Robust Real-Time Sampling-Based Motion Planner for Autonomous Vehicles in Narrow Environments

Real-time sampling-based planners increasingly use learned sampling distributions for faster planning in autonomous vehicles. These planners employ a neural network to predict the optimal path and bias some samples toward the path. However, inherent prediction inaccuracies of the network often lead to suboptimal paths, especially in narrow spaces. Learned samples should be used carefully based on accuracy, as inaccurate samples can degrade planning performance. To address this problem, this paper proposes <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Learned Adaptive Anytime TargetTree-RRT* (LA3T*)</i> algorithm. The proposed planner introduces the adaptive biasing ratio. The approach learns to assess the reliability of the learned distribution using the network’s confidence. This confidence approximates a proper ratio of learned samples used, thereby adaptively maximizing planning performance while considering a level of prediction accuracy. Furthermore, the LA3T* algorithm incorporates the target tree algorithm. The goal pose is replaced with a set (target tree) of pre-defined optimal path segments, reducing computational efforts in narrow regions. Experiments in various driving tasks explore the benefits of each component through ablation studies. The proposed algorithm significantly increases the success rate and reduces the path length in simulated and real-world scenarios compared to other sampling-based methods.