Trajectory Planning of Autonomous Trucks for Collision Avoidance With Rollover Prevention

Autonomous trucks are considered as one of the most promising developments for future commercial vehicles. However, the impact of roll dynamics, which is well known as a crucial safety factor for conventional human-driven trucks, is not well studied for the trajectory planning of autonomous trucks. In this study, a trajectory planning strategy of autonomous trucks is proposed for collision avoidance scenarios with rollover prevention. The proposed three-step planning strategy can ensure both vehicle lateral and roll stability and safety, and simultaneously preserve the optimality of the planning solutions in terms of the total traveling time and distance for the whole maneuver. Specifically, the impact of vehicle roll dynamics on the trajectory planning of autonomous trucks is studied. The effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed trajectory planning strategy are evaluated via co-simulation between Matlab/Simulink and TruckSim.