Vehicle Control Planning Using Immobility Risk Areas
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing technologies for vehicle trajectory planning in automated driving systems do not effectively address smooth passing-by scenarios, particularly in situations where the vehicle needs to avoid obstructing the actions of other mobile objects.
Innovation Solution
An electronic control apparatus equipped with an information acquiring section, an immobility risk area estimating section, and a traveling control planning section, which acquires traveling environment information, estimates immobility restriction areas, and plans vehicle control to avoid obstructing other mobile objects during passing-by.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the vehicle maintains a safety distance from obstacles using conventional path checking, then collision avoidance is achieved, but smooth passing-by is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the obstacle detection and path planning into two distinct modules: a path checking device that ensures safety distance from obstacles, and a new immobility risk map generating device that specifically identifies areas where the vehicle's immobilization would obstruct mobile objects. This segmentation allows each module to optimize for its specific function, resolving the contradiction between collision avoidance and smooth passing-by.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary concept called 'immobility risk map' that acts as a mediator between the vehicle's safety requirements and the need for smooth passing-by. This map identifies specific areas where immobilization would create harmful effects on mobile objects, allowing the path planning to navigate around these areas while maintaining safety distances, thus resolving the contradiction.
2Ease of operation
If the vehicle avoids immobilization in areas that may obstruct mobile objects, then smooth passing-by is improved, but the complexity of path planning increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by generating the immobility risk map before actual path planning occurs. This pre-computed map identifies all areas where immobilization would obstruct mobile objects, allowing the path planning algorithm to simply navigate around these pre-identified zones rather than performing complex real-time analysis, thus improving smooth passing-by without excessive complexity increase.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the immobility risk map generation with the existing path checking functionality. Both modules operate together to evaluate path safety, with the immobility risk map providing additional constraints that complement the traditional safety distance checks. This integration allows the system to handle multiple requirements simultaneously without proportionally increasing complexity.
3Reliability
If the vehicle uses traditional safety distance metrics, then collision prevention is achieved, but obstruction of mobile object actions is not prevented
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by creating a specialized immobility risk map that identifies specific local areas where vehicle immobilization would obstruct mobile object actions. Rather than using a uniform safety distance approach, the system identifies and marks specific zones with immobility risks, allowing the vehicle to maintain flexibility in path planning while preventing harmful obstructions to mobile objects.
Solution Approach 2:
The immobility risk map serves as an intermediary that translates the abstract concept of 'obstruction risk' into concrete spatial information that can be integrated with traditional collision avoidance systems. This intermediary layer allows the vehicle to understand not just where collisions might occur, but also where immobilization would create harmful effects on mobile objects.
Data Source
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AI summary
An electronic control apparatus is mounted on a vehicle and includes an information acquiring section that acquires traveling environment information concerning a traveling environment around the vehicle, an immobility risk area estimating section that estimates an immobility restriction area on the basis of the traveling environment information, the immobility restriction area being an area where, if the vehicle is immobilized therein, the vehicle obstructs an action by a mobile object other than the vehicle, and being an area where immobility of the vehicle is restricted, and a traveling control planning section that plans traveling control of the vehicle on the basis of the estimated immobility restriction area.