarding a lane as a whole from the beginning, which enables LDTR to handle special lanes inherently. To enhance lane instance perception, LDTR incorporates a novel multi-referenced deformable attention module to distribute attention around the object. Additionally, LDTR incorporates two line IoU algorithms to improve convergence efficiency and employs a Gaussian heatmap auxiliary branch to enhance model representation capability during training. To evaluate lane detection models, we rely on Frechet distance, parameterized F1-score, and additional synthetic metrics. Experimental results demonstrate that LDTR achieves state-of-the-art performance on well-known datasets.