Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

Argo Ai Gmbh

Other

Volkswagen Group of America Investments, LLC

Christopher Cunningham

Neal Andrew Seegmiller

Thomas M Petroff

Albert Costa

Ramadev Burigsay Hukkeri

Mark Ollis

Arek V Sredzki

Patrick Stirling Barone

Xi Cai

G Peter K Carr

Andrew Thomas Hartnett

Constantin Savtchenko

David Breeden

Colen McAlister

Brett Browning

George Peter Kenneth Carr

Nathaniel Honka

Sameer Bardapurkar

Michael Pacilio

Ed Venator

Yuh-Shyang Wang

Patrick Barone

Damir Mirkovic

Shawn Cook

Maria Jahja

Methods and systems for maneuvering an autonomous vehicle are disclosed. The methods include generating a multi-corridor representation corresponding to a local region around the autonomous vehicle while travelling on a route, and using the multi-corridor representation and perception data corresponding to the local region to generate a trajectory for the autonomous vehicle to traverse the local region. The multi-corridor representation includes a plurality of adjacent corridors that each include one or more lane segments of a road network. A location of executing a lane change along the route is determined dynamically during a trajectory generation phase based on the perception data.

Methods and systems for lane changes using a multi-corridor representation of local route regions

Systems and methods for operating an autonomous vehicle. The methods comprising: obtaining one or more candidate vehicle trajectories for the autonomous vehicle and context information defining a state of an environment surrounding the autonomous vehicle; assigning class(es) to a scenario specified by the context information and a first candidate vehicle trajectory; generating a first quality score for the first candidate vehicle trajectory using scoring function(s) selected based on the assigned class(es); select a candidate vehicle trajectory based on the first quality score associated with the first candidate vehicle trajectory and second quality score(s) associated with at least one second candidate vehicle trajectory; and causing the autonomous vehicle to perform autonomous driving operations using the selected candidate vehicle trajectory.

Systems and methods for scenario dependent trajectory scoring

Disclosed herein are system, method, and computer program product aspects for validating protolanes. For example, the method includes determining a protolane level flowchart from one or more flowcharts corresponding to one or more gates of a protolane selected from a set of protolanes of a geonet, wherein the one or more flowcharts correspond to conditions that can be encountered by an actor approaching the corresponding one or more gates, and wherein the geonet comprises a plurality of lane segments associated with the set of protolanes. A graph through the protolane level flowchart is generated that corresponds to actions of an actor. Reasoning of the actor is validated by testing the actions of the actor against the graph through the protolane level flowchart.

Validating protolanes with actor behavior flowcharts

Methods and systems for training an autonomous vehicle (AV) motion planning model are disclosed. The system receives a log of data representing objects detected by an AV over time. The system identifies a group of sample times in the log. Each sample time represents a time at which the AV made a choice in response to a state of an object. For each of the sample times, the system will generate candidate trajectories for the AV, and it will output the candidate trajectories on a display. The system will receive a label with a rating for each candidate trajectory. The system will then save, to a data set, each of the candidate trajectories in association with its label and the data from the log for its corresponding sample time. The system may then apply the data set to an AV motion planning model to train the model.

Method and system for training an autonomous vehicle motion planning model

Systems and methods for operating an autonomous vehicle (AV) are provided. The method includes detecting one or more objects in an environment, predicting a first set of predicted object trajectories comprising one or more trajectories for each of the detected one or more objects, generating a plurality of candidate AV trajectories for the AV, scoring each of the candidate AV trajectories according to a cost function, using the scoring to select a final AV trajectory for execution, determining which of the predicted object trajectories affected the final AV trajectory and which did not do so, adding the predicted object trajectories that affected the final AV trajectory to a persisted prediction cache, excluding from the persisted prediction cache any predicted object trajectories that did not affect the final AV trajectory, and executing the final AV trajectory to cause the AV to move along the final AV trajectory.

Persisting predicted objects for robustness to perception issues in autonomous driving

Provided are autonomous vehicles (AV), computer program products, and methods for maneuvering an AV in a roadway, including receiving forecast information associated with predicted trajectories of one or more actors in a roadway, determining a relevant trajectory of an actor based on correlating a forecast for predicted trajectories of the actor with the trajectory of the AV, regenerate a distance table for the relevant trajectory previously generated for processing constraints, generate a plurality of margins for the AV to evaluate, the margins based on a plurality of margin types for providing information about risks and effects on passenger comfort associated with a future proximity of the AV to the actor, classifying an interaction between the AV and the actor based on a plurality of margins, and generating continuous scores for each candidate trajectory that is also within the margin of the actor generated for the relevant trajectory.

