System and method for using human driving patterns to detect and correct abnormal driving behaviors of autonomous vehicles

• US 10,308,242 B2
• Filed: 07/01/2017
• Issued: 06/04/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TuSimple, Inc. (TuSimple Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Tusimple
• Inventors: Lin, Wutu, Liu, Liu, Sun, Xing
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Shardul D
• Application Number:
  US15/640,521
• Publication Number:
  US 20190001964A1
• Time in Patent Office: 703 Days
• Field of Search: 701 27, 701 26, 701 3, 244179, 244180, 244181, 340967-970, 342 38, 342 63, 342176
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0062 Adapting control system settings
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0075 Automatic parameter input, automatic initialising or calibrating means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/30 Driving style
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/10 Historical data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2710/18 Braking system
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2710/20 Steering systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/02 Control of vehicle driving stability
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/10 Path keeping cruise control for automatically following a preceding vehicle B60W30/165
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/04 Monitoring the functioning of the control system
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/14 Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0088 characterized by the autonomous decision making process, e.g. artificial intelligence, predefined behaviours using knowledge based models G06N5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/00 Machine learning
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 3/08 Learning methods

Abstract

A system and method for using human driving patterns to detect and correct abnormal driving behaviors of autonomous vehicles are disclosed. A particular embodiment includes: generating data corresponding to a normal driving behavior safe zone; receiving a proposed vehicle control command; comparing the proposed vehicle control command with the normal driving behavior safe zone; and issuing a warning alert if the proposed vehicle control command is outside of the normal driving behavior safe zone. Another embodiment includes modifying the proposed vehicle control command to produce a modified and validated vehicle control command if the proposed vehicle control command is outside of the normal driving behavior safe zone.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a data processor; and

a vehicle control module, executable by the data processor, the vehicle control module being configured to perform a vehicle control command validation operation for autonomous vehicles, the vehicle control command validation operation being configured to;

generate data corresponding to a normal driving behavior safe zone;

receive a proposed vehicle control command;

compare the proposed vehicle control command with the normal driving behavior safe zone; and

issue a warning alert and modify the proposed vehicle control command to produce a modified and validated vehicle control command if the proposed vehicle control command is outside of the normal driving behavior safe zone.

2. The system of claim 1 being further configured to capture data through vehicle sensor subsystems and driving simulation data to model typical human driving behaviors.

3. The system of claim 1 being further configured to plot data corresponding to typical human driving behaviors on a graph.

4. The system of claim 1 being further configured to determine a distance from a point on a graph corresponding to the proposed vehicle control command to a nearest point on or within the normal driving behavior safe zone.

5. The system of claim 1 being further configured to replace the proposed vehicle control command with a modified vehicle control command corresponding to a point, which is the closest point of the normal driving behavior safe zone to the proposed vehicle control command.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the normal driving behavior safe zone is configured to retain information corresponding to human driving behaviors as mathematical or data representations.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the modified and validated vehicle control command is output to a vehicle control subsystem causing the autonomous vehicle to follow a trajectory corresponding to the modified and validated vehicle control command.

8. A method comprising:

generating data corresponding to a normal driving behavior safe zone using a vehicle control module, executable by a data processor, the vehicle control module being configured to perform a vehicle control command validation operation for autonomous vehicles;

receiving a proposed vehicle control command;

comparing the proposed vehicle control command with the normal driving behavior safe zone; and

issuing a warning alert and modify the proposed vehicle control command to produce a modified and validated vehicle control command if the proposed vehicle control command is outside of the normal driving behavior safe zone.

9. The method of claim 8 including capturing data through vehicle sensor subsystems and driving simulation data to model typical human driving behaviors.

10. The method of claim 8 including plotting data corresponding to typical human driving behaviors on a graph.

11. The method of claim 8 including determining a distance from a point on a graph corresponding to the proposed vehicle control command to a nearest point on or within the normal driving behavior safe zone.

12. The method of claim 8 including replacing the proposed vehicle control command with a modified vehicle control command corresponding to a point, which is the closest point of the normal driving behavior safe zone to the proposed vehicle control command.

13. The method of claim 8 wherein the normal driving behavior safe zone is configured to retain information corresponding to human driving behaviors as mathematical or data representations.

14. The method of claim 8 wherein the modified and validated vehicle control command is output to a vehicle control subsystem causing the autonomous vehicle to follow a trajectory corresponding to the modified and validated vehicle control command.

15. A non-transitory machine-usable storage medium embodying instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:

generate data corresponding to a normal driving behavior safe zone using a vehicle control module, executable by a data processor, the vehicle control module being configured to perform a vehicle control command validation operation for autonomous vehicles;

receive a proposed vehicle control command;

compare the proposed vehicle control command with the normal driving behavior safe zone; and

issue a warning alert and modify the proposed vehicle control command to produce a modified and validated vehicle control command if the proposed vehicle control command is outside of the normal driving behavior safe zone.

16. The non-transitory machine-useable storage medium of claim 15 wherein the instructions are further configured to capture data through vehicle sensor subsystems and driving simulation data to model typical human driving behaviors.

17. The non-transitory machine-useable storage medium of claim 15 wherein the instructions are further configured to determine a distance from a point on a graph corresponding to the proposed vehicle control command to a nearest point on or within the normal driving behavior safe zone.

18. The non-transitory machine-useable storage medium of claim 15 wherein the instructions are further configured to use data mining techniques to project aggregated human driver behavior sensor data from a high dimensional space to a low dimensional space.