The Impact of Cooperative Perception on Decision Making and Planning of Autonomous Vehicles

In this article, we investigate how cooperative perception gives the impact on decision making and planning of autonomous vehicles on the road. Cooperative perception is the exchange of local sensing information with other vehicles or infrastructures via wireless communications, by which the perception range can be considerably extended up to the boundary of connected vehicles. This augmented perception capability can provide oncoming traffic information beyond line-of-sight and field-of-view, which enables better control of both manned and unmanned vehicles. In this article, we first present an on-road sensing system to provide a see-through/lifted-seat/satellite view to drivers. Then, we investigate how the extended perception capability can contribute to situation awareness on the road. Finally, we provide methods for safer and smoother autonomous driving using the augmented situation awareness and perception capability. All introduced and proposed concepts are implemented and validated on autonomous vehicles.