Lane keeping for autonomous vehicles

A vehicle comprising:

• a perception system comprising at least one sensor for monitoring a surrounding environment of the vehicle;
• a system for controlling a lane keeping feature of a vehicle, the lane keeping feature having a predefined safety requirement criterion for keeping the vehicle within bounds while the lane keeping feature is active, the system comprising:
• a road estimation module configured to:
• receive sensor data comprising information about a surrounding environment of the vehicle;
• determine a drivable area based on the sensor data, the drivable area comprising a left boundary and a right boundary extending along a direction of travel of the vehicle, wherein each boundary comprises a plurality of points distributed along each boundary, each point being associated with a confidence level;
• and
• a trajectory planning module configured to:
• receive the determined drivable area;
• determine a nominal trajectory based on the received drivable area, wherein the nominal trajectory is further determined based on the predefined safety requirement criterion and a predefined availability criterion;
• and
• determine a back-up stop trajectory for the vehicle based on the received drivable area, the back-up stop trajectory being further determined based on a predefined confidence criterion,
• wherein the predefined confidence criterion is dependent on a predefined value of frequency of back-up stops that is based on the predefined availability criterion for the nominal trajectory.

A method for controlling a lane keeping feature of a vehicle, the lane keeping feature having a predefined safety requirement criterion for keeping the vehicle within bounds while the lane keeping feature is active, the method comprising:

• receiving sensor data comprising information about a surrounding environment of the vehicle;
• determining a drivable area based on the sensor data, the drivable area comprising a left boundary and a right boundary extending along a direction of travel of the vehicle, wherein each boundary comprises a plurality of points distributed along each boundary, each point being associated with a confidence level;
• determining a nominal trajectory based on the drivable area, wherein the nominal trajectory is further determined based on the predefined safety requirement criterion and a predefined availability criterion;
• and
• determining a back-up stop trajectory for the vehicle based on the drivable area, the back-up stop trajectory being further determined based on a predefined confidence criterion,
• wherein the predefined confidence criterion is dependent on a predefined value of frequency of back-up stops that is based on the predefined availability criterion for the nominal trajectory.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing one or more programs configured to be executed by one or more processors of a vehicle control system, the one or more programs comprising instructions for performing the method for controlling a lane keeping feature of a vehicle, the lane keeping feature having a predefined safety requirement criterion for keeping the vehicle within bounds while the lane keeping feature is active, the method comprising:

• receiving sensor data comprising information about a surrounding environment of the vehicle;
• determining a drivable area based on the sensor data, the drivable area comprising a left boundary and a right boundary extending along a direction of travel of the vehicle, wherein each boundary comprises a plurality of points distributed along each boundary, each point being associated with a confidence level;
• determining a nominal trajectory based on the drivable area, wherein the nominal trajectory is further determined based on the predefined safety requirement criterion and a predefined availability criterion;
• and
• determining a back-up stop trajectory for the vehicle based on the drivable area, the back-up stop trajectory being further determined based on a predefined confidence criterion,
• wherein the predefined confidence criterion is dependent on a predefined value of frequency of back-up stops that is based on the predefined availability criterion for the nominal trajectory.