SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ADAPTING A NETWORK OF MOVING THINGS, FOR EXAMPLE INCLUDING AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES, BASED ON USER FEEDBACK

• US 20170214744A1
• Filed: 12/13/2016
• Published: 07/27/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2015
• Status: Active Application

• Current Assignee: Veniam Inc.
• Original Assignee: Veniam Inc.
• Inventors: Neves, Filipe, Carreira, Diogo, Matos, Ricardo
• Application Number:
  US15/377,636
• Publication Number:
  US 20170214744A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/38 for collecting sensor information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

Systems and methods for adapting a network of moving things, for example including autonomous vehicles, based at least in part on user feedback. As non-limiting examples, various aspects of this disclosure provide systems and methods for obtaining user feedback, communicating user feedback, analyzing obtained user feedback, and determining and implementing corrective action, for example in a real-time or delayed manner.

Claims

1. A system for use in a vehicle communication network comprising a mobile access point (MAP), the system comprising:

at least one module operable to, at least;

provide a user interface to a user of the MAP;

receive, through the provided user interface, user feedback from the user regarding operation of the vehicle communication network;

identify, based at least in part on the received user feedback, an action to take; and

perform the identified action.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one module is operable to identify the action to take based also, at least in part, on feedback received from another user.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one module is operable to identify the action to take based, at least in part, on network metric information received from one or more network nodes before the received user feedback.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one module is operable to identify the action to take by, at least in part, operating to determine whether to immediately dispatch a field service technician or to schedule maintenance activity.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the identified action comprises soliciting additional user feedback from one or more other users regarding operation of the vehicle communication network.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the identified action comprises soliciting additional feedback from the user.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the identified action comprises:

identifying, based at least in part on the received user feedback, one or more nodes of the vehicle communication network; and

communicating status request messages to the identified one or more nodes.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the identified action comprises tailoring network monitoring to a portion of the vehicle communication network associated with the received user feedback.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the identified action comprises storing the received user feedback and designating the received user feedback for later analysis.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the identified action comprises providing a response recommendation to a human operator.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the identified action comprises provisioning communication resources of the vehicle communication network to address a network condition associated with the received user feedback.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein a Network Operations Center (NOC) comprises the at least one module.

13. A system for use in a vehicle communication network comprising a mobile access point (MAP), the system comprising:

at least one module operable to, at least;

determine that an adverse network condition may be occurring in the vehicle communication network;

identify at least one target user from whom to solicit user feedback regarding the adverse network condition;

provide, via the MAP, a user interface to the identified at least one target user soliciting the user feedback regarding the adverse network condition; and

receive the user feedback regarding the adverse network condition via the provided user interface and the MAP.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one module is operable to determine that an adverse network condition may be occurring in the vehicle communication network based, at least in part, on first user feedback received from a first user of the vehicle communication network.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the at least one module is operable to identify the at least one target user by, at least in part, identifying one or more users that are utilizing the vehicle communication network in a manner similar to the first user.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one module is operable to identify the at least one target user by, at least in part, operating to:

identify a communication service expected to be impacted by the adverse network condition; and

identify the at least one target user by, at least in part, identifying users utilizing the identified communication service.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one module is operable to identify the at least one target user by, at least in part, operating to:

identify one or more target mobile access points (MAPs) expected to be impacted by the adverse network condition; and

identify the at least one target user by, at least in part, identifying users utilizing the one or more target MAPs.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one module is operable to identify the at least one target user by, at least in part, operating to:

identify a geographical area expected to be impacted by the adverse network condition; and

identify the at least one target user by, at least in part, identifying users and/or MAPs operating in the geographical area.

19. The system of claim 13, therein the provided user interface is customized to the adverse network condition.

20. A mobile access point (MAP) comprising:

a wireless transceiver; and

at least one module operable to, at least;

provide a user interface;

receive, through the provided user interface, user feedback regarding operation of the vehicle communication network;

determine, based at least in part on the received user feedback, a manner in which to communicate the received user feedback to another network node; and

communicate the received user feedback to the other network node in the determined manner.

21. The mobile access point (MAP) of claim 20, wherein the determined manner comprises waiting until the MAP is within communication range of a fixed access point (FAP), and then communicating the received user feedback to the other network node via the FAP.

22. The mobile access point (MAP) of claim 20, wherein the determined manner comprises communicating the received user feedback to the other network node via another MAP.

23. The mobile access point (MAP) of claim 20, wherein the at least one module is operable to determine the manner in which to communicate the received user feedback to the other network node by, at least in part, operating to determine whether to communicate the received user feedback to the other network node immediately or in a delay tolerant manner.

24. The mobile access point (MAP) of claim 20, wherein the at least one module is operable to determine the manner in which to communicate the received user feedback to the other network node by, at least in part, operating to determine a priority of the received user feedback.