Autonomous cooperative driving: A velocity-based negotiation approach for intersection crossing

In this article, a scenario where several vehicles have to coordinate among them in order to cross a traffic intersection is considered. In this case, the control problem relies on the optimization of a cost function while guaranteeing collision avoidance and the satisfaction of local constraints. A decentralized solution is proposed where vehicles sequentially solve local optimization problems allowing them to cross, in a safe way, the intersection. This approach pays a special attention to how the degrees of freedom that each vehicle disposes to avoid a potential collision can be quantified and led to an adequate formalism to the considered problem. In the proposed strategy, collision avoidance is enforced through local state constraints at given time instants and agents are assumed to only communicate the available time to react and the time stamps at which they expect to be within the intersection. Simulations results on the efficiency and performance of the proposed approach are also presented.