Conservative Estimation of Perception Relevance of Dynamic Objects for Safe Trajectories in Automotive Scenarios

TL;DR

This paper introduces a conservative method to estimate the relevance of dynamic objects for perception in automated driving, aiding safe trajectory planning and testing in highway scenarios.

Contribution

It proposes a novel relevance estimation methodology based on safety and action constraints, specifically tailored for collision safety in highway driving.

Findings

Provides a formalized relevance criterion for dynamic objects

Demonstrates the approach with highD dataset examples

Outlines a future validation framework for the relevance concept

Abstract

Having efficient testing strategies is a core challenge that needs to be overcome for the release of automated driving. This necessitates clear requirements as well as suitable methods for testing. In this work, the requirements for perception modules are considered with respect to relevance. The concept of relevance currently remains insufficiently defined and specified. In this paper, we propose a novel methodology to overcome this challenge by exemplary application to collision safety in the highway domain. Using this general system and use case specification, a corresponding concept for relevance is derived. Irrelevant objects are thus defined as objects which do not limit the set of safe actions available to the ego vehicle under consideration of all uncertainties. As an initial step, the use case is decomposed into functional scenarios with respect to collision relevance. For each functional scenario, possible actions of both the ego vehicle and any other dynamic object are formalized as equations. This set of possible actions is constrained by traffic rules, yielding relevance criteria. As a result, we present a conservative estimation which dynamic objects are relevant for perception and need to be considered for a complete evaluation. The estimation provides requirements which are applicable for offline testing and validation of perception components. A visualization is presented for examples from the highD dataset, showing the plausibility of the results. Finally, a possibility for a future validation of the presented relevance concept is outlined.