Inter vehicle communication system

• US 6,765,495 B1
• Filed: 06/07/2000
• Issued: 07/20/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: HRL Laboratories LLC (The Boeing Co.)
• Original Assignee: HRL Laboratories LLC (The Boeing Co.)
• Inventors: Dunning, Gilmore J., Au, Anson, Hsu, Tsung-Yuan, Pepper, David M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Benjamin C.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Phung
• Application Number:
  US09/589,637
• Time in Patent Office: 1,504 Days
• Field of Search: 340/901, 340/902, 340/903, 340/904, 340/942, 340/439, 340/435, 340/436, 359/109, 359/169, 359/174
• US Class Current: 340/903
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/161 Decentralised systems, e.g. inter-vehicle communication

Abstract

An inter vehicle communication system wherein information transfer between vehicles is provided by data sources, data sensors, and vehicle sensors on each vehicle connected to a central processing unit on each vehicle. The central processing unit receives information from other vehicles via the data sensors and calculates information weights for that data. Information weights may be based upon temporal or spatial displacement, or other factors. The central processing unit then combines that weighted data with data provided by onboard vehicle sensors to determine vehicle and situational status. The central processing unit will then provide control information to the vehicle or vehicle operator. The central processing unit also creates messages for transfer to other vehicles via the data sources contained in the vehicle. Preferably, the data sources are provided by adapting vehicle headlights, taillights, or other existing lights sources for optical data transfer. Data sensors would then be provided by optical data sensors.

Claims

1. An inter vehicle communication system for communicating between a plurality of vehicles including in each vehicle of said plurality an apparatus comprising:

a central processing unit;

one or more data sources coupled to said central processing unit;

one or more data sensors coupled to said central processing unit; and

one or more vehicle sensors coupled to said central processing unit,

wherein said central processing unit processes data received from said one or more data sensors and from said one or more vehicle sensors, calculates information weights for said data, generates a transmit message based on said data and said information weights, and provides said transmit message to said one or more data sources.

2. The inter vehicle communication system of claim 1 wherein said apparatus further comprises;

one or more controls, said controls coupled to said central processing unit,

wherein said central processing unit calculates control information to be sent to said controls.

3. The inter vehicle communication system of claim 2, wherein each vehicle has a human operator and said controls provide control over operation of at least one vehicle without any human operator intervention.

4. The inter vehicle communication system of claim 1 wherein said apparatus further comprises:

a long term storage unit coupled to said central processor.

5. The inter vehicle communication system of claim 1 wherein the one or more data sources comprise optical sources and the one or more data sensors comprise optical sensors.

6. The inter vehicle communication system of claim 5 wherein the optical sources comprise modulated headlights, taillights, side lights, and some combination thereof.

7. The inter vehicle communication system of claim 6, wherein said optical sources are modulated at a frequency to produce a flicker that is undetectable by a human observer.

8. The inter vehicle communication system of claim 5 wherein the one or more optical sources comprises active retro-reflectors.

9. The inter vehicle communication system of claim 8 wherein the active retro reflectors operate in the infrared spectrum.

10. The inter vehicle communication system of claim 1 wherein said information weights are derived from spatial displacement or temporal displacement of said data.

11. The inter vehicle communication system of claim 1 wherein said data has a specified importance and said information weights are based on said importance.

12. The inter vehicle communication system of claim 1 wherein said transmit message contains a hop count that indicates an age of said data.

13. The inter vehicle communication system of claim 1, wherein said central processing unit processes said data received from said one or more data sensors and from said one or more vehicle sensors to determine changes in said data from a previous state to a current state, generates a changed state transmit message containing only said data which has changed from the previous state to the current state, and provides said changed state transmit message to said one or more data sources.

33. The system according to claim 1, wherein said data comprises a plurality of data portions and a separate information weight is calculated for each data portion, and the transmit message is generated based on at least one separate information weight and comprises one or more of the data portions of the plurality of data portions.

14. A method of inter vehicle communication comprising the steps of:

sensing vehicle information;

creating a transmit vehicle message from the vehicle information;

transmitting the transmit vehicle message;

receiving the transmit vehicle message at a receive vehicle;

sensing receive vehicle information;

extracting vehicle information from the transmit vehicle message;

weighting the vehicle information to create weighted vehicle information;

processing the receive vehicle information and the weighted vehicle information to determine inter vehicle status; and

,

providing control information to receive vehicle control system based on the inter vehicle status.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising the steps of:

creating an acknowledgement message on the receive vehicle;

transmitting the acknowledgement message from the receive vehicle;

receiving the acknowledgement message at the transmit vehicle; and

processing the acknowledgement message.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein the step of sensing vehicle information comprises:

receiving other vehicle information from other vehicles; and

reading transmit vehicle status from transmit vehicle sensors.

