Advancing Object Detection in Transportation with Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs): A Comprehensive Review and Empirical Testing

This study aims to comprehensively review and empirically evaluate the application of multimodal large language models (MLLMs) and Large Vision Models (VLMs) in object detection for transportation systems. In the first fold, we provide a background about the potential benefits of MLLMs in transportation applications and conduct a comprehensive review of current MLLM technologies in previous studies. We highlight their effectiveness and limitations in object detection within various transportation scenarios. The second fold involves providing an overview of the taxonomy of end-to-end object detection in transportation applications and future directions. Building on this, we proposed empirical analysis for testing MLLMs on three real-world transportation problems that include object detection tasks namely, road safety attributes extraction, safety-critical event detection, and visual reasoning of thermal images. Our findings provide a detailed assessment of MLLM performance, uncovering both strengths and areas for improvement. Finally, we discuss practical limitations and challenges of MLLMs in enhancing object detection in transportation, thereby offering a roadmap for future research and development in this critical area.

Leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs) for Traffic Management at Urban Intersections: The Case of Mixed Traffic Scenarios

Urban traffic management faces significant challenges due to the dynamic environments, and traditional algorithms fail to quickly adapt to this environment in real-time and predict possible conflicts. This study explores the ability of a Large Language Model (LLM), specifically, GPT-4o-mini to improve traffic management at urban intersections. We recruited GPT-4o-mini to analyze, predict position, detect and resolve the conflicts at an intersection in real-time for various basic scenarios. The key findings of this study to investigate whether LLMs can logically reason and understand the scenarios to enhance the traffic efficiency and safety by providing real-time analysis. The study highlights the potential of LLMs in urban traffic management creating more intelligent and more adaptive systems. Results showed the GPT-4o-mini was effectively able to detect and resolve conflicts in heavy traffic, congestion, and mixed-speed conditions. The complex scenario of multiple intersections with obstacles and pedestrians saw successful conflict management as well. Results show that the integration of LLMs promises to improve the effectiveness of traffic control for safer and more efficient urban intersection management.

Visual Reasoning and Multi-Agent Approach in Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs): Solving TSP and mTSP Combinatorial Challenges

Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs) harness comprehensive knowledge spanning text, images, and audio to adeptly tackle complex problems, including zero-shot in-context learning scenarios. This study explores the ability of MLLMs in visually solving the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) and Multiple Traveling Salesman Problem (mTSP) using images that portray point distributions on a two-dimensional plane. We introduce a novel approach employing multiple specialized agents within the MLLM framework, each dedicated to optimizing solutions for these combinatorial challenges. Our experimental investigation includes rigorous evaluations across zero-shot settings and introduces innovative multi-agent zero-shot in-context scenarios. The results demonstrated that both multi-agent models. Multi-Agent 1, which includes the Initializer, Critic, and Scorer agents, and Multi-Agent 2, which comprises only the Initializer and Critic agents; significantly improved solution quality for TSP and mTSP problems. Multi-Agent 1 excelled in environments requiring detailed route refinement and evaluation, providing a robust framework for sophisticated optimizations. In contrast, Multi-Agent 2, focusing on iterative refinements by the Initializer and Critic, proved effective for rapid decision-making scenarios. These experiments yield promising outcomes, showcasing the robust visual reasoning capabilities of MLLMs in addressing diverse combinatorial problems. The findings underscore the potential of MLLMs as powerful tools in computational optimization, offering insights that could inspire further advancements in this promising field. Project link: https://github.com/ahmed-abdulhuy/Solving-TSP-and-mTSP-Combinatorial-Challenges-using-Visual-Reasoning-and-Multi-Agent-Approach-MLLMs-.git

The Use of Multimodal Large Language Models to Detect Objects from Thermal Images: Transportation Applications

The integration of thermal imaging data with Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs) constitutes an exciting opportunity for improving the safety and functionality of autonomous driving systems and many Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) applications. This study investigates whether MLLMs can understand complex images from RGB and thermal cameras and detect objects directly. Our goals were to 1) assess the ability of the MLLM to learn from information from various sets, 2) detect objects and identify elements in thermal cameras, 3) determine whether two independent modality images show the same scene, and 4) learn all objects using different modalities. The findings showed that both GPT-4 and Gemini were effective in detecting and classifying objects in thermal images. Similarly, the Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) for pedestrian classification was 70.39% and 81.48%, respectively. Moreover, the MAPE for bike, car, and motorcycle detection were 78.4%, 55.81%, and 96.15%, respectively. Gemini produced MAPE of 66.53%, 59.35% and 78.18% respectively. This finding further demonstrates that MLLM can identify thermal images and can be employed in advanced imaging automation technologies for ITS applications.

