Snow-CLOCs: Camera-LiDAR Object Candidate Fusion for 3D Object Detection in Snowy Conditions

Although existing 3D object-detection methods have achieved promising results on conventional datasets, it is still challenging to detect objects in data collected under adverse weather conditions. Data distortion from LiDAR and cameras in such conditions leads to poor performance of traditional single-sensor detection methods. Multi-modal data-fusion methods struggle with data distortion and low alignment accuracy, making accurate target detection difficult. To address this, we propose a multi-modal object-detection algorithm, Snow-CLOCs, specifically for snowy conditions. In image detection, we improved the YOLOv5 algorithm by integrating the InceptionNeXt network to enhance feature extraction and using the Wise-IoU algorithm to reduce dependency on high-quality data. For LiDAR point-cloud detection, we built upon the SECOND algorithm and employed the DROR filter to remove noise, enhancing detection accuracy. We combined the detection results from the camera and LiDAR into a unified detection set, represented using a sparse tensor, and extracted features through a 2D convolutional neural network to achieve object detection and localization. Snow-CLOCs achieved a detection accuracy of 86.61% for vehicle detection in snowy conditions.