Using arrival times and safety procedures in motion planning trajectories for autonomous vehicles

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12179795-B2
Application number	US-202117328052-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 24, 2021
Priority date	May 24, 2021
Publication date	Dec 31, 2024
Grant date	Dec 31, 2024

Abstract

A trajectory for an autonomous machine may be evaluated for safety based at least on determining whether the autonomous machine would be capable of occupying points of the trajectory in space-time while still being able to avoid a potential future collision with one or more objects in the environment through use of one or more safety procedures. To do so, a point of the trajectory may be evaluated for conflict based at least on a comparison between points in space-time that correspond to the autonomous machine executing the safety procedure(s) from the point and arrival times of the one or more objects to corresponding position(s) in the environment. A trajectory may be sampled and evaluated for conflicts at various points throughout the trajectory. Based on results of one or more evaluations, the trajectory may be scored, eliminated from consideration, or otherwise considered for control of the autonomous machine.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
for each time step of at least two time steps along a trajectory for an autonomous machine:
computing one or more first future points that correspond to a safety procedure trajectory of one or more safety procedures of an autonomous machine triggered and initiated from a future position corresponding to the time step on the trajectory and extending to the one or more first future points; and
comparing the one or more first future points to one or more second future points that correspond to motion of one or more objects to perform an evaluation of whether the safety procedure trajectory indicates a future collision with the one or more objects were the safety procedure trajectory to be initiated from the trajectory at the future position on the trajectory;

computing a ranking score of the trajectory based at least on aggregating the evaluation for each of the at least two time steps, wherein the aggregating is based at least on the evaluation for at least a first time step of the at least two time steps indicating a conflict between the safety procedure trajectory of the first time step and at least one objective of at least one safety procedure of the one or more safety procedures;
based at least on the ranking score, initiating the trajectory or another trajectory for the autonomous machine; and
performing, based at least on the initiating, one or more control operations corresponding to the autonomous machine.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein a first score is assigned to the first time step based at least on the evaluation indicating the conflict and the ranking score comprises an aggregated score corresponding to the first score assigned to the first time step and a second score assigned to a second time step of the at least two time steps.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the conflict is used as a soft constraint on selecting the trajectory for the initiating based at least on the first time step being greater than a threshold distance from a start of the trajectory.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the conflict is used as a soft constraint on selecting the trajectory for the initiating based at least on the first time step being greater than a threshold time from a start of the trajectory.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one objective comprises the autonomous machine stopping prior to a collision.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the aggregating includes using a weighting for the first time in computing the ranking score and the weighting corresponds to the conflict.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the evaluation, for the first time step includes:
determining the conflict between when the autonomous machine will occupy a first position on the safety procedure trajectory of the first time step and when the one or more objects will occupy the one or more second future points that correspond to the first time step; and
assigning a score to the first time step that corresponds to a distance to the first position, the ranking score being computed from the score.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
assigning a respective ranking score to each trajectory of a plurality of trajectories; and
selecting the trajectory for the initiating based at least on the ranking score for the trajectory being higher than the respective ranking score for each of the plurality of trajectories.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more objects comprise one or more of a pedestrian, an animal, or a stationary obstacle.

10. At least one processor comprising:
one or more processing units to:
for each time step of at least two time steps along a trajectory for a machine:
model one or more future claimed sets of positions corresponding to a safety procedure trajectory of the machine executing one or more safety procedures triggered and initiated from a future position corresponding to the time step on a trajectory for the machine and extending to the one or more future claimed sets of positions, and
compare the one or more future claimed sets with one or more future locations that correspond to motion of one or more objects to perform an evaluation of whether the safety procedure trajectory indicates a future collision with the one or more objects were the safety procedure trajectory to be initiated from the trajectory at the future position on the trajectory,

compute a ranking score of the trajectory based at least on aggregating the evaluation for each of the at least two time steps, wherein the aggregating is based at least on the evaluation for at least a first time step of the at least two time steps indicating a conflict between the safety procedure trajectory of the first time step and at least one objective of at least one safety procedure of the one or more safety procedures,
based at least on the ranking score, initiate the trajectory or another trajectory for the machine, and
perform, based at least on the trajectory or the another trajectory, one or more autonomous control operations corresponding to the machine.

11. The at least one processor of claim 10 , wherein the one or more processing units are further to evaluate a second trajectory using the comparison based at least on the trajectory and the second trajectory comprising a same lateral path.

12. The at least one processor of claim 10 , wherein the comparing is between the one or more future locations and at least leftmost and rightmost vertices of a shape that represents the machine in the one or more future claimed sets.

13. The at least one processor of claim 10 , wherein the comparing is between one or more arrival times and one or more portions of the one or more future claimed sets that correspond to a side of the machine, the side being selected based on a direction of travel of the machine.

14. The at least one processor of claim 10 , wherein the one or more future claimed sets are defined by one or more paths that branch off, at the future position, from a path of the trajectory.

15. The at least one processor of claim 10 , wherein the one or more future claimed sets are modeled from one or more first velocities of the machine at a time within the trajectory and one or more arrival times are determined from one or more second velocities of the one or more objects at a start time of the first trajectory.

16. A system comprising:
one or more processors to perform a method comprising:
for each time step of one or more time steps along a trajectory for a machine:
modeling a future location of the machine corresponding to a safety procedure trajectory of the machine executing one or more safety procedures triggered and initiated from a future position corresponding to the time step on the trajectory for the machine and extending to the future location; and
performing, based on the modeling, an evaluation of whether the safety procedure trajectory indicates a future collision with one or more objects were the safety procedure trajectory to be initiated from the trajectory at the future position on the trajectory;

computing a ranking score of the trajectory based at least on aggregating the evaluation for each of the one or more time steps, wherein the evaluation for at least a first time step of the one or more time steps indicates a conflict between the safety procedure trajectory of the first time step and at least one objective of at least one safety procedure of the one or more safety procedures;
based at least on the ranking score, initiating the trajectory or another trajectory for the machine; and
performing one or more autonomous c

Assignees

• Nvidia Corp

Inventors

• Henke Birgit
• Nister David
• Ng Julia

Classifications

• B60W60/0015

  specially adapted for safety · CPC title

• B60W2554/80

  Spatial relation or speed relative to objects · CPC title

• B60W2554/4041

  Position · CPC title

• B60W2520/06

  Direction of travel · CPC title

• B60W60/0027

  using trajectory prediction for other traffic participants · CPC title