Autonomous driving manoeuvres in urban road traffic environment: Control study on roundabouts

Abstract

The highway and urban traffic safety has significantly been improved thanks to advanced development of Intelligent Transportation Systems technologies. However, some driving aspects have remained outside of this evolution or they are still in the development stage. Autonomous vehicle performance on roundabouts is one of these. In this paper, a simple and practical approach for the driverless control on roundabouts is described. Firstly, a description of a path planning is explained. Finally, a new concept for lateral control on roundabouts is introduced, taking into account entrances, exits and lane changes inside the roundabouts. The experiments have been tested in a 3D simulator that emulates the behaviour of driverless vehicle from the real world, – Cybercars. The results are promising, and leave the door open for future implementation in real vehicles.