Dynamic vehicle grid infrastructure to allow vehicles to sense and respond to traffic conditions

• US 7,782,227 B2
• Filed: 06/24/2008
• Issued: 08/24/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Graham, Barry Michael, Boss, Gregory Jensen, Waters, Timothy Moffett, Hamilton, Rick Allen II, Dawson, Christopher James
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Phung
• Application Number:
  US12/145,445
• Publication Number:
  US 20080316053A1
• Time in Patent Office: 791 Days
• Field of Search: 340/902, 340/901, 340/435, 340/463, 701/96, 701/301, 180/271
• US Class Current: 340/902
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/162 event-triggered
• 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: H04W 4/46 for vehicle-to-vehicle communication [V2V]

Abstract

A dynamic ‘vehicle grid’ system provides the ability for drivers to be automatically warned to the conditions of other vehicles in the vicinity. In this grid system, a motor vehicle would be equipped with a transmitter, receiver, computer and a selection of sensors. Other adjacent vehicles are also contain the same of equipment for transmitting and receiving signals. When the sensors in a vehicle detect a change such as hard braking (rapid deceleration) or very slow speed (blockages), it automatically sends this information via the transmitter over a wireless communication channel to any other receivers in the vicinity.

Claims

1. A dynamic vehicle grid system that enables vehicles to sense and respond to traffic conditions comprising;

two or more vehicles positioned in close proximity to each other such that the vehicles could send and receive signals from each other;

at least one sensor positioned in each vehicle to detect various conditions and status of the vehicle;

a transmitter positioned in the each vehicle to broadcast signals to other vehicles in the vehicle grid system;

a receiver positioned in the each vehicle to receive signals transmitted from other vehicles in the vehicle grid system;

a computing device positioned in each vehicle, said computing device capable of accepting signals from the sensors and receiver, to transmitting signals to the transmitter for broadcast to other vehicles in the grid and to processing signals received from said receiver and sensor; and

a software module contained in each vehicles, said software module capable of;

detecting the warning message at a first receiving vehicle in the dynamic grid;

determining whether the detected warning message is from a first vehicle or a receiving vehicle;

when the determination is that the detected warning message is from the first vehicle, interpreting the detected warning message at the receiving vehicle and sending the detected warning message to a driver of the receiving vehicle;

formulating a relay message at the receiving vehicle containing information from the warning message detected at the receiver vehicle, the relay message containing a field that identifies a sender of the relay message as the first vehicle which sent the original warning message; and

relaying the formulated relay message to other vehicles in close proximity to the receiving vehicle that formulated the relay message.

2. The vehicle grid system as described in claim 1 further comprising a plurality of vehicle sensors for detecting various conditions and status of a vehicle in the vehicle grid system.

3. The vehicle grid system as described in claim 2 wherein a vehicle in the system has a sensor positioned at each wheel on the vehicle.

4. The vehicle grid system as described in claim 2 wherein said plurality of vehicle sensor comprise at least one accelerometer, one speed sensor, one crash sensor, and one peripheral sensor.