Design and implementation of human driving data–based active lane change control for autonomous vehicles

Author(s):  
Heungseok Chae ◽  
Yonghwan Jeong ◽  
Hojun Lee ◽  
Jongcherl Park ◽  
Kyongsu Yi

This article describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of an active lane change control algorithm for autonomous vehicles with human factor considerations. Lane changes need to be performed considering both driver acceptance and safety with surrounding vehicles. Therefore, autonomous driving systems need to be designed based on an analysis of human driving behavior. In this article, manual driving characteristics are investigated using real-world driving test data. In lane change situations, interactions with surrounding vehicles were mainly investigated. And safety indices were developed with kinematic analysis. A safety indices–based lane change decision and control algorithm has been developed. In order to improve safety, stochastic predictions of both the ego vehicle and surrounding vehicles have been conducted with consideration of sensor noise and model uncertainties. The desired driving mode is decided to cope with all lane changes on highway. To obtain desired reference and constraints, motion planning for lane changes has been designed taking stochastic prediction-based safety indices into account. A stochastic model predictive control with constraints has been adopted to determine vehicle control inputs: the steering angle and the longitudinal acceleration. The proposed active lane change algorithm has been successfully implemented on an autonomous vehicle and evaluated via real-world driving tests. Safe and comfortable lane changes in high-speed driving on highways have been demonstrated using our autonomous test vehicle.

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 1626 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaodong Wu ◽  
Bangjun Qiao ◽  
Chengrui Su

A lane change is one of the most important driving scenarios for autonomous driving vehicles. This paper proposes a safe and comfort-oriented algorithm for an autonomous vehicle to perform lane changes on a straight and level road. A simplified Gray Prediction Model is designed to estimate the driving status of surrounding vehicles, and time-variant safety margins are employed during the trajectory planning to ensure a safe maneuver. The algorithm is able to adapt its lane changing strategy based on traffic situation and passenger demands, and features condition-triggered rerouting to handle unexpected traffic situations. The concept of dynamic safety margins with different settings of parameters gives a customizable feature for the autonomous lane changing control. The effect of the algorithm is verified within a self-developed traffic simulation system.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 2244
Author(s):  
S. M. Yang ◽  
Y. A. Lin

Safe path planning for obstacle avoidance in autonomous vehicles has been developed. Based on the Rapidly Exploring Random Trees (RRT) algorithm, an improved algorithm integrating path pruning, smoothing, and optimization with geometric collision detection is shown to improve planning efficiency. Path pruning, a prerequisite to path smoothing, is performed to remove the redundant points generated by the random trees for a new path, without colliding with the obstacles. Path smoothing is performed to modify the path so that it becomes continuously differentiable with curvature implementable by the vehicle. Optimization is performed to select a “near”-optimal path of the shortest distance among the feasible paths for motion efficiency. In the experimental verification, both a pure pursuit steering controller and a proportional–integral speed controller are applied to keep an autonomous vehicle tracking the planned path predicted by the improved RRT algorithm. It is shown that the vehicle can successfully track the path efficiently and reach the destination safely, with an average tracking control deviation of 5.2% of the vehicle width. The path planning is also applied to lane changes, and the average deviation from the lane during and after lane changes remains within 8.3% of the vehicle width.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 297
Author(s):  
Ali Marzoughi ◽  
Andrey V. Savkin

We study problems of intercepting single and multiple invasive intruders on a boundary of a planar region by employing a team of autonomous unmanned surface vehicles. First, the problem of intercepting a single intruder has been studied and then the proposed strategy has been applied to intercepting multiple intruders on the region boundary. Based on the proposed decentralised motion control algorithm and decision making strategy, each autonomous vehicle intercepts any intruder, which tends to leave the region by detecting the most vulnerable point of the boundary. An efficient and simple mathematical rules based control algorithm for navigating the autonomous vehicles on the boundary of the see region is developed. The proposed algorithm is computationally simple and easily implementable in real life intruder interception applications. In this paper, we obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a real-time solution to the considered problem of intruder interception. The effectiveness of the proposed method is confirmed by computer simulations with both single and multiple intruders.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 1523
Author(s):  
Nikita Smirnov ◽  
Yuzhou Liu ◽  
Aso Validi ◽  
Walter Morales-Alvarez ◽  
Cristina Olaverri-Monreal

Autonomous vehicles are expected to display human-like behavior, at least to the extent that their decisions can be intuitively understood by other road users. If this is not the case, the coexistence of manual and autonomous vehicles in a mixed environment might affect road user interactions negatively and might jeopardize road safety. To this end, it is highly important to design algorithms that are capable of analyzing human decision-making processes and of reproducing them. In this context, lane-change maneuvers have been studied extensively. However, not all potential scenarios have been considered, since most works have focused on highway rather than urban scenarios. We contribute to the field of research by investigating a particular urban traffic scenario in which an autonomous vehicle needs to determine the level of cooperation of the vehicles in the adjacent lane in order to proceed with a lane change. To this end, we present a game theory-based decision-making model for lane changing in congested urban intersections. The model takes as input driving-related parameters related to vehicles in the intersection before they come to a complete stop. We validated the model by relying on the Co-AutoSim simulator. We compared the prediction model outcomes with actual participant decisions, i.e., whether they allowed the autonomous vehicle to drive in front of them. The results are promising, with the prediction accuracy being 100% in all of the cases in which the participants allowed the lane change and 83.3% in the other cases. The false predictions were due to delays in resuming driving after the traffic light turned green.


Author(s):  
Joseph Funke ◽  
J. Christian Gerdes

This paper demonstrates that an autonomous vehicle can perform emergency lane changes up to the limits of handling through real-time generation and evaluation of bi-elementary paths. Path curvature and friction limits determine the maximum possible speed along the path and, consequently, the feasibility of the path. This approach incorporates both steering inputs and changes in speed during the maneuver. As a result, varying path parameters and observing the maximum possible entry speed of resulting paths gives insight about when and to what extent a vehicle should brake and turn during emergency lane change maneuvers. Tests on an autonomous vehicle validate this approach for lane changes at the limits of handling.


Author(s):  
Hamidreza Asgari ◽  
Xia Jin

Results from a recent consumer survey were thoroughly analyzed in relation to willingness to adopt and willingness to pay (WTP) for different autonomous vehicle (AV) features. Four different levels of automation were considered including basic vehicles, adding advanced features, partial automation, and full automation. A structural equations model with latent variables was employed, which simultaneously regressed adoption and WTP levels against a variety of available variables including socioeconomic and demographic attributes, private car usage habits, and attitudinal preferences/personal opinions. To address the endogeneity in personal attitudes, these variables were added to the model as latent factors. Accordingly, the analysis revealed four major latent attitudinal factors, respectively labeled as “joy of driving,”“mode choice reasoning,”“trust,” and “technology savviness.” Model results indicated that those who enjoy driving were the hardest to persuade towards AV adoption or to pay for automated features. On the other hand, technology savvy people showed higher tendency towards AV adoption. When it comes to factors affecting mode choice including travel time, travel cost, and functionality, people are willing to pay more for automated features when they believe that these features and services will provide them better utility, in relation to time and cost savings, convenience, stress reduction, and quality of life, and so forth. Interestingly, individuals with trust concerns showed higher WTP values, which may indicate that the market believes autonomous vehicles will bring more privacy and protection, at least compared with existing shared mobility or public transit options.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (20) ◽  
pp. 6733
Author(s):  
Min-Joong Kim ◽  
Sung-Hun Yu ◽  
Tong-Hyun Kim ◽  
Joo-Uk Kim ◽  
Young-Min Kim

Today, a lot of research on autonomous driving technology is being conducted, and various vehicles with autonomous driving functions, such as ACC (adaptive cruise control) are being released. The autonomous vehicle recognizes obstacles ahead by the fusion of data from various sensors, such as lidar and radar sensors, including camera sensors. As the number of vehicles equipped with such autonomous driving functions increases, securing safety and reliability is a big issue. Recently, Mobileye proposed the RSS (responsibility-sensitive safety) model, which is a white box mathematical model, to secure the safety of autonomous vehicles and clarify responsibility in the case of an accident. In this paper, a method of applying the RSS model to a variable focus function camera that can cover the recognition range of a lidar sensor and a radar sensor with a single camera sensor is considered. The variables of the RSS model suitable for the variable focus function camera were defined, the variable values were determined, and the safe distances for each velocity were derived by applying the determined variable values. In addition, as a result of considering the time required to obtain the data, and the time required to change the focal length of the camera, it was confirmed that the response time obtained using the derived safe distance was a valid result.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 3289
Author(s):  
Hanwool Woo ◽  
Mizuki Sugimoto ◽  
Hirokazu Madokoro ◽  
Kazuhito Sato ◽  
Yusuke Tamura ◽  
...  

