# RoadPainter: Points Are Ideal Navigators for Topology transformER

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.15349 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.15349/

## Key facts

- Cited by 17 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 34 of its 39 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 22 Jul 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)
- [Masked-attention Mask Transformer for Universal Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.01527/) (2021)
- [V-Net: Fully Convolutional Neural Networks for Volumetric Medical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1606.04797/) (2016)
- [BEVFormer: Learning Bird's-Eye-View Representation from Multi-Camera Images via Spatiotemporal Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.17270/) (2022)
- [Planning-oriented Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.10156/) (2022)
- [PETR: Position Embedding Transformation for Multi-View 3D Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.05625/) (2022)
- [ST-P3: End-to-end Vision-based Autonomous Driving via Spatial-Temporal Feature Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.07601/) (2022)
- [MapTR: Structured Modeling and Learning for Online Vectorized HD Map Construction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.14437/) (2022)
- [HDMapNet: An Online HD Map Construction and Evaluation Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.06307/) (2021)
- [Wayformer: Motion Forecasting via Simple & Efficient Attention Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.05844/) (2022)
- [MultiPath++: Efficient Information Fusion and Trajectory Aggregation for Behavior Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.14973/) (2021)
- [VectorMapNet: End-to-end Vectorized HD Map Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.08920/) (2022)
- [MapTRv2: An End-to-End Framework for Online Vectorized HD Map Construction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.05736/) (2023)
- [Perceive, Predict, and Plan: Safe Motion Planning Through Interpretable Semantic Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.05930/) (2020)
- [PersFormer: 3D Lane Detection via Perspective Transformer and the OpenLane Benchmark](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.11089/) (2022)
- [MTR++: Multi-Agent Motion Prediction with Symmetric Scene Modeling and Guided Intention Querying](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.17770/) (2023)
- [Ultra Fast Structure-aware Deep Lane Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.11757/) (2020)
- [3D-LaneNet: End-to-End 3D Multiple Lane Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.10203/) (2018)
- [Structured Bird's-Eye-View Traffic Scene Understanding from Onboard Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.01997/) (2021)
- [CondLaneNet: a Top-to-down Lane Detection Framework Based on Conditional Convolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.05003/) (2021)
- [PivotNet: Vectorized Pivot Learning for End-to-end HD Map Construction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.16477/) (2023)
- [OpenLane-V2: A Topology Reasoning Benchmark for Unified 3D HD Mapping](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.10440/) (2023)
- [End-to-End Vectorized HD-map Construction with Piecewise Bezier Curve](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.09700/) (2023)
- [A Keypoint-based Global Association Network for Lane Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.07335/) (2022)
- [Augmenting Lane Perception and Topology Understanding with Standard Definition Navigation Maps](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.04079/) (2023)
- [Graph-based Topology Reasoning for Driving Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.05277/) (2023)
- [Lane Graph as Path: Continuity-preserving Path-wise Modeling for Online Lane Graph Construction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.08815/) (2023)
- [TopoMLP: A Simple yet Strong Pipeline for Driving Topology Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.06753/) (2023)
- [InstaGraM: Instance-level Graph Modeling for Vectorized HD Map Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.04470/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 17 of 17)

- [SMART: Advancing Scalable Map Priors for Driving Topology Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.04329/) (2025)
- [Topo2Seq: Enhanced Topology Reasoning via Topology Sequence Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.08974/) (2025)
- [SEPT: Standard-Definition Map Enhanced Scene Perception and Topology Reasoning for Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.12246/) (2025)
- [Enhancing Lane Segment Perception and Topology Reasoning with Crowdsourcing Trajectory Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.17161/) (2024)
- [TopoBDA: Towards Bezier Deformable Attention for Road Topology Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.18951/) (2024)
- [Uni-PrevPredMap: Extending PrevPredMap to a Unified Framework of Prior-Informed Modeling for Online Vectorized HD Map Construction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.06647/) (2025)
- [Geometry-Guided Representations for Coherent Lane and Traffic Topology Reasoning in Driving Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.13553/) (2025)
- [Coherent Online Road Topology Estimation and Reasoning with Standard-Definition Maps](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.01397/) (2025)
- [A Concise Survey on Lane Topology Reasoning for HD Mapping](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.01989/) (2025)
- [From Static to Dynamic: a Survey of Topology-Aware Perception in Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.23641/) (2025)
- [NavMapFusion: Diffusion-based Fusion of Navigation Maps for Online Vectorized HD Map Construction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.03317/) (2025)
- [TopoMaskV3: 3D Mask Head with Dense Offset and Height Predictions for Road Topology Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.01558/) (2026)
- [GeoReFormer: Geometry-Aware Refinement for Lane Segment Detection and Topology Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.26018/) (2026)
- [Unified Modeling of Lane and Lane Topology for Driving Scene Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.08911/) (2026)
- [AerialFusionMapNet: Online HD Map Construction with Aerial-Onboard BEV Fusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.24784/) (2026)
- [Generative Lane Topology Reasoning via Autoregressive Model with Geometry Prior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.31814/) (2026)
- [Reasoning to Regulate: Chain-of-Thought for Traffic Rule Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.24199/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Topology reasoning aims to provide a precise understanding of road scenes, enabling autonomous systems to identify safe and efficient routes. In this paper, we present RoadPainter, an innovative approach for detecting and reasoning the topology of lane centerlines using multi-view images. The core concept behind RoadPainter is to extract a set of points from each centerline mask to improve the accuracy of centerline prediction. We start by implementing a transformer decoder that integrates a hybrid attention mechanism and a real-virtual separation strategy to predict coarse lane centerlines and establish topological associations. Then, we generate centerline instance masks guided by the centerline points from the transformer decoder. Moreover, we derive an additional set of points from each mask and combine them with previously detected centerline points for further refinement. Additionally, we introduce an optional module that incorporates a Standard Definition (SD) map to further optimize centerline detection and enhance topological reasoning performance. Experimental evaluations on the OpenLane-V2 dataset demonstrate the state-of-the-art performance of RoadPainter.