REMOTE OPERATION OF AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE IN UNEXPECTED ENVIRONMENT

• US 20160139594A1
• Filed: 11/13/2014
• Published: 05/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Incorporated (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Okumura, Bunyo, Prokhorov, Danil V.
• Granted Patent: US 9,494,935 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/00 Purposes of road vehicle drive control systems not related to the control of a particular sub-unit, e.g. of systems using conjoint control of vehicle sub-units
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0022 characterised by the communication link data switching networks in general H04L12/00

Abstract

Disclosed herein are computer devices, systems, and methods for remotely operating an autonomous passenger vehicle. When an autonomous vehicle encounters an unexpected driving environment unsuitable for autonomous operation, such as road construction or an obstruction, vehicle sensors can capture data about the vehicle and the unexpected driving environment, including images, radar and lidar data, etc. The captured data can be sent to a remote operator. The remote operator can manually operate the vehicle remotely or issue commands to the autonomous vehicle to be executed by on various vehicle systems. The captured data sent to the remote operator can be optimized to conserve bandwidth, such as by sending a limited subset of the captured data.

Claims

1. A computing device for an autonomous passenger vehicle comprising:

one or more processors for controlling operations of the computing device;

a communications interface configured to communicate with a remote server over a network; and

a memory for storing data and program instructions used by the one or more processors, wherein the one or more processors are configured to execute instructions stored in the memory to;

identify an unexpected driving environment if

the vehicle is located in a region that is predesignated as a challenging environment;

send information based on the unexpected driving environment received from one or more sensors disposed on the vehicle to a remote operator using the remote server;

receive a command sent by the remote operator relating to one or more vehicle systems; and

send the command to the one or more vehicle systems for execution.

2. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the unexpected driving environment is identified autonomously based at least in part on information received from the one or more sensors disposed on the vehicle.

3. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the information received from the one or more sensors relates to at least one of:

vehicle speed, vehicle direction, vehicle acceleration, vehicle rotation, vehicle location, environmental weather conditions, traffic conditions, road conditions, and images of the unexpected driving environment.

4. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the vehicle systems include at least one of a steering system, a propulsion system, a stability control system, a navigation system, and an energy system.

5. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the command received from the remote operator is used to directly control the one or more vehicle systems.

6. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the vehicle systems are controlled autonomously based on the command received from the remote operator.

7. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the information received from the one or more sensors is sent to the remote operator upon receiving an indication of approval by an occupant of the vehicle.

8. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the information received from the one or more sensors is sent to the remote operator upon identification of the unexpected driving environment.

9. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the information received from the one or more sensors is selectively sent to the remote operator based on the remote operator'"'"'s need for the information in remotely operating the vehicle.

10. The computing device of claim 1, wherein additional information relating to the unexpected driving environment is received from other vehicles located at the unexpected driving environment.

11. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the command is sent to other vehicles located at the unexpected driving environment for autonomously controlling the other vehicles.

12. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the network is selected based on quality of service.

13. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the information sent over the network is based at least in part on a quality metric of the network.

14. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to execute instructions stored in the memory to send an autonomous command to one or more vehicle systems based on a quality metric of the network.

15. A computer-implemented method for an autonomous passenger vehicle, comprising:

identifying, using one or more processors, an unexpected driving environment if at least one of;

information received from one or more sensors about a current driving environment of the vehicle differs from expected data about the current driving environment, or

the vehicle is located in a region that is predesignated as a challenging environment;

sending information based on the unexpected driving environment received from one or more sensors disposed on the vehicle to a remote operator using a remote server;

receiving a command sent by the remote operator relating to one or more vehicle systems; and

sending the command to the one or more vehicle systems for execution.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the unexpected driving environment is identified autonomously based at least in part on information received from the one or more sensors disposed on the vehicle.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the command received from the remote operator is used to directly control the one or more vehicle systems.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the vehicle systems are controlled autonomously based on the command received from the remote operator.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the information received from the one or more sensors is selectively sent to the remote operator based on the remote operator'"'"'s need for the information in remotely operating the vehicle.

20. A system, comprising:

one or more sensors disposed on a vehicle; and

a computing device in communication with the one or more sensors, comprising;

one or more processors for controlling operations of the computing device;

a communications interface configured to communicate with a remote server over a network; and

a memory for storing data and program instructions used by the one or more processors, wherein the one or more processors are configured to execute instructions stored in the memory to;

identify an unexpected driving environment if at least one of;

information received from the one or more sensors about a current driving environment of the vehicle differs from expected data about the current driving environment, or

the vehicle is located in a region that is predesignated as a challenging environment;

send information received from one or more sensors associated with the vehicle to a remote operator using the remote server;

receive a command sent by the remote operator relating to one or more vehicle systems; and

execute the command on the one or more vehicle systems.