COLLISION AWARE PATH PLANNING SYSTEMS AND METHODS

Systems and methods for path planning for autonomous vehicles err on the side of a safer road position and safer type of collision if one were to occur. An autonomous vehicle perception module detects target objects within a region of interest (ROI). An autonomous vehicle processor estimates relative velocity between the ego vehicle and target objects, and estimates mass of target objects. Collision-aware path planning calculates a cost function that assigns higher costs for paths that take the vehicle close to objects that have a large velocity difference and higher costs for objects with large estimated mass. Path planning provides a cost map that yields a path that has appropriate buffer distances between the autonomous vehicle and surrounding objects. In the event the ego vehicle balances buffer distance margins to multiple surrounding target objects, target objects that would create more severe collisions are given greater buffer distance.