Vehicle control to join route

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12054150-B2
Application number	US-201916732122-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 31, 2019
Priority date	Dec 31, 2019
Publication date	Aug 6, 2024
Grant date	Aug 6, 2024

Abstract

Techniques for determining a location for a vehicle to join a route structure are discussed herein. A vehicle computing system may operate the vehicle off the route structure according to an inertial-based reference frame. The vehicle computing system may determine a lateral distance of the vehicle to a route of the route structure and an angular difference between a heading of the vehicle and a direction of travel associated with the route. The vehicle computing system may determine a location to rejoin the route based on the lateral distance and the angular difference. In some examples, the vehicle computing system may determine the location based on a sigmoid function. The vehicle computing system may determine a vehicle trajectory to the location and may control the vehicle to the route based on the vehicle trajectory and the inertial-based reference frame.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
one or more processors; and
one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to perform operations comprising:
determining to initiate movement of an autonomous vehicle from a first point, the first point being a location off a lane surface and unassociated with a lane along a route;
determining a lateral distance between a reference line associated with the lane along the route and the first point;
determining an angular difference between a direction associated with the reference line and a heading associated with the autonomous vehicle;
determining, based on the lateral distance and the angular difference, a second point along the reference line;
determining, based on an inertial-based reference system, a vehicle trajectory from the first point to the second point;
controlling the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the vehicle trajectory;
determining the autonomous vehicle is within a threshold distance of the reference line; and
based on determining that the autonomous vehicle is within the threshold distance of the reference line, transitioning a vehicle control of the autonomous vehicle from the inertial-based reference system to a route-based reference system, wherein the inertial-based reference system comprises a first origin with a first axis aligned with the autonomous vehicle, and wherein the route-based reference system comprises a second origin with a second axis aligned with the reference line.

2. The autonomous vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle trajectory is a first vehicle trajectory and transitioning the vehicle control comprises:
determining a second vehicle trajectory at a second time, the second vehicle trajectory based at least in part on the inertial-based reference system;
determining a first cost associated with the second vehicle trajectory;
determining a third vehicle trajectory at the second time, the third vehicle trajectory based at least in part on the route-based reference system;
determining a second cost associated with the third vehicle trajectory;
determining that the second cost is less than the first cost; and
controlling the autonomous vehicle on the route based at least in part on the third vehicle trajectory based at least in part on the second cost being less than the first cost.

3. The autonomous vehicle of claim 1 , the operations further comprising:
determining a nominal turning radius associated with the autonomous vehicle, the nominal turning radius being greater than a minimum turning radius,
wherein the second point is further based at least in part on the nominal turning radius.

4. The autonomous vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the second point is further based on at least one of:
a minimum distance for the autonomous vehicle to travel to the route;
a maximum distance for the autonomous vehicle to travel to the route;
a parameter of a function; or
a threshold lateral distance.

5. The autonomous vehicle of claim 1 , wherein:
the first point is associated with a parking location;
the route is associated with a lane of a road; and
the second point is determined based at least in part on a sigmoid function.

6. A method comprising:
determining to initiate movement of a vehicle from a first point, the first point being a location off a lane surface and unassociated with a lane along a route;
determining a distance between the first point and a reference line associated with the lane along the route;
determining a heading associated with the vehicle;
determining, based on the distance and the heading, a second point along the reference line;
determining, based on an inertial-based reference system, a vehicle trajectory from the first point to the second point;
determining the vehicle is within a threshold distance of the reference line; and
based on determining that the vehicle is within the threshold distance of the reference line, transitioning a vehicle control of the vehicle from the inertial-based reference system to a route-based reference system, wherein the inertial-based reference system comprises a first origin associated with the vehicle, and wherein the route-based reference system comprises a second origin associated with the reference line.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein determining the vehicle trajectory comprises:
determining a reference trajectory between the first point and the second point;
determining a first area on a first side of the reference trajectory and a second area on a second side of the reference trajectory; and
determining a corridor based at least in part on the first area and the second area, wherein the corridor represents a drivable surface for the vehicle,
wherein the vehicle trajectory comprises an optimized trajectory based at least in part on the reference trajectory and the corridor.

8. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
controlling the vehicle based at least in part on the vehicle trajectory, wherein the vehicle trajectory is associated with the inertial-based reference system for operating the vehicle off the route.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein the second point is determined based at least in part on a function comprising at least one of:
a sigmoid function;
a Bezier function; or
a series of clothoids.

10. The method of claim 6 , wherein the vehicle trajectory is a first vehicle trajectory and transitioning the vehicle control comprises:
determining a second vehicle trajectory at a second time, the second vehicle trajectory based at least in part on the inertial-based reference system;
determining a first cost associated with the second vehicle trajectory;
determining a third vehicle trajectory at the second time, the third vehicle trajectory based at least in part on the route-based reference system;
determining a second cost associated with the third vehicle trajectory;
determining that the second cost is less than the first cost; and
controlling the vehicle on the route based at least in part on the third vehicle trajectory and the route-based reference system based at least in part on the second cost being less than the first cost.

11. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
determining a direction associated with the route; and
determining an angular difference between the heading and the direction associated with the route,
wherein the second point is based at least in part on the angular difference.

12. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
receiving sensor data associated with an environment of the vehicle;
processing the sensor data based at least in part on the inertial-based reference system;
determining an object at a third point associated with the inertial-based reference system;
determining an object trajectory associated with the object;
determining that at least one of the third point or the object trajectory conflicts with the vehicle trajectory; and
determining to yield to the object based at least in part on the object trajectory conflicting with the vehicle trajectory.

13. The method of claim 6 , wherein the second point is further based on at least one of:
a turning radius associated with the vehicle;
a minimum distance for the vehicle to travel along the route from the first point;
a maximum distance for the vehicle to travel along the route from the first point;
a parameter of a function; or
a threshold lateral distance between the vehicle and the route.

14. The method of claim 6 , wherein the distance is a first distance, the method further comprising:

Assignees

• Zoox Inc

Inventors

• Okamoto Kazuhide
• Funke Joseph
• Qian Steven Cheng

Classifications

• B60W60/0015 Primary

  specially adapted for safety · CPC title

• B60W30/06

  Automatic manoeuvring for parking · CPC title

• B60W60/0027

  using trajectory prediction for other traffic participants · CPC title

• B60W2554/404

  Characteristics · CPC title

• B60W40/04

  Traffic conditions · CPC title