Autonomous Vehicle U-Turn Path Control Using Road Boundary Offset
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Solution Overview
Problem
Autonomous vehicles face challenges in accurately defining road boundaries in U-turn areas, which is crucial for generating safe and stable driving routes, especially considering the turning radius of the vehicle.
Innovation Solution
An apparatus and method that includes sensors to detect road boundaries, storage for road maps, and a controller to determine the start and end points of a U-turn path, generate an arc path, calculate an offset based on the turning path and road boundary center, and adjust the U-turn path accordingly to ensure safe navigation in U-turn areas.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a simple path generation method is used, then the device complexity is reduced, but the measurement precision of road boundary and path accuracy deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The path generation process is divided into multiple sequential steps: determining road boundary center points, calculating offset distances, generating arc paths, and adjusting paths based on vehicle characteristics. This segmentation allows each step to be optimized independently while maintaining overall system manageability.
Solution Approach 2:
The method performs preliminary actions by first determining road boundary center points and calculating offset distances before generating the actual U-turn path. This preliminary preparation ensures that the path generation is based on accurate boundary information, improving measurement precision without requiring complex real-time calculations during path execution.
2Device complexity
If a simple path generation method is used, then the device complexity is reduced, but the manufacturing precision of U-turn path accuracy deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The method applies local quality by considering specific vehicle characteristics (turning radius, vehicle width) and road conditions (boundary positions, lane configurations) to generate customized U-turn paths. Each path is locally optimized for the specific vehicle-road combination rather than using a generic approach, ensuring high manufacturing precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes parameters such as arc radius, path offset distance, and turning center position based on vehicle characteristics and road boundary conditions. By dynamically adjusting these parameters, the method achieves accurate U-turn paths for different vehicles and road configurations without requiring complex reprogramming.
3Measurement precision
If road boundary detection is performed accurately, then the measurement precision is improved, but the difficulty of detecting and measuring increases
Solution Approach 1:
The method uses road boundary center points as intermediary elements between the detected road boundaries and the final path generation. By calculating center points from boundary detections and using these as reference for path offset, the system simplifies the measurement process while maintaining high accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a simplified representation of the road boundary by determining center points and calculating offset distances, which serve as copied geometric features for path generation. This copying approach reduces measurement complexity while preserving the essential geometric information needed for accurate path planning.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed are an apparatus and method for controlling a vehicle. The apparatus may include a sensor that detects a boundary of a road, storage that stores a road map, and a controller. The controller may determine start and end points of a first U-turn path based on a U-turn lane link in the road map, determine an arc path based on the start and end points, determine a second U-turn path centered on a front bumper based on the arc path, determine an offset based on a center point of the turning path and a center point of the road boundary, and determine a third U-turn path by applying the offset to the second U-turn path. Accordingly, stability of autonomous driving may be improved by accurately determining a road boundary in a U-turn area and generating a U-turn driving path in consideration of the turning radius of the vehicle.