Autonomous Valet Parking

[maxime-clem]

This discussion is about supporting Autonomous Valet Parking (AVP) with the current version of Autoware (universe).

The previous version of Autoware (Autoware.Auto) used AVP for demonstration (https://autowarefoundation.gitlab.io/autoware.auto/AutowareAuto/avpdemo.html) with the following functionalities:

• Automatically drive a car from a pre-defined drop-off zone (e.g. the entrance to a car park) to a parking spot indicated by an external system.
• Park a car in a parking spot, starting in a lane near that parking spot.
• Drive out of a parking spot.
• Drive to a pre-defined pick-up zone (e.g. the exit from a car park).
• Automatically stop for obstacles while achieving the above.

These functionalities are already implemented, mostly with the autoware_freespace_planning_algorithms, but they are not robust enough to consistently achieve successful AVP with real vehicle.
Issues that can prevent AVP from succeeding:

• The ego vehicle deviates from its trajectory during the parking maneuver.
• The ego vehicle does not accurately stop on the goal pose.
• Trajectories that drive close to other vehicles can cause sudden stops and the vehicle may then get stuck.
• After setting a parking space goal, the route to get close to the goal can be very bad.
  • may not follow the road if ego is already inside the parking lot.
  • may go to the lanelet nearest to the goal, which can be wrong.

Some parking issues are detailed here: autowarefoundation/autoware.universe#8342

[maxime-clem]

Feedback during the Planning & Control working group:

• What is the point of this discussion ?
  • Some people are interested in the AVP feature. This would be nice to use for demonstration.
  • We can talk to some partners who are interested in AVP (@samet-kutuk can contact some partners)
  • This can be preparatory work for an implementation of the feature in the future.
  • Trying to park with Autoware currently can look very bad.
• About sensors: for parking, some extra sensors should be required for accurate obstacle detection at short range.
  • In simulation and some test vehicles we have accurate short range obstacle detection but we still have issues.
• What needs improvement:
  • reaching the intermediate pose from which we will start the parking maneuver.
  • default parameters (e.g., with AEB, safety distances of freespace planner, ...) can prevent proper parking maneuvers.
    • probably need dynamic parameters.

[cjohn66]

@maxime-clem AMD is interested in implementing AVP on their hardware platforms. Simon George is leading this effort within AMD.

[samet-kutuk]

@maxime-clem AMD is interested in implementing AVP on their hardware platforms. Simon George is leading this effort within AMD.

I already connected Maxime with the AMD team