System, method, and computer program product for trajectory scoring during an autonomous driving operation implemented with constraint independent margins to actors in the roadway

Systems and methods of maneuvering an autonomous vehicle in a local region using topological planning, while traversing a route to a destination location, are disclosed. The system includes an autonomous vehicle including one or more sensors and a processor. The processor is configured to determine the local region on the route and receive real-time information corresponding to the local region. The processor performs topological planning to identify on or more topologically distinct classes of trajectories, compute a constraint set for each of the one or more topologically distinct classes of trajectories, optimize a trajectory to generate a candidate trajectory for each constraint set, and select a trajectory for the autonomous vehicle to traverse the local region from amongst the one or more candidate trajectories. Each of the one or more topologically distinct classes is associated with a plurality of trajectories that take the same combination of discrete actions with respect to objects in the local region.

Methods and systems for topological planning in autonomous driving

Systems and methods for controlling navigation of an autonomous vehicle for making an unprotected turn while traversing an intersection. The methods may include identifying a loiter pose of an autonomous vehicle for stopping at a point in an intersection before initiating an unprotected turn, initiating navigation of the autonomous vehicle to the loiter pose when a traffic signal is at a first state, determining whether the traffic signal has changed to a second state during or after navigation of the autonomous vehicle to the loiter pose, and in response to determining that the traffic signal has changed to the second state, generating a first trajectory for navigating the autonomous vehicle to execute the unprotected turn if the expected time for moving the autonomous vehicle from a current position to a position when the autonomous vehicle has fully exited an opposing conflict lane is less than a threshold time.

Methods and systems for asserting right of way for traversing an intersection

Methods, systems, and computer program products for navigating a vehicle are disclosed. The methods include extracting lane segment data associated with lane segments of a vector map that are within a region of interest, and analyzing the lane segment data and a heading of the vehicle to determine whether motion of the vehicle satisfies a condition. The condition can be associated with (i) an association between the heading of the vehicle and a direction of travel of a lane that corresponds to the current location of the vehicle and/or (ii) a minimum stopping distance to an imminent traffic control measure in the lane that corresponds to the current location of the vehicle. When the motion does not satisfy the condition, the methods include causing the vehicle to perform a motion correction.

Methods and systems for monitoring vehicle motion with driver safety alerts

A method of determining a trajectory for an autonomous vehicle is disclosed. An ego-vehicle may detect a moving actor in an environment. To choose between candidate trajectories for the ego-vehicle, the system will consider the cost of each candidate trajectory to the moving actor. The system will use the candidate trajectory costs for the candidate trajectories to select one of the candidate trajectories via which to move the ego-vehicle. An autonomous vehicle system of the ego-vehicle may then move the ego-vehicle in the environment along the selected trajectory.

Method and system for using a reaction of other road users to ego-vehicle actions in autonomous driving

Vehicle driver assistance and warning systems that alert a driver of a vehicle to wrong-way driving and/or imminent traffic control measures (TCMs) are disclosed. The system will identify a region of interest around the vehicle, access a vector map that includes the region of interest, and extract lane segment data associated with lane segments that are within the region of interest. The system will analyze the lane segment data and the vehicle's direction of travel to determine whether motion of the vehicle indicates that either: (a) the vehicle is traveling in a wrong-way direction for its lane; or (b) the vehicle is within a minimum stopping distance to an imminent TCM in its lane. When the system detects either condition, it will cause a driver warning system of the vehicle to output a driver alert.

A method and a system for maneuvering an autonomous vehicle is disclosed. The system includes an autonomous vehicle including one or more sensors and a processor. The processor is configured to generate a nominal route from a start position toward a destination with reference to a road network map. The nominal route includes a plurality of consecutive lane segments from the start position to the destination. The processor is further configured to use the road network map to identify at least one candidate lane segment corresponding to one or more of the plurality of consecutive lane segments to generate an expanded route representation, generate a multi-corridor representation of a local region around the autonomous vehicle while travelling on the nominal path, and generate a trajectory for the autonomous vehicle to traverse the local region using the multi-corridor representation and perception data corresponding to the autonomous vehicle.

An autonomous vehicle navigates an intersection in which occlusions block the vehicle's ability to detect moving objects. The vehicle handles this by generating a phantom obstacle behind the occlusion. The vehicle will predict the speed of the phantom obstacle and use the predicted speed to assess whether the phantom obstacle may collide with the vehicle. If a collision is a risk, the vehicle will slow or stop until it confirms that either (a) the phantom obstacle is not a real obstacle or (b) the vehicle can proceed at a speed that avoids the collision. To determine which occlusions shield real objects, the system may use a rasterized visibility grid of the area to identify occlusions that may accommodate the object.

Growing community of inventors

Pittsburgh, PA, United States of America

Christopher Cunningham