Lane Interval Union for Automated Driving Safety
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Solution Overview
Problem
Fully autonomous vehicles face challenges in making safe lane changes on multi-lane roadways due to the need for accurate prediction of traffic situations and potential movements of other vehicles and pedestrians, which existing systems struggle to achieve effectively.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle guidance system that determines known, visible, and occupied lane intervals using perception data from imaging and radar devices, allowing the vehicle to safely change lanes only when the adjacent lane is part of the union of these intervals, ensuring awareness of dynamic and static objects and preventing unsafe lane changes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the vehicle uses a comprehensive union of known, visible, and occupied lane intervals to determine safe lane changes, then the safety and reliability of lane changes is improved, but the computational complexity and processing time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the lane change decision process into three distinct interval types: known lane intervals (from map data), visible lane intervals (from sensor detection), and occupied lane intervals (from detected objects). By dividing the comprehensive safety assessment into these separate segments, the system can process each type independently and then combine them through a union operation, making the overall complex problem more manageable and computationally efficient.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-determining known lane intervals from map data before actual lane change decisions are made. This pre-processing of spatial information allows the vehicle to have advance knowledge of available lanes, reducing the computational burden during real-time decision-making when safety assessments are performed.
2Measurement precision
If the vehicle determines lane intervals using multiple data sources including map data and sensor data, then the accuracy of lane change decisions is improved, but the time required for processing increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple data sources by taking the union of known lane intervals (from map data), visible lane intervals (from imaging sensors), and occupied lane intervals (from object detection). This combination of multiple independent data streams into a single comprehensive safety assessment enables the system to leverage the strengths of each source while operating in parallel, thereby improving accuracy without proportionally increasing processing time.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If the vehicle prevents lane changes when the adjacent lane is not in the union of known lane intervals, then collision risk is reduced, but the flexibility and productivity of the vehicle decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses feedback by continuously monitoring whether adjacent lanes are included in the union of known, visible, and occupied lane intervals. This feedback mechanism provides real-time safety verification that enables the vehicle to make confident lane change decisions when conditions are favorable, improving efficiency while maintaining safety. The feedback loop allows the system to adapt to changing traffic conditions dynamically.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of operating a vehicle includes determining a first plurality of known lane intervals at a first time with a controller of a guidance system of the vehicle, the known lane intervals available to receive the vehicle, determining a plurality of visible lane intervals at a second time after the first time with the controller based on perception data generated by the guidance system, and determining a plurality of occupied lane intervals at the second time with the controller based on the perception data generated by the guidance system. The method further includes determining a second plurality of known lane intervals at the second time as a union of the first plurality of known lane intervals, the plurality of visible lane intervals, and the plurality of occupied lane intervals.