Navigating an autonomous vehicle through a circular ramp to join a multilane highway having high-density traffic is a very challenging task. Occupant and vehicle safety are the major considerations while establishing merging scenarios. This article proposes and experimentally implements safe and tactical navigational procedures for merging and leaving the highway scenario using the rendezvous guidance (RG) technique and its modified form. Test scenarios have been established for navigating AVs to merge and leave the highway on a multilane highway with or without the presence of any other vehicle in the zone. In addition, the navigation with enhanced performance of the modified RG algorithm is also established and compared to the conventional RG algorithm. The results indicate that time is reduced considerably by using the modified RG technique. The experimental and simulation results are compared, and their results are the same.

Intelligent and safe overtaking maneuvering is always a challenging task for autonomous vehicles. This paper proposes and experimentally implements a novel approach of overtaking maneuvering using modified form of Rendezvous Guidance (RG) algorithm for trajectory planning and obstacle avoidance, considering driver safety and comfort during autonomous overtaking. The simulations for all possible scenarios are conducted to ensure the effectiveness of proposed modified RG algorithm. These scenarios involved presence and absence of obstacle vehicle in overtaking lane alongside leading vehicle in driving lane. In addition, the enhanced performance of modified RG algorithm is established over conventional RG algorithm by comparative analysis. The results indicate that overtaking maneuvering period could be decreased by 10% using a modified RG algorithm and vehicle will cover less distance to complete overtaking. The efficacy of proposed method is justified by performing experiments using mobile robots. The experimental results and simulation results of modified RG algorithm are compared, and their plots are almost identical.