In this paper, we propose a novel method to estimate a goal of surround vehicles to perform a lane change at a merging section. Recently, autonomous driving and advance driver-assistance systems are attracting great attention as a solution to substitute human drivers and to decrease accident rates. For example, a warning system to alert a lane change performed by surrounding vehicles to the front space of the host vehicle can be considered. If it is possible to forecast the intention of the interrupting vehicle in advance, the host driver can easily respond to the lane change with sufficient reaction time. This paper assumes a mandatory situation where two lanes are merged. The proposed method assesses the interaction between the lane-changing vehicle and the host vehicle on the mainstream lane. Then, the lane-change goal is estimated based on the interaction under the assumption that the lane-changing driver decides to minimize the collision risk. The proposed method applies the dynamic potential field method, which changes the distribution according to the relative speed and distance between two subject vehicles, to assess the interaction. The performance of goal estimation is evaluated using real traffic data, and it is demonstrated that the estimation can be successfully performed by the proposed method.


Author(s):  
Ishtiak Ahmed ◽  
Alan Karr ◽  
Nagui M. Rouphail ◽  
Gyounghoon Chun ◽  
Shams Tanvir

With the expected increase in the availability of trajectory-level information from connected and autonomous vehicles, issues of lane changing behavior that were difficult to assess with traditional freeway detection systems can now begin to be addressed. This study presents the development and application of a lane change detection algorithm that uses trajectory data from a low-cost GPS-equipped fleet, supplemented with digitized lane markings. The proposed algorithm minimizes the effect of GPS errors by constraining the temporal duration and lateral displacement of a lane change detected using preliminary lane positioning. The algorithm was applied to 637 naturalistic trajectories traversing a long weaving segment and validated through a series of controlled lane change experiments. Analysis of naturalistic trajectory data revealed that ramp-to-freeway trips had the highest number of discretionary lane changes in excess of 1 lane change/vehicle. Overall, excessive lane change rates were highest between the two middle freeway lanes at 0.86 lane changes/vehicle. These results indicate that extreme lane changing behavior may significantly contribute to the peak-hour congestion at the site. The average lateral speed during lane change was 2.7 fps, consistent with the literature, with several freeway–freeway and ramp–ramp trajectories showing speeds up to 7.7 fps. All ramp-to-freeway vehicles executed their first mandatory lane change within 62.5% of the total weaving length, although other weaving lane changes were spread over the entire segment. These findings can be useful for implementing strategies to lessen abrupt and excessive lane changes through better lane pre-positioning.


Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (8) ◽  
pp. 2259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chang Wang ◽  
Qinyu Sun ◽  
Zhen Li ◽  
Hongjia Zhang

Determining an appropriate time to execute a lane change is a critical issue for the development of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs).However, few studies have considered the rear and the front vehicle-driver’s risk perception while developing a human-like lane-change decision model. This paper aims to develop a lane-change decision model for AVs and to identify a two level threshold that conforms to a driver’s perception of the ability to safely change lanes with a rear vehicle approaching fast. Based on the signal detection theory and extreme moment trials on a real highway, two thresholds of safe lane change were determined with consideration of risk perception of the rear and the subject vehicle drivers, respectively. The rear vehicle’s Minimum Safe Deceleration (MSD) during the lane change maneuver of the subject vehicle was selected as the lane change safety indicator, and was calculated using the proposed human-like lane-change decision model. The results showed that, compared with the driver in the front extreme moment trial, the driver in the rear extreme moment trial is more conservative during the lane change process. To meet the safety expectations of the subject and rear vehicle drivers, the primary and secondary safe thresholds were determined to be 0.85 m/s2 and 1.76 m/s2, respectively. The decision model can help make AVs safer and more polite during lane changes, as it not only improves acceptance of the intelligent driving system, but also further ensures the rear vehicle’s driver’s safety.


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