TRUDI and TITUS: A Multi-Perspective Dataset and A Three-Stage Recognition System for Transportation Unit Identification


Emre Gülsoylu (Universität Hamburg), André Peter Kelm (Universität Hamburg), Lennart Bengtson (Universität Hamburg), Matthias Hirsch (Universität Hamburg), Christian Wilms (Universität Hamburg), Tim Rolff (Universität Hamburg), Janick Edinger (University of Hamburg), Simone Frintrop (Universität Hamburg)
The 35th British Machine Vision Conference
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Abstract

Identifying transportation units (TUs) is essential for improving the efficiency of port logistics. However, progress in this field has been hindered by the lack of publicly available benchmark datasets that capture the diversity and dynamics of real-world port environments. To address this gap, we present the TRUDI dataset—a comprehensive collection comprising 35,034 annotated instances across five categories: container, tank container, trailer, ID text, and logo. The images were captured at operational ports using both ground-based and aerial cameras, under a wide variety of lighting and weather conditions. For the identification of TUs—which involves reading the 11-digit alphanumeric ID typically painted on each unit—we introduce TITUS, a dedicated pipeline that operates in three stages: (1) segmenting the TU instances, (2) detecting the location of the ID text, and (3) recognising and validating the extracted ID. Unlike alternative systems, which often require similar scenes, specific camera angles or gate setups, our evaluation demonstrates that TITUS reliably identifies TUs from a range of camera perspectives and in varying lighting and weather conditions. By making the TRUDI dataset publicly available, we provide a robust benchmark that enables the development and comparison of new approaches. This contribution supports digital transformation efforts in multipurpose ports and helps to increase the efficiency of entire logistics chains.

Citation

@inproceedings{Gülsoylu_2025_BMVC,
author    = {Emre Gülsoylu and André Peter Kelm and Lennart Bengtson and Matthias Hirsch and Christian Wilms and Tim Rolff and Janick Edinger and Simone Frintrop},
title     = {TRUDI and TITUS: A Multi-Perspective Dataset and A Three-Stage Recognition System for Transportation Unit Identification},
booktitle = {36th British Machine Vision Conference 2025, {BMVC} 2025, Sheffield, UK, November 24-27, 2025},
publisher = {BMVA},
year      = {2025},
url       = {https://bmva-archive.org.uk/bmvc/2025/assets/papers/Paper_1134/paper.pdf}
}


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