Title: Exploiting Beneficial Information Sharing Among Autonomous Vehicles
As communication technologies develop, an au- tonomous vehicle will receive information not only from its own sensing system but also from infrastructures and other vehicles through communication. This paper discusses how to exploit a sequence of future information that is shared among autonomous vehicles, including the planned positions, the velocities and the lane numbers. A hybrid system model is constructed, and a control policy is designed to utilize shared sequence information for making navigation decisions. For the high-level discrete state transitions, the shared information is used to determine when to change lane, if lane changing will bring reward for the autonomous vehicle and there exists a feasible continuous state controller. For the low-level continuous state space controller generation, the shared information can relax the safety interval constraints in the existing model predictive control method. In the system level, the information sharing can increase the traffic flow and improve driving comfort. We demonstrate the advantages of information sharing in control and navigation in simulation. more »« less
Kim, Hunmin; Wan, Wenbin; Hovakimyan, Naira; Sha, Lui; Voulgaris, Petros
(, American Control Conference)
null
(Ed.)
Road condition is an important environmental factor for autonomous vehicle control. A dramatic change in the road condition from the nominal status is a source of uncertainty that can lead to a system failure. Once the vehicle encounters an uncertain environment, such as hitting an ice patch, it is too late to reduce the speed, and the vehicle can lose control. To cope with unforeseen uncertainties in advance, we study a proactive robust adaptive control architecture for autonomous vehicles' lane-keeping control problems. The data center generates a prior environmental uncertainty estimate by combining weather forecasts and measurements from anonymous vehicles through a spatio-temporal filter. The prior estimate contributes to designing a robust heading controller and nominal longitudinal velocity for proactive adaptation to each new condition. The control parameters are updated based on posterior information fusion with on-board measurements.
Chakraborty, Sayan; Cui, Leilei; Ozbay, Kaan; Jiang, Zhong-Ping
(, Transportation Research Part B: Methodological)
The majority of the past research dealing with lane-changing controller design of autonomous vehicles (𝐴𝑉 s) is based on the assumption of full knowledge of the model dynamics of the 𝐴𝑉 and the surrounding vehicles. However, in the real world, this is not a very realistic assumption as accurate dynamic models are difficult to obtain. Also, the dynamic model parameters might change over time due to various factors. Thus, there is a need for a learning-based lane change controller design methodology that can learn the optimal control policy in real time using sensor data. In this paper, we have addressed this need by introducing an optimal learningbased control methodology that can solve the real-time lane-changing problem of 𝐴𝑉 s, where the input-state data of the 𝐴𝑉 is utilized to generate a near-optimal lane-changing controller by approximate/adaptive dynamic programming (ADP) technique. In the case of this type of complex lane-changing maneuver, the lateral dynamics depend on the longitudinal velocity of the vehicle. If the longitudinal velocity is assumed constant, a linear parameter invariant model can be used. However, assuming constant velocity while performing a lane-changing maneuver is not a realistic assumption. This assumption might increase the risk of accidents, especially in the case of lane abortion when the surrounding vehicles are not cooperative. Thus, in this paper, the dynamics of the 𝐴𝑉 are assumed to be a linear parameter-varying system. Thus we have two challenges for the lane-changing controller design: parameter-varying, and unknown dynamics. With the help of both gain scheduling and ADP techniques combined, a learning-based control algorithm that can generate a near-optimal lane-changing controller without having to know the accurate dynamic model of the 𝐴𝑉 is proposed. The inclusion of a gain scheduling approach with ADP makes the controller applicable to non-linear and/or parameter-varying 𝐴𝑉 dynamics. The stability of the learning-based gain scheduling controller has also been rigorously proved. Moreover, a data-driven lane-changing decision-making algorithm is introduced that can make the 𝐴𝑉 perform a lane abortion if safety conditions are violated during a lane change. Finally, the proposed learning-based gain scheduling controller design algorithm and the lane-changing decision-making methodology are numerically validated using MATLAB, SUMO simulations, and the NGSIM dataset.
Gao, Liming; Beal, Craig; Mitrovich, Juliette; Brennan, Sean
(, Proceedings of the 10th Annual IFAC Advances in Automotive Control Symposium)
Autonomous vehicle trajectory tracking control is challenged by situations of varying road surface friction, especially in the scenario where there is a sudden decrease in friction in an area with high road curvature. If the situation is unknown to the control law, vehicles with high speed are more likely to lose tracking performance and/or stability, resulting in loss of control or the vehicle departing the lane unexpectedly. However, with connectivity either to other vehicles, infrastructure, or cloud services, vehicles may have access to upcoming roadway information, particularly the friction and curvature in the road path ahead. This paper introduces a model-based predictive trajectory-tracking control structure using the previewed knowledge of path curvature and road friction. In the structure, path following and vehicle stabilization are incorporated through a model predictive controller. Meanwhile, long-range vehicle speed planning and tracking control are integrated to ensure the vehicle can slow down appropriately before encountering hazardous road conditions. This approach has two major advantages. First, the prior knowledge of the desired path is explicitly incorporated into the computation of control inputs. Second, the combined transmission of longitudinal and lateral tire forces is considered in the controller to avoid violation of tire force limits while keeping performance and stability guarantees. The efficacy of the algorithm is demonstrated through an application case where a vehicle navigates a sharply curving road with varying friction conditions, with results showing that the controller can drive a vehicle up to the handling limits and track the desired trajectory accurately.