Using Multimodal Large Language Models for Automated Detection of Traffic Safety Critical Events

Traditional approaches to safety event analysis in autonomous systems have relied on complex machine learning models and extensive datasets for high accuracy and reliability. However, the advent of Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs) offers a novel approach by integrating textual, visual, and audio modalities, thereby providing automated analyses of driving videos. Our framework leverages the reasoning power of MLLMs, directing their output through context-specific prompts to ensure accurate, reliable, and actionable insights for hazard detection. By incorporating models like Gemini-Pro-Vision 1.5 and Llava, our methodology aims to automate the safety critical events and mitigate common issues such as hallucinations in MLLM outputs. Preliminary results demonstrate the framework's potential in zero-shot learning and accurate scenario analysis, though further validation on larger datasets is necessary. Furthermore, more investigations are required to explore the performance enhancements of the proposed framework through few-shot learning and fine-tuned models. This research underscores the significance of MLLMs in advancing the analysis of the naturalistic driving videos by improving safety-critical event detecting and understanding the interaction with complex environments.

Object Detection using Oriented Window Learning Vi-sion Transformer: Roadway Assets Recognition

Object detection is a critical component of transportation systems, particularly for applications such as autonomous driving, traffic monitoring, and infrastructure maintenance. Traditional object detection methods often struggle with limited data and variability in object appearance. The Oriented Window Learning Vision Transformer (OWL-ViT) offers a novel approach by adapting window orientations to the geometry and existence of objects, making it highly suitable for detecting diverse roadway assets. This study leverages OWL-ViT within a one-shot learning framework to recognize transportation infrastructure components, such as traffic signs, poles, pavement, and cracks. This study presents a novel method for roadway asset detection using OWL-ViT. We conducted a series of experiments to evaluate the performance of the model in terms of detection consistency, semantic flexibility, visual context adaptability, resolution robustness, and impact of non-max suppression. The results demonstrate the high efficiency and reliability of the OWL-ViT across various scenarios, underscoring its potential to enhance the safety and efficiency of intelligent transportation systems.

Exploring Traffic Crash Narratives in Jordan Using Text Mining Analytics

This study explores traffic crash narratives in an attempt to inform and enhance effective traffic safety policies using text-mining analytics. Text mining techniques are employed to unravel key themes and trends within the narratives, aiming to provide a deeper understanding of the factors contributing to traffic crashes. This study collected crash data from five major freeways in Jordan that cover narratives of 7,587 records from 2018-2022. An unsupervised learning method was adopted to learn the pattern from crash data. Various text mining techniques, such as topic modeling, keyword extraction, and Word Co-Occurrence Network, were also used to reveal the co-occurrence of crash patterns. Results show that text mining analytics is a promising method and underscore the multifactorial nature of traffic crashes, including intertwining human decisions and vehicular conditions. The recurrent themes across all analyses highlight the need for a balanced approach to road safety, merging both proactive and reactive measures. Emphasis on driver education and awareness around animal-related incidents is paramount.

Automated Pavement Cracks Detection and Classification Using Deep Learning

Monitoring asset conditions is a crucial factor in building efficient transportation asset management. Because of substantial advances in image processing, traditional manual classification has been largely replaced by semi-automatic/automatic techniques. As a result, automated asset detection and classification techniques are required. This paper proposes a methodology to detect and classify roadway pavement cracks using the well-known You Only Look Once (YOLO) version five (YOLOv5) and version 8 (YOLOv8) algorithms. Experimental results indicated that the precision of pavement crack detection reaches up to 67.3% under different illumination conditions and image sizes. The findings of this study can assist highway agencies in accurately detecting and classifying asset conditions under different illumination conditions. This will reduce the cost and time that are associated with manual inspection, which can greatly reduce the cost of highway asset maintenance.

Question-Answering (QA) Model for a Personalized Learning Assistant for Arabic Language

This paper describes the creation, optimization, and assessment of a question-answering (QA) model for a personalized learning assistant that uses BERT transformers customized for the Arabic language. The model was particularly finetuned on science textbooks in Palestinian curriculum. Our approach uses BERT's brilliant capabilities to automatically produce correct answers to questions in the field of science education. The model's ability to understand and extract pertinent information is improved by finetuning it using 11th and 12th grade biology book in Palestinian curriculum. This increases the model's efficacy in producing enlightening responses. Exact match (EM) and F1 score metrics are used to assess the model's performance; the results show an EM score of 20% and an F1 score of 51%. These findings show that the model can comprehend and react to questions in the context of Palestinian science book. The results demonstrate the potential of BERT-based QA models to support learning and understanding Arabic students questions.

Advancing Roadway Sign Detection with YOLO Models and Transfer Learning

Roadway signs detection and recognition is an essential element in the Advanced Driving Assistant Systems (ADAS). Several artificial intelligence methods have been used widely among of them YOLOv5 and YOLOv8. In this paper, we used a modified YOLOv5 and YOLOv8 to detect and classify different roadway signs under different illumination conditions. Experimental results indicated that for the YOLOv8 model, varying the number of epochs and batch size yields consistent MAP50 scores, ranging from 94.6% to 97.1% on the testing set. The YOLOv5 model demonstrates competitive performance, with MAP50 scores ranging from 92.4% to 96.9%. These results suggest that both models perform well across different training setups, with YOLOv8 generally achieving slightly higher MAP50 scores. These findings suggest that both models can perform well under different training setups, offering valuable insights for practitioners seeking reliable and adaptable solutions in object detection applications.