Safety of Lane Change Maneuver Through A Priori Prediction of Trajectory Using Neural Networks

Lane change (LC) is a maneuver that allows drivers to enter into a lane that suits their requirements and comfort. The LC process requires the driver to assess its neighborhood traffic in its original and target lanes before undertaking the maneuver. Other vehicles in the neighborhood also need to adjust for safe lane change. The LC trajectory is determined by the accuracy of these subjective assessments as well as the state of traffic. An erroneous assessment by LC vehicle or neighboring vehicles or an incorrect maneuver can cause collision. The collision can be prevented if the LC trajectory can be predicted and the feasibility of LC can be communicated to different vehicles involved in this process. . In the present paper, neural network is used for long term forecast of the lane change trajectory and for short term near future positions of the LC vehicle. The neural network is trained using past LC trajectories of different vehicles. The trained network is then used for long and short term forecast of the vehicle’s positions during LC. Simulation results with actual filed data observed data indicates that neural network is able to learn LC maneuvers and is able to perform short term prediction with sufficient accuracy.