Path Planning Method for Automated Driving of Commercial Vehicles in Urban Roads

Abstract

In order to solve the problem regarding the shortage of truck and bus drivers in recent years, manpower-saving and unmanned operation of commercial vehicles is currently being actively researched and developed. However, when traveling on narrow road widths and curves with large curvatures, such as urban roads, commercial vehicles have larger internal wheel truck differences and overhang swing than passenger cars. Therefore, the path tracking control focusing on CG position tracking applied to passenger cars cannot be applied directly to commercial vehicles. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop a path planning and motion control system for automated operation of commercial vehicles in urban areas. In designing the control system, a risk potential field was used to express the driver's sense of danger with respect to obstacles and road boundaries. A simulation is conducted on a course that recostructs a real intersection, and a parameter study is conducted. Finally, the simulation results of this method are compared with those of a general path-following method, and the results show that this method is effective for avoiding obstacles in intersection situations.