1,268 research outputs found
Contingency Model Predictive Control for Automated Vehicles
We present Contingency Model Predictive Control (CMPC), a novel and
implementable control framework which tracks a desired path while
simultaneously maintaining a contingency plan -- an alternate trajectory to
avert an identified potential emergency. In this way, CMPC anticipates events
that might take place, instead of reacting when emergencies occur. We
accomplish this by adding an additional prediction horizon in parallel to the
classical receding MPC horizon. The contingency horizon is constrained to
maintain a feasible avoidance solution; as such, CMPC is selectively robust to
this emergency while tracking the desired path as closely as possible. After
defining the framework mathematically, we demonstrate its effectiveness
experimentally by comparing its performance to a state-of-the-art deterministic
MPC. The controllers drive an automated research platform through a left-hand
turn which may be covered by ice. Contingency MPC prepares for the potential
loss of friction by purposefully and intuitively deviating from the prescribed
path to approach the turn more conservatively; this deviation significantly
mitigates the consequence of encountering ice.Comment: American Control Conference, July 2019; 6 page
A Learning-based Stochastic MPC Design for Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control to Handle Interfering Vehicles
Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) communication has a great potential to improve
reaction accuracy of different driver assistance systems in critical driving
situations. Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC), which is an automated
application, provides drivers with extra benefits such as traffic throughput
maximization and collision avoidance. CACC systems must be designed in a way
that are sufficiently robust against all special maneuvers such as cutting-into
the CACC platoons by interfering vehicles or hard braking by leading cars. To
address this problem, a Neural- Network (NN)-based cut-in detection and
trajectory prediction scheme is proposed in the first part of this paper. Next,
a probabilistic framework is developed in which the cut-in probability is
calculated based on the output of the mentioned cut-in prediction block.
Finally, a specific Stochastic Model Predictive Controller (SMPC) is designed
which incorporates this cut-in probability to enhance its reaction against the
detected dangerous cut-in maneuver. The overall system is implemented and its
performance is evaluated using realistic driving scenarios from Safety Pilot
Model Deployment (SPMD).Comment: 10 pages, Submitted as a journal paper at T-I
A Learning-Based Framework for Two-Dimensional Vehicle Maneuver Prediction over V2V Networks
Situational awareness in vehicular networks could be substantially improved
utilizing reliable trajectory prediction methods. More precise situational
awareness, in turn, results in notably better performance of critical safety
applications, such as Forward Collision Warning (FCW), as well as comfort
applications like Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC). Therefore,
vehicle trajectory prediction problem needs to be deeply investigated in order
to come up with an end to end framework with enough precision required by the
safety applications' controllers. This problem has been tackled in the
literature using different methods. However, machine learning, which is a
promising and emerging field with remarkable potential for time series
prediction, has not been explored enough for this purpose. In this paper, a
two-layer neural network-based system is developed which predicts the future
values of vehicle parameters, such as velocity, acceleration, and yaw rate, in
the first layer and then predicts the two-dimensional, i.e. longitudinal and
lateral, trajectory points based on the first layer's outputs. The performance
of the proposed framework has been evaluated in realistic cut-in scenarios from
Safety Pilot Model Deployment (SPMD) dataset and the results show a noticeable
improvement in the prediction accuracy in comparison with the kinematics model
which is the dominant employed model by the automotive industry. Both ideal and
nonideal communication circumstances have been investigated for our system
evaluation. For non-ideal case, an estimation step is included in the framework
before the parameter prediction block to handle the drawbacks of packet drops
or sensor failures and reconstruct the time series of vehicle parameters at a
desirable frequency
Proactive Emergency Collision Avoidance for Automated Driving in Highway Scenarios
Uncertainty in the behavior of other traffic participants is a crucial factor
in collision avoidance for automated driving; here, stochastic metrics should
often be considered to avoid overly conservative decisions. This paper
introduces a Stochastic Model Predictive Control (SMPC) planner for emergency
collision avoidance in highway scenarios to proactively minimize collision risk
while ensuring safety through chance constraints. To address the challenge of
guaranteeing the feasibility for the emergency trajectory, we incorporate
nonlinear tire dynamics in the prediction model of the ego vehicle. Further, we
