Question About Autoware’s Handling of Sudden Obstacles

[Kim-mins]

Hi team,

Thank you for the great ADS!

I’m currently running Autoware in the CARLA simulator and have a quick question: Can Autoware handle obstacles that suddenly appear or disappear?

I’m specifically focusing on the simulation environment, so I’d like to know whether Autoware can drive safely when:

1. An obstacle suddenly appears in front of the vehicle.
2. An obstacle that was previously in front suddenly disappears.

I read the documentation which suggests that sudden obstacle appearances can be handled (e.g., stopping before a collision) via AEB. However, I’m uncertain whether Autoware properly handles situations where an obstacle in front suddenly disappears. Since this is an unrealistic scenario in the real world, is it a situation that Autoware is designed to consider?

Thanks in advance!

[maxime-clem]

There is no special consideration for "disappearing" obstacles.
Several modules have permanency features so that if an obstacle momentarily disappear it does not cause unsafe behavior. For example, perception will keep publishing the detected object for a short time after the pointcloud points disappear, and some planning modules have time buffer to not change their decision immediately.

I am curious what kind of behavior you would expect in the case of a disappearing obstacle so if possible please share more about your scenarios.

[Kim-mins]

Thank you for the response @maxime-clem!!

For disappearing obstacles, I thought the scenario like, Autoware stops due to a stopping obstacle in front, and the obstacle suddenly disappears(destroyed by CARLA).
In this case, I expect Autoware to drive more as there's no obstacle in its heading, but I just thought that this case could not be handled well as this cannot happen in real-world.

But following your answer, it seems this can be handled naturally without the special consideration. Could you please tell my if I understood correctly?

[maxime-clem]

Yes your understanding is correct 👍

[Kim-mins]

Thanks you for the answer!