A Multi-Vehicle Control Framework With Application to Automated Valet Parking

We introduce a distributed control method for coordinating multiple vehicles in the framework of an automated valet parking (AVP) system. The control functionality is distributed between an infrastructure server, called parking area management (PAM) system, and local autonomous vehicle control units. Via a vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication interface, model predictive control (MPC) decisions of the vehicles are shared with the coordination unit in the PAM. This unit in turn computes a coupling feedback which is shared with the vehicles. The control system is integrated in an automated test-system to cope with the high test requirements and short development cycles of highly automated systems. Evaluations conducted with the test-system show the functionality of the proposed distributed control method for multi-vehicle coordination. Results indicate safe coordination, and an efficiency increase compared to an uncoordinated method in an AVP simulation environment.