Behavior monitoring using learning techniques and regular-expressions-based pattern matching

This paper addresses the problem of maneuver recognition and behavior anomaly detection for generic targets by means of pattern matching techniques. The problem analysis is performed making specific reference to moving vehicles in a multi-lane road scenario, but the proposed technique can be easily extended to significantly different monitoring contexts. The potential extensions include, but are not limited to, public surveillance in train station or airport, road incidents and relative precursors detection, and vehicle trajectories monitoring. The overall proposed solution consists of a trajectory analysis tool and a string-matching method. This allows the integration of two different approaches, to detect both a priori defined patterns of interest and generic maneuver/behavior standing out from those regularly exhibited. The proposed string matching algorithm is newly developed in this paper, based on Regular Expressions. For generating reference patterns, a technique for the automatic definition of a dictionary of regular expressions matching the commonly observed target maneuvers is developed. The advantages of the proposed approach are extensively analyzed and tested by means of numerical simulations and experiments.