Control and coordination of driverless fuel replenishment for autonomous vehicles
First Claim
1. A method, comprising:
- monitoring an amount of fuel units based on data representing a threshold indicative of a portion of a fuel reservoir capacity;
predicting a fuel expenditure of an autonomous vehicle to identify a predicted fuel expenditure during a range of time in which the amount of fuel units is predicted to be equivalent to the threshold, comprising;
accessing an energy expenditure profile describing rates of energy expended during time intervals during the range of time; and
calculating an amount of energy expenditure over one or more of the time intervals at which the amount of fuel units is predicted to be equivalent to the threshold;
identifying a subset of time during the range of time as a candidate time frame to replenish at least a portion of the fuel reservoir capacity;
transmitting electronic messages from the autonomous vehicle to reserve a replenishment station at a specific time associated with the candidate time frame and a geographic location; and
activating, via an autonomy controller, the autonomous vehicle to drive autonomously to the geographic location to receive a fuel replenishment from the replenishment station.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Various embodiments relate generally to autonomous vehicles and associated mechanical, electrical and electronic hardware, computing software, including autonomy applications, image processing applications, etc., computing systems, and wired and wireless network communications to facilitate autonomous control of vehicles, and, more specifically, to systems, devices, and methods configured to control driverless vehicles to facilitate coordination of driverless fuel replenishment. In some examples, a method may include monitoring an amount of fuel relative to a threshold, predicting fuel expenditure of an autonomous vehicle, identifying a candidate time frame, transmitting electronic messages from the autonomous vehicle to reserve a replenishment station, and activating the autonomous vehicle to drive autonomously to receive a fuel replenishment from the reserved replenishment station.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method, comprising:
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monitoring an amount of fuel units based on data representing a threshold indicative of a portion of a fuel reservoir capacity; predicting a fuel expenditure of an autonomous vehicle to identify a predicted fuel expenditure during a range of time in which the amount of fuel units is predicted to be equivalent to the threshold, comprising; accessing an energy expenditure profile describing rates of energy expended during time intervals during the range of time; and calculating an amount of energy expenditure over one or more of the time intervals at which the amount of fuel units is predicted to be equivalent to the threshold; identifying a subset of time during the range of time as a candidate time frame to replenish at least a portion of the fuel reservoir capacity; transmitting electronic messages from the autonomous vehicle to reserve a replenishment station at a specific time associated with the candidate time frame and a geographic location; and activating, via an autonomy controller, the autonomous vehicle to drive autonomously to the geographic location to receive a fuel replenishment from the replenishment station. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. An apparatus, comprising
a memory including executable instructions; - and
a processor, responsive to executing the executable instructions, that is programmed to; monitor an amount of fuel units relative to data representing a threshold indicative of a portion of a fuel reservoir capacity; predict a fuel expenditure of an autonomous vehicle to identify a predicted fuel expenditure during a range of time in which the amount of fuel units is predicted to be equivalent to the threshold; access an energy expenditure profile describing rates of energy expended during time intervals during the range of time; calculate an amount of energy expenditure over one or more of the time intervals at which the amount of fuel units is predicted to be equivalent to the threshold; identify a subset of time during the range of time as a candidate time frame to replenish at least a portion of the fuel reservoir capacity; transmit electronic messages from the autonomous vehicle to reserve a replenishment station at a specific time associated with the candidate time frame and a geographic location; activate, via an autonomy controller, the autonomous vehicle to drive autonomously to the geographic location to receive a fuel replenishment from the replenishment station; and identify one or more intervening time periods as candidate time frames during which the autonomous vehicle is vacant. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification