Patent ID: 8825266

Claim:
A method for controlling a vehicle to automatically avoid collisions of the vehicle with obstacles, the method comprising: detecting and localizing an obstacle in front of the vehicle, wherein relative position of the obstacle with respect to the vehicle is defined by relative coordinates; measuring the relative velocity with respect to the detected obstacle; evaluating a risk of collision of the vehicle with the obstacle dependent upon the current relative position and relative velocity; performing of the following steps, if there is a risk of collision with the obstacle: computing a domain of uncertainty around the obstacle dependent upon measurement errors; computing an avoidance point at a boundary of the domain of uncertainty; defining a protection zone having a radius around the avoidance point; defining a circular exit path of a given curve radius; and navigating the vehicle at a critical distance such that the vehicle follows the circular exit path, wherein the circular exit path is tangential to the protection zone, and wherein the detected obstacle is classified into one of three groups: namely a first group “stationary obstacles”, a second group “moving and cooperating obstacles”, and a third group “moving and non-cooperating obstacles”, wherein cooperating obstacles follow pre-defined avoidance rules, and wherein non-cooperating obstacles ignore the vehicle and wherein, in case of stationary obstacles, four vertices of the stationary uncertainty domain are determined according to formulas: point 1: [( R SENSE −R MIN )cos(Ψ−Ψ MIN ),( R SENSE −R MIN )sin(Ψ−Ψ MIN )], point 2: [( R SENSE +R MAX )cos(Ψ−Ψ MIN ),( R SENSE +R MAX )sin(Ψ−Ψ MIN )], point 3: [( R SENSE +R MAX )cos(Ψ+Ψ MAX ),( R SENSE −R MIN )sin(Ψ P+Ψ MAX )], and point 4: [( R SENSE −R MIN )cos(Ψ+Ψ MAX ),( R SENSE −R MIN )sin(Ψ+Ψ MAX )], wherein the domain of uncertainty is characterized by a nominal value Ψ, by R SENSE of the Azimut Angle, the distance, and corresponding uncertainty values Ψ MIN , Ψ MAX , R MIN , R MAX .