Road characteristic prediction

• US 9,421,979 B2
• Filed: 10/17/2013
• Issued: 08/23/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Szwabowski, Steven Joseph, D'Amato, Anthony Mario, Filev, Dimitar Petrov
• Primary Examiner(s): SMITH, JELANI A
• Application Number:
  US14/056,761
• Publication Number:
  US 20150112547A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,041 Days
• Field of Search: 701/1, 701/117, 701/123, 73/9
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/15 Road slope, i.e. the inclination of a road segment in the longitudinal direction
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/30 Road curve radius
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/35 Road bumpiness, e.g. potholes
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2555/20 Ambient conditions, e.g. wind or rain
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/143 Speed control B60W30/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/06 Road conditions
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/072 Curvature of the road
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/076 Slope angle of the road

Abstract

A vehicle system includes at least one sensor that collects infrastructure information in real time and outputs sensor signals representing the collected infrastructure information. A processing device processes the sensor signals, predicts a future road characteristic based on the infrastructure information, and controls at least one vehicle subsystem in accordance with the predicted future road characteristic. A method includes receiving infrastructure information collected in real time, processing the infrastructure information, predicting a future road characteristic based on the infrastructure information, and controlling at least one vehicle subsystem in accordance with the predicted future road characteristic.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

at least one sensor configured to collect infrastructure information in real time and output sensor signals representing the infrastructure information; and

a processing device configured to process the sensor signals, predict a future road characteristic based on the infrastructure information, and control at least one vehicle subsystem in accordance with the predicted future road characteristic,

wherein predicting the future road characteristic includes;

observing at least one of a plurality of road characteristics over a predetermined period of time,

determining a frequency of occurrence of the at least one of the plurality of road characteristics, and

predicting the future road characteristic based at least in part on whether the at least one of a plurality of road characteristics is observed at least two times over the predetermined period of time and a predicted duration of the at least one of a plurality of road characteristics.

2. The vehicle system of claim 1, wherein the infrastructure information includes at least one of road roughness, road curvature, road grade, and road construction guidelines.

3. The vehicle system of claim 1, wherein the at least one sensor is configured to collect environmental information.

4. The vehicle system of claim 3, wherein the environmental information includes at least one of geological information, climate information, and weather information.

5. The vehicle system of claim 1, wherein predicting the future road characteristic includes applying a weight to each observed characteristic.

6. The vehicle system of claim 5, the plurality of road characteristics including a current road characteristic and a previous road characteristic, and wherein the weight applied to the current road characteristic is greater than the weight applied to the previous road characteristic.

7. The vehicle system of claim 1, wherein counting the frequency of the observed characteristic includes counting a number of times the observed characteristic changes over the predetermined period of time.

8. The vehicle system of claim 7, wherein the processing device is configured to predict the future road characteristic based at least in part on the number of times the observed characteristic changes over the predetermined period of time.

9. A method comprising:

receiving infrastructure information collected in real time;

processing the infrastructure information;

predicting, via a computing device, a future road characteristic based on the infrastructure information, wherein predicting the future road characteristic includes observing at least one of a plurality of road characteristics over a predetermined period of time, determining a frequency of the occurrence of at least one of the plurality of road characteristics, and predicting the future road characteristic based at least in part on whether the at least one of a plurality of road characteristics is observed at least two times over the predetermined period of time and a predicted duration of the at least one of a plurality of road characteristics; and

controlling at least one vehicle subsystem in accordance with the predicted future road characteristic.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the infrastructure information includes at least one of road roughness, road curvature, road grade, and road construction guidelines.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising receiving environmental information.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the environmental information includes at least one of geological information, climate information, and weather information.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein predicting the future road characteristic includes applying a weight to each observed characteristic.

14. The method of claim 13, the plurality of road characteristics including a current road characteristic and a previous road characteristic, and wherein the weight applied to the current road characteristic is greater than the weight applied to the previous road characteristic.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein counting the frequency of the observed characteristic includes counting a number of times the observed characteristic changes over the predetermined period of time.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein predicting the future road characteristic is based at least in part on the number of times the observed characteristic changes over the predetermined period of time.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium tangibly embodying computer-executable instructions that cause a processor to execute operations comprising:

receiving infrastructure information collected in real time;

processing the infrastructure information;

predicting a future road characteristic based on the infrastructure information by observing at least one of a plurality of road characteristics over a predetermined period of time, counting a number of times the at least one of a plurality of road characteristics changes over the predetermined period of time, and predicting the future road characteristic based at least in part on whether the at least one of a plurality of road characteristics is observed at least two times over the predetermined period of time and a predicted duration of the at least one of a plurality of road characteristics; and

controlling at least one vehicle subsystem in accordance with the predicted future road characteristic.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein predicting the future road characteristic includes:

applying a weight to each observed characteristic, wherein the weight applied to a current road characteristic is greater than the weight applied to a previous road characteristic; and

predicting the future road characteristic based at least in part on the number of times the observed characteristic changes over the predetermined period of time.