In-depth understanding of lane changing interactions for in-vehicle driving assistance systems

Lane-changing events are often related with safety concern and traffic operational efficiency due to complex interactions with neighboring vehicles. In particular, lane changes in stop-and-go traffic conditions are of keen interest because these events lead to higher risk of crash occurrence caused by more frequent and abrupt vehicle acceleration and deceleration. From these perspectives, in-depth understanding of lane changes would be of keen interest in developing in-vehicle driving assistance systems. The purpose of this study is to analyze vehicle interactions using vehicle trajectories and to identify factors affecting lane changes with stop-and-go traffic conditions. This study used vehicle trajectory data obtained from a segment of the US-101 freeway in Southern California, as a part of the Next Generation Simulation (NGSIM) project. Vehicle trajectories were divided into two groups; with stop-and-go and without stop-and-go traffic conditions. Binary logistic regression (BLR), a well-known technique for dealing with the binary choice condition, was adopted to establish lane-changing decision models. Regarding lane changes without stop-and-go traffic conditions, it was identified based on the odd ratio investigation that he subject vehicle driver is more likely to pay attention to the movement of vehicles ahead, regardless of vehicle positions such as current and target lanes. On the other hand, the subject vehicle driver in stop-and-go traffic conditions is more likely to be affected by vehicles traveling on the target lane when deciding lane changes. The two BLR models are adequate for lane-changing decisions in normal and stop-and-go traffic conditions with about 80 % accuracy. A possible reason for this finding is that the subject vehicle driver has a tendency to pay greater attention to avoiding sideswipe or rear-end collision with vehicles on the target lane. These findings are expected to be used for better understanding of driver’s lane changing behavior associated with congested stop-and-go traffic conditions, and give valuable insights in developing algorithms to process sensor data in designing safer lateral maneuvering assistance systems, which include, for example, blind spot detection systems (BSDS) and lane keeping assistance systems (LKAS).     

Vision-based fusion of robust lane tracking and forward vehicle detection in a real driving environment

With the goal of developing an accurate and fast lane tracking system for the purpose of driver assistance, this paper proposes a vision-based fusion technique for lane tracking and forward vehicle detection to handle challenging conditions, i.e., lane occlusion by a forward vehicle, lane change, varying illumination, road traffic signs, and pitch motion, all of which often occur in real driving environments. First, our algorithm uses random sample consensus (RANSAC) and Kalman filtering to calculate the lane equation from the lane candidates found by template matching. Simple template matching and a combination of RANSAC and Kalman filtering makes calculating the lane equation as a hyperbola pair very quick and robust against varying illumination and discontinuities in the lane. Second, our algorithm uses a state transfer technique to maintain lane tracking continuously in spite of the lane changing situation. This reduces the computational time when dealing with the lane change because lane detection, which takes much more time than lane tracking, is not necessary with this algorithm. Third, false lane candidates from occlusions by frontal vehicles are eliminated using accurate regions of the forward vehicles from our improved forward vehicle detector. Fourth, our proposed method achieved robustness against road traffic signs and pitch motion using the adaptive region of interest and a constraint on the position of the vanishing point. Our algorithm was tested with image sequences from a real driving situation and demonstrated its robustness.     

Driving environment assessment using fusion of in- and out-of-vehicle vision systems

Because the overall driving environment consists of a complex combination of the traffic Environment, Vehicle, and Driver (EVD), Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) must consider not only events from each component of the EVD but also the interactions between them. Although previous researchers focused on the fusion of the states from the EVD (EVD states), they estimated and fused the simple EVD states for a single function system such as the lane change intent analysis. To overcome the current limitations, first, this paper defines the EVD states as driver’s gazing region, time to lane crossing, and time to collision. These states are estimated by enhanced detection and tracking methods from in- and out-of-vehicle vision systems. Second, it proposes a long-term prediction method of the EVD states using a time delayed neural network to fuse these states and a fuzzy inference system to assess the driving situation. When tested with real driving data, our system reduced false environment assessments and provided accurate lane departure, vehicle collision, and visual inattention warning signals.     

