Highway Overtaking Control Using Lane-Aware Speed Limiting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Autonomous vehicles face challenges in safely navigating overtaking maneuvers, particularly when encountering slow-moving vehicles on highways, as many regions prohibit or regulate such maneuvers for safety reasons, necessitating a technology to limit overtaking for safe traveling.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle overtaking control system that includes a traveling information detection means to provide route and edge information, detect preceding and trailing vehicles, and an overtaking control means to determine if the vehicle is on a highway and in an overtaking lane, and if not, limits overtaking by calculating and applying speed- or distance-based demand acceleration/deceleration to maintain safe distances and speeds.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the autonomous vehicle performs overtaking maneuvers to maintain smooth traveling, then the traveling efficiency is improved, but the safety risk increases due to prohibited or regulated overtaking in many regions
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the overtaking control strategy based on real-time detection of lane type (overtaking lane vs. non-overtaking lane) and traffic conditions. When in a non-overtaking lane, the system applies limiting control to prevent overtaking maneuvers, while allowing them in overtaking lanes, thus adapting the behavior to the specific operational context to balance safety and efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously detects the position of the autonomous vehicle relative to road edges and surrounding vehicles, and uses this feedback to determine whether overtaking should be limited. The detection means provides real-time information about lane position and traffic conditions, which the control means uses to adjust overtaking behavior accordingly
2Reliability
If the vehicle limits overtaking in non-overtaking lanes to ensure safety, then the safety risk is reduced, but the traveling time increases due to inability to overtake slow-moving vehicles
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically switches between limiting overtaking in non-overtaking lanes and allowing overtaking in overtaking lanes based on real-time lane detection. This dynamic adaptation ensures safety constraints are applied only where necessary while maintaining traveling efficiency where overtaking is permitted
Solution Approach 2:
The system detects and identifies overtaking lanes in advance using the detection means that recognizes road edge information and lane positioning. By preliminarily identifying the lane type, the system can prepare appropriate control strategies before entering situations where overtaking decisions need to be made, thus avoiding unnecessary delays
3Measurement precision
If the system detects surrounding vehicles and calculates speed/distance for overtaking control, then the control precision is improved, but the system complexity increases due to multiple sensors and calculation units
Solution Approach 1:
The detection means is designed to perform multiple functions: detecting surrounding vehicles, measuring speed and distance, identifying lane positions, and determining traffic conditions. By making the detection system multi-functional, the patent avoids adding separate dedicated components for each function, thus managing complexity while maintaining measurement precision
Solution Approach 2:
The system combines the detection of vehicle position, speed, distance, and lane information into an integrated detection and control framework. The detection means and control means work as unified components that share data and coordination, reducing overall system complexity compared to having separate independent systems for each function
Data Source
AI summary
A vehicle overtaking control system includes a traveling information detection means configured to provide traveling route information and road edge information of a traveling route of an own vehicle, detect a preceding vehicle and a trailing vehicle traveling in front and to a side-rear of the own vehicle, and detect a speed and distance to the own vehicle, and an overtaking control means configured to receive the traveling route information to determine whether the own vehicle is traveling on the highway and whether the own vehicle is traveling in an overtaking lane from the road edge information of the traveling route, and when the own vehicle is not traveling in the overtaking lane, perform control of limiting overtaking of the own vehicle with respect to the preceding and trailing vehicles based on the detected speeds and distances of the preceding vehicle and the trailing vehicle traveling in the overtaking lane.