A multi-level collaborative driving framework for autonomous vehicles

This paper proposes a multi-level collaborative driving framework (MCDF) for human-autonomous vehicle interaction. There are three components in MCDF; the mission-behavior-motion block diagram, the functionality-module relationship and the human participation level table. Through integration of the three components, a human driver can cooperate with the vehicle's intelligence to achieve better driving performance, robustness and safety. The MCDF is successfully implemented in TROCS, a real-time autonomous vehicle control system developed by the Tartan Racing Team for the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge. The performance of MCDF is analyzed and a preliminary test in TROCS simulation mode shows that MCDF is effective in improving the driving performance.