obstacle_avoidance_planner's influence on Autowares operation on lanelet2 map

[kielczykowski-rai]

Lately, I tried to configure a new lanelet2 map to work with Autoware. I was able to configure it and make the Autoware move ego along the lanes, however, its operation was limited. As I have discovered the problem appeared at some intersections due to the obstacle_avoidance_planner detecting that the car's footprint will be outside the driving lane.

The problem which I have is that the lanelet lanes are a little bit narrow but they match the actual state in the real world so I was wondering if there is any other possibility to change the Autowares operation on the given map. I found that the is_stopping_if_outside_drivable_area parameter available in a launch file can prevent the car from stopping while making turns.

So my questions are:

1. Will the is_stopping_if_outside_drivable_area parameter set to False have any breaking influence on the operation on the rest of the system? I get that it is another feature/constraint for operating on feasible trajectories, but I wanted to make sure that turning the parameter off doesn't have other far-reaching effects on the proper operation of the Autoware.
2. Couldn't the footprint checker (isOutsideDrivableAreaFromRectangleFootprint) be a little less strict, since there are some situations, even on the real-world road, where the overhang of the car leaves a given lane, even when the wheels stay inside the lane area (ex. tight turns)? If the footprint's length would be equal to the car's wheelbase then the Autoware operates freely on my map and still manages to prevent the ego from entering the forbidden areas.

[maxime-clem]

1. Will the is_stopping_if_outside_drivable_area parameter set to False have any breaking influence on the operation on the rest of the system?

This parameter does not impact the rest of the system. However setting is_stopping_if_outside_drivable_area to False is unsafe and should not be done on a real vehicle.

2. Couldn't the footprint checker (isOutsideDrivableAreaFromRectangleFootprint) be a little less strict, [...]

It is possible. For example an extra parameter for a distance_buffer could be added and a negative value would lead to the behavior you describe. However this is also unsafe.

One way to stay safe in this situation is to guarantee that obstacle detection can accurately detect objects that may collide with the overhang of the car (e.g., a high curb along the lane) but I do not think this is currently the case. This would also require a very high precision in the perception and control which may be difficult to achieve.

In my opinion, the better and safer solution to this problem is to have a planner that can generate a trajectory that do not go outside of the drivable area. Maybe the motion planner of OpenPlanner could solve this case. It is currently being ported to universe.