Multi-level Bayesian decision-making for safe and flexible autonomous navigation in highway environment

This paper proposes an overall Multi-Controller Architecture (MCA) for safe and flexible navigation of autonomous navigation, under uncertainties in highway use-cases. In addition to the details given about the main modules (and their interactions) composing the proposed MCA, an important focus of the paper is made on the definition of a robust Two-Sequential Level Decision Network (TSLDN), which uses both: Extended Time-To-Collision (ETTC) metric and a new definition of a specific Predicted Inter-Distance Profile (PIDP, between vehicles during lane changes maneuvers) in order to estimate the maneuvers risks. The TSLDN is utilized for: the driving situation assessment, decision-making and for safety retrospection over the current maneuver risk. It allows us to have the best decision to achieve the vehicle navigation task while maximizing its safety. Several simulation results show the good performance of the overall proposed control architecture, mainly in terms of efficiency to handle probabilistic decision-making even for very risky scenarios.