Active perception for autonomous vehicles

Precise perception of a vehicle´s surrounding is crucial for safe autonomous driving. It requires a high sensor resolution and a large field of view. Active perception, i.e. the redirection of a sensor´s focus of attention, is an approach to provide both. With active perception, however, the selection of an appropriate sensor orientation becomes necessary. This paper presents a method for determining the sensor orientation in urban traffic scenarios based on three criteria: the importance of traffic participants w.r.t. the current situation, the available information about traffic participants while considering alternative sensor orientations as well as sensor coverage of the vehicle´s relevant surrounding area.