High Availability For Autonomous Machine Control System

• US 20130268138A1
• Filed: 04/05/2012
• Published: 10/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Caterpillar Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Caterpillar Incorporated
• Inventors: Moughler, Eric Alan, Koehrsen, Craig Lawrence, Everett, Bryan J., Cole, Philip Henry, Hufeld, Timothy Francis
• Application Number:
  US13/440,333
• Publication Number:
  US 20130268138A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/2
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0214 in accordance with safety or protection criteria, e.g. avoiding hazardous areas monitoring the location of vehicles within a certain area, e.g. forbidden or allowed areas, in traffic control systems for road vehicles G08G1/13
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/027 comprising intertial navigation means, e.g. azimuth detector inertial navigation G01C21/16; inertial navigation combined with non-inertial navigation instruments G01C21/165
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0274 using mapping information stored in a memory device navigation using map-matching G01C21/30
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0278 using satellite positioning signals, e.g. GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0297 by controlling means in a control room

Abstract

A control system for a work site including an autonomous machine includes a central control system that includes a cluster of servers configured to execute an autonomous control server application on exactly one of the cluster of servers. A RAID system is in communication with the cluster of servers. A first switch interconnects a first network with the cluster of servers, and a second switch interconnects a second network with the cluster of servers. A UPS system interconnects a power source with the cluster of servers, the RAID system, and the first and second switches. The machine control system is communicatively coupled with the central control system via a wireless network and one of the first and second networks. The machine control system transmits machine position information to the autonomous control server application and receives a route plan generated by the autonomous control server application.

Claims

1. A control system for a work site including an autonomous machine, comprising:

a central control system including;

a cluster of servers configured to execute an autonomous control server application on exactly one of the cluster of servers;

a RAID system in communication with the cluster of servers;

a first switch interconnecting a first network with the cluster of servers, and a second switch interconnecting a second network with the cluster of servers; and

a UPS system interconnecting a power source with the cluster of servers, the RAID system, and the first and second switches; and

a machine control system supported on a chassis of the autonomous machine and communicatively coupled with the central control system via a wireless network and one of the first and second networks, wherein the machine control system transmits machine position information to the autonomous control server application and receives a route plan generated by the autonomous control server application;

wherein the autonomous machine maneuvers in the work site according to the route plan.

2. The control system of claim 1, wherein each of the cluster of servers includes a virtualized server, and the autonomous control server application operates on the virtualized server.

3. The control system of claim 2, wherein the central control system includes a blade system, and each of the cluster of servers corresponds to a blade server.

4. The control system of claim 1, wherein the route plan and the machine position information are transmitted at a predetermined frequency.

5. The control system of claim 4, wherein the route plan is transmitted as a multicast message.

6. The control system of claim 5, wherein the work site includes a plurality of autonomous machines and a plurality of manned machines, wherein each of the autonomous and manned machines transmits machine position information to the autonomous control server application and receives the route plan generated by the autonomous control server application.

7. The control system of claim 6, wherein each of the autonomous and manned machines is associated with a unique machine identifier, and the machine control system of each of the autonomous and manned machines is configured to extract information from the route plan pertaining to the corresponding unique machine identifier.

8. The control system of claim 4, wherein the autonomous control server application is configured to update the route plan to indicate an avoidance area corresponding to a lost machine if the autonomous control server application does not receive the machine position information from the lost machine within a predetermined period of time.

9. The control system of claim 1, wherein the cluster of servers is configured to identify a failure of the exactly one of the cluster of servers on which the autonomous control server application is executing, and restart the autonomous control server application on another of the cluster of servers responsive to the failure.

10. The control system of claim 1, wherein the central control system is configured to identify a communication failure corresponding to the one of the first and second networks, and transmit the route plan and the machine position information over another of the first and second networks responsive to the communication failure.

11. A method of controlling an autonomous machine at a work site, the method comprising:

executing an autonomous control server application on exactly one of a cluster of servers of a central control system;

transmitting machine position information generated by a machine control system from the autonomous machine over a wireless network and one of a first network and a second network, wherein the first network is interconnected with the cluster of servers via a first switch and the second network is interconnected with the cluster of servers via a second switch;

receiving the machine position information at the autonomous control server application;

transmitting a route plan generated by the autonomous control server application and based at least in part on the machine position information over the one of the first and second networks and the wireless network;

receiving the route plan at the machine control system of the autonomous machine;

maneuvering the autonomous machine in the work site according to the route plan using the machine control system;

detecting a failure of the exactly one of the cluster of servers using a remaining subset of the cluster of servers;

automatically restarting the autonomous control server application on exactly one of the remaining subset of servers with at least one of the remaining subset of servers in response to the failure; and

transmitting the route plan updated by the autonomous control server application over the one of the first and second networks and the wireless network after the automatically restarting step.

12. The method of claim 11, further including:

identifying a communication failure corresponding to the one of the first and second networks; and

transmitting the route plan and the machine position information over another of the first and second networks in response to the communication failure.

13. The method of claim 11, further including accessing data from a RAID system with the cluster of servers.

14. The method of claim 13, further including providing power from a power source to the cluster of servers, the RAID system, and the first and second switches through a UPS system.

15. The method of claim 11, further including operating the autonomous control server application on a virtualized server of the exactly one of the cluster of servers.

16. The method of claim 11, further including transmitting the route plan and the machine position information at a predetermined frequency.

17. The method of claim 16, further including transmitting the route plan as a multicast message.

18. The method of claim 17, further including:

transmitting machine position information from each of a plurality of autonomous machines and a plurality of manned machines over the wireless network and the one of the first and second networks; and

transmitting the route plan generated by the autonomous control server application and based at least in part on the machine position information from each of the autonomous and manned machines over the one of the first and second networks and the wireless network.

19. The method of claim 18, further including:

assigning each of the autonomous and manned machines a unique machine identifier; and

extracting information from the route plan at each of the autonomous and manned machines pertaining to the corresponding unique machine identifier using the machine control system.

20. The method of claim 16, further including updating the route plan to indicate an avoidance area corresponding to a lost machine if the autonomous control server application does not receive the machine position information from the lost machine within a predetermined period of time.