Active collision avoidance system for steering control of autonomous vehicles

The study proposes an active collision avoidance system to allow safe lane-changing manoeuvres by self-steering vehicles in the presence of the uncertainties associated with nearby vehicles and the surrounding environment. This system integrates estimation of conflict probability, model predictive control and dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) techniques to ensure a collision-free operation. To accomplish this, the proposed system uses model predictive control to predict the future positions of vehicles and estimates the conflict probability so as to reduce the risk of collision. The system also exploits DSRC techniques to facilitate the gathering of information from nearby vehicles so that potential conflicts can be detected at an earlier stage. Autonomous vehicles can thus make adjustments based on the acquired data to avoid collisions in a real communication environment. The effectiveness of the method has been verified under experimental conditions. The influences of key parameters in the control method are examined.