Toyota Research Institute, Inc.

Robert A E Zidek

Noah J Epstein

Alexander Glencairn Cunningham

In one embodiment, example systems and methods relate to generating an optimal path for a vehicle to avoid an obstacle. As the vehicle travels on a road segment, a polyline representing a path of the vehicle is generated. The polyline may include a plurality of nodes, and each node may have a set of coordinates with respect to the polyline. The vehicle uses sensors to detect one or more obstacles on the road, and lane boundaries of the road. The vehicle uses these obstacles and lane boundaries to calculate lateral constraints for the polyline. The vehicle then uses the lateral constraints and a quadratic program to optimize the polyline. The optimized polyline may be used to determine the optimal path for the vehicle that avoids the one or more obstacles.

System and method for optimizing a path for obstacle evasion for a vehicle

Systems and methods described herein relate to vehicular navigation. One embodiment generates a polyline reference path for a vehicle; stores a representation of the polyline in a data structure; detects a plurality of obstacles ahead of the vehicle; identifies one or more obstacle gates among the plurality of obstacles using path coordinates relative to the reference path, each obstacle gate including at least one cluster of obstacles; identifies one or more gaps within each of the one or more obstacle gates; determines an obstacle-avoidance path for the vehicle that passes through a particular one of the one or more gaps in each of the one or more obstacle gates; and controls one or more aspects of operation of the vehicle based, at least in part, on the obstacle-avoidance path.

Systems and methods for vehicular navigation

System, methods, and other embodiments described herein relate to generating a path for a vehicle to travel. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving left and right boundary points of a corridor in which the vehicle is to travel and creating point pairs from the left and right boundary points. Respective ones of the point pairs include one of the left boundary points and one of the right boundary points that is a closest corresponding point of the right boundary points. The method further includes generating an output path according to an optimization problem that determines path points, with a respective one of the path points for each of the point pairs. The point pairs function as hard constraints for the corresponding respective ones of the path point.

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Ann Arbor, MI, United States of America

Robert A E Zidek