PLM-Net: Perception Latency Mitigation Network for Vision-Based Lateral Control of Autonomous Vehicles

This study introduces the Perception Latency Mitigation Network (PLM-Net), a modular deep learning framework designed to mitigate perception latency in vision-based imitation-learning lane-keeping systems. Perception latency, defined as the delay between visual sensing and steering actuation, can degrade lateral tracking performance and steering stability. While delay compensation has been extensively studied in classical predictive control systems, its treatment within vision-based imitation-learning architectures under constant and time-varying perception latency remains limited. Rather than reducing latency itself, PLM-Net mitigates its effect on control performance through a plug-in architecture that preserves the original control pipeline. The framework consists of a frozen Base Model (BM), representing an existing lane-keeping controller, and a Timed Action Prediction Model (TAPM), which predicts future steering actions corresponding to discrete latency conditions. Real-time mitigation is achieved by interpolating between model outputs according to the measured latency value, enabling adaptation to both constant and time-varying latency. The framework is evaluated in a closed-loop deterministic simulation environment under fixed-speed conditions to isolate the impact of perception latency. Results demonstrate significant reductions in steering error under multiple latency settings, achieving up to 62% and 78% reductions in Mean Absolute Error (MAE) for constant and time-varying latency cases, respectively. These findings demonstrate the architectural feasibility of modular latency mitigation for vision-based lateral control under controlled simulation settings. The project page including video demonstrations, code, and dataset is publicly released.