Follow My Lead: Designing an ADAS that Shares Decision Making and Control with the Driver

Driving through traffic often involves sequences of distinct maneuvers, for example changing lanes and overtaking slower vehicles. To assist drivers in these situations, a system for shared decision making and control (SDMC) is developed, taking inspiration from the lead-follow relationship in partner dancing. The SDMC system plans maneuvers through parallel nonlinear optimizations, infers the driver's intended maneuver, and shares control over steering, throttle, and braking actuators to jointly execute the maneuver. Experimental results in overtaking and lane changing scenarios demonstrate the driver's ability to guide the system through sequences of maneuvers and the system's support of the driver via shared lateral and longitudinal control.