On-Road Motion Planning for Automated Vehicles at Ulm University

The Institute of Measurement, Control, and Microtechnology at Ulm University has investigated advanced driver assistance systems for decades and concentrated, in large part, on autonomous driving. It is well known that motion planning is a key technology for autonomous driving. It is, first and foremost, responsible for the safety of vehicle passengers as well as all surrounding traffic participants. However, a further task consists of providing smooth and comfortable driving behavior. In Ulm, we are grateful to have the opportunity to test our algorithms under real conditions in public traffic and diversified scenarios. In this article, we give readers an insight into our work, including the vehicle and test track, as well as related problems, challenges, and solutions. We describe the motion planning system and explain the implemented functionalities. Furthermore, we show how our vehicle moves through public road traffic and deals with challenging scenarios, e.g., driving through roundabouts and intersections.