This study focuses on trajectory planning and motion control policies in autonomous racing, which necessitates pushing the capacity boundaries of racing vehicles to achieve maximum speeds and minimal lap times. We propose an innovative planning control framework that integrates risk-conscious mutations in jump-start reinforcement learning (RCM-JSRL) and nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC). The RCM-JSRL algorithm incorporates jump-start curriculum learning and the risk-conscious genetic algorithm into reinforcement learning, leveraging prior expert knowledge and a curiosity-driven exploration mechanism to enhance training efficiency while avoiding excessively conservative policy generation in high-complexity and high-risk scenarios. NMPC generates locally optimal control commands that adhere to vehicle dynamics constraints while following the designated trajectory. Following training on track maps with varying difficulty levels, the proposed controller successfully executes a superior policy compared to the guide policy, providing evidence of its effectiveness and scalability. It is our belief that this technology can be applied in everyday driving scenarios, improving efficiency under special conditions, ensuring stability in critical situations, and broadening the scope of autonomous driving applications.

This study introduces the Metacognitive-Attribution Inspired Reinforcement Learning (MAIRL) approach, designed to address unprotected interactive left turns at intersections—one of the most challenging tasks in autonomous driving. By integrating the Metacognitive Theory and Attribution Theory from the psychology field with reinforcement learning, this study enriches the learning mechanisms of autonomous vehicles with human cognitive processes. Specifically, it applies Metacognitive Theory’s three core elements—Metacognitive Knowledge, Metacognitive Monitoring, and Metacognitive Reflection—to enhance the control framework’s capabilities in skill differentiation, real-time assessment, and adaptive learning for interactive motion planning. Furthermore, inspired by Attribution Theory, it decomposes the reward system in RL algorithms into three components: 1) skill improvement, 2) existing ability, and 3) environmental stochasticity. This framework emulates human learning and behavior adjustment, incorporating a deeper cognitive emulation into reinforcement algorithms to foster a unified cognitive structure and control strategy. Contrastive tests conducted in various intersection scenarios with differing traffic densities demonstrated the superior performance of the proposed controller, which outperformed baseline algorithms in success rates and had lower collision and timeout incidents. This interdisciplinary approach not only enhances the understanding and applicability of RL algorithms but also represents a meaningful step towards modeling advanced human cognitive processes in the field of autonomous driving.

This paper proposes a Learning-Enhanced Adaptive Decision-Making (LEAD) framework for autonomous vehicles (AVs) focusing on dynamic merging scenarios. To capture the competitive and strategic nature of vehicle interactions, we develop an interaction behavior model based on non-cooperative game theory. The behavior is modeled as a dynamic game, where each vehicle optimizes its actions using a multifactorial reward function. To optimize the behavior model parameters, maximum entropy inverse reinforcement learning (IRL) is employed to acquire optimal matching parameters. Additionally, a behavioral decision-making framework LEAD adapted to dynamic environments is proposed. By establishing a mapping between environmental variables and behavior model parameters, it enables parameters online learning and recognition, and achieves interactive behavior probabilities of AVs. Quantitative analysis employing naturalistic driving datasets (highD and exiD) and real-vehicle test data validates LEAD’s high consistency with human decision-making. In 188 tested interaction scenarios, the average human-like similarity rate is 81.73%, with a notable 83.12% in the highD dataset. Furthermore, in 145 dynamic interactions, LEAD matches human decisions at 77.12%, with 6913 consistence instances. Moreover, in real-vehicle tests, a 72.73% similarity with 0% safety violations is obtained. Results demonstrate the effectiveness of our LEAD framework in enabling AVs to make informed, adaptive behavior decisions in interactive environments.

The emergency collision avoidance capabilities of autonomous vehicles (AVs) are crucial for enhancing their active safety performance, particularly in extreme scenarios where standard methods fall short. This study introduces an Extreme Maneuver Controller (EMC) for AVs, utilizing reachability-guided reinforcement learning (RL) to address these challenging situations. By applying pseudospectral methods, we solve the minimum backward reachable tube (Min-BRT) to identify regions where conventional avoidance maneuvers are infeasible, establishing a theoretical basis for triggering extreme maneuvers. A novel controller, employing reachability-guided RL, enables vehicles to execute extreme maneuvers to escape these critical regions. During training, the value function derived from the Min-BRT solution informs the initialization of the Critic networks, enhancing training efficiency. Real-world scenario-based experimental results with actual vehicles validate that the proposed policy, effectively executes beyond-the-limit maneuvers, mitigating collision risks under emergency condition. Furthermore, these extreme maneuvers are executed with minimal deviation from the original driving objectives, ensuring a smooth and stable transition upon completion of extreme maneuvers.

Precise path tracking and agilely avoiding obstacles are essential for the stability and safety of autonomous driving. In this paper, we introduce a uniform safe path tracking control strategy that combines obstacle avoidance with path tracking via a barrier function. Unlike the conventional hierarchical collision avoidance methods, our approach employs an integral heuristic barrier function that addresses obstacle avoidance planning and reference trajectory tracking problems simultaneously. Via this, the complex safe trajectory following problem is simplified into a tractable yaw angle tracking problem. We then present a novel finite-time adaptive barrier function-based sliding mode controller that handles input saturation and enhances robustness. This ensures precise and robust yaw angle tracking within specified performance constraints. Moreover, the proposed approach achieves accelerated finite-time convergence compared to the exponential convergence rate. Finally, the Carsim-Simulink co-simulations and real-vehicle experiments validate the effectiveness and superiority of our method in addressing the path-tracking challenge, while upholding driving safety.

This study focuses on the motion planning and risk evaluation of unprotected left turns at occluded intersections for autonomous vehicles. In this paper, we present an interactive motion planning controller that combines Cross-Observability Optimistic-Pessimistic Safe Reinforcement Learning (COOP-SRL) and Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC), with consideration of the uncertain potential risk of occluded zone, the trade-off between safety and efficiency, and the dynamic interaction between vehicles. The proposed COOP-SRL algorithm integrates fully and partially observable policies through cross-observability soft imitation learning to leverage the expert guidance and improve learning efficiency. Moreover, the optimistic exploration policy and pessimism safe constraint are adopted to provide an adaptive safe strategy without hindering the exploration during learning process. Finally, the evaluations of the proposed controller were conducted in occluded intersection scenarios with various traffic density level, which indicate that the proposed method outperforms both the optimization-based and learning-based baselines in qualitative and quantitative indexes.

This paper introduces an adaptive beyond-the-limit controller, aimed at striking a balance between high-performance maneuvers, such as transient drift, and ensuring safety in unpredictable environments. Our work is motivated by the necessity for autonomous beyond-the-limit control adaptable to real-world uncertainties, where reinforcement learning (RL) faces simulation-to-reality gap challenges in safety and performance. Our approach introduces a hybrid control mechanism that integrates data-driven performance optimization with a robust safety-centric control policy. By leveraging expert demonstrations and employing Jump-Start RL framework in Frenet coordinates, we greatly improve the learning efficiency of performance optimization. Further, an integrated safety control policy is designed to mitigate hazards through predictive trajectory planning, thus significantly reducing the risk of accidents in unforeseen situations. Meanwhile, the hybrid control mechanism employs adaptive weighting between performance and safety considerations, allowing for fusion control based on real-time environmental assessments. Through simulation experiments and initial real-vehicle testing, we validate the effectiveness of our adaptive hybrid controller. The findings confirm that our controller consistently ensures integrated safety in unpredictable environments, with an acceptable impact on performance.