Safe learning-based optimal motion planning for automated driving

Abstract: This paper presents preliminary work on learning the search heuristic for the optimal motion planning for automated driving in urban traffic. Previous work considered search-based optimal motion planning framework (SBOMP) that utilized numerical or model-based heuristics that did not consider dynamic obstacles. Optimal solution was still guaranteed since dynamic obstacles can only increase the cost. However, significant variations in the search efficiency are observed depending whether dynamic obstacles are present or not. This paper introduces ML based heuristic that takes into account dynamic obstacles, thus adding to the performance consistency for achieving real-time implementation.