In this paper, we introduce a novel and efficient hybrid trajectory planning method for autonomous driving in highly constrained environments. The contributions of this paper are fourfold. First, we present a trajectory planning framework that is able to handle geometry constraints, nonholonomic constraints, and dynamics constraints of cars in a humanlike and layered fashion and generate curvature-continuous, kinodynamically feasible, smooth, and collision-free trajectories in real time. Second, we present a derivative-free global path modification algorithm to extract high-order state information in free space for state sampling. Third, we extend the regular state-space sampling method widely used in on-road autonomous driving systems to a multi-phase deterministic state-space sampling method that is able to approximate complex maneuvers. Fourth, we improve collision checking accuracy and efficiency by using a different car footprint approximation strategy and a two-phase collision checking routine. A range of challenging simulation experiments show that the proposed method returns high-quality trajectories in real time and outperforms existing planners, such as hybrid A* and conjugate-gradient descent path smoother in terms of path quality, efficiency, and computation resources used.

Lane change maneuver of high-speed automated vehicles is complicated since it involves highly nonlinear vehicle dynamics, which is critical for the driving safety and handling stability. Addressing this challenge, we present the dynamic modeling and control of high-speed automated vehicles for lane change maneuver. A nonlinear single-track vehicle dynamics model and a multi-segment lane change process model are employed. Variable time-steps are utilized for the vehicle model discretization to ensure a long enough prediction horizon while maintaining model fidelity and computational feasibility. Accordingly, the control of lane change maneuver is addressed in two successive stages. First, by considering the lane change maneuver as primarily a longitudinal control problem, velocity profiles are determined to ensure the longitudinal safety of this maneuver. Then, the associated lateral control is generated with a model predictive controller, taking the handling stability envelope, coupled tire forces and environmental constraints into account. Simulations demonstrate the real-time ability and stable-handling capability of the proposed approach.

In this paper, we present a complete, flexible and safe convex-optimization-based method to solve speed planning problems over a fixed path for autonomous driving in both static and dynamic environments. Our contributions are five fold. First, we summarize the most common constraints raised in various autonomous driving scenarios as the requirements for speed planner developments and metrics to measure the capacity of existing speed planners roughly for autonomous driving. Second, we introduce a more general, flexible and complete speed planning mathematical model including all the summarized constraints compared to the state-of-the-art speed planners, which addresses limitations of existing methods and is able to provide smooth, safety-guaranteed, dynamic-feasible, and time-efficient speed profiles. Third, we emphasize comfort while guaranteeing fundamental motion safety without sacrificing the mobility of cars by treating the comfort box constraint as a semi-hard constraint in optimization via slack variables and penalty functions, which distinguishes our method from existing ones. Fourth, we demonstrate that our problem preserves convexity with the added constraints, thus global optimality of solutions is guaranteed. Fifth, we showcase how our formulation can be used in various autonomous driving scenarios by providing several challenging case studies in both static and dynamic environments. A range of numerical experiments and challenging realistic speed planning case studies have depicted that the proposed method outperforms existing speed planners for autonomous driving in terms of constraint type covered, optimality, safety, mobility and flexibility.

This paper presents a model predictive control (MPC) scheme for the stabilization of high-speed autonomous ground vehicles (AGVs) considering the effect of road topography. Accounting for the road curvature and bank angle, a single-track dynamic model with roll dynamics is derived. Variable time steps are utilized for vehicle model discretization, enabling collision avoidance in the long-term without compromising the prediction accuracy in the near-term. Accordingly, safe driving constraints including the sideslip envelope, zero-moment-point and lateral safety corridor are developed to handle stability and obstacle avoidance. Taking these constraints into account, an MPC problem is formulated and solved at each step to determine the optimal steering control commands. Moreover, feedback corrections are integrated into the MPC to compensate the unmodeled dynamics and parameter uncertainties. Comparative simulations validate the capability and real-time ability of the proposed control scheme.

The longitudinal control of an autonomous vehicle usually suffers from lateral interruptions, such as the cutting in/out of the lead vehicle, deteriorating its performance and even endangering driving safety. To address this problem, we present a model predictive-based approach for longitudinal control in autonomous driving by taking the lateral interruptions into account. First, a virtual lead vehicle scheme is introduced to predict the future behavior of the actual lead vehicle. By following the virtual lead vehicle rather than the actual lead vehicle, the control of the host vehicle is simplified to keep a proper following gap problem. Then, a strategic car-following gap (CFG) model, generated from highway naturalistic driving data, is employed to describe the safety hazard and the probability of cut-ins by other vehicles. A model predictive controller, incorporating the strategic CFG model as well as the acceleration and jerk limitations in the objective function, is designed for the longitudinal control of the host vehicle. Solving the optimal control problem can not only smooth the oscillation and overshoots caused by the lateral interruptions but also reduce the probability of cut-ins from the adjacent lanes. The proposed approach is simulated and validated through some predefined test scenarios in CarSim software.