Fast Real-Time Trajectory Planning Method with 3rd-Order Curve Optimization for Automated Vehicles

Automated driving (AD) is one of the fastest-growing tendencies in the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) field with some interesting demonstrations and prototypes. Currently, the main research topics are aligned with vehicle communications, environment recognition, control, and decision-making. A real-time trajectory planning method for Automated vehicles (AVs) is presented in this paper; the contribution is part of AD’s decision-making module. This novel approach uses the properties of the 3er order Bézier curves to generate fast and reliable vehicle trajectories. Online execution and vehicle tracking capacities are considered on the approach. A feasible trajectory is selected based on the criteria: (i) the vehicle must be contained by a collision-free corridor given by an upper decision layer, (ii) the vehicle must be capable to track the generated trajectory, and (iii) the continuity of the path and curvature must be preserved in the joints. Our approach was tested considering a vehicle length (automated bus) of 12 meters. The scenario has the dimension of a real test location with multiple roundabouts.