Path-Following Control With Obstacle Avoidance of Autonomous Surface Vehicles Subject to Actuator Faults

This paper investigates the path-following control problem with obstacle avoidance of autonomous surface vehicles in the presence of actuator faults,uncertainty and external disturbances.Autonomous surface vehicles inevitably suffer from actuator faults in complex sea environments,which may cause existing obstacle avoidance strategies to fail.To reduce the influence of actuator faults,an improved artificial potential function is constructed by introducing the lower bound of actuator efficiency factors.The nonlinear state observer,which only depends on measurable position information of the autonomous surface vehicle,is used to address uncertainties and external disturbances.By using a backstepping technique and adaptive mechanism,a path-following control strategy with obstacle avoidance and fault tolerance is designed which can ensure that the tracking errors converge to a small neighborhood of zero.Compared with existing results,the proposed control strategy has the capability of obstacle avoidance and fault tolerance simultaneously.Finally,the comparison results through simulations are given to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Toward Trustworthy Decision-Making for Autonomous Vehicles:A Robust Reinforcement Learning Approach with Safety Guarantees

While autonomous vehicles are vital components of intelligent transportation systems,ensuring the trustworthiness of decision-making remains a substantial challenge in realizing autonomous driving.Therefore,we present a novel robust reinforcement learning approach with safety guarantees to attain trustworthy decision-making for autonomous vehicles.The proposed technique ensures decision trustworthiness in terms of policy robustness and collision safety.Specifically,an adversary model is learned online to simulate the worst-case uncertainty by approximating the optimal adversarial perturbations on the observed states and environmental dynamics.In addition,an adversarial robust actor-critic algorithm is developed to enable the agent to learn robust policies against perturbations in observations and dynamics.Moreover,we devise a safety mask to guarantee the collision safety of the autonomous driving agent during both the training and testing processes using an interpretable knowledge model known as the Responsibility-Sensitive Safety Model.Finally,the proposed approach is evaluated through both simulations and experiments.These results indicate that the autonomous driving agent can make trustworthy decisions and drastically reduce the number of collisions through robust safety policies.

A Survey on an Emerging Safety Challenge for Autonomous Vehicles:Safety of the Intended Functionality

As the complexity of autonomous vehicles(AVs)continues to increase and artificial intelligence algorithms are becoming increasingly ubiquitous,a novel safety concern known as the safety of the intended functionality(SOTIF)has emerged,presenting significant challenges to the widespread deployment of AVs.SOTIF focuses on issues arising from the functional insufficiencies of the AVs’intended functionality or its implementation,apart from conventional safety considerations.From the systems engineering standpoint,this study offers a comprehensive exploration of the SOTIF landscape by reviewing academic research,practical activities,challenges,and perspectives across the development,verification,validation,and operation phases.Academic research encompasses system-level SOTIF studies and algorithm-related SOTIF issues and solutions.Moreover,it encapsulates practical SOTIF activities undertaken by corporations,government entities,and academic institutions spanning international and Chinese contexts,focusing on the overarching methodologies and practices in different phases.Finally,the paper presents future challenges and outlook pertaining to the development,verification,validation,and operation phases,motivating stakeholders to address the remaining obstacles and challenges.

General Optimal Trajectory Planning:Enabling Autonomous Vehicles with the Principle of Least Action

This study presents a general optimal trajectory planning(GOTP)framework for autonomous vehicles(AVs)that can effectively avoid obstacles and guide AVs to complete driving tasks safely and efficiently.Firstly,we employ the fifth-order Bezier curve to generate and smooth the reference path along the road centerline.Cartesian coordinates are then transformed to achieve the curvature continuity of the generated curve.Considering the road constraints and vehicle dynamics,limited polynomial candidate trajectories are generated and smoothed in a curvilinear coordinate system.Furthermore,in selecting the optimal trajectory,we develop a unified and auto-tune objective function based on the principle of least action by employing AVs to simulate drivers’behavior and summarizing their manipulation characteristics of“seeking benefits and avoiding losses.”Finally,by integrating the idea of receding-horizon optimization,the proposed framework is achieved by considering dynamic multi-performance objectives and selecting trajectories that satisfy feasibility,optimality,and adaptability.Extensive simulations and experiments are performed,and the results demonstrate the framework’s feasibility and effectiveness,which avoids both dynamic and static obstacles and applies to various scenarios with multi-source interactive traffic participants.Moreover,we prove that the proposed method can guarantee real-time planning and safety requirements compared to drivers’manipulation.

