Lateral Vehicle Control Under Reduced Sensor Horizon
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle control systems, particularly in autonomous driving, face challenges when the on-board trajectory sensor's electronic horizon reduces, leading to inadequate visibility of the road layout, causing the vehicle to potentially leave the lane.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle control system that includes a perception system for determining road layout, a lateral control device with a road detector, a maximum distance determination unit, and a control adapter that adapts control parameters based on the vehicle's stability envelope and available sensor horizon, ensuring dynamic control even in reduced visibility conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a static controller is used to follow the reference trajectory, then the vehicle can maintain stable control under normal conditions, but the controller may generate undesirable behavior and bring the vehicle outside lane limits when distant road layout information is required
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a dynamic controller that adapts control parameters in real-time based on the actual road layout visibility and sensor electronic horizon. The controller transitions from static to dynamic operation, adjusting control gains and parameters according to the distance to the road layout and the sensor's field of vision, thereby maintaining reliability while improving adaptability to varying visibility conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes control parameters dynamically based on the sensor's electronic horizon and road layout distance. When the sensor horizon is reduced or road layout becomes less visible, the controller modifies parameters such as control gains, prediction horizons, and safety margins to prevent the vehicle from leaving the lane, thus resolving the contradiction between stability and adaptability.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the autonomous control system is activated with low road layout visibility, then the system can operate in more conditions, but the vehicle may leave the road due to insufficient trajectory information
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors the sensor electronic horizon, road layout visibility, and vehicle position to provide feedback to the controller. When visibility decreases, the feedback mechanism triggers adaptive adjustments to control parameters and activates additional safety measures, allowing the system to maintain lane keeping accuracy across a broader range of visibility conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements predictive safety margins and buffer zones that are activated in advance when road layout visibility decreases. The controller anticipates potential lane departure risks by analyzing trending visibility data and adjusts control actions beforehand to prevent the vehicle from leaving the road, thus maintaining reliability while expanding operational range.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the trajectory sensor's electronic horizon is reduced, then the sensor can operate in more challenging environments, but the visibility of the road layout is impacted, affecting control accuracy
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary analysis of the sensor electronic horizon and road layout visibility before executing control actions. When the electronic horizon is reduced, the system proactively adjusts control parameters, increases safety margins, and modifies the control strategy to compensate for reduced measurement precision, thereby maintaining control accuracy in challenging environments.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements asymmetric control strategies that adapt to the asymmetric impact of reduced electronic horizon on different aspects of road layout detection. The controller applies different compensation mechanisms for different visibility conditions, using more conservative parameters when horizon is reduced, thus maintaining measurement precision effectiveness while preserving environmental adaptability.
Data Source
AI summary
A vehicle control system includes a lateral control device. The lateral control device includes: a lateral controller for performing lateral control of the vehicle defined by a set of control parameters, based on minimizing a difference in a control value between a reference trajectory curve and a current trajectory curve described by the vehicle; a maximum distance determination unit for projecting the determined road layout information up to a given distance in front of the vehicle, and for determining the maximum distance at which the polynomial function representing the road layout satisfies one or more control conditions based on projected road layout information; a limit checking unit for determining a stability envelope and for checking whether limits of the stability envelope are reached by the vehicle based on the determined maximum distance. The control adapter adapts the control parameters of the lateral controller if the limits are reached.