基于无人机视频拍摄的高速公路小型车换道行为特性

为了研究高速公路小型车的换道行为特性，采用2台无人机同时在200 m的高空对交通流进行拍摄，获取交通流运行状态。构建拍摄路段的高精度地图，获取每一时刻车辆的精确运行状态数据，在此基础上对2个视频进行拼接，最终获得车道位置、速度、车辆编号等8项关键指标，共提取换道行为1 520条，筛选后得到完整的自由换道数据942条。采用车辆轨迹是否持续偏移作为判断换道行为起终点的依据，在此基础上分析换道的时间长度、空间长度、与周边车辆的相互状态以及换道行为的安全性等16个特征参数。得出平均换道时间长度为6.09 s，平均换道空间距离为148.08 m，换道时间与空间长度均符合对数正态分布。换道车辆与目标车道后方车辆的平均距离最小（34.29 m），其相对距离在10 m以内的占28.24%，驾驶人为了加快行驶，在与目标车道后方车辆相对距离较小的情况下，依然采取换道措施。与正前方车辆的相对速度差最大，平均值为10.2 km·h^-1，并且在83%的情况下，本车的速度大于前车，说明车辆自由换道是由于前方车辆行驶速度较慢所引起。采用TTC，MTC分别对换道起始时刻的安全性进行分析，并将安全状态划分为4种类型：严重-紧急状态、严重-非紧急状态、非严重-紧急状态、非严重-非紧急状态。其中严重-非紧急，非严重-非紧急这2种状态占比最高。该研究成果对了解中国驾驶人在高速公路上的换道行为特性，以及对建立适用于中国实际交通环境特征的换道行为模型具有一定参考意义。     

Vehicle detection system design based on stereo vision sensors

Vehicle detection is a crucial issue for driver assistance system as well as for autonomous vehicle guidance function and it has to be performed with high reliability to avoid any potential collision. The vision-based vehicle detection systems are regarded promising for this purpose because they require little infrastructure on a highway. However, the feasibility of these systems in passenger car requires accurate and robust sensing performance. In this paper, a vehicle detection system using stereo vision sensors is developed. This system utilizes feature extraction, epipoplar constraint and feature matching in order to robustly detect the initial corresponding pairs. The proposed system can detect a leading vehicle in front and can estimate its position parameters such as the distance and heading angle. After the initial detection, the system executes the tracking algorithm for the vehicles in the lane. The proposed vehicle detection system is implemented on a passenger car and its performances are verified experimentally.     

驾驶员车道变换视点转移模型及其参数标定

为了获取驾驶员车道变换行程中的视点转移特性,构建视点转移模型,解决驾驶员行为监控设备布设缺乏依据的难题,采用眼动仪和人工记录的方式,分别以轿车和公交车驾驶员为研究样本,获取了车道变换行为过程中驾驶员视点停留时间和视点位置转移特性数据,给出驾驶员的眼动停留时间均值和分布规律,基于外界的交通运行环境,根据驾驶员对外界信息的获取程度,考虑驾驶员、车辆、道路、环境等影响因素,设定其符合泊松分布,将驾驶行为分为决策阶段和执行阶段,给出了基于6个模块的流程结构,构建基于信息满意度的视点位置转移模型并标定了模型参数。     

车队认知能力增强的通信区块间隙优化方法

为了在单车超越车队的过程中缩短超车车辆与车队间通信范围，减少车队通信压力，锁定影响车辆入队的关键车队区块，同时通过将待进入关键区块的车队进行间隙优化调整，为驾驶人提供定制化换道入队引导服务，提出了基于驾驶人超车风格特征参数的车队内信息传输关键区块锁定算法，通过分析影响驾驶人换道入队位置范围的关键因素，将驾驶人换道入队过程分为本车道速度调整过程与入队速度调整过程，利用非参数贝叶斯算法获取驾驶人超车换道特征数据并提出基于关键区块所在车队位置序列的车辆间隙优化调整策略。研究结果表明：超车车辆加速度、与前车预计碰撞时间、与车队相对速度是影响驾驶人换道入队范围的关键因素；通过非参数贝叶斯算法将超车车辆运行数据分类获取的驾驶人换道入队驾驶操作基元，可准确提供驾驶人行为特征关键参数；通过将驾驶人换道特征分为48个子类型，可锁定驾驶人换道入队范围且车队关键区块范围随着超车车辆与车队速度差值不同在各个特征类型上呈现不同变化趋势；针对驾驶人入队特征对待进入车队关键区块的车辆间隙进行优化调整，不仅可以为驾驶人提供可接受的驾驶辅助信息，同时减少了车队间隙产生过程中车辆加速度范围，提升了车队运行的舒适性。     