Evaluation of an Autonomous Vehicle User Interface for Sensory Impaired Users

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) hold immense promises in revolutionizing transportation, and their potential benefits extend to individuals with impairments, particularly those with vision and hearing impairments. However, the accommodation of these individuals in AVs requires developing advanced user interfaces. This paper describes an explorative study of a multimodal user interface for autonomous vehicles, specifically developed for passengers with sensory (vision and/or hearing) impairments. In a driving simulator, 32 volunteers with simulated sensory impairments, were exposed to multiple drives in an autonomous vehicle while freely interacting with standard and inclusive variants of the infotainment and navigation system interface. The two user interfaces differed in graphical layout and voice messages, which adopted inclusive design principles for the inclusive variant. Questionnaires and structured interviews were conducted to collect participants’ impressions. The data analysis reports positive user experiences, but also identifies technical challenges. Verified guidelines are provided for further development of inclusive user interface solutions.

Cooperative Target Tracking of Multiple Autonomous Surface Vehicles Under Switching Interaction Topologies

This paper is concerned with the cooperative target tracking of multiple autonomous surface vehicles(ASVs)under switching interaction topologies.For the target to be tracked,only its position can be measured/received by some of the ASVs,and its velocity is unavailable to all the ASVs.A distributed extended state observer taking into consideration switching topologies is designed to integrally estimate unknown target dynamics and neighboring ASVs'dynamics.Accordingly,a novel kinematic controller is designed,which takes full advantage of known information and avoids the approximation of some virtual control vectors.Moreover,a disturbance observer is presented to estimate unknown time-varying environmental disturbance.Furthermore,a distributed dynamic controller is designed to regulate the involved ASVs to cooperatively track the target.It enables each ASV to adjust its forces and moments according to the received information from its neighbors.The effectiveness of the derived results is demonstrated through cooperative target tracking performance analysis for a tracking system composed of five interacting ASVs.

MPC-based Motion Planning and Control Enables Smarter and Safer Autonomous Marine Vehicles:Perspectives and a Tutorial Survey

Autonomous marine vehicles(AMVs)have received considerable attention in the past few decades,mainly because they play essential roles in broad marine applications such as environmental monitoring and resource exploration.Recent advances in the field of communication technologies,perception capability,computational power and advanced optimization algorithms have stimulated new interest in the development of AMVs.In order to deploy the constrained AMVs in the complex dynamic maritime environment,it is crucial to enhance the guidance and control capabilities through effective and practical planning,and control algorithms.Model predictive control(MPC)has been exceptionally successful in different fields due to its ability to systematically handle constraints while optimizing control performance.This paper aims to provide a review of recent progress in the context of motion planning and control for AMVs from the perceptive of MPC.Finally,future research trends and directions in this substantial research area of AMVs are highlighted.

A Combined Reinforcement Learning and Model Predictive Control for Car-Following Maneuver of Autonomous Vehicles

Model predictive control is widely used in the design of autonomous driving algorithms.However,its parameters are sensitive to dynamically varying driving conditions,making it difficult to be implemented into practice.As a result,this study presents a self-learning algorithm based on reinforcement learning to tune a model predictive controller.Specifically,the proposed algorithm is used to extract features of dynamic traffic scenes and adjust the weight coefficients of the model predictive controller.In this method,a risk threshold model is proposed to classify the risk level of the scenes based on the scene features,and aid in the design of the reinforcement learning reward function and ultimately improve the adaptability of the model predictive controller to real-world scenarios.The proposed algorithm is compared to a pure model predictive controller in car-following case.According to the results,the proposed method enables autonomous vehicles to adjust the priority of performance indices reasonably in different scenarios according to risk variations,showing a good scenario adaptability with safety guaranteed.

Observer-Based Path Tracking Controller Design for Autonomous Ground Vehicles With Input Saturation

This paper investigates the problem of path tracking control for autonomous ground vehicles(AGVs),where the input saturation,system nonlinearities and uncertainties are considered.Firstly,the nonlinear path tracking system is formulated as a linear parameter varying(LPV)model where the variation of vehicle velocity is taken into account.Secondly,considering the noise effects on the measurement of lateral offset and heading angle,an observer-based control strategy is proposed,and by analyzing the frequency domain characteristics of the derivative of desired heading angle,a finite frequency H_∞index is proposed to attenuate the effects of the derivative of desired heading angle on path tracking error.Thirdly,sufficient conditions are derived to guarantee robust H_∞performance of the path tracking system,and the calculation of observer and controller gains is converted into solving a convex optimization problem.Finally,simulation examples verify the advantages of the control method proposed in this paper.

Human-Like Decision-Making of Autonomous Vehicles in Dynamic Traffic Scenarios

With the maturation of autonomous driving technology, the use of autonomous vehicles in a socially acceptable manner has become a growing demand of the public. Human-like autonomous driving is expected due to the impact of the differences between autonomous vehicles and human drivers on safety.Although human-like decision-making has become a research hotspot, a unified theory has not yet been formed, and there are significant differences in the implementation and performance of existing methods. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of human-like decision-making for autonomous vehicles. The following issues are discussed: 1) The intelligence level of most autonomous driving decision-making algorithms;2) The driving datasets and simulation platforms for testing and verifying human-like decision-making;3) The evaluation metrics of human-likeness;personalized driving;the application of decisionmaking in real traffic scenarios;and 4) The potential research direction of human-like driving. These research results are significant for creating interpretable human-like driving models and applying them in dynamic traffic scenarios. In the future, the combination of intuitive logical reasoning and hierarchical structure will be an important topic for further research. It is expected to meet the needs of human-like driving.

A Novel Ego Lanes Detection Method for Autonomous Vehicles

Autonomous vehicles are currently regarded as an interesting topic in the AI field.For such vehicles,the lane where they are traveling should be detected.Most lane detection methods identify the whole road area with all the lanes built on it.In addition to having a low accuracy rate and slow processing time,these methods require costly hardware and training datasets,and they fail under critical conditions.In this study,a novel detection algo-rithm for a lane where a car is currently traveling is proposed by combining simple traditional image processing with lightweight machine learning(ML)methods.First,a preparation phase removes all unwanted information to preserve the topographical representations of virtual edges within a one-pixel width around expected lanes.Then,a simple feature extraction phase obtains only the intersection point position and angle degree of each candidate edge.Subsequently,a proposed scheme that comprises consecutive lightweight ML models is applied to detect the correct lane by using the extracted features.This scheme is based on the density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise,random forest trees,a neural network,and rule-based methods.To increase accuracy and reduce processing time,each model supports the next one during detection.When a model detects a lane,the subsequent models are skipped.The models are trained on the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Toyota Technological Institute datasets.Results show that the proposed method is faster and achieves higher accuracy than state-of-the-art methods.This method is simple,can handle degradation conditions,and requires low-cost hardware and training datasets.

Dynamic Cell Modeling for Accurate SOC Estimation in Autonomous Electric Vehicles

This paper presents findings on dynamic cell modeling for state-of-charge (SOC) estimation in an autonomous electric vehicle (AEV). The studied cells are Lithium-Ion Polymer-based with a nominal capacity of around 8 Ah, optimized for power-needy applications. The AEV operates in a harsh environment with rate requirements up to ±25C and highly dynamic rate profiles, unlike portable-electronic applications with constant power output and fractional C rates. SOC estimation methods effective in portable electronics may not suffice for the AEV. Accurate SOC estimation necessitates a precise cell model. The proposed SOC estimation method utilizes a detailed Kalman-filtering approach. The cell model must include SOC as a state in the model state vector. Multiple cell models are presented, starting with a simple one employing “Coulomb counting” as the state equation and Shepherd’s rule as the output equation, lacking prediction of cell relaxation dynamics. An improved model incorporates filter states to account for relaxation and other dynamics in closed-circuit cell voltage, yielding better performance. The best overall results are achieved with a method combining nonlinear autoregressive filtering and dynamic radial basis function networks. The paper includes lab test results comparing physical cells with model predictions. The most accurate models obtained have an RMS estimation error lower than the quantization noise floor expected in the battery-management-system design. Importantly, these models enable precise SOC estimation, allowing the vehicle controller to utilize the battery pack’s full operating range without overcharging or undercharging concerns.

