Relaxable turn boundaries for autonomous vehicles

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018129209-A1
Application number	US-201815866505-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 10, 2018
Priority date	Jan 10, 2018
Publication date	May 10, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

Systems and method are provided for controlling a vehicle. In one embodiment, a method includes: receiving, by a processor, a lane plan; determining, by a processor, from the lane plan an upcoming turn; determining, by a processor, if the upcoming turn is at least one of an unprotected left turn, an inside right turn, and an inside left turn; when at least one of an unprotected left turn, an inside right turn, and an inside left turn is determined, modifying, by a processor, a lane boundary; and controlling the vehicle based on the modified lane boundary.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method of controlling a vehicle, comprising:
receiving, by a processor, a lane plan; determining, by the processor, from the lane plan an upcoming turn; determining, by the processor, if the upcoming turn is at least one of an unprotected left turn, an inside right turn, and an inside left turn; when at least one of an unprotected left turn, an inside right turn, and an inside left turn is determined, modifying, by a processor, a lane boundary; and controlling the vehicle based on the modified lane boundary.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the modifying the lane boundary comprises setting one or more points of at least one of a left lane boundary and a right lane boundary to relaxable.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein a relaxable boundary permits the vehicle to cross over the boundary.

4 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the setting one or more points of at least one of a left lane boundary and a right lane boundary comprises setting one or more points of the at least one of the left lane boundary and the right lane boundary of a turn lane associated with the upcoming turn.

5 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the setting one or more points of at least one of a left lane boundary and a right lane boundary comprises setting one or more points of the at least one of the left lane boundary and the right lane boundary of a predecessor lane associated with the upcoming turn.

6 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the setting one or more points of at least one of a left lane boundary and a right lane boundary comprises setting one or more points of at least one of a left lane boundary and a right lane boundary of an outgoing lane associated with the upcoming turn.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining, by a processor, if the upcoming turn is at least one of an unprotected left turn, an inside right turn, and an inside left turn is based on map data.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the determining if the upcoming turn is an unprotected left turn is based on map data indicating whether a traffic device is associated with a lane associated with the upcoming turn.

9 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the determining if the upcoming turn is an inside left turn is based on map data indicating a predecessor lane has a left boundary that is not shared by another lane as a right boundary.

10 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the determining if the upcoming turn is an inside right turn is based on map data indicating a predecessor lane has a right boundary that is not shared by another lane as a left boundary.

11 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the determining if the upcoming turn is at least one of an inside right turn and an inside left turn is based on map data indicating that a predecessor lane is a shared lane.

12 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the determining if the upcoming turn is at least one of an inside right turn and an inside left turn is based on map data indicating a bike intersecting lane.

13 . A system for controlling a vehicle, comprising:
a first non-transitory module that, by a processor, receives a lane plan and determines from the lane plan an upcoming turn; a second non-transitory module that, by a processor, determines if the upcoming turn is at least one of an unprotected left turn, an inside right turn, and an inside left turn; a third non-transitory module that, by a processor, when at least one of an unprotected left turn, an inside right turn, and an inside left turn is determined, modifies a lane boundary; and a fourth non-transitory module that, by a processor, controls the vehicle based on the modified lane boundary.

14 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the third non-transitory module modifies the lane boundary by setting one or more points of at least one of a left lane boundary and a right lane boundary to relaxable.

15 . The system of claim 14 , wherein a relaxable boundary permits the vehicle to cross over the boundary.

16 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the third non-transitory module sets one or more points of at least one of a left lane boundary and a right lane boundary of at least one of a turn lane associated with the upcoming turn, a predecessor lane associated with the upcoming turn, and an outgoing lane associated with the upcoming turn.

17 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the second non-transitory module determines if the upcoming turn is an unprotected left turn based on map data indicating whether a traffic device is associated with a lane associated with the upcoming turn.

18 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the second non-transitory module determines if the upcoming turn is an inside left turn based on map data indicating a predecessor lane has a left boundary that is not shared by another lane as a right boundary, and determines if the upcoming turn is an inside right turn based on map data indicating a predecessor lane has a right boundary that is not shared by another lane as a left boundary.

19 . The system of claim 13 , wherein second non-transitory module determines if the upcoming turn is at least one of an inside right turn and an inside left turn is based on map data indicating a bike intersecting lane.

20 . An autonomous vehicle, comprising:
a datastore that stores a lane plan; and a processor configured to determine from the lane plan an upcoming turn, determine if the upcoming turn is at least one of an unprotected left turn, an inside right turn, and an inside left turn, modify a lane boundary when at least one of an unprotected left turn, an inside right turn, and an inside left turn is determined, and control the vehicle based on the modified lane boundary.

Assignees

• Gm Global Tech Operations Llc

Inventors

• Chen Daniel
• Lin Yu-Cheng
• Allan Jeremy
• Haghighat Sohrab

Classifications

• B60W50/0097

  Predicting future conditions · CPC title

• B60W2552/30

  Road curve radius · CPC title

• B60W2552/20

  Road profile, i.e. the change in elevation or curvature of a plurality of continuous road segments · CPC title

• B62D15/025

  Active steering aids, e.g. helping the driver by actively influencing the steering system after environment evaluation (B62D1/28 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B60W2556/50

  of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data · CPC title