The Potential Safety Benefit of Propulsion in Obstacle Avoidance Manoeuvres with Oncoming Traffic

Paper in proceeding, 2014

The obstacle avoidance manoeuvre with oncoming traffic scenario is analysed. The possibility of using propulsion, specifically from electric motors, to reduce the risk of collision with oncoming traffic is investigated. Analysis is done using a point mass and a two track vehicle model in an optimal control framework. It is found that propulsion can be of help in reducing the collision risk in such scenarios for a certain set of manoeuvre parameters.