SMART-Merge Planner: A Safe Merging and Real-Time Motion Planner for Autonomous Highway On-Ramp Merging

Fuente: arXiv
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Mohammadnejad, Toktam, D'sa, Jovin, Chalaki, Behdad, Mahjoub, Hossein Nourkhiz, Moradi-Pari, Ehsan
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866916844514836480
author Mohammadnejad, Toktam
D'sa, Jovin
Chalaki, Behdad
Mahjoub, Hossein Nourkhiz
Moradi-Pari, Ehsan
author_facet Mohammadnejad, Toktam
D'sa, Jovin
Chalaki, Behdad
Mahjoub, Hossein Nourkhiz
Moradi-Pari, Ehsan
contents Merging onto a highway is a complex driving task that requires identifying a safe gap, adjusting speed, often interactions to create a merging gap, and completing the merge maneuver within a limited time window while maintaining safety and driving comfort. In this paper, we introduce a Safe Merging and Real-Time Merge (SMART-Merge) planner, a lattice-based motion planner designed to facilitate safe and comfortable forced merging. By deliberately adapting cost terms to the unique challenges of forced merging and introducing a desired speed heuristic, SMART-Merge planner enables the ego vehicle to merge successfully while minimizing the merge time. We verify the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed merge planner through high-fidelity CarMaker simulations on hundreds of highway merge scenarios. Our proposed planner achieves the success rate of 100% as well as completes the merge maneuver in the shortest amount of time compared with the baselines, demonstrating our planner's capability to handle complex forced merge tasks and provide a reliable and robust solution for autonomous highway merge. The simulation result videos are available at https://sites.google.com/view/smart-merge-planner/home.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_10968
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle SMART-Merge Planner: A Safe Merging and Real-Time Motion Planner for Autonomous Highway On-Ramp Merging
Mohammadnejad, Toktam
D'sa, Jovin
Chalaki, Behdad
Mahjoub, Hossein Nourkhiz
Moradi-Pari, Ehsan
Robotics
Systems and Control
Merging onto a highway is a complex driving task that requires identifying a safe gap, adjusting speed, often interactions to create a merging gap, and completing the merge maneuver within a limited time window while maintaining safety and driving comfort. In this paper, we introduce a Safe Merging and Real-Time Merge (SMART-Merge) planner, a lattice-based motion planner designed to facilitate safe and comfortable forced merging. By deliberately adapting cost terms to the unique challenges of forced merging and introducing a desired speed heuristic, SMART-Merge planner enables the ego vehicle to merge successfully while minimizing the merge time. We verify the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed merge planner through high-fidelity CarMaker simulations on hundreds of highway merge scenarios. Our proposed planner achieves the success rate of 100% as well as completes the merge maneuver in the shortest amount of time compared with the baselines, demonstrating our planner's capability to handle complex forced merge tasks and provide a reliable and robust solution for autonomous highway merge. The simulation result videos are available at https://sites.google.com/view/smart-merge-planner/home.
title SMART-Merge Planner: A Safe Merging and Real-Time Motion Planner for Autonomous Highway On-Ramp Merging
topic Robotics
Systems and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.10968