基于驾驶行为的城市道路车辆主观换道模型研究

车辆换道行为因其运行环境复杂,所涉及的交通因素众多,容易引起交通冲突,从而降低道路交通系统的安全性.对车辆换道行为的动态特性及其对车流运行的影响机理进行建模与研究,对提高交通系统的运行效率有重要意义.基于城市道路车辆换道行为的特征,改进了元胞自动机模型细化车辆换道过程;考虑驾驶员特性、车辆类型的影响,采用模糊推理理论描述驾驶员的换道决策,进而建立了城市道路驾驶员主观换道模型.通过将实测交通流数据与仿真输出数据进行对比,验证模型的有效性.结果表明,所建立的模型输出结果与实测数据的误差较小,说明模型具有一定的有效性.     

A new shared control for lane keeping and road departure prevention

In recent years, the driver's active assistances have become important features in commercialised vehicles. In this paper, we present one of these features which consists of an advanced driver assistance system for lane keeping. A thorough analysis of its performance and stability with respect to variations in driver behaviour will be given. Firstly, the lateral control model based on visual preview is established and the kinematics model based on visual preview, including speed and other factors, is used to calculate the lateral error and direction error. Secondly, and according to the characteristics of the lateral control, an efficient strategy of intelligent electric vehicle lateral mode is proposed. The integration of the vehicle current lateral error and direction error is chosen as the parameter of the sliding mode switching function to design the sliding surface. The control variables are adjusted according to the fuzzy control rules to ensure that they meet the existence and reaching condition. A new fuzzy logic-based switching strategy with an efficient control law is also proposed to ensure a level of continuous and variable sharing according to the state of the driver and the vehicle positioning on the roadway. The proposed control law acts either at the centre of the lane, as a lane keeping assistance system to reduce the driver's workload for long trips, or as a lane departure avoidance system that intervenes for unintended lane departures. Simulation results are included in this paper to explain this concept.     

基于线性路径跟踪控制的换道避撞控制策略研究

为实现车辆自主避撞，改善道路交通安全状况，提出一种基于线性路径跟踪控制的换道避撞控制策略。为实时确定制动和换道时机，获取跟车状态下自车和前车车速、加速度、相对距离以及驾驶人制动反应时间计算制动安全距离和换道安全距离，并在此基础上分别引入制动危险系数B和换道危险系数S评估制动与换道风险，使得车辆发生追尾碰撞的危险程度和主动干预阈值更直观。根据车辆期望横向加速度和期望横向位移的变化特性，采用5次多项式法规划符合驾驶人换道避撞特性的避撞路径。为保证换道避撞过程中驾驶人的安全舒适，采用最大横向加速度约束换道避撞轨迹。为实现对换道避撞路径的线性跟踪控制，保证车辆的操纵稳定性和横摆稳定性，基于车辆稳态动力学模型建立前馈控制，结合线性反馈控制消除换道路径的位置和横摆角偏差，修正参考路径实现直车道场景追尾避撞控制。仿真和实车交叉验证试验表明：根据车辆期望横向加速度和期望横向位移建立的符合驾驶人换道避撞特性的五次多项式换道路径与驾驶人实际换道避撞路径基本吻合，结合碰撞时间和车间时距的制动避撞控制策略能够在保证车辆行驶安全舒适性的同时有效避免车辆追尾碰撞，减少交通事故的发生。     

Risk management algorithm for rear-side collision avoidance using a combined steering torque overlay and differential braking

This paper describes a risk management algorithm for rear-side collision avoidance. The proposed risk management algorithm consists of a supervisor and a coordinator. The supervisor is designed to monitor collision risks between the subject vehicle and approaching vehicle in the adjacent lane. An appropriate criterion of intervention, which satisfies high acceptance to drivers through the consideration of a realistic traffic, has been determined based on the analysis of the kinematics of the vehicles in longitudinal and lateral directions. In order to assist the driver actively and increase driver's safety, a coordinator is designed to combine lateral control using a steering torque overlay by motor-driven power steering and differential braking by vehicle stability control. In order to prevent the collision while limiting actuator's control inputs and vehicle dynamics to safe values for the assurance of the driver's comfort, the Lyapunov theory and linear matrix inequalities based optimisation methods have been used. The proposed risk management algorithm has been evaluated via simulation using CarSim and MATLAB/Simulink.     

