A computer-implemented method of determining a series of control signals for controlling an autonomous vehicle to implement a planned speed change maneuver comprises: receiving from a maneuver planner a position target for the planned speed change maneuver; selecting, from a predetermined family of kinematic functions, a kinematic function for carrying out the planned speed change maneuver, each kinematic function being a first or higher order derivative of acceleration with respect to time; and using the selected kinematic function to determine a series of control signals for implementing the planned speed change maneuver; wherein the kinematic function is selected in a constrained optimization process as substantially optimizing a cost function defined for the speed change maneuver, subject to a set of hard constraints that: (i) require a final acceleration, speed and position corresponding to the selected kinematic function to satisfy, respectively, an acceleration target, a speed target and the position target, given an initial speed and acceleration of the autonomous vehicle, and (ii) impose a jerk magnitude upper limit on the selected kinematic function.
Implementing manoeuvres in autonomous vehicles
2020-04-08
Patent
Electronic Resource
English