US 11,884,304 B2
System, method, and computer program product for trajectory scoring during an autonomous driving operation implemented with constraint independent margins to actors in the roadway
Arek Viko Sredzki, San Mateo, CA (US); Mark Ollis, Pittsburgh, PA (US); Christopher Cunningham, Pittsburgh, PA (US); Neal Andrew Seegmiller, Pittsburgh, PA (US); and Patrick Stirling Barone, Pittsburgh, PA (US)
Assigned to Ford Global Technologies, LLC, Dearborn, MI (US)
Filed by Ford Global Technologies, LLC, Dearborn, MI (US)
Filed on Sep. 8, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/468,961.
Prior Publication US 2023/0074873 A1, Mar. 9, 2023
Int. Cl. B60W 60/00 (2020.01); B60W 50/00 (2006.01)
CPC B60W 60/00274 (2020.02) [B60W 50/0098 (2013.01); B60W 2050/006 (2013.01); B60W 2552/45 (2020.02); B60W 2554/20 (2020.02); B60W 2554/402 (2020.02); B60W 2554/4026 (2020.02); B60W 2554/4029 (2020.02); B60W 2554/4041 (2020.02); B60W 2554/801 (2020.02); B60W 2554/802 (2020.02); B60W 2554/803 (2020.02); B60W 2554/804 (2020.02)] 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A computer-implemented method of maneuvering an autonomous vehicle (AV) traversing a roadway, comprising:
receiving, by one or more processors of a vehicle computing system, forecast information associated with one or more predicted trajectories of an actor in the roadway;
regenerating, by the one or more processors, a distance table for a relevant trajectory of an action, using an original distance table which was previously generated for processing constraints, the relevant trajectory being based on a forecast for the one or more predicted trajectories of the actor with a trajectory of the AV;
generating, by the one or more processors, a plurality of margins for the AV to evaluate, the plurality of margins being based on a plurality of margin types for providing information about risks and effects on passenger comfort associated with a future proximity of the AV to the actor;
generating, by the one or more processors, continuous scores for each candidate trajectory from among a plurality of candidate trajectories, wherein each candidate trajectory is within a margin of the actor generated for the relevant trajectory; and
issuing, by the one or more processors, a command to control the AV based on the continuous scores, to maneuver with respect to a plurality of constraints in the roadway, wherein:
generating the continuous scores for each candidate trajectory is based on one or more of:
a penalty configured by transforming a margin value at a time interval into the penalty;
a discount factor to account for increasing uncertainty about interactions that will be performed further in future, wherein a subsequent time interval is offset from a start of a planning cycle;
an actor-type factor, discounting parameters per actor type, including at least one of a vehicle, a crosswalk-following pedestrian, other pedestrian, cyclist, or other object, to apply based on interaction classifications; or
a social acceptability factor that classifies a decision taken by a candidate trajectory with respect to the margins to a plurality of actors simultaneously.