Define "hatched road markings" in Lanelet2

[takayuki5168]

Issue

Currently, we cannot use "hatched road markings" in LL2 (lanelet2) since it's not officially defined.

In order to deal with the use case avoiding obstacles by using the lane of hatched road markings as shown in the figure, I would like to define hatched road markings in LL2.

How to define hatched road markings in LL2

In the avoidance module of behavior_path_planner, we expand the right or left lanelets laterally to make a space to avoid wider.
To make use of this implementation, I think it would be better to define hatched road markings not as an area but as a lanelet.

As a similar kind of lanelet, we have road shoulder that is a lanelet whose subtype is road_shoulder.
https://github.com/autowarefoundation/autoware_common/blob/main/tmp/lanelet2_extension/docs/extra_lanelet_subtypes.md#road-shoulder-subtype

In this way, I'm planning to define the extra lanelet for hatched road markings whose type is hatched_road_markings.

If you have any opinions, please let me know.

[takayuki5168]

@xmfcx @mehmetdogru cc @TakaHoribe
Do you have any opinions on this discussion?

[mehmetdogru]

@takayuki5168 Yes we have them in Turkey as well, I guess they are used for the similar purposes. We shouldn't be really driving on these markings (at least in Turkey it is forbidden) and they have rather weird shapes unlike road shoulders. I guess these are the reasons why annotating them as areas (polygons) makes more sense to me.

So also I am curious that if in Japan any vehicle is allowed drive on those markings/lanes?

[takayuki5168]

@mehmetdogru In Japan, the lane is for guiding vehicle traffic safely and smoothly, so it is allowed to go into the lane.
Most people sometimes use the lane, especially to avoidance of the opposite lane's obstacles or to take a small shortcut.

It seems the lane's rule is different depending on the country.

[takayuki5168]

Could you give me images of this kind of lanes in Turky so that my understanding won't be wrong?

The images in Japan are as follows.
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B0%8E%E6%B5%81%E5%B8%AF
https://carview.yahoo.co.jp/news/detail/d260c82323cc7238dc01c9444d4d6f523c4adcb1/
https://whisky-coke.hatenablog.com/entry/2021/07/26/165402
https://kazaha7.com/town/?p=4656

[mehmetdogru]

Sure. Here are some examples:

• https://uym.ibb.gov.tr/kurumsal/haberler-ve-duyurular/ofset-tarama-elektronik-denetleme-sistemi-1
• http://www.ozgurlertrafik.com.tr/tr-TR/karayollari-2-bolge/58/ReferencesPage.aspx

[takayuki5168]

Thank you so much. I found that lanes with hatched markings are almost the same as Japanese ones.

According to the Japanese traffic law, it seems that in all of the above cases, it's okay to drive on. I'm surprised that even in the above first case for the left turn, it is forbidden to drive on in Turkey.
Anyway, this difference is fine by just preparing the flag like enable_driving_on_hatched_markings.

Then we can get back to the discussion regarding which to use, lanelet or area.
Let me discuss it and how much complicated the implementation will be when using an area, with Planning&Control members at TIER IV first.

[TakaHoribe]

@takayuki5168 Thank you for the suggestion. I agree with adding the new load mark.

Regarding its type, as @mehmetdogru mentioned, the zone may have a complex shape in some cases, so I would suggest defining them in areas. Additionally, it would be helpful to connect the area to a lanelet using a tag or something, making it easier to find the area.

---

From a platform perspective, I have some comments, although they are not critical for this discussion. Firstly, map compatibility is important, so we should make sure that Autoware works correctly even if this road mark is not defined on the map.

Moreover, since not everyone can create highly accurate maps with all road markers, such as individual researchers, we will need an alternative way to express the drivable area more simply, such as with a large polygon, in the future. It is up to the user to decide whether to use a well-generated map with detailed information or a rough set of "drivable area", but we must ensure that this "hatched road markings" definition is not exclusive.

[takayuki5168]

Thank you for your comment. Got it.

@mehmetdogru @TakaHoribe
I will create a lanelet map with an area whose name is "hatched_road_markings" and try to implement drivable area expansion algorithm considering this area.

[takayuki5168]

@mehmetdogru @TakaHoribe
Just sharing.

I created a map that has an area of hatched road markings as a Polygon which is one of the primitives defined in Lanelet2. Polygon is used for detection area, no stopping area, etc as well. I will make this map public later.

Then I implemented a logic to expand the drivable area with the area of hatched road markings as follows.
autowarefoundation/autoware.universe#3604

[takayuki5168]

The drivable area expansion and avoidance path planning utilizing the area of hatched road markings have been implemented.
This feature can be enabled with this flag which is false by default. https://github.com/autowarefoundation/autoware_launch/blob/ae2700a6a878eb240283f77ba5647937c7c19722/autoware_launch/config/planning/scenario_planning/lane_driving/behavior_planning/behavior_path_planner/avoidance/avoidance.param.yaml#L21

This is the last PR for the minor bug fix. autowarefoundation/autoware.universe#3900

I close the discussion.
cc @TakaHoribe @mehmetdogru

[takayuki5168]

@mehmetdogru cc @satoshi-ota @TakaHoribe
For TIER IV's internal regression test by the scenario test of avoidance with hatched road makings, and achieving a wider range of behaviors by default, we are going to enable the flag use_hatched_road_markings.
We will add documentation so that the users will notice that the flag should be set to false in a certain country.

https://github.com/autowarefoundation/autoware_launch/blob/ae2700a6a878eb240283f77ba5647937c7c19722/autoware_launch/config/planning/scenario_planning/lane_driving/behavior_planning/behavior_path_planner/avoidance/avoidance.param.yaml#L21

[satoshi-ota]

Hi @mehmetdogru
I enabled flag use_hatched_road_marking in autowarefoundation/autoware_launch#448.
So, please disable this flag in your project launch config files if necessary.

[mehmetdogru]

Thank you @satoshi-ota!

cc: @beyzanurkaya @brkay54