Systems and Methods for Generating Vehicle Corridors to Improve Path Planning Efficiency

A computing system for generating path corridors, the system comprising:

• one or more processors and a non-transitory computer-readable memory;
• wherein the non-transitory computer-readable memory stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the computing system to perform operations, the operations comprising:
• accessing map data for a geographic area and sensor data for the geographic area around an autonomous vehicle;
• identifying, based on the map data and the sensor data, object data describing the position and size of one or more objects in the geographic area of the autonomous vehicle;
• accessing path data describing a nominal path through the geographic area;
• determining a series of locations along the nominal path described in the path data, each location being associated with an expected position of the autonomous vehicle at a particular point in time;
• for at least one location in the series of locations:
• determining an offset distance for the respective location based on the position and size of one or more objects in the geographic area;
• and
• generating a corridor segment including the respective location and the offset distance;
• and
• generating a vehicle motion corridor by aggregating a plurality of corridor segments, wherein the vehicle motion corridor defines an area in which a vehicle can travel without colliding with an object in the one or more objects.

An autonomous vehicle, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• one or more non-transitory computer-readable media that collectively store instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations, the operations comprising:
• accessing map data for a geographic area and sensor data for the geographic area around an autonomous vehicle;
• identifying, based on the map data and the sensor data, object data describing the position and size of one or more objects in the geographic area of the autonomous vehicle;
• accessing path data describing a nominal path through the geographic area;
• determining a plurality of locations along the nominal path described in the path data, each location being associated with an expected position of the autonomous vehicle at a particular point in time;
• generating a plurality of corridor segments, each corridor segment associated with a location in the plurality of locations;
• and
• generating a vehicle motion corridor by aggregating the plurality of corridor segments, wherein the vehicle motion corridor defines an area in which a vehicle can travel without colliding with an object in the one or more objects.