US 8,788,134 B1 · Autonomous driving merge management system

Abstract

An autonomous driving merge management system includes an autonomous driving control device and an intention decision management system. The management system includes a candidate strategy subsystem generating a plurality of candidate driving strategies, a merging vehicle behavior recognition subsystem predicting a merging intention of a merging vehicle; an intention-based interactive prediction subsystem predicting future merging scenarios between the host vehicle and merging vehicle as a function of inputs by the merging vehicle behavior recognition subsystem and inputs by the candidate strategy subsystem, and a cost function-based evaluation subsystem determining a cost for each future merging scenario generated by the intention-based interactive prediction subsystem. A processor selects a merge strategy of the host vehicle based on intention-based prediction results and cost function-based evaluation results. The autonomous driving control device applies the merge strategy to the host vehicle for allowing the merging vehicle to cooperatively merge with the host vehicle.

Claims21

Dependent claims

An autonomous driving merge management system comprising:

an autonomous driving control device for autonomously controlling accelerations of a host vehicle;
an intention decision management system comprising:
a candidate strategy subsystem generating a plurality of candidate driving strategies, each candidate driving strategy being a potential driving strategy executable by the host vehicle;
a merging vehicle behavior recognition subsystem predicting a merging intention of a merging vehicle;
the merging intention relating to a positive acceleration or a negative acceleration of the merging vehicle;
an intention-based interactive prediction subsystem predicting future merging scenarios between the host vehicle and merging vehicle as a function of inputs by the merging vehicle behavior recognition subsystem and inputs by the candidate strategy subsystem;
a cost function-based evaluation subsystem determining a cost for each future merging scenario generated by the intention-based interactive prediction subsystem;
and
a processor for selecting a merge strategy of the host vehicle based on intention-based prediction results and cost function-based evaluation results;
wherein the autonomous driving control device applies the merge strategy to the host vehicle for allowing the merging vehicle to cooperatively merge with the host vehicle.

7 more elements

A method for autonomously controlling a vehicle speed during a merging maneuver between a host vehicle and a merging vehicle, the method comprising the steps of:

obtaining speed data and position data of the host vehicle and the remote data;
generating a plurality of candidate driving strategies by a processor, each candidate driving strategy being a potential driving strategy executable by the host vehicle;
predicting an intention of the merging vehicle to merge forward or rearward of the host vehicle by the processor,
generating a plurality of merging scenarios between the host vehicle and merging vehicle by the processor as a function of the predicted merging intention of the merging vehicle and the plurality of candidate driving strategies;
determining a cost for each merging scenario by the processor based on a cost function evaluation analysis technique;
selecting a merge strategy of the host vehicle by the processor based on the cost function evaluation results;
and
autonomously controlling accelerations of a host vehicle using an autonomous driving control device, wherein the autonomous driving control device applies the merge strategy to the host vehicle for cooperatively allowing the merging vehicle to cooperatively merge with the host vehicle.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Autonomous driving merge management system

Life of this patent

Autonomous driving merge management system

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims21