Smart platooning of vehicles
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
- identifying, by a computing system, a group of autonomous vehicles that are traveling in a platoon in a first formation;
while the group of autonomous vehicles are traveling in the platoon in the first formation;
determining, by the computing system, a candidate formation of autonomous vehicles for the group of autonomous vehicles that are traveling in the platoon, wherein the candidate formation is different than the first formation,determining, by the computing system, a first projected outcome for one or more autonomous vehicles from the group of autonomous vehicles that would result from maintaining the platoon in the first formation,determining, by the computing system, a second projected outcome for the one or more autonomous vehicles that would result from reforming the platoon according to the candidate formation, anddetermining, by the computing system, whether to reform the group of autonomous vehicles in the platoon according to the candidate formation based on a comparison of the first projected outcome for the one or more autonomous vehicles that would result from maintaining the platoon in the first formation and the second projected outcome for the one or more autonomous vehicles that would result from reforming the platoon according to the candidate formation; and
in response to determining that the second projected outcome improves the first projected outcome by at least a predetermined amount, directing, by the computing system, the group of autonomous vehicles traveling in the platoon to reform from the first formation according to the candidate formation.
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Abstract
A computing system may obtain, for each vehicle of a plurality of vehicles located within a location area, navigation data that indicates a travel route for the vehicle. Based on the navigation data for the plurality of vehicles, the computing system determines a subset of the plurality of vehicles that are within a threshold distance of each other and have respective travel routes that at least partially overlap. The computing system selects, based on a set of selection parameters, two or more vehicles among the subset of vehicles to form a platoon of vehicles that travel in a coordinated arrangement in proximity to each other during at least a portion of the respective travel routes of the selected vehicles. The computing system can direct the selected vehicles to form the platoon of vehicles.
24 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
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identifying, by a computing system, a group of autonomous vehicles that are traveling in a platoon in a first formation; while the group of autonomous vehicles are traveling in the platoon in the first formation; determining, by the computing system, a candidate formation of autonomous vehicles for the group of autonomous vehicles that are traveling in the platoon, wherein the candidate formation is different than the first formation, determining, by the computing system, a first projected outcome for one or more autonomous vehicles from the group of autonomous vehicles that would result from maintaining the platoon in the first formation, determining, by the computing system, a second projected outcome for the one or more autonomous vehicles that would result from reforming the platoon according to the candidate formation, and determining, by the computing system, whether to reform the group of autonomous vehicles in the platoon according to the candidate formation based on a comparison of the first projected outcome for the one or more autonomous vehicles that would result from maintaining the platoon in the first formation and the second projected outcome for the one or more autonomous vehicles that would result from reforming the platoon according to the candidate formation; and in response to determining that the second projected outcome improves the first projected outcome by at least a predetermined amount, directing, by the computing system, the group of autonomous vehicles traveling in the platoon to reform from the first formation according to the candidate formation. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause performance of operations comprising:
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identifying, by the computing system, a group of autonomous vehicles that are traveling in a platoon in a first formation; while the group of autonomous vehicles are traveling in the platoon in the first formation; determining, by the computing system, a candidate formation of autonomous vehicles for the group of autonomous vehicles that are traveling in the platoon, wherein the candidate formation is different than the first formation, determining, by the computing system, a first projected outcome for one or more autonomous vehicles from the group of autonomous vehicles that would result from maintaining the platoon in the first formation, determining, by the computing system, a second projected outcome for the one or more autonomous vehicles that would result from reforming the platoon according to the candidate formation, and determining, by the computing system, whether to reform the group of autonomous vehicles in the platoon according to the candidate formation based on a comparison of the first projected outcome for the one or more autonomous vehicles that would result from maintaining the platoon in the first formation and the second projected outcome for the one or more autonomous vehicles that would result from reforming the platoon according to the candidate formation; and in response to determining that the second projected outcome improves the first projected outcome by at least a predetermined amount, directing, by the computing system, the group of autonomous vehicles traveling in the platoon to reform from the first formation according to the candidate formation. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
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identifying, by a computing system, a group of autonomous vehicles that are traveling in a platoon in a first formation; while the group of autonomous vehicles are traveling in the platoon in the first formation; (i) determining, by the computing system, a candidate formation of autonomous vehicles for the group of autonomous vehicles that are traveling in the platoon, wherein the candidate formation is different than the first formation, and (ii) determining, by the computing system, whether to reform the group of autonomous vehicles in the platoon according to the candidate formation based on whether estimated trip times or estimated power consumption for one or more autonomous vehicles in the group of autonomous vehicles satisfies a reformation condition; in response to determining that the estimated trip times or the estimated power consumption for the one or more autonomous vehicles in the group of autonomous vehicles satisfies the reformation condition, directing, by the computing system, the group of autonomous vehicles traveling in the platoon to reform from the first formation according to the candidate formation, wherein determining that the estimated trip times or estimated power consumption for the one or more autonomous vehicles in the group of autonomous vehicles satisfies the reformation condition comprises (i) determining that the estimated trip times for the one or more autonomous vehicles traveling in the platoon in the candidate formation would improve the estimated trip times for the one or more autonomous vehicles traveling in the platoon in the first formation by at least a first threshold amount or (ii) determining that the estimated power consumption by the one or more autonomous vehicles traveling in the platoon in the candidate formation would improve the estimated power consumption by the one or more autonomous vehicles traveling in the platoon in the first formation by at least a second threshold amount. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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Specification