Autonomous vehicles: challenges, opportunities, and future implications for transportation policies

This study investigates the challenges and opportunities pertaining to transportation policies that may arise as a result of emerging autonomous vehicle （AV） technologies. AV technologies can decrease the transportation cost and increase accessibility to low-income households and persons with mobility issues. This emerging technology also has far-reaching applications and implications beyond all current expectations. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the relevant literature and explores a broad spectrum of issues from safety to machine ethics. An indispensable part of a prospective AV development is communication over cars and infrastructure （connected vehicles）. A major knowledge gap exists in AV technology with respect to routing behaviors. Connected- vehicle technology provides a great opportunity to imple- ment an efficient and intelligent routing system. To this end, we propose a conceptual navigation model based on a fleet of AVs that are centrally dispatched over a network seeking system optimization literature on two fronts： （i） This study contributes to the it attempts to shed light on future opportunities as well as possible hurdles associated with AV technology; and （ii） it conceptualizes a navigation model for the AV which leads to highly efficient traffic circulations.

Consensus of multiple autonomous underwater vehicles with double independent Markovian switching topologies and timevarying delays

A new method in which the consensus algorithm is used to solve the coordinate control problems of leaderless multiple autonomous underwater vehicles（multi-AUVs） with double independent Markovian switching communication topologies and time-varying delays among the underwater sensors is investigated.This is accomplished by first dividing the communication topology into two different switching parts,i.e.,velocity and position,to reduce the data capacity per data package sent between the multi-AUVs in the ocean.Then,the state feedback linearization is used to simplify and rewrite the complex nonlinear and coupled mathematical model of the AUVs into a double-integrator dynamic model.Consequently,coordinate control of the multi-AUVs is regarded as an approximating consensus problem with various time-varying delays and velocity and position topologies.Considering these factors,sufficient conditions of consensus control are proposed and analyzed and the stability of the multi-AUVs is proven by Lyapunov-Krasovskii theorem.Finally,simulation results that validate the theoretical results are presented.

Vision-based long-distance lane perception and front vehicle location for full autonomous vehicles on highway roads

A new vision-based long-distance lane perception and front vehicle location method was developed for decision making of full autonomous vehicles on highway roads,Firstly,a real-time long-distance lane detection approach was presented based on a linear-cubic road model for two-lane highways.By using a novel robust lane marking feature which combines the constraints of intensity,edge and width,the lane markings in far regions were extracted accurately and efficiently.Next,the detected lane lines were selected and tracked by estimating the lateral offset and heading angle of ego vehicle with a Kalman filter,Finally,front vehicles were located on correct lanes using the tracked lane lines,Experiment results show that the proposed lane perception approach can achieve an average correct detection rate of 94.37% with an average false positive detection rate of 0.35%,The proposed approaches for long-distance lane perception and front vehicle location were validated in a 286 km full autonomous drive experiment under real traffic conditions.This successful experiment shows that the approaches are effective and robust enough for full autonomous vehicles on highway roads.

Influence of highway space alignment continuous degradation in 3- dimensional space on autonomous vehicle trajectory deviation based on PreScan simulation

The advent of autonomous vehicles(AVs)is expected to transform the current transportation system into a safe and reliable one.The existing infrastructures,operational criteria,and design method were developed to meet the requirements of human drivers.However,previous studies have shown that in the traditional horizontal and vertical combined design methods,where the two-dimensional alignment elements change,there are varying changes in curvature and torsion,which cause the continuous degradation of the spatial curve and torsion.This continuous degradation will inevitably cause changes in the trajectory of Autonomous Vehicles(AVs),thereby affecting driving safety.Therefore,studying the characteristics of autonomous vehicles trajectory deviation has theoretical significance for optimizing highway alignment safety design.Driving simulation tests were performed by using PreScan and Simulink to calibrate the lateral deviation.A machine learning approach called the Gradient Boosting Decision Tree(GBDT)algorithm was implemented to build a model and express the relationship between space alignment parameters and lane deviation.The results showed that the AV’s driving trajectory is significantly affected by the space alignment factors when the vehicle is driving in the inner lane,the downhill section,and the left-turn section.These findings will provide a novel perspective for road safety research based on autonomous vehicle driving trajectories.

