Project Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Klaus Werner Schmidt

Project Type: TUBITAK 1001

Project Budget: 1.378.113 TL

Project Duration: 36 Months

Project Start Date: 28 March 2025

Funded Personnel: 1 PhD Student (part-time), 2 MSc Students (part-time), 3 Undergraduate Students

Clothoids are curves that are inherently drivable by vehicles due to their linear change in curvature, enabling smooth transitions between straight and curved segments. This property makes them ideal for modeling road geometry and generating dynamically feasible trajectories in autonomous vehicle (AV) applications. This project introduces a unified trajectory framework for AVs based on the novel concept of clothoid-based path templates. By using elementary path components (ECs) with a small number of parameters, the framework enables efficient computation of both geometric and dynamic properties, supporting trajectory planning, tracking, and prediction using a single representation. In contrast to existing approaches that rely on inconsistent, task-specific models, this method eliminates the need for complex conversions and ensures seamless integration across various driving tasks.

The project involves the design, implementation, and validation of the proposed framework through software-in-the-loop simulations and real-world tests using both on-road and off-road vehicles. A lightweight embedded software library will be developed to ensure efficient road representation and real-time trajectory computation under dynamic driving constraints. The resulting framework is expected to make significant contributions to both academia and industry, with potential applications in transportation, construction, agriculture, and defense sectors.