Real time implementation of socially acceptable collision avoidance of a low speed autonomous shuttle using the elastic band method

This paper presents the real time implementation of socially acceptable collision avoidance using the elastic band method for low speed autonomous shuttles operating in high pedestrian density environments. The modeling and validation of the research autonomous vehicle used in the experimental implementation is presented first, followed by the details of the Hardware-In-the-Loop connected and autonomous vehicle simulator used. The socially acceptable collision avoidance algorithm is formulated using the elastic band method as an online, local path modification algorithm. Parameter space based robust feedback plus feedforward steering controller design is used. Model-in-the-loop, Hardware-In-the-Loop and road testing in a proving ground are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the real time implementation of the elastic band based socially acceptable collision avoidance method of this paper.