Autonomous Vehicle MRM Lateral Positioning When No Shoulder Exists
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing autonomous driving systems face challenges in safely maneuvering vehicles when there is no shoulder on the road, as stopping in the driving lane can endanger surrounding vehicles.
Innovation Solution
An apparatus and method that includes a control circuit to execute a minimum risk maneuver (MRM) by controlling the vehicle to be adjacent to a road end, performing lane changes, or moving to a shoulder when possible, and stopping or decelerating based on sensor information and road conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If stopping control is performed in the driving lane when there is no shoulder, then the autonomous system can execute a minimum risk maneuver, but surrounding vehicles are put in danger
Solution Approach 1:
The system transitions from a two-dimensional decision (stop or not stop) to a three-dimensional solution space by considering lateral position along the road. When stopping in the driving lane is unsafe, the system moves the vehicle laterally to adjacent lanes or road edges, adding the spatial dimension of lateral positioning to resolve the contradiction between executing MRM and ensuring surrounding vehicle safety.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts the MRM strategy based on real-time road conditions, vehicle position, and surrounding traffic. Rather than a fixed stopping procedure, the system continuously evaluates whether to stop in the current lane, change to an adjacent lane, or move to the road edge, making the safety assessment adaptive and context-dependent.
2Loss of time
If the vehicle stops in the driving lane, then the MRM can be executed quickly, but collision risk with surrounding vehicles increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary assessment of road conditions, adjacent lanes, and surrounding vehicles before executing the MRM. By evaluating safety conditions in advance and pre-planning alternative stopping positions (adjacent lanes or road edges), the system can execute the maneuver quickly without compromising safety, resolving the contradiction between speed and collision risk.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If lane change is performed to move away from the center of the road, then safety of surrounding vehicles is improved, but the complexity of control increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the road into distinct zones (current lane, adjacent lanes, road edge) and evaluates each segment's suitability for stopping. This segmentation simplifies the control complexity by breaking down the continuous decision space into discrete, manageable options, making the lane change decision process more structured and less complex.
Data Source
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AI summary
An apparatus for providing a safety strategy in a vehicle is provided. The apparatus includes a sensor configured to sense information about an external object and a control circuit configured to be electrically connected with the sensor. The control circuit is configured to initiate a minimum risk strategy (MRM), when a predetermined condition is met, to determine a lateral location of the vehicle based on information obtained by the sensor and a location of a driving lane of the vehicle on a road, and to move the vehicle to the determined lateral location while executing the MRM.