# US 12,214,788 B2 · Apparatus and method for controlling autonomous vehicle > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 12,214,788 B2 - Document ID: US12214788B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 17/540,078 - Filed: 2021-12-01 - Published: 2023-02-02 - Granted: 2025-02-04 - Earliest claimed: 2021-07-23 - Assignees: Kookmin University Industry Academy Cooperation Foundation - Applicants: Kookmin University Industry Academy Cooperation Foundation - Inventors: Ki Hong Park; Tae Young Oh; Weon Il Son - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US12214788B2 ## CPC - B60W 30/16: Control of distance between vehicles, e.g. keeping a distance to preceding vehicle - B60W 60/001: {Planning or execution of driving tasks} - B60W 30/18163: {Lane change; Overtaking manoeuvres} - B60W 50/0098: {Details of control systems ensuring comfort, safety or stability not otherwise provided for} - B60W 60/0015: {specially adapted for safety} - B60W 2050/0022: {Gains, weighting coefficients or weighting functions} - B60W 2520/10: Longitudinal speed - B60W 2520/105: Longitudinal acceleration - B60W 2552/10: Number of lanes - B60W 2554/4041: Position - B60W 2554/4042: Longitudinal speed - B60W 2554/802: Longitudinal distance - B60W 2554/804: Relative longitudinal speed - B60W 2720/10: Longitudinal speed - B60W 2720/106: Longitudinal acceleration - B60W 2754/30: Longitudinal distance - B60W: CONJOINT CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUB-UNITS OF DIFFERENT TYPE OR DIFFERENT FUNCTION; CONTROL SYSTEMS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR HYBRID VEHICLES; ROAD VEHICLE DRIVE CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR PURPOSES NOT RELATED TO THE CONTROL OF A PARTICULAR SUB-UNIT ## Abstract An apparatus for controlling an autonomous vehicle disclosure may include a processor and a memory configured to be operatively connected to the processor and to store at least one code performed in the processor, wherein the memory may store a code that, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to control the autonomous vehicle to travel on the basis of a distance from a preceding vehicle in a travel lane in which the autonomous vehicle travels or a preset speed, determine a risk level of a lane change on the basis of a speed of the autonomous vehicle, a speed of a side vehicle traveling in a target lane of a lane change, and a distance between the autonomous vehicle and the side vehicle upon occurrence of a lane change request, and perform longitudinal or lateral control for the lane change on the basis of the risk level. ## Claims ### Claim 1 An apparatus for controlling an autonomous vehicle, the apparatus comprising: a processor; and a memory configured to be operatively connected to the processor and to store at least one code performed at the processor, wherein the memory stores a code that, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to control the autonomous vehicle to travel on a basis of a distance from a preceding vehicle in a travel lane in which the autonomous vehicle travels or a preset speed, determine a risk level of a lane change on a basis of a speed (equation here)) of the autonomous vehicle, a speed of a side vehicle traveling in a target lane of a lane change, and a distance between the autonomous vehicle and the side vehicle upon occurrence of a lane change request, wherein the side vehicle comprises a side-front vehicle and a side-rear vehicle that travel in the target lane of the lane change, perform longitudinal or lateral control for the lane change on a basis of the risk level, and the memory stores a code that causes the processor to determine a first safety distance based on the side-front vehicle in proportion to the speed of the autonomous vehicle, determine a second safety distance based on the side-rear vehicle in proportion to a speed of the side-rear vehicle, and determine the risk level on a basis of the first safety distance and the second safety distance, wherein the determining of the second safety distance comprises determining the first safety distance and the second safety distance on the basis of a first weight assigned to each of the speed of the autonomous vehicle and the speed of the side-rear vehicle and a second weight assigned to each of the first result value and the second result value, and the first weight and the second weight are preset on the basis of a change in the speed of the side-rear vehicle due to the lane change of the autonomous vehicle and a change in the speed of the autonomous vehicle due to deceleration of the side-front vehicle during the lane change of the autonomous vehicle; and wherein the setting of the preceding vehicle or the side vehicle as the target vehicle comprises setting a virtual vehicle between the preceding vehicle and the side vehicle on the basis of a degree of approach to the target lane and setting the virtual vehicle as the target vehicle in an LC mode in which the autonomous vehicle performs the lane change to the target lane. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The apparatus of claim 1, set the preceding vehicle or the side vehicle as the target vehicle, calculate a target acceleration of the autonomous vehicle on a basis of a required control distance (), which is a distance that the autonomous vehicle moves on the basis of the target vehicle, a distance () between the target vehicle and the autonomous vehicle, a speed () of the target vehicle, and the speed () of the autonomous vehicle, and control a longitudinal speed of the autonomous vehicle on the basis of the target acceleration. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the memory stores a code that causes the processor to calculate the target acceleration of the autonomous vehicle on the basis of a first distance between the required control distance (Cd) and the distance (ctarget) between the target vehicle and the autonomous vehicle and a second distance between the speed (υtarget) of the target vehicle and the speed (υi) of the autonomous vehicle, and the distance (ctarget) between the target vehicle and the autonomous vehicle and the required control distance (Cd) are differently set depending on a driving control mode of the autonomous vehicle. ### Claim 4 (depends on 2) The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the memory stores a code that, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to operate in any one of i) an adaptive cruise control (ACC) mode of performing longitudinal or lateral control of the autonomous vehicle on the basis of a distance from a preceding vehicle in a travel lane in which the autonomous vehicle travels or a preset speed, ii) the lane change (LC) mode of determining a risk level of a lane change on the basis of information about the autonomous vehicle and information about a side vehicle traveling in a target lane of a lane change upon occurrence of a lane change request and performing longitudinal or lateral control for the lane change on the basis of the risk level, or iii) a distant control (DC) mode of performing longitudinal control of the autonomous vehicle so that the autonomous vehicle moves to a lane change-possible position in the travel lane on the basis of the risk level upon occurrence of a lane change request. