[Help needed!]Enabling Autoware's Lane Changing, Obstacle Avoidance, and Overtaking with co-simulation of carla0.9.13 and autoware.universe(galactic)

[zsan2023]

[Description]：When I integrate Autoware.universe (Galactic) with Carla 0.9.13 for simulation, I noticed that Autoware doesn't maneuver around stationary vehicles ahead but comes to a halt instead. Additionally, the goal pose must be set on the same lane within Autoware; setting the goal pose on adjacent lanes leads to incorrect vehicle engagement.

I am new to using Autoware.universe with Carla and lack relevant knowledge. And I am in great need of Autoware's lane changing, overtaking, and obstacle avoidance functionalities. Any assistance you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

[zsan2023]

When i set the goal pose on the same lane with Autoware,the state is "Waiting for engage" ; but when i set it to the Same-direction adjacent lanes, the state is "Waiting for route"

[maxime-clem]

I can think of 2 possible issues:

• The version of Autoware you are using is too old is missing some features.
• The lanelet map you are using does not allow lane changes.

My suggestion is to try your map with the simple_planning_simulator and with the latest version of Autoware. If you are able to do the lane change then the Autoware version is the issue. If you cannot do a lane change even with the latest Autoware version, then the map probably does not allow lane changes.

[zsan2023]

Thank you for your help! I will try simple_planning_simulator to see if there are any changes.

[zsan2023]

I tried using the simple_planning_simulator and found that vehicles also cannot change lanes in it. Since the autoware.universe based on ROS Galactic should have lane-changing functionality, I suspect the issue lies with the map. Thanks again for your help!

[zsan2023]

When I used the simple_planning_simulator, I found that Autoware's inability to change lanes is indeed related to the map. Therefore, I made changes to the map information. I made modifications to all the way elements in the lanelet2_map.osm file.
I added the attributes "dashed" and "line_thin" to all way elements as follows:
From：

<way id="36183" version="1">
    <nd ref="36265" />
    <nd ref="11474" />
</way>

To:

<way id="36183" version="1">
    <nd ref="36265" />
    <nd ref="11474" />
    <tag k='subtype' v='dashed' />
    <tag k='type' v='line_thin' />
</way>

After modifying the map, I found that Autoware can correctly execute lane changes on some parts of the road in the lanelet2_map.osm map. However, it doesn't work on other roads. Once I set the vehicle's starting position on these roads, the Autoware state remains in the "planning" state consistently, as shown in the figure below:

After setting the starting point on these roads, not only can the vehicle not change lanes, but it also cannot drive normally. Moreover, after setting the starting point on these roads, even if I set the starting point again at another location, the vehicle cannot engage properly. Instead, it remains in the "planning" state consistently.Regarding being stuck in the 'planning' state, there are actually two situations.

[maxime-clem]

Thank you for sharing your map file. I was able to reproduce the same controller crash you encounter, even with the latest Autoware version.
There is probably something wrong with the map, but ideally it should not cause any crash, so I will need to investigate further when I find the time.
A possible source of problem is having duplicate points in the lanelet map (for example having a lanelet center line with points [A B C C D E ...], the duplicate point C can cause issues).
There also seem to be issue with some huge lanelets that overlap most of the map (highlighted in the picture).

[zsan2023]

Thank you for your feedback！Looking forward to your next discovery.
I will continue to investigate the issue as well.

[zsan2023]

I've noticed that Autoware can change lanes, but can it also perform overtaking? In my testing, it seems that Autoware cannot overtake. @maxime-clem

[maxime-clem]

Overtake is currently not supported by Autoware, as explained here: https://autowarefoundation.github.io/autoware.universe/main/planning/behavior_path_avoidance_module/#future-extensions-unimplemented-parts.

• In the current implementation, only stopped vehicle is targeted as an avoidance target. It is needed to support the overtaking function for low-speed vehicles, such as a bicycle. (It is actually possible to overtake the low-speed objects by changing the parameter, but the logic is not supported and thus the safety cannot be guaranteed.)
• The overtaking (e.g., to overtake a vehicle running in front at 20 km/h at 40 km/h) may need to be handled outside the avoidance module. It should be discussed which module should handle it.

[zsan2023]

Okay, I understand. Thank you very much！

[zsan2023]

@maxime-clem Could you please help me analyze this issue？

[equantumWang]

Guys I may find the root cause of this problem. see my issues in Dr. Hatem's autoware-content (vector map) issue

if you have trouble in reading Chinese, use google translate or Chatgpt

最根本的原因是: 提供的Carla Vector Map 中相邻的车道不是连通的区域，在Graph中属于独立的两个域。

请允许我逐个解释:

1. 在Lanelet2中，车道一般由两个元素组成：两侧的ways以及ways中间所夹的区域组成的lanelet，如 way0-Lanlet0-way1，way与lanelet的关系是由“Relationship来定义的”，如way0的relationship为 Lanelet0的 left way，way1的relationship为 Lanelet0的 right way。
2. 基于点1，可实施变道的车道定义应该如下： way0-Lanelet0-way1-Lanelet1-way2-Lanelet2-way3.... 关键的地方在于：way1以及way2这些处于两个lanelet中间的way，会有两个"Relationship"：如way1为Lanelet0的right way, 且为Lanelet1的left way。这样，Lanelet0与Lanelet1才通过way1成为Graph中的连通域，在求解变道时才会求得可行解。
3. 原本的 .osm 文件中，通过软件 JOSM（开源osm编辑软件）可以观察到，处于中间车道的地方（即非最左侧或最右侧的车道），一条way的位置实际上有两条重合的ways，如： way0 - lanelet0 -way1 (overlap) way2 -lanelet1..... 这里way1与way2在视觉上只有一条线，但是在JOSM确认了这里有两条way，因此 way1 和way2 都仅有一个relationship。 lanelet0没有与lanelet1建立Graph关系，因为way1与way2没有任何关系，因此 lanelet0 与 lanelet1在 Graph中是独立的两个域，因此也就无法求解出可行path。
4. 正确的way的属性应该有两个relationship,如下：
   

回答中提到的以下方式，我尝试了一下，单独使用并不能实现变道，需要结合下述解决方案（在修改完地图的relationships后添加”dashed”和”line_thin”这两个属性）

<way id="36183" version="1">
    <nd ref="36265" />
    <nd ref="11474" />
    <tag k='subtype' v='dashed' />
    <tag k='type' v='line_thin' />
</way>

Tips：可以使用vscode的查找功能Ctrl+F并结合正则表达式，查询进行批量替换

为此，解决方案是：

1. 使用JOSM 重构OSM地图，并将关系设置正确
2. 由于重叠线的存在，导致在删除时是随机选择的，可能会导致“Relationship”的破碎，因为这些Lanelet还有前继后驱，因此建议逐个将车道两侧的两条重叠线删除，并重新画way，重新设置关系（通过JOSM），这会是一个比较大的工作量。
3. 我尝试过只删除重叠线的一根并重新设置剩余那根的关系，但是在导入Autoware时并不能正确读取vector map，我想这可能是因为在osm中存在一些删除时导致的独立的way 或者lanelet存在，因此我建议是将全图重构。

以下是重构后的部分地图，用于验证，在此地图上我可以成功设置变道。

[zsan2023]

感谢回答！我之前尝试过在JOSM中修改地图，确实有效。