Connectivity Enhanced Safe Neural Network Planner for Lane Changing in Mixed Traffic

Connectivity technology has shown great potentials in improving the safety and efficiency of transportation systems by providing information beyond the perception and prediction capabilities of individual vehicles. However, it is expected that human-driven and autonomous vehicles, and connected and non-connected vehicles need to share the transportation network during the transition period to fully connected and automated transportation systems. Such mixed traffic scenarios significantly increase the complexity in analyzing system behavior and quantifying uncertainty for highly interactive scenarios, e.g., lane changing. It is even harder to ensure system safety when neural network based planners are leveraged to further improve efficiency. In this work, we propose a connectivity-enhanced neural network based lane changing planner. By cooperating with surrounding connected vehicles in dynamic environment, our proposed planner will adapt its planned trajectory according to the analysis of a safe evasion trajectory. We demonstrate the strength of our planner design in improving efficiency and ensuring safety in various mixed traffic scenarios with extensive simulations. We also analyze the system robustness when the communication or coordination is not perfect.