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The apparatus of claim 1, wherein, when it is determined that the risk level indicates that there is a risk of the lane change, the memory stores a code that causes the processor to perform longitudinal control of the autonomous vehicle so that the autonomous vehicle moves to a lane change-possible position in the travel lane. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the side vehicle comprises a side-front vehicle and a side-rear vehicle that travel in the target lane of the lane change, and the memory stores a code that causes the processor to determine the lane change-possible position so that the autonomous vehicle minimally moves in the travel lane according to conditions related to a distance between the autonomous vehicle and the side-front vehicle and a distance between the autonomous vehicle and the side-rear vehicle as constraint conditions, and determine a position satisfying the constraint conditions in a rear range of a detected preceding vehicle as the lane change-possible position when the preceding vehicle is detected within the travel lane. ### Claim 7 A method for controlling an autonomous vehicle, the method comprising: controlling, by a processor, the autonomous vehicle to travel on a basis of a distance from a preceding vehicle in a travel lane in which the autonomous vehicle travels or a preset speed; determining, by the processor, a risk level of a lane change on a basis of a speed () of the autonomous vehicle, a speed of a side vehicle traveling in a target lane of a lane change, and a distance between the autonomous vehicle and the side vehicle upon occurrence of a lane change request; and performing, by the processor, longitudinal or lateral control for the lane change on a basis of the risk level, wherein the side vehicle comprises a side-front vehicle and a side-rear vehicle that travel in the target lane of the lane change, and the determining, by the processor, of the risk level of the lane change comprises determining a first safety distance based on the side-front vehicle in proportion to the speed of the autonomous vehicle and a second safety distance based on the side-rear vehicle in proportion to a speed of the side-rear vehicle, and determining the risk level on a basis of the first safety distance and the second safety distance; wherein the determining of the second safety distance comprises determining the first safety distance and the second safety distance on the basis of a first weight assigned to each of the speed of the autonomous vehicle and the speed of the side-rear vehicle and a second weight assigned to each of the first result value and the second result value, and the first weight and the second weight are preset on the basis of a change in the speed of the side-read vehicle due to the lane change of the autonomous vehicle and a change in the speed of the autonomous vehicle due to deceleration of the side-front vehicle during the lane change of the autonomous vehicle, wherein the setting of the preceding vehicle or the side vehicle as the target vehicle comprises: setting a virtual vehicle between the preceding vehicle and the side vehicle on the basis of a degree of approach to the target line; and setting the virtual vehicle as the target vehicle in an LC in which the autonomous vehicle performs the lane change to the target lane. ### Claim 8 (depends on 7) The method of claim 7, further comprising: determining, by the processor, the preceding vehicle or the side vehicle as a target vehicle; determining, by the processor, a target acceleration of the autonomous vehicle on a basis of a required control distance, which is a distance that the autonomous vehicle moves on a basis of the target vehicle, a distance between the target vehicle and the autonomous vehicle, a speed of the target vehicle, and the speed of the autonomous vehicle; and controlling, by the processor, a longitudinal speed of the autonomous vehicle on the basis of the target acceleration. ### Claim 9 (depends on 7) The method of claim 7, wherein the determining of the target acceleration of the autonomous vehicle comprises calculating, by the processor, the target acceleration of the autonomous vehicle on a basis of a first distance between the required control distance and the distance between the target vehicle and the autonomous vehicle and a second distance between the speed of the target vehicle and the speed of the autonomous vehicle, and the distance between the target vehicle and the autonomous vehicle and the required control distance are differently set depending on a driving control mode of the autonomous vehicle. ### Claim 10 (depends on 7) The method of claim 7, wherein, when it is determined that the risk level indicates that there is a risk of the lane change, the performing of the longitudinal or lateral control comprises performing longitudinal control of the autonomous vehicle so that the autonomous vehicle moves to a lane change-possible position in the travel lane. ### Claim 11 (depends on 7) The method of claim 7, wherein the side vehicle comprises a side-front vehicle and a side-rear vehicle that travel in the target lane of the lane change, and the performing, by the processor, of the longitudinal control of the autonomous vehicle so that the autonomous vehicle moves to the lane change-possible position comprises determining the lane change-possible position so that the autonomous vehicle minimally moves in the travel lane according to conditions related to a distance between the autonomous vehicle and the side-front vehicle and a distance between the autonomous vehicle and the side-rear vehicle as constraint conditions, and determining a position satisfying the constraint conditions in a rear range of a detected preceding vehicle as the lane change-possible position when the preceding vehicle is detected within the travel lane.