Autonomous vehicle operated with safety augmentation

• US 10,139,828 B2
• Filed: 09/26/2016
• Issued: 11/27/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aurora Operations Incorporated (Aurora Innovation, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Uber Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Ho, Justin, Zych, Noah
• Primary Examiner(s): Badii, Behrang
• Application Number:
  US15/276,321
• Publication Number:
  US 20170090480A1
• Time in Patent Office: 792 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/00 Seats specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement or mounting of seats in vehicles railway seats B61D33/00; cycle seats B62J1/00; aircraft seats B64D11/06, B64D25/04, B64D25/10
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 7/12 for automatic initiation; for initiation not subject to will of driver or passenger limiting speed of vehicles other than rail vehicles B60K31/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 7/18 operated by wayside apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/022 Actuator failures
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2420/403 Image sensing, e.g. optical camera
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/00 Purposes of road vehicle drive control systems not related to the control of a particular sub-unit, e.g. of systems using conjoint control of vehicle sub-units
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/00 Details of control systems for road vehicle drive control not related to the control of a particular sub-unit , e.g. process diagnostic or vehicle driver interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/029 Adapting to failures or work around with other constraints, e.g. circumvention by avoiding use of failed parts
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/34 Route searching; Route guidance
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3407 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0027 involving a plurality of vehicles, e.g. fleet or convoy travelling fleet control of land vehicles from a control room G05D1/0297; traffic control systems for road vehicles G08G1/00; for marine craft G08G3/00; for aircraft G08G5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/02 Control of position or course in two dimensions
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0214 in accordance with safety or protection criteria, e.g. avoiding hazardous areas monitoring the location of vehicles within a certain area, e.g. forbidden or allowed areas, in traffic control systems for road vehicles G08G1/13
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0225 involving docking at a fixed facility, e.g. base station or loading bay parking aids B62D15/027
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0291 Fleet control monitoring fleets in traffic control systems for road vehicles G08G1/127, G08G1/127
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/22 Platooning, i.e. convoy of communicating vehicles

Abstract

An autonomous vehicle is operable to follow a primary trajectory that forms a portion of a route. While controlling the autonomous vehicle, the autonomous vehicle calculates a failsafe trajectory to follow as a response to a predetermined type of event.

Claims

1. A method for operating an autonomous vehicle, the method comprising:

while the autonomous vehicle travels on a route towards a destination, enabling the autonomous vehicle to anticipate one or more types of disabling failures or conditions by;

obtaining sensor data from one or more sensors of the autonomous vehicle;

identifying a location along or near the route where the autonomous vehicle can be stopped;

calculating, based at least in part on the obtained sensor data, a failsafe trajectory for the autonomous vehicle to use to travel to the identified location as a response to a disabling failure or condition of the one or more types.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more types of disabling failures or conditions include a catastrophic event that affects a control system or primary sensor of the autonomous vehicle.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

calculating, based at least in part on the obtained sensor data, a primary trajectory for the autonomous vehicle to use in traveling along a portion of the route to the destination.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein calculating the primary trajectory includes determining a direction and one or more of a speed or acceleration of the autonomous vehicle during a threshold interval of time in which the autonomous vehicle is traveling along the route.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating the failsafe trajectory includes calculating a trajectory for the autonomous vehicle to use outside of a flow of traffic.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the identified location is on a shoulder or adjacent to a center divider of a roadway that is part of the route.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein calculating the failsafe trajectory includes calculating a shortest trajectory to the identified location.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the location includes identifying, at a particular instance, multiple stopping locations which are available to the autonomous vehicle, and wherein calculating the failsafe trajectory includes selecting one of the multiple stopping locations.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein selecting the one of the multiple stopping locations is based on a characteristic or attribute of the selected stopping location, as compared to other of the multiple stopping locations.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein

enabling the autonomous vehicle to anticipate one or more types of disabling failures or conditions includes enabling the autonomous vehicle to initiate performance of an additional action after the autonomous vehicle uses the failsafe trajectory to travel to the identified location.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the additional action includes transmission of a communication to a network service.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising calculating multiple failsafe trajectories, including at least one failsafe trajectory for a particular type of failure or condition.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the particular type of failure or condition includes at least one of braking failure, steering failure, or sensor failure.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the calculated failsafe trajectory is determined to meet a threshold level of assurance, with respect to the autonomous vehicle being able to use the calculated trajectory to reach the identified location.

15. A control system for an autonomous vehicle, the control system comprising:

a memory to store instructions;

one or more processing resources to execute the instructions stored in the memory, the instructions, when executed by the one or more processing resources, causing the control system to;

while the autonomous vehicle travels on a route towards a destination, enable the autonomous vehicle to anticipate one or more types of disabling failures or conditions by;

obtaining sensor data from one or more sensors of the autonomous vehicle;

identifying a location along or near the route where the autonomous vehicle can be stopped; and

calculating, based at least in part on the obtained sensor data, a failsafe trajectory for the autonomous vehicle to use to travel to the identified location as a response to a disabling failure or condition of the one or more types.

16. The control system of claim 15, wherein the one or more types of disabling failures or conditions include a catastrophic event that affects the control system or a primary sensor of the autonomous vehicle.

17. The control system of claim 15, wherein calculating the failsafe trajectory includes calculating a trajectory for the autonomous vehicle to use outside of a flow of traffic.

18. The control system of claim 17, wherein the identified location is on a shoulder or adjacent to a center divider of a roadway that is part of the route.

19. The control system of claim 17, wherein calculating the failsafe trajectory includes calculating a shortest trajectory to the identified location.

20. The control system of claim 15, wherein identifying the location includes identifying, at a particular instance, multiple stopping locations which are available to the autonomous vehicle, and wherein calculating the failsafe trajectory includes selecting one of the multiple stopping locations.