Vehicle self-diagnostics

• US 10,395,444 B1
• Filed: 08/10/2017
• Issued: 08/27/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zoox Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Zoox Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Edren, Johannes, Boecker, Moritz, Funke, Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): Shafi, Muhammad
• Application Number:
  US15/673,820
• Time in Patent Office: 747 Days
• Field of Search: 701 293
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0808 Diagnosing performance data testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0816 Indicating performance data, e.g. occurrence of a malfunction

Abstract

Systems, methods, and apparatuses described herein are directed to vehicle self-diagnostics. For example, a vehicle can include sensors monitoring vehicle components, for perceiving objects and obstacles in an environment, and for navigating the vehicle to a destination. Data from these and other sensors can be leveraged to determine a behavior associated with the vehicle. Based at least in part on determining the behavior, a vehicle can determine a fault and query one or more information sources associated with the vehicle to diagnose the fault. Based on diagnosing the fault, the vehicle can determine instructions for redressing the fault. The vehicle can diagnose the fault in near-real time, that is, while driving or otherwise in the field.

Claims

1. A system onboard a vehicle comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more-computer readable storage media communicatively coupled to the one or more processors and storing instructions that are executable by the one or more processors to;

receive sensor data from a plurality of sensors associated with the vehicle;

determine, based at least in part on analyzing at least a portion of the sensor data utilizing a model, a fault associated with the vehicle;

send a query to at least one component system associated with a component of the vehicle;

receive a response from the at least one component system;

determine, based at least in part on the response, that the fault is associated with the component;

determine, based at least in part on the fault associated with the component, at least one service issue associated with the vehicle; and

execute, by a control system of the vehicle, a command to redress the at least one service issue associated with the vehicle while the vehicle is driving, the command comprising altering operation of one or more components of the vehicle.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein analyzing at least the portion of the sensor data utilizing the model is based at least in part on:

determining an expected behavior of the vehicle;

determining, based at least in part on the sensor data, a behavior of the vehicle;

comparing the expected behavior of the vehicle and the behavior of the vehicle to determine that the behavior does not conform with the expected behavior; and

determining the fault based at least in part on the comparing.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the behavior and the expected behavior are associated with at least one of a lateral behavior of the vehicle, a longitudinal behavior of the vehicle, or a rotational behavior of the vehicle.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the vehicle is one of a fleet of vehicles, and further wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors to:

receive additional sensor data associated with other vehicles of the fleet of vehicles;

aggregate the additional sensor data to generate aggregated sensor data; and

determine the expected behavior based at least in part on a nominal performance associated with the aggregated sensor data.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the behavior and the expected behavior are associated with a path segment.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors to:

access stored data associated with the vehicle, the stored data indicating a model of the vehicle; and

determine the expected behavior based at least in part on the model.

7. The system of claim 2, wherein determining the expected behavior of the vehicle is based at least in part on a trajectory along which the vehicle is driving.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one component system comprises a microcontroller associated with the component that is configured to perform diagnostics for the component.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the component comprises at least one of a drivetrain system of the vehicle, a suspension system of the vehicle, a braking system of the vehicle, or a steering system of the vehicle.

10. A method performed by at least one computing device onboard a vehicle, the method comprising:

receiving sensor data associated with the vehicle;

determining, based at least in part on the sensor data, a characteristic associated with the vehicle;

determining, based at least in part on the characteristic, a fault associated with the vehicle;

transmitting, in near real-time, a command associated with diagnosing the fault to at least one information source associated with the vehicle;

diagnosing the fault based at least in part on a response to the command; and

executing, by a control system of the vehicle and while the vehicle is navigating through an environment, a command to redress the fault.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the characteristic is associated with at least one of a longitudinal behavior of the vehicle, a lateral behavior of the vehicle, or a rotational behavior of the vehicle.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the characteristic is associated with a repetitive frequency of the vehicle.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the characteristic is associated with an actuator response of the vehicle.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein:

the information source corresponds to a component system associated with a component of the vehicle;

the command corresponds to a query regarding a state of the component; and

the response corresponds to the state of the component received from the component system.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein:

the information source corresponds to a database associated with the vehicle;

the command corresponds to a query to determine whether the characteristic is associated with sources of faults in the database; and

the response corresponds to an indication that the characteristic is associated with a source of the sources.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein:

the information source corresponds to a controller associated with the vehicle;

the command corresponds to an instruction to change at least one of the characteristic of the vehicle or a state of the vehicle; and

the response corresponds to an effect of the change to the at least one of the characteristic of the vehicle or the state of the vehicle.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein:

the information source corresponds to a database associated with the vehicle;

the command corresponds to a query to access data indicative of a respective vehicle characteristic associated with a source of a fault; and

the response corresponds to an indication that the characteristic corresponds to the source.

18. A system associated with a vehicle, the system comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more-computer readable storage media communicatively coupled to the one or more processors and storing instructions that are executable by the one or more processors to;

execute, by a control system of the vehicle, a first command configured to cause the vehicle to navigate through an environment according to a trajectory;

receive sensor data associated with the vehicle;

analyze at least a portion of the sensor data utilizing a model;

diagnose a fault associated with the vehicle based at least in part on analyzing at least the portion of the sensor data utilizing the model, the fault associated with a difference between the trajectory and a current vehicle state; and

execute, by the control system of the vehicle, a second command, the second command configured to compensate for the fault and to cause the vehicle to follow the trajectory.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the model is trained based at least in part on inputting data associated with a plurality of faults and corresponding sensor data into a machine learning mechanism.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein:

the first command comprises a first amount of torque to be applied to one or more wheels of the vehicle,

the sensor data comprises one or more of wheel odometry data, lidar data, or image data, and

the second command comprises a second amount of torque to be applied to the one or more wheels.