Towards a real-time architecture to control an autonomous vehicle in multi-vehicle environment

{ This paper copes with the problem of motion execution monitoring for a car-like vehicle moving in a subset of the road network. Our nal goal is to design an architecture for planning and controlling the motion of the vehicle. This architecture must enable the vehicle to optimize its behaviour autonomously and in real-time { in other words, to avoid stationary and moving obstacles in its local environment while respecting the highway code and its own kinematic and dynamic constraints. Several problems are to be handled: perception , motion planning, motion execution monitoring and commands generation (control). The perception problem is out of the range of this paper. In order to resolve the other problems gradually, we propose an intermediate step where the vehicle is still driven by a human driver so its control is replaced by an assistance of the driver through a man-machine interface. We present in this paper our work concerning the vehicle motion execution monitoring within this simpliied architecture. The framework of this program is the Pro-Lab II demonstrator whose purpose is to develop an electronic co-pilot to assist the human driver. Pro-Lab II demonstrator is a Pro-Art project (a subgroup of the European Prometheus Eur^ eka project which aims to increase the traac safety). I Introduction We aim to design an architecture for planning and controlling the motion of an autonomous vehicle. Thanks to this architecture, the vehicle will be able to optimize its behaviour in real-time, i.e., to avoid stationary and moving obstacles in its local environment while respecting some constraints (the highway code and its own kinematic and dynamic constraints). Within this architecture, several classic problems are to be handled: perception, decision and control problems. We are mainly concerned by the decision part along with some aspects of the control problem. As an intermediate step of the architecture design, we propose to assist the human driver through a man-machine interface. The decision results are used only to inform the driver instead of totally controlling the vehicle. This intermediate solution will be veriied within the Pro-Lab II demonstrator, whose purpose is to design an electronic co-pilot to assist the human driver 11]. The decision function in this stage is intended to analyze the current situation. It is in charge of evaluating the manoeuvre possibility, monitoring the manoeuvre execution and generating warnings in dangerous situations. This module may also suggest possible manoeuvres in more sophisticated …