US 12,227,205 B2
Proactive lane change for autonomous vehicles
Lei Wang, San Diego, CA (US); Yujia Wu, San Diego, CA (US); Yufei Zhao, San Diego, CA (US); Weiyang Zhang, San Diego, CA (US); and Haoming Sun, San Diego, CA (US)
Assigned to TUSIMPLE, INC., San Diego, CA (US)
Filed by TuSimple, Inc., San Diego, CA (US)
Filed on Jan. 15, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/150,360.
Prior Publication US 2022/0227390 A1, Jul. 21, 2022
Int. Cl. B60W 60/00 (2020.01); B60W 30/18 (2012.01)
CPC B60W 60/0011 (2020.02) [B60W 30/18163 (2013.01); B60W 60/0021 (2020.02); B60W 60/0023 (2020.02); B60W 2552/10 (2020.02); B60W 2556/50 (2020.02)] 17 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system, comprising:
an autonomous vehicle configured to travel along a road;
a control device communicatively coupled to the autonomous vehicle, the control device comprising at least one processor configured to:
determine that the autonomous vehicle should move from a current lane of the road to an adjacent lane of the road;
determine two or more candidate windows into which the autonomous vehicle may move in the adjacent lane, wherein each candidate window corresponds to a physical space in the adjacent lane between two vehicles traveling in the adjacent lane;
determine, for each candidate window, a corresponding trajectory for moving the autonomous vehicle from a current position to a final position within the candidate window, wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine, for each candidate window, the corresponding trajectory by:
determining a first trajectory portion associated with the autonomous vehicle moving longitudinally along the current lane of the road from the current position to an initial position adjacent to the candidate window, wherein the determining the first trajectory portion comprises:
determining, for each transit time of a plurality of third transit times, a movement cost based on derivatives of one or more of a position, velocity, or acceleration associated with the autonomous vehicle moving longitudinally along the current lane of the road from the current position to the initial position adjacent to the candidate window in the transit time of the plurality of third transit times;
determining a selected first transit time with the lowest movement cost; and
determining the first trajectory portion corresponding to a set of positions, velocities, and accelerations associated with the autonomous vehicle moving longitudinally along the current lane of the road from the current position to the initial position adjacent to the candidate window in the selected first transit time; and
determining a second trajectory portion associated with the autonomous vehicle moving longitudinally and laterally from the initial position into the candidate window;
determine, for each trajectory, a cost associated with moving the autonomous vehicle along the trajectory;
determine that a first cost of moving the autonomous vehicle along a first trajectory into a first candidate window is less than a second cost of moving the autonomous vehicle along a second trajectory into a second candidate window;
determine a first transit time that corresponds to a time within which the autonomous vehicle can move to the adjacent lane in the first candidate window;
determine a second transit time that corresponds to a time within which the autonomous vehicle can move to the adjacent lane in the second candidate window;
determine that a ratio of a size of a third candidate window with respect to the first candidate window is less than a threshold ratio;
exclude the third candidate window from the two or more candidate windows in response to that the ratio of the size of the third candidate window with respect to the first candidate window is less than the threshold ratio;
determine that the first transmit time leads to a smaller change in velocity and a smaller change in position of the autonomous vehicle than the second transit time;
determine that the autonomous vehicle should move into the adjacent lane in the first candidate window in response to determining that the first transmit time leads to a smaller change in velocity and a smaller change in position of the autonomous vehicle than the second transit time;
in response to determining that the autonomous vehicle should move into the first candidate window, cause the autonomous vehicle to change speed; and
in response to determining that the first cost of moving the autonomous vehicle along the first trajectory is less than the second cost and that the first transmit time leads to a smaller change in velocity and a smaller change in position of the autonomous vehicle than the second transit time, cause the autonomous vehicle to begin moving along the first trajectory.