3D Gradient Reconstruction-Based Path Planning Method for Autonomous Vehicle With Enhanced Roll Stability

Path planning has received more and more attention due to its indispensability in autonomous vehicle (AV). Generally speaking, the stability of AV is not fully considered in path planning, therefore, the planned path may be detrimental for maintaining the stability. And this problem is even more acute for roll stability in complex 3D environment, such as off-road terrain environment. To enhance the roll stability on off-road terrain, a 3D gradient reconstruction-based path planning method (3DGRB-PPM) is presented in this work. The 3DGRB-PPM can keep the roll angle at a low level even in complex 3D environment, thus greatly enhancing the roll stability. The 3DGRB-PPM includes two parts, a gradient reconstruction unit and an adaptive fusion unit. In order to ensure the roll stability of AV in path planning, the gradient reconstruction unit is designed by constructing two potential fields, a joint potential field of gradient and roll angle for enhancing the roll stability and a 3D artificial potential field for reaching the destination. In order to coordinate these two potential fields, an adaptive fusion unit is designed by fuzzy inference rule. The simulation is implemented on the Matlab-Carsim co-simulation platform, and the simulation results show that the path planned by 3DGRB-PPM has good performance with enhanced roll stability.