The road edge identification is one of the key technology of the intelligent vehicle based on machine vision. A road edge identification and tracking algorithm based on linear road model is developed in this paper. This algorithm includes two stages

one is initial road identification algorithm and the other is road tracking algorithm. Pretreat the image at first at initial road edge identification stages

and then scan the image per-line in order to search the possible road edge points of every row. The method of Hough transform (HT) is used to match these points according to some road constrains. The new idea of this method is to set up the object search area (OSA) firstly at the road tracking stage

and the width of OSA is changing according to the change of the road edge identification reliability. And the possible road edge points are matched by Randomized Hough transform(RHT) method

This algorithm can decrease the algorithm running time and storage space evidently. Experiments prove that the algorithm is robust and fulfills the requirement real time of road edge identification.