exploit Max-Min-Plus-Scaling (MMPS) approximations of the nonlinearities to
avoid conservatism, enforce proactive collision avoidance, and improve
computational efficiency in terms of performance and speed. Consequently, our
contributions include integrating a dynamic ego vehicle model into the SMPC
planner, introducing the MMPS approximation for real-time implementation in
emergency scenarios, and integrating SMPC with hybridized chance constraints
and risk minimization. We evaluate our SMPC formulation in terms of proactivity
and efficiency in various hazardous scenarios. Moreover, we demonstrate the
effectiveness of our proposed approach by comparing it with a state-of-the-art
SMPC planner and validate the feasibility of generated trajectories using a
high-fidelity vehicle model in IPG CarMaker.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, submitted to IEEE Transactions on Control
Systems Technolog
An adaptive finite element method for computing emergency manoeuvres of ground vehicles in complex driving scenarios
In emergency cases a vehicle has to avoid colliding with one or more obstacles, stay within road boundaries, satisfy acceleration and jerk limits, fulfil stability requirements and respect vehicle system dynamics limitations. The real time solution of such a problem is difficult and as a result various approaches, which usually relax the problem, have been proposed until now. In this study, a new method for computing emergency paths for complex driving scenarios is presented. The method which is based on the finite element concept formulates the dynamic optimisation problem as a linear algebraic one. An empirical formula adapts the size of the finite elements to optimise the dynamics of the emergency path. The proposed approach is evaluated in Matlab and Carsim simulation environments for different driving scenarios. The results show that with the proposed approach complex emergency manoeuvres are planned with improved performance compared to other known methods
Predictive Maneuver Planning and Control of an Autonomous Vehicle in Multi-Vehicle Traffic with Observation Uncertainty
Autonomous vehicle technology is a promising development for improving the safety, efficiency and environmental impact of on-road transportation systems. However, the task of guiding an autonomous vehicle by rapidly and systematically accommodating the plethora of changing constraints, e.g. of avoiding multiple stationary and moving obstacles, obeying traffic rules, signals and so on as well as the uncertain state observation due to sensor imperfections, remains a major challenge. This dissertation attempts to address this challenge via designing a robust and efficient predictive motion planning framework that can generate the appropriate vehicle maneuvers (selecting and tracking specific lanes, and related speed references) as well as the constituent motion trajectories while considering the differential vehicle kinematics of the controlled vehicle and other constraints of operating in public traffic. The main framework combines a finite state machine (FSM)-based maneuver decision module with a model predictive control (MPC)-based trajectory planner. Based on the prediction of the traffic environment, reference speeds are assigned to each lane in accordance with the detection of objects during measurement update. The lane selection decisions themselves are then incorporated within the MPC optimization. The on-line maneuver/motion planning effort for autonomous vehicles in public traffic is a non-convex problem due to the multiple collision avoidance constraints with overlapping areas, lane boundaries, and nonlinear vehicle-road dynamics constraints. This dissertation proposes and derives some remedies for these challenges within the planning framework to improve the feasibility and optimality of the solution. Specifically, it introduces vehicle grouping notions and derives conservative and smooth algebraic models to describe the overlapped space of several individual infeasible spaces and help prevent the optimization from falling into undesired local minima. Furthermore, in certain situations, a forced objective selection strategy is needed and adopted to help the optimization jump out of local minima. Furthermore, the dissertation considers stochastic uncertainties prevalent in dynamic and complex traffic and incorporate them with in the predictive planning and control framework. To this end, Bayesian filters are implemented to estimate the uncertainties in object motions and then propagate them into the prediction horizon. Then, a pair-wise probabilistic collision condition is defined for objects with non-negligible geometrical shape/sizes and computationally efficient and conservative forms are derived to efficiently and analytically approximate the involved multi-variate integrals. The probabilistic collision evaluation is then applied within a vehicle grouping algorithms to cluster the object vehicles with closeness in positions and speeds and eventually within the stochastic predictive maneuver planner framework to tighten the chanced-constraints given a deterministic confidence margin. It is argued that these steps make the planning problem tractable for real-time implementation on autonomously controlled vehicles
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