Method for planning optimal driving behavior for an at least partially autonomously driving vehicle

A non-transitory machine-readable data carrier on which is stored a computer program including machine-readable instructions for planning an optimal driving behavior for an at least partially autonomously driving vehicle, the instructions, when executed by one or more computers and/or computer instances, causing the one or more computers and/or computer instances to perform the following steps:

• obtaining sensor data which include information regarding an environment of the vehicle and/or status information of the vehicle;
• ascertaining a first evaluation function which is configured to assign a quality to each possible state of the vehicle at discrete points in time within a planning horizon of the vehicle based on the sensor data;
• ascertaining at least one local optimum of the first evaluation function at each of the discrete points in time, wherein the at least one local optimum represents a possible state of the vehicle at the discrete point in time;
• ascertaining at least one candidate trajectory, wherein each candidate trajectory includes a temporal sequence of the local optima;
• evaluating the at least one candidate trajectory using a second evaluation function which evaluates state transitions between successive states of the at least one candidate trajectory;
• selecting at least one optimal candidate trajectory from the at least one candidate trajectories based on the first and second evaluation functions;
• and
• transmitting the selected at least one optimal candidate trajectory to a control unit of the vehicle for planning the optimal driving behavior of the vehicle.

One or more computer and/or computer instances comprising comprising non-transitory machine-readable data carrier on which is stored a computer program including machine-readable instructions for planning an optimal driving behavior for an at least partially autonomously driving vehicle, the instructions, when executed by the one or more computers and/or computer instances, causing the one or more computers and/or computer instances to perform the following steps:

• obtaining sensor data which include information regarding an environment of the vehicle and/or status information of the vehicle;
• ascertaining a first evaluation function which is configured to assign a quality to each possible state of the vehicle at discrete points in time within a planning horizon of the vehicle based on the sensor data;
• ascertaining at least one local optimum of the first evaluation function at each of the discrete points in time, wherein the at least one local optimum represents a possible state of the vehicle at the discrete point in time;
• ascertaining at least one candidate trajectory, wherein each candidate trajectory includes a temporal sequence of the local optima;
• evaluating the at least one candidate trajectory using a second evaluation function which evaluates state transitions between successive states of the at least one candidate trajectory;
• selecting at least one optimal candidate trajectory from the at least one candidate trajectories based on the first and second evaluation functions;
• and
• transmitting the selected at least one optimal candidate trajectory to a control unit of the vehicle for planning the optimal driving behavior of the vehicle.