基于机器视觉的智能车辆前方道路边界及车道标识识别方法综述

为了全面了解国内外在基于机器视觉的智能车辆前方道路边界及车道标识识别领域的研究进展，文章介绍了近年来一些典型的基于机器视觉的道路边界及车道标识识别系统，对基于机器视觉的前方道路边界及车道标识识别方法进行了分类，对各大类方法中采用的不同技术进行了阐述，然后对基于机器视觉与其他传感器融合的识别方法进行了总结，最后就该领域的研究难点及发展趋势进行了简要论述。     

基于注意力Seq2Seq网络的高速公路交织区车辆变道轨迹预测

针对交通状态复杂的高速公路交织区域，经验丰富的驾驶人能够通过正确地推断周围车辆的未来运动进行及时的车道变换，这对于实现安全高效的自动驾驶至关重要，然而目前的自动驾驶车辆往往缺乏这种预测能力。为此，基于深度学习理论，提出了一种结合注意力机制和编-解码器结构的交织区车辆强制性变道轨迹预测方法，利用Next Generation Simulation（NGSIM）数据集提取车辆变道过程中的关键特征，并引入碰撞时间（Time to Collision，TTC）和避免碰撞减速度（Deceleration Rate to Avoid a Crash，DRAC）2种风险指标，将变道车辆及其周围车辆视为一个整体状态单元，同时补全状态单元内部不同车辆在横向和纵向上的时空状态特征，从而更有效地刻画车辆间的动态交互行为；然后将不同观测车辆的连续窗口序列输入基于长短期记忆网络（Long Short-term Memory，LSTM）的编-解码器，预测交织区车辆变道的未来运动轨迹，通过添加软注意力模块，使模型能够集中聚焦于影响车辆在不同时刻下位置变化的关键信息，再现了真实交通场景下车辆的变道行为。试验验证表明：基于注意力机制的编-解码器模型与当前流行的卷积长短期记忆网络、极限梯度提升树等模型相比具有更高的轨迹预测精度，在长时域的变道轨迹拟合上有显著的优越性，为辅助和自动驾驶领域的发展提供了新思路。     

基于地空信息融合的无人机交通状态感知方法研究

现有的无人机（UAV）交通状态感知方法，主要针对宏观交通状态参数的获取，同时尚未克服UAV自运动对交通参数检测精度的影响，难以满足智能交通系统对于高精度微观交通参数的应用需求。为此，提出一种基于地空信息融合的UAV交通状态感知方法，该方法包括：地空信息融合模型、道路关键点（IKP）检测及跟踪、车辆目标检测及追踪算法和交通状态参数提取及估计。其中，地空信息融合模型利用地基信息（IKP世界坐标）与空基信息（IKP像素坐标）进行最优化融合，并通过自适应IKP追踪算法与自适应UAV位置偏移判断算法实时更新模型参数，以此克服UAV自运动对车辆轨迹精度的影响，进而获取可靠的车辆级（瞬时速度、车头间距和车头时距）与车道级（车道动态密度、车道流量和空间平均车速）交通状态参数。利用提出的感知方法获取实地拍摄视频的车辆级交通参数并进行了分布检验，同时比较了基于不同交通流模型的车道级参数估算方法。结果表明：该方法在车辆检测的mAP@0.5指数超过90%，同时提取的车辆轨迹相对完整，获取的车辆级和车道级交通状态参数也符合实际交通流状况。最后，将该模型应用于实地道路的交通拥堵检测及交通事件检测，该研究结果为UAV在现代交通感知和管理中的应用提供了一种理论和技术参考。     