17. The method of claim 14 wherein three or more vehicles are oriented in a chain of vehicles and the steps of claim 14 are repeated for each vehicle in the chain.

18. The method of claim 14 further comprising the step of:

controlling the operation of the receive vehicle based on the inter vehicle status.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the receive vehicle has a human operator and the step of controlling the operation of the receive vehicle is performed without any human operator intervention.

20. The method of claim 14 further comprising the step of:

alerting the vehicle operator with audio or visual cues based on the inter vehicle status.

21. The method of claim 14 wherein the transmit vehicle and the receive vehicle are traveling in the same direction.

22. The method of claim 14 wherein the transmit vehicle and the receive vehicle are traveling in opposite directions.

23. The method of claim 14 wherein the transmit vehicle message includes an emergency signal and the step of providing control information comprises providing an emergency alert signal to a vehicle operator.

24. The method of claim 14 wherein the step of transmitting the transmit vehicle message comprises transmitting the transmit vehicle message with optical data sources and the step of receiving the transmit vehicle message at a receive vehicle comprises receiving the transmit vehicle message with optical data sensors.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein the optical data sources comprise modulated headlights, taillights, side lights, and some combination thereof.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein said optical data sources are modulated at a frequency to produce a flicker that is undetectable by a human observer.

27. The method of claim 24 wherein the optical data sources comprise active retro-reflectors.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein the active retro-reflectors operate in the infrared spectrum.

29. The method of claim 14 wherein said step of weighting the vehicle information comprises calculating weights for the vehicle information based on spatial displacement or temporal displacement of the vehicle information to create the weighted vehicle information.

30. The method of claim 14 wherein said step of weighting the vehicle information comprises calculating weights for the vehicle information based an importance for the vehicle information to create the weighted vehicle information.

31. The method of claim 14 wherein said transmit vehicle message contains a hop count that indicates an age of said transmit vehicle message.

32. The method of claim 14, wherein said step of creating a transmit vehicle message comprises:

detecting changes in the vehicle information from a previous state to a current state; and

creating the transmit vehicle message to contain only the vehicle information which has changed from the previous state to the current state.

34. A method of inter vehicle communication comprising the steps of:

sensing current transmit vehicle information of one or more transmit vehicles;

creating a message for each transmit vehicle of the one or more transmit vehicles, each message containing transmit vehicle information for that transmit vehicle;

transmitting the message for each transmit vehicle from one or more sources on each transmit vehicle;

receiving the message from each transmit vehicle with one or more sensors on a receive vehicle;

extracting current transmit vehicle information from each message;

calculating a weight for the transmit vehicle information from each transmit vehicle to create weighted transmit vehicle information;

reading receive vehicle information from receive vehicle sensors; and

processing the weighted transmit vehicle information for each transmit vehicle and receive vehicle information to determine multiple vehicle status.

35. The method or claim 34 further comprising the steps of:

storing the current transmit vehicle information for each transmit vehicle;

recovering previously stored transmit vehicle information;

calculating weights for the previously stored transmit vehicle information to create weighted previously stored transmit vehicle information; and

processing the weighted previously stored transmit vehicle information and the multiple vehicle status to provide a situation assessment.

36. The method of claim 35 further comprising the step of:

controlling the receive vehicle operation based on the situation assessment.

37. The method of claim 35 further comprising the step of:

alerting the vehicle operator with audio or visual cues based on the situation assessment.

38. The method of claim 34 further comprising the step of:

controlling the receive vehicle operation based on the multiple vehicle status.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein the receive vehicle has a human operator and the step of controlling the receive vehicle operation is performed without any human operator intervention.

40. The method of claim 34 further comprising the step of:

alerting the vehicle operator with audio or visual cues based on the multiple vehicle status.

41. The method of claim 34 wherein the sources comprise optical data sources and the sensors comprise optical data sensors.

42. The method of claim 41 wherein the optical data sources comprise modulated headlights, taillights, side lights, and some combination thereof.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein said optical data sources are modulated at a frequency to produce a flicker that is undetectable by a human observer.

