Pedestrian Interaction Modelling: Leveraging Trajectory Prediction for Belief Representation

Master thesis (2024)

Authors

T.H. Weinans Mechanical Engineering

Contributors

A. Zgonnikov Human-Robot Interaction - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering (supervisor 1)
O. Siebinga Human-Robot Interaction - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering (supervisor 1)
A. Mészáros Learning & Autonomous Control - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering (supervisor 1)
J. Kober Learning & Autonomous Control - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering (coach)
Faculty
Mechanical Engineering
Copyright: © 2024 Tom Weinans
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Published Date

02-02-2024

Language

English

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Faculty

Mechanical Engineering

Abstract

Autonomy in traffic (e.g., autonomous vehicles) could potentially benefit mobility, safety, accessibility and sustainability. However, the realisation of these advancements is highly dependent on how effective these autonomous vehicles interact with vulnerable road users such as pedestrians. Before we can understand how pedestrians will interact with autonomous vehicles, it is essential to understand how pedestrians interact among themselves in interactive traffic scenarios. Previous studies have focused on describing these scenarios with probabilistic trajectory prediction methods such as TrajFlow. However, these approaches often fall short in capturing the nuances of mutual interactions. Simple interaction models have been proposed that can describe these interactions, but neglect the influence of another person's intentions. To address this issue, in existing work the Communication-Enabled-Interaction (CEI) framework was proposed that describes interactions by modelling communication and a belief of another person's intentions. The idea of using beliefs in interaction modelling is based on the concept that people have a general but uncertain idea about the plans of other people. These beliefs are one of the fundamental aspects of the CEI framework and must therefore contain valuable information about possible decisions. That is why this study investigates the use of the probabilistic trajectory prediction method TrajFlow for the belief construction of the CEI framework. TrajFlow is trained on the belief-based Forking Paths dataset, integrated into the CEI framework, and tested in four simulated pedestrian interaction scenarios. The analysis shows that the framework is able to simulate plausible interaction behaviour, dealing with conflicting goals and trajectories in multiple simulations. By doing so, this study takes a positive step towards modelling pedestrian interactions and contributes to the broader goal of realising the benefits linked to autonomy in traffic.