基于交通信息的电动汽车制动策略及仿真

为了提高滑行能量回收经济性和踏板制动安全性、舒适性,基于交通信息,提出了电动汽车(EV)制动协调策略。分析了滑行制动的经济性,由交通信息和汽车行驶状态确定滑行制动强度;由道路信息和前方车辆信息建立汽车安全距离模型和碰撞预警策略,利用预警信息对滑行制动和踏板制动强度进行协调。对本策略进行仿真验证。结果表明:利用交通信息的滑行策略,在通行良好工况下综合能耗减少1.1%,拥堵工况下减轻驾驶员的制动疲劳;预警和协调策略避免了频繁预警,减小了紧急避撞触发几率。因此,利用交通信息能够辅助驾驶员进行更加合理的制动。     

Development of a path planning system using mean shift algorithm for driver assistance

The longitudinal and lateral vehicle control techniques have been widely used in several active driver assistance systems. The adaptive cruise control, lane keeping assistant control, vehicle platooning and stop-and-go control are typical examples of the most important applications. In this study, a novel path planning method is proposed considering the driving environment such as road shape, ego vehicle and surrounding vehicles’ movement. The relative distance and velocity between the ego vehicle and surrounding vehicles are identified with respect to the predicted lane shape in front of the ego vehicle. Based on the identified information, the road shape and surrounding vehicles are mapped into the intensity image and the desired vector for the ego vehicle’s movement is determined by the maximum intensity density tracing method. The desired vehicle path is followed by the acceleration/deceleration control and the steering assist control, respectively. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed system, simulations are conducted and compared with ACC systems.     

基于VanetMobiSim/NS-2的车辆换道模型仿真

高速公路上驾驶人换道行为容易导致车辆碰撞事故。利用车载自组网（Vanet）车车通信提醒驾驶人在换道过程中可能遇到的危险,但在真实环境中测试车载自组网难度大,代价高。Vanet-MobiSim和NS-2分别是优秀的交通、网络仿真器,两者联合可以为车载自组网提供真实可靠的微观仿真平台。文中结合开源的VanetMobiSim中的智能驾驶人换道模型——IDM_LC设计Vanet环境下的车辆换道模型,仿真产生不同车密度、车道数下的移动车辆Trace文件。将Trace文件导入开源的NS-2中进行仿真分析。结果表明,采用VanetMobiSim/NS-2联合仿真平台可以很好的模拟设计的不同情景下的车辆换道模型,车辆换道时的车车通信将使得车辆换道效率和安全性都得到提高。     

Comparison of driving characteristics between drivers in Korea and in the united states of America based on driver-vehicle interaction field database

Research and development involving intelligent vehicles of today is geared to safe, driver-friendly and sensitive vehicles that provide a driver with a pleasant and convenient driving environment while preventing him or her from possible risks of accident. In developing convenient and safe vehicles, research on drivers’ driving patterns, reactions and state characteristics depending on road conditions in actual field is essential in order to devise more driver-friendly intelligent vehicles. This paper describes how a driver-vehicle interaction (DVI) field database is built in order to obtain a driver’s input in normal road driving condition on highways, country roads, and city roads, and his or her state information, as well as data on the vehicle and traffic conditions. And the newly built database is compared with the RDCW FOT database established by UMTRI of the US for analysis to suggest that the driving tendencies of drivers in Korea and the road driving conditions are not the same as those in the US, reconfirming the need to establish a DVI field database, which will be used for the development of intelligent vehicles suitable for the Korean environment. The DVI data collected from actual driving in field are anticipated to be widely utilized as basic data for research on various intelligent driving safety systems, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and human-vehicle interface (HVI) that are suitable for the driving environment in Korea.     

基于预期偏移距离的人机权值分配策略研究

针对智能车辆横向运动控制中驾驶员和辅助系统的控制权限冲突问题,本文中提出一种人机权值分配策略。采用车辆在预瞄点处的预期偏移距离(PDLC)衡量车道偏离危险度,预期偏移距离通过对预瞄偏差修正获取。权值分配函数设计时以PDLC为自变量,以保证驾驶员的权值为优先控制目标,以一定的横向运动控制精度为先决条件。在CarSim/Simulink联合仿真平台和CarSim/Labview RT硬件在环实验台上对提出的控制策略进行了实验验证和数据分析。结果表明,采用权值分配策略协调驾驶员和辅助系统的控制,可在有效跟踪理想道路中心线的前提下保证驾驶员的控制权值,降低其工作负荷以及纠正驾驶员的误操作行为。