44. The method of claim 41 wherein the optical data sources comprise active retro-reflectors.

45. The method of claim 44 wherein the active retro-reflectors operate in the infrared spectrum.

46. The method of claim 34 wherein said step of calculating a weight for the transmit vehicle information comprises calculating weights for the transmit vehicle information based on spatial displacement or temporal displacement of the transmit vehicle information to create the weighted transmit vehicle information.

47. The method of claim 34 wherein said step of calculating a weight for the transmit vehicle information comprises calculating weights for the transmit vehicle information based an importance for the transmit vehicle information to create the weighted transmit vehicle information.

48. The method of claim 34 wherein said current transmit vehicle information contains a hop count that indicates an age of the current transmit vehicle information.

49. The method of claim 34, wherein said step of creating a message for each transmit vehicle comprises:

detecting changes in the current transmit vehicle information from a previous state to a current state; and

creating the message for each transmit vehicle to contain only the current transmit vehicle information which has changed from the previous state to the current state.

50. An inter vehicle communication system comprising:

one or more neon, xenon, or incandescent light sources located on external portions of a first vehicle;

means for modulating said light radiated from said lights sources with data;

one or more light sensors on a second vehicle, said light sensors detecting said light radiated from said first vehicle to create a detected light signal;

means for demodulating said detected light signal to extract said data; and

at least one active retro-reflector receiving a light beam from the second vehicle and radiating a modulated reflected light beam.

51. The system according to claim 50 wherein said lights sources comprise vehicle headlights, vehicle taillights, vehicle side lights, vehicle emergency beacons and some combination thereof.

52. The inter vehicle communication system of claim 51 wherein said means for modulating comprises at least one electrical modulator controlling current or voltage applied to the vehicle headlights, the vehicle taillights, or some combination thereof.

53. The inter vehicle communication system of claim 50 wherein said means for modulating comprises electrically controlled liquid crystal material covering at least one of the one or more light sources.

54. The system of claim 50, wherein said light sources are modulated at a frequency to produce a flicker that is undetectable by a human observer.

55. An inter vehicle communication system comprising:

one or more light sources on a first vehicle, said light sources radiating modulated light in a spectrum visible to the human eye;

an electrical modulator coupled to each one of said light sources, said electrical modulator modulating a data signal onto the modulated light radiated from each one of said light sources;

one or more light detectors on a second vehicle, said light detectors sensing said light radiated from said first vehicle to create an electrical detected light signal; and

an electrical demodulator receiving said electrical detected light signal wherein at least one light source comprises an active retro-reflector receiving a light beam from the second vehicle and radiating a modulated reflected light beam.

56. The system according to claim 55 wherein said lights sources comprise vehicle headlights, vehicle taillights, vehicle side lights, vehicle emergency beacons and some combination thereof.

57. The inter vehicle communication system of claim 55, wherein said light sources are modulated at a frequency to produce a flicker that is undetectable by a human observer.

58. A system for two-way communication between vehicles comprising:

one or more light source disposed on a first vehicle directing light towards a second vehicle;

a first vehicle modulator modulating at least one light source of the one or more light sources with a first vehicle data signal;

one or more second vehicle light receptors disposed on the second vehicle to receive the modulated light from the first vehicle;

a second vehicle demodulator coupled to said one or more second vehicle light receptors, wherein the second vehicle demodulator recovers the first vehicle data signal from the received light;

one or more active retro-reflectors disposed on the second vehicle, wherein at least one active retro-reflector of the one or more active retro-reflectors is disposed to reflect the light directed from the first vehicle back towards the first vehicle;

a second vehicle modulator controlling the one or more active retro-reflectors to modulate a second vehicle data signal onto the light reflected back to the first vehicle;

one or more first vehicle light receptors disposed on the first vehicle to receive the light reflected from the one or more active retro-reflectors; and

a first vehicle demodulator coupled to the one or more first vehicle light receptors, wherein the first vehicle demodulator recovers the second vehicle data signal from the light reflected from the one or more active retro-reflectors.

59. The system according to claim 58 wherein at least one light source radiates light only in the infra-red spectrum and at least one active retro-reflector modulates light only in the infra-red spectrum.

60. The system according to claim 58 wherein the second vehicle modulator controls the active retro-reflectors produce a light flicker that is undetectable by a human observer.

61. The system according to claim 58 further comprising means for receiving data from a third vehicle and the first vehicle data signal, the second vehicle data signal, or the first vehicle data signal and the second vehicle data signal at least comprises data from the third vehicle.