Path Planning for Vehicle Active Collision Avoidance Based on Virtual Flow Field

According to the inherent nature of the fluid that can naturally avoid obstacles, a path planning method for active collision avoidance of autonomous vehicles is presented based on the virtual flow field. Firstly, the mathematical model of the virtual flow field on the road is established by using the theory of hydrodynamics. Then a fifth degree polynomial curve is adopted to construct the virtual hazard area of the obstacle vehicle to prevent the fluid into this area, and it can be easily resized by adjusting the parameters of the lateral and longitudinal safety distance. Finally, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations are performed to quantitative predict the dynamic behavior of the ego vehicle on the straight or curved road and the desired path for active collision avoidance can be determined based on the calculation result of the flow field. The simulation results show that the proposed path planning method takes into account the dynamic characteristics and kinematic constraints of the vehicle, and ensures that the vehicle doesn’t collide with the dynamic and static obstacles on the road.