Vehicle Obstacle Avoidance Using Threat-Based Barrier Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) struggle to effectively reduce the likelihood of contact between a vehicle and obstacles by actuating components such as brakes or steering systems in situations where contact would not occur, often leading to unnecessary activations.
Innovation Solution
A computer system determines a threat number representing the risk of impact based on sensor data, formulates a control barrier function, and actuates vehicle components like the brake or steering system to minimize such contacts by optimizing control inputs using a quadratic programming approach.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If ADAS actuates vehicle components (brakes, steering) to avoid obstacles, then the likelihood of contact between vehicle and obstacle is reduced, but unnecessary activations occur in situations where contact would not have occurred
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary assessment by calculating the threat number and evaluating whether contact would have occurred without intervention. This preliminary analysis allows the system to distinguish between necessary and unnecessary activations before actually actuating the vehicle components, thereby reducing false positives while maintaining safety.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors obstacle proximity, vehicle state, and activation outcomes to refine its threat assessment algorithm. By incorporating feedback from sensor data and activation results, the system learns to differentiate between genuine threats requiring intervention and false alarms, progressively reducing unnecessary activations while maintaining reliable contact avoidance.
2Reliability
If the system calculates threat numbers and uses control barrier functions to manage obstacle risk, then the vehicle can proactively avoid obstacles, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The control barrier function serves as an intermediary mathematical construct that translates complex safety requirements into actionable control constraints. By introducing this intermediate layer between sensor data and actuation commands, the system manages obstacle risk effectively without directly implementing complex decision logic in the control layer, thus balancing safety with manageable system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transforms the obstacle avoidance problem into a parameter optimization problem by calculating threat numbers and using control barrier functions. This parameter-based approach converts complex qualitative safety assessments into quantitative calculations, enabling proactive obstacle avoidance through mathematical optimization rather than complex rule-based systems.
Data Source
AI summary
A computer includes a processor and a memory, and the memory stores instructions executable by the processor to determine a threat number based on sensor data indicating an obstacle, the threat number representing a risk of an impact between a vehicle and the obstacle; formulate a control barrier function based on sensor data indicating the obstacle; determine a control input based on an expression including the control barrier function and the threat number; and actuate a component of the vehicle according to the control input.