Artificial Intelligence Applications in the Development of Autonomous Vehicles:A Survey

The advancement of artificial intelligence(AI)has truly stimulated the development and deployment of autonomous vehicles(AVs)in the transportation industry.Fueled by big data from various sensing devices and advanced computing resources,AI has become an essential component of AVs for perceiving the surrounding environment and making appropriate decision in motion.To achieve goal of full automation(i.e.,self-driving),it is important to know how AI works in AV systems.Existing research have made great efforts in investigating different aspects of applying AI in AV development.However,few studies have offered the research community a thorough examination of current practices in implementing AI in AVs.Thus,this paper aims to shorten the gap by providing a comprehensive survey of key studies in this research avenue.Specifically,it intends to analyze their use of AIs in supporting the primary applications in AVs:1)perception;2)localization and mapping;and 3)decision making.It investigates the current practices to understand how AI can be used and what are the challenges and issues associated with their implementation.Based on the exploration of current practices and technology advances,this paper further provides insights into potential opportunities regarding the use of AI in conjunction with other emerging technologies:1)high definition maps,big data,and high performance computing;2)augmented reality(AR)/virtual reality(VR)enhanced simulation platform;and 3)5G communication for connected AVs.This paper is expected to offer a quick reference for researchers interested in understanding the use of AI in AV research.

Planning and Decision-making for Connected Autonomous Vehicles at Road Intersections:A Review

Planning and decision-making technology at intersections is a comprehensive research problem in intelligent transportation systems due to the uncertainties caused by a variety of traffic participants.As wireless communication advances,vehicle infrastructure integrated algorithms designed for intersection planning and decision-making have received increasing attention.In this paper,the recent studies on the planning and decision-making technologies at intersections are primarily overviewed.The general planning and decision-making approaches are presented,which include graph-based approach,prediction base approach,optimization-based approach and machine learning based approach.Since connected autonomous vehicles(CAVs)is the future direction for the automated driving area,we summarized the evolving planning and decision-making methods based on vehicle infrastructure cooperative technologies.Both four-way signalized and unsignalized intersection(s)are investigated under purely automated driving traffic and mixed traffic.The study benefit from current strategies,protocols,and simulation tools to help researchers identify the presented approaches’challenges and determine the research gaps,and several remaining possible research problems that need to be solved in the future.

Towards the Unified Principles for Level 5 Autonomous Vehicles

The rapid advance of autonomous vehicles(AVs)has motivated new perspectives and potential challenges for existing modes of transportation.Currently,driving assistance systems of Level 3 and below have been widely produced,and several applications of Level 4 systems to specific situations have also been gradually developed.By improving the automation level and vehicle intelligence,these systems can be further advanced towards fully autonomous driving.However,general development concepts for Level 5 AVs remain unclear,and the existing methods employed in the development processes of Levels 0-4 have been mainly based on task-driven function development related to specific scenarios.Therefore,it is difficult to identify the problems encountered by high-level AVs.The essential logical and physical mechanisms of vehicles have hindered further progression towards Level 5 systems.By exploring the physical mechanisms behind high-level autonomous driving systems and analyzing the essence of driving,we put forward a coordinated and balanced framework based on the brain-cerebellum-organ concept through reasoning and deduction.Based on a mixed mode relying on the crow inference and parrot imitation approach,we explore the research paradigm of autonomous learning and prior knowledge to realize the characteristics of self-learning,self-adaptation,and self-transcendence for AVs.From a systematic,unified,and balanced point of view and based on least action principles and unified safety field concepts,we aim to provide a novel research concept and develop an effective approach for the research and development of high-level AVs,specifically at Level 5.

Parallel Neural Network-Based Motion Controller for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

A parallel neural network-based controller （PNNC） is presented for the motion control of underwater vehicles in this paper. It consists of a real-time part, a self-learning part and a desired-state programmer, and it is different from normal adaptive neural network controller in structure. Owing to the introduction of the self-learning part, on-line learning can be performed without sample data in several sample periods, resulting in high learning speed of the controller and good control performance. The desired-state programmer is utilized to obtain better learning samples of the neural network to keep the stability of the controller. The developed controller is applied to the 4-degree of freedom control of the AUV “IUV- IV” and is successful on the simulation platform. The control performance is also compared with that of neural network controller with different structures such as normal adaptive neural network and different learning methods. Current effects and surge velocity control are also included to demonstrate the controller＇ s performance. It is shown that the PNNC has a great possibility to solve the problems in the control system design of underwater vehicles.