Centralized maneuvering of autonomous vehicles for user pick-up

• US 10,310,514 B2
• Filed: 06/21/2018
• Issued: 06/04/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LYFT Incorporated
• Original Assignee: LYFT Incorporated
• Inventors: Harvey, Thomas Danaher
• Primary Examiner(s): Badii, Behrang
• Assistant Examiner(s): Greene, Daniel L
• Application Number:
  US16/014,585
• Publication Number:
  US 20180307249A1
• Time in Patent Office: 348 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/5035 electronic displays
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/507 specific to autonomous vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/508 specific to vehicles driving in fleets or convoys
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/544 for indicating other states or conditions of the vehicle occupants, e.g. for indicating disabled occupants
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/547 for issuing requests to other traffic participants; for confirming to other traffic participants they can proceed, e.g. they can overtake
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/06 Automatic manoeuvring for parking
• CPC Class Codes: E04H 6/422 Automatically operated car-parks
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0022 characterised by the communication link data switching networks in general H04L12/00
• 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 1/0088 characterized by the autonomous decision making process, e.g. artificial intelligence, predefined behaviours using knowledge based models G06N5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0293 Convoy travelling
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0295 by at least one leading vehicle of the fleet
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0297 by controlling means in a control room
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/168 Driving aids for parking, e.g. acoustic or visual feedback on parking space
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/22 Platooning, i.e. convoy of communicating vehicles

Abstract

A method includes receiving from a client computing device of a user, a request for access to an autonomous vehicle, determining one of a plurality of autonomous vehicles to provide the user access to in response to the request, wherein the determined autonomous vehicle is blocked by one or more other ones of the autonomous vehicles, determining locations of the determined autonomous vehicle and the blocking autonomous vehicles, and computing based on the locations of the determined autonomous vehicle and the blocking autonomous vehicles, coordinated movements to provide access to the determined autonomous vehicle as requested by the user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a central computing device, from a client computing device of a user, a request for access to an autonomous vehicle;

determining, by the central computing device, one of a plurality of autonomous vehicles to provide the user access to in response to the request, wherein the determined autonomous vehicle is blocked by one or more other ones of the autonomous vehicles;

determining, by the central computing device, locations of the determined autonomous vehicle and the blocking autonomous vehicles;

computing, by the central computing device, based on the locations of the determined autonomous vehicle and the blocking autonomous vehicles, coordinated movements to provide access to the determined autonomous vehicle as requested by the user, the coordinated movements including moving at least one of the blocking vehicles back to a starting position after providing the user access to the determined autonomous vehicle; and

causing, by the central computing device, the blocking autonomous vehicles and the determined autonomous vehicle to perform the coordinated movements to provide the user access to the determined autonomous vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the central computing device is external to the autonomous vehicles.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the central computing device is in one of the plurality of autonomous vehicles.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising causing, by the central computing device, the coordinated movements to be executed autonomously by the determined autonomous vehicle and the blocking autonomous vehicles.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the locations of the determined autonomous vehicle and the blocking autonomous vehicle are determined based on location information from each of one or more of the plurality of autonomous vehicles that indicates:

a location of the autonomous vehicle as determined by the autonomous vehicle using one or more vehicle sensors of the autonomous vehicle;

or

a location of another autonomous vehicle as determined by the autonomous vehicle using one or more vehicle sensors of the autonomous vehicle.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising causing the determined autonomous vehicle to pick up the user.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the locations of the determined autonomous vehicle and the blocking autonomous vehicle are determined based on location information from one or more sensors in a facility that the autonomous vehicles are in, wherein the information from the sensors indicates a location of each of one or more of the autonomous vehicles as determined using the sensors.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein one or more of the sensors uses markers on one or more of the autonomous vehicles to determine their locations.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises, during execution of the coordinated movements:

determining, by the central computing device, updated locations of the determined autonomous vehicle and the blocking autonomous vehicles; and

computing, by the central computing device, based on the updated locations of the determined autonomous vehicle and the blocking autonomous vehicles, updated coordinated movements to provide access to the determined autonomous vehicle as requested by the user.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising causing, by the central computing device, the updated coordinated movements to be executed autonomously by the determined autonomous vehicle and the blocking autonomous vehicles.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein feedback is provided to the central computing device by one or more of the autonomous vehicles in an open-loop mode.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein feedback is provided to the central computing device by one or more of the autonomous vehicles in a closed-loop mode.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein a communication network wirelessly connects the autonomous vehicles to the central computing device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the communication network:

communicates location information from one or more of the autonomous vehicles to the central computing device;

or

communicates movement information based on the coordinated movements computed by the central computing device from the central computing device to one or more of the autonomous vehicles.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the communication network is unidirectional or bidirectional.

16. The method claim 13, wherein the communication network is:

part of a vehicle-control network operating only in an area where the autonomous vehicles are located;

or

part of a communication system operating in a larger area that encompasses the location of the autonomous vehicles.

17. One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying software that is operable when executed to:

receive, by a central computing device, from a client computing device of a user, a request for access to an autonomous vehicle;

determine, by the central computing device, one of a plurality of autonomous vehicles to provide the user access to in response to the request, wherein the determined autonomous vehicle is blocked by one or more other ones of the autonomous vehicles;

determine, by the central computing device, locations of the determined autonomous vehicle and the blocking autonomous vehicles;

compute, by the central computing device, based on the locations of the determined autonomous vehicle and the blocking autonomous vehicles, coordinated movements to provide access to the determined autonomous vehicle as requested by the user, the coordinated movements including moving at least on of the blocking vehicles back to a starting position after providing the user access to the determined autonomous vehicle; and

cause, by the central computing device, the blocking autonomous vehicles and the determined autonomous vehicle to perform the coordinated movements to provide the user access to the determined autonomous vehicle.

18. The media of claim 17, further operable when executed to, during execution of the coordinated movements:

determine, by the central computing device, updated locations of the determined autonomous vehicle and the blocking autonomous vehicles; and

compute, by the central computing device, based on the updated locations of the determined autonomous vehicle and the blocking autonomous vehicles, updated coordinated movements to provide access to the determined autonomous vehicle as requested by the user.

19. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media coupled to one or more of the processors and comprising instructions operable when executed by one or more of the processors to cause the system to;

receive, by a central computing device, from a client computing device of a user, a request for access to an autonomous vehicle;

determine, by the central computing device, one of a plurality of autonomous vehicles to provide the user access to in response to the request, wherein the determined autonomous vehicle is blocked by one or more other ones of the autonomous vehicles;

determine, by the central computing device, locations of the determined autonomous vehicle and the blocking autonomous vehicles;

compute, by the central computing device, based on the locations of the determined autonomous vehicle and the blocking autonomous vehicles, coordinated movements to provide access to the determined autonomous vehicle as requested by the user, the coordinated movements including moving at least one of the blocking vehicles back to starting position after providing the user access to the determined autonomous vehicle; and

cause, by the central computing device, the blocking autonomous vehicles and the determined autonomous vehicle to perform the coordinated movements to provide the user access to the determined autonomous vehicle.

20. The system of claim 19, further operable when executed by the processors to cause the system to,

during execution of the coordinated movements:

determine, by the central computing device, updated locations of the determined autonomous vehicle and the blocking autonomous vehicles; and

compute, by the central computing device, based on the updated locations of the determined autonomous vehicle and the blocking autonomous vehicles, updated coordinated movements to provide access to the determined autonomous vehicle as requested by the user.