DRIVING PATH PLANNING APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES

A driving path planning apparatus for an autonomous vehicle includes a driving information obtainer to obtain crossroad information, current velocity, and velocity setting of the vehicle. A global path planner plans a base frame, and an environment recognizer recognizes obstacle on a path and lane information of the vehicle. The apparatus also includes a velocity profile generator to generate a velocity profile for the vehicle, using current velocity and velocity setting, a candidate path planner to plan candidate paths for the vehicle, using velocity profile and base frame, and a path selector to check whether or not the candidate paths have collision risks and select one candidate path of the candidate paths as a driving path for the autonomous vehicle.