Safe Navigation for Autonomous Vehicles in Dynamic Environments: an Inevitable Collision State (ICS) Perspective
Luis Martínez-Gómez · HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · 2010
This thesis deals with the problem of safe navigation for autonomous vehicles in dynamic environments. Motion safety is defined by means of Inevitable Collision States (ICS). An ICS is a state for which, no matter what the future trajectory of the vehicle is, a collision eventually occurs. For obvious safety reasons, an autonomous system should never ever find itself in one of such states. To accomplish this objective the problem is addressed in two parts. The first part focuses on determining which states are safe for the vehicle (non-ICS). The second part concentrates on how to select a valid control to move from one safe state to the other. Once it is found, the vehicle can apply it to successfully navigate the environment. Simulations and experimental results are presented to validate the approach.