A data-driven prediction-based system and method for trajectory planning of autonomous vehicles are disclosed. A particular embodiment includes: generating a first suggested trajectory for an autonomous vehicle; generating predicted resulting trajectories of proximate agents using a prediction module; scoring the first suggested trajectory based on the predicted resulting trajectories of the proximate agents; generating a second suggested trajectory for the autonomous vehicle and generating corresponding predicted resulting trajectories of proximate agents, if the score of the first suggested trajectory is below a minimum acceptable threshold; and outputting a suggested trajectory for the autonomous vehicle wherein the score corresponding to the suggested trajectory is at or above the minimum acceptable threshold.

The technology relates to assisting large self-driving vehicles, such as cargo vehicles, as they maneuver towards and/or park at a destination facility. This may include a given vehicle transitioning between different autonomous driving modes. Such a vehicles may be permitted to drive in a fully autonomous mode on certain roadways for the majority of a trip, but may need to change to a partially autonomous mode on other roadways or when entering or leaving a destination facility such as a warehouse, depot or service center. Large vehicles such as cargo truck may have limited room to maneuver in and park at the destination, which may also prevent operation in a fully autonomous mode. Here, information from the destination facility and/or a remote assistance service can be employed to aid in real-time semi-autonomous maneuvering.

The technology relates to assisting large self-driving vehicles, such as cargo vehicles, as they maneuver towards and/or park at a destination facility. This may include a given vehicle transitioning between different autonomous driving modes. Such a vehicles may be permitted to drive in a fully autonomous mode on certain roadways for the majority of a trip, but may need to change to a partially autonomous mode on other roadways or when entering or leaving a destination facility such as a warehouse, depot or service center. Large vehicles such as cargo truck may have limited room to maneuver in and park at the destination, which may also prevent operation in a fully autonomous mode. Here, information from the destination facility and/or a remote assistance service can be employed to aid in real-time semi-autonomous maneuvering.

The invention relates to a method for a follower vehicle (2) following a lead vehicle, comprisingdetermining a position (PL) and a heading (HL) of the lead vehicle (1),determining a position (PF) and a heading (HF) of the follower vehicle (2),subsequently establishing a path for the follower vehicle (2) by fitting a curve (C1) to said positions (PL, PF) and said headings (HL, HF),and controlling the follower vehicle (2) so as to move along the established path.

A driving support ECU retains an already-present traveling trajectory of a first vehicle to determine a target traveling line based on the retained already-present traveling trajectory during a specific period. When a specific situation occurs in the specific period, the driving support ECU produces a traveling trajectory of the first vehicle in such a manner that the traveling trajectory of the first vehicle is continuous with the already-present traveling trajectory based on position information of the first vehicle and the retained traveling trajectory to determine the target traveling line based on the produced traveling trajectory.

A system has been developed for arranging a number of autonomous vehicles at a staging area which comprises two or more autonomous vehicles, a localization mechanism that provides the relative or absolute position of the autonomous vehicle to be arranged, a pattern for aligning the autonomous vehicles at the staging area and a planning algorithm that takes as input the current state of the autonomous vehicles and creates obstacle free trajectories that optimize the motion from the current state to a formation that matches the desired pattern. A set of operator aids have been created for automated convoy assembly in tactical assembly area. These aids can be remote and do not need to be in the same cab of the vehicle. The operator aids are used in conjunction with full automation. The operator is allowed to decide where to form the convoy and where to align. Also, if the operator decides where the convoy is to be placed, then the process of positioning the vehicles to follow the poses provided by the operator is a subset of the tasks necessary to perform alignment of the PLS with the trailer for the loading and unloading maneuvers. Multivehicle deconfliction is performed allowing for all vehicles to move to the desired location in parallel. The sensors on one vehicle will be used to aid the maneuvers of other vehicles. The multivehicle optimization takes under consideration the sensor footprint to organize the movements and reduce the areas where the vehicles would be performing maneuvers blindly. Multivehicle world model representation is performed where sensor suites from all vehicles are used to create a common representation. The operator aids are migrated to select the pose of the assembled convoy. Optimization algorithm is migrated to solve the multivehicle trajectory generation that deconflicts collisions, simultaneously moves all vehicles to the desired pose, and optimizes sensor placement in which trucks help each other into position.

A method and apparatus is provided for controlling the operation of an autonomous vehicle. According to one aspect, the autonomous vehicle may track the trajectories of other vehicles on a road. Based on the other vehicle's trajectories, the autonomous vehicle may generate a pool of combined trajectories. Subsequently, the autonomous vehicle may select one of the combined trajectories as a representative trajectory. The representative trajectory may be used to change at least one of the speed or direction of the autonomous vehicle.

A driving support apparatus for an own vehicle includes a lane keeping assist control unit. When an interrupting vehicle enters ahead of the own vehicle in (i) a situation in which no preceding vehicle is present ahead of the own vehicle, or (ii) a situation in which a preceding vehicle is present ahead of the own vehicle, while a deviation angle formed between a direction of a traveling trajectory of the interrupting vehicle and a traveling direction of the own vehicle is larger than a threshold, the lane keeping assist control unit is configured not to perform a lane keeping assist control based on the traveling trajectory of the interrupting vehicle, and is configured to discard the traveling trajectory of the interrupting vehicle. On and after the deviation angle becomes equal to or smaller than the threshold, the lane keeping assist control unit is configured to perform the lane keeping assist control based on the traveling trajectory of the interrupting vehicle.

The driving support control device is configured to, when a preceding vehicle is detected (S24: YES), be permitted to cause a transition to the preceding vehicle following mode, in response to a manipulation made by the driver to select the preceding vehicle following mode (S27), and then control the vehicle 1 to follow the preceding vehicle, and to, when edges of a traveling road are detected even though no preceding vehicle is detected (S25: YES), be permitted to cause the transition to the preceding vehicle following mode, in response to the manipulation made by the driver to select the preceding vehicle following mode (S26), and then control the vehicle 1 to travel on and along a given target traveling course set based on the edges of the traveling road.

The present invention provides a vehicle control apparatus for performing traveling control of a vehicle, the apparatus comprising: a detection unit configured to detect a peripheral status of the vehicle; a determination unit configured to determine, based on a detection result of the detection unit, whether a preceding vehicle exhibits a predetermined behavior in a vehicle width direction; and a control unit configured to perform steering control of the vehicle, wherein steering control modes of the vehicle include a first mode and a second mode, and wherein in a case where the determination unit determines that the preceding vehicle exhibits the predetermined behavior during the steering control of the vehicle in the first mode, the control unit changes from the first mode to the second mode and performs the steering control of the vehicle in the second mode.