ORBIT - OpenDrive Road Builder from Imagery Tool

A visual tool for creating or editing ASAM OpenDRIVE 1.8 road networks from aerial imagery.

Note

This open source project is maintained by RISE Research Institutes of Sweden. See LICENSE file for open source license information.

Note

This is a beta version. Bugs and missing features should be expected. Github issues can be added for bug reports or feature requests.

---

Contents

• Features
• Installation
• Quick Start
• Documentation
• Related Packages
• Project Structure
• Development
• License

---

Features

Road Annotation

• Interactive polyline drawing on aerial/satellite/drone images
• Centerline and lane boundary distinction with road mark types (solid, broken, etc.)
• Lane sections for roads where lane configuration changes
• Road splitting and merging for flexible network editing
• Data-driven road marks from actual annotated line types
• OpenDRIVE 1.8 lane attributes (direction, advisory)

Junction Support

• Junction annotation with drag-and-drop positioning
• Roundabout wizard for creating circular intersections
• Connecting roads with proper geometric paths through junctions
• Lane-level connections with explicit lane-to-lane mappings
• Automatic connection generation from road geometry

Import Capabilities

• OpenStreetMap import via Overpass API (roads, signals, junctions, objects)
• OpenDRIVE import for editing existing .xodr files (round-trip support)

Georeferencing

• Control point system for pixel-to-geographic transformation
• CSV import for batch control points
• Monte Carlo uncertainty analysis with visualization
• Validation metrics with reprojection error

Export

• ASAM OpenDRIVE 1.8 XML format
• XSD schema validation against official ASAM schema (download)
• Configurable geometry — preserve all points or fit curves
• Geographic reference with PROJ4 projection string
• Complete junction export with connecting roads and lane links

---

Installation

Using uv (recommended)

# Install uv if needed
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

# Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/RI-SE/ORBIT.git
cd ORBIT
uv sync

Using pip

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -e .

---

Quick Start

# Start with an image
orbit path/to/aerial_image.jpg

# Start empty (load image via File menu)
orbit

# Enable verbose logging
orbit --verbose

# Enable XSD schema validation for exports
orbit --xodr_schema /path/to/OpenDRIVE_Core.xsd

Note: After installation with uv sync or pip install -e ., the orbit command is available directly. Alternatively, use uv run orbit or python run_orbit.py.

Basic Workflow

1. Load image — File → Load Image or pass path on command line
2. Add control points — Tools → Georeferencing (minimum 4 points (oblique imagery) or 3 (nadir imagery))
3. Import or draw — Either import an existing map from OpenStreetMap or OpenDRIVE, or draw roads directly in ORBIT.
4. Edit — Edit roads. Add signs, parkings, and objects.
5. Export — File → Export → Export to OpenDrive

---

Documentation

Guide	Description
User Guide	Complete user guide with workflow, tips, and keyboard shortcuts
Georeferencing Guide	Control points and uncertainty analysis
OSM Import Guide	OpenStreetMap import feature
Validation Guide	Validation metrics and uncertainty estimation
Developer Guide	Architecture and contribution guidelines

---

Related Packages

orbit-georef

Standalone Python library for pixel↔geo coordinate transformation. Use it to work with ORBIT's georeferencing outside the GUI — for example, converting pixel coordinates to lat/lon in scripts or downstream tooling. Install separately with pip install orbit-georef. See orbit-georef/README.md for details.

---

Project Structure

orbit/
├── models/       # Data models (Road, Polyline, Junction, ParkingSpace, Signal, etc.)
├── gui/          # PyQt6 GUI (MainWindow, ImageView, dialogs, widgets)
├── export/       # OpenDRIVE XML generation (writers, builders)
├── import_/      # OSM and OpenDRIVE importers
├── signs/        # Traffic sign libraries (country-specific)
└── utils/        # Coordinate transforms, geometry utilities
orbit-georef/     # Standalone georeferencing library (separate package)

Project Files

Projects save as .orbit JSON files containing:

• Image path and metadata
• Polylines (pixel coordinates)
• Roads with lane sections
• Junctions with connections and junction groups
• Control points for georeferencing
• Signals and roadside objects
• Parking spaces

---

Development

Setup

# Install with dev dependencies
uv sync --extra dev

# Run tests
uv run python -m pytest tests/ -v

Key Technologies

• PyQt6 — GUI framework
• NumPy/SciPy — Geometry and transformations
• lxml — XML generation
• pyproj — Coordinate projections
• xmlschema — OpenDRIVE XSD validation

See Developer Guide for architecture details.

---

License

The main ORBIT project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPL-3.0).

The separate library orbit-georef (located in orbit-georef/) is licensed under the MIT License, allowing for more permissive use in downstream projects.

Dependencies and Their Licenses

Main ORBIT project (runtime):

• PyQt6 - GPL v3 (commercial license available)
• PyQt6-Qt6 - LGPL v3 (Qt framework bindings)
• opencv-python - Apache 2.0
• NumPy - BSD 3-Clause License
• SciPy - BSD 3-Clause License
• lxml - BSD 3-Clause License
• pyproj - MIT License
• xmlschema - MIT License

Main ORBIT project (development, optional):

• pytest - MIT License
• pytest-cov - MIT License
• pytest-mock - MIT License
• ruff - MIT License

orbit-georef library (runtime):

• NumPy - BSD 3-Clause License
• pyproj - MIT License

orbit-georef library (development, optional):

• pytest - MIT License
• pytest-cov - MIT License

Acknowledgement

This package is developed as part of the SYNERGIES project.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.