Deep Reinforcement Learning for Advanced Longitudinal Control and Collision Avoidance in High-Risk Driving Scenarios

Abstract

Existing Advanced Driver Assistance Systems primarily focus on the vehicle directly ahead, often overlooking potential risks from following vehicles. This oversight can lead to ineffective handling of high risk situations, such as high speed, closely spaced, multi vehicle scenarios where emergency braking by one vehicle might trigger a pile up collision. To overcome these limitations, this study introduces a novel deep reinforcement learning based algorithm for longitudinal control and collision avoidance. This proposed algorithm effectively considers the behavior of both leading and following vehicles. Its implementation in simulated high risk scenarios, which involve emergency braking in dense traffic where traditional systems typically fail, has demonstrated the algorithm ability to prevent potential pile up collisions, including those involving heavy duty vehicles.