Jiang, L.
(, Proceedings of the 100th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting)
null
(Ed.)
This study focuses on how to improve the merge control prior to lane reduction points due to either accidents or constructions. A Cooperative Car-following and Merging (CCM) control strategy is proposed considering the coexistence of Automated Vehicles (AVs) and Human-4 Driven Vehicles (HDVs). CCM introduces a modified/generalized Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC) for vehicle longitudinal control prior to lane reduction points. It also takes courtesy into account to ensure that AVs behave responsibly and ethically. CCM is evaluated using microscopic traffic simulation and compared with no control and CACC merge strategies. The results show that CCM consistently generates the lowest delays and highest throughputs approaching the theoretical capacity. Its safety benefits are also found to be significant based on vehicle trajectories and density maps. AVs in this study do not need to be fully automated and can be at Level-1 automation. CCM only requires automated longitudinal control such as Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and information sharing among vehicles, and ACC is already commercially available on many new vehicles. Also, it does not need 100% ACC penetration, presenting itself as a promising and practical solution for improving traffic operations in lane reduction transition areas such as highway work zones.
Ha, Won Yong; Chakraborty, Sayan; Lin, Xiaoyi; Ozbay, Kaan; Jiang, Zhong-Ping
(, IEEE)
This paper introduces a learning-based optimal control strategy enhanced with nonmodel-based state estimation to manage the complexities of lane-changing maneuvers in autonomous vehicles. Traditional approaches often depend on comprehensive system state information, which may not always be accessible or accurate due to dynamic traffic environments and sensor limitations. Our methodology dynamically adapts to these uncertainties and sensor noise by iteratively refining its control policy based on real-time sensor data and reconstructed states. We implemented an experimental setup featuring a scaled vehicle equipped with GPS, IMUs, and cameras, all processed through an Nvidia Jetson AGX Xavier board. This approach is pivotal as it addresses the limitations of simulations, which often fail to capture the complexity of dynamic real-world conditions. The results from real-world experiments demonstrate that our learning-based control system achieves smoother and more consistent lane-changing behavior compared to traditional direct measurement approaches. This paper underscores the effectiveness of integrating Adaptive Dynamic Programming (ADP) with state estimation techniques, as demonstrated through small-scale experiments. These experiments are crucial as they provide a practical validation platform that simulates real-world complexities, representing a significant advancement in the control systems used for autonomous driving.
Han, Songyang, Fu, Jie, and Miao, Fei. Exploiting Beneficial Information Sharing Among Autonomous Vehicles. Retrieved from https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10129200. IEEE 58th Conference on Decision and Control (CDC) .
Han, Songyang, Fu, Jie, & Miao, Fei. Exploiting Beneficial Information Sharing Among Autonomous Vehicles. IEEE 58th Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), (). Retrieved from https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10129200.
Han, Songyang, Fu, Jie, and Miao, Fei.
"Exploiting Beneficial Information Sharing Among Autonomous Vehicles". IEEE 58th Conference on Decision and Control (CDC) (). Country unknown/Code not available. https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10129200.
@article{osti_10129200,
place = {Country unknown/Code not available},
title = {Exploiting Beneficial Information Sharing Among Autonomous Vehicles},
url = {https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10129200},
abstractNote = {As communication technologies develop, an au- tonomous vehicle will receive information not only from its own sensing system but also from infrastructures and other vehicles through communication. This paper discusses how to exploit a sequence of future information that is shared among autonomous vehicles, including the planned positions, the velocities and the lane numbers. A hybrid system model is constructed, and a control policy is designed to utilize shared sequence information for making navigation decisions. For the high-level discrete state transitions, the shared information is used to determine when to change lane, if lane changing will bring reward for the autonomous vehicle and there exists a feasible continuous state controller. For the low-level continuous state space controller generation, the shared information can relax the safety interval constraints in the existing model predictive control method. In the system level, the information sharing can increase the traffic flow and improve driving comfort. We demonstrate the advantages of information sharing in control and navigation in simulation.},
journal = {IEEE 58th Conference on Decision and Control (CDC)},
author = {Han, Songyang and Fu, Jie and Miao, Fei},
}
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