Internal safety systems for robotic vehicles

• US 9,517,767 B1
• Filed: 11/04/2015
• Issued: 12/13/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zoox Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Zoox Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Behere, Sagar, Kentley, Timothy David, Gamara, Rachad Youssef
• Primary Examiner(s): Figueroa, Jaime
• Application Number:
  US14/932,954
• Time in Patent Office: 405 Days
• Field of Search: 701/23, 701/45, 701/63, 340/665, 340/667, 340/436, 340/562, 280/735, 280/732, 280/268, 280/807, 280/752, 280/736, 280/806, 280/777, 280/733, 180/268, 180/273, 180/282, 738/623.91, 738/624.2
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2200/40 Working vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/0007 Measures or means for preventing or attenuating collisions
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/04 Cutting off the power supply under fault conditions protective devices and circuit arrangements in general H01H; H02H
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 50/66 Arrangements of batteries
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/002 Seats provided with an occupancy detection means mounted therein or thereon detection means responsive to presence or absence of children B60N2/266
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/01566 key rotating about a vertical axis
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/42709 involving residual deformation or fracture of the structure
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/4279 electric or electronic triggering
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2220/10 using a database
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2220/20 using a deterministic algorithm
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/26 the devices being primarily intended to indicate the vehicle, or parts thereof, or to give signals, to other traffic
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/507 specific to autonomous vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/525 automatically indicating risk of collision between vehicles in traffic or with pedestrians, e.g. after risk assessment using the vehicle sensor data
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/535 to prevent rear-end collisions, e.g. by indicating safety distance at the rear of the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 5/006 indicating risk of collision between vehicles or with pedestrians
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/01272 Belt tensioners
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/01 Electrical circuits for triggering passive safety arrangements, e.g. airbags, safety belt tighteners, in case of vehicle accidents or impending vehicle accidents electrical circuits for transmission of signals between steering wheel and the vehicle itself B60R16/027; for electrically actuating belt retractor locking means B60R22/343
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/01512 Passenger detection systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/01546 using belt buckle sensors
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/04 including control of propulsion units
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/18 : including control of braking systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/20 : including control of steering systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/30 : including control of auxiliary equipment, e.g. air-conditioning compressors or oil pumps
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2400/00 : Indexing codes relating to detected, measured or calculated conditions or factors
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2420/408 : Radar; Laser, e.g. lidar
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2420/54 : Audio sensitive means, e.g. ultrasound
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/00 : Input parameters relating to objects
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/20 : Static objects
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/4023 : large-size vehicles, e.g. trucks
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/4026 : Cycles
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/4029 : Pedestrians
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/4041 : Position
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/80 : Spatial relation or speed relative to objects
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2710/06 : Combustion engines, Gas turbines
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2710/08 : Electric propulsion units
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2710/18 : Braking system
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2710/20 : Steering systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2710/30 : Auxiliary equipments
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/08 : Active safety systems predicting or avoiding probable or impending collision or attempting to minimise its consequences
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/09 : Taking automatic action to avoid collision, e.g. braking and steering
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/095 : Predicting travel path or likelihood of collision
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/0956 : the prediction being responsive to traffic or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/18 : Propelling the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 60/0016 : of the vehicle or its occupants
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 60/0027 : using trajectory prediction for other traffic participants
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/9316 : combined with communication equipment with other vehicles or with base stations
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0018 : Transmission from mobile station to base station
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/16 : using electromagnetic waves other than radio waves
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0027 : involving a plurality of vehicles, e.g. fleet or convoy travelling fleet control of land vehicles from a control room G05D1/0297; traffic control systems for road vehicles G08G1/00; for marine craft G08G3/00; for aircraft G08G5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0055 : with safety arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0248 : in combination with a laser lasers per se H01S
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0255 : using acoustic signals, e.g. ultra-sonic singals sonar systems designed for anti-collision purposes G01S15/93
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0257 : using a radar radar systems designed for anti-collision purposes between land vehicles or between land vehicle and fixed obstacles G01S13/931
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0274 : using mapping information stored in a memory device navigation using map-matching G01C21/30
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0297 : by controlling means in a control room
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/56 : exterior to a vehicle by using sensors mounted on the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 : Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 : Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 9/04 : for teaching control of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/60 : Electric or hybrid propulsion means for production processes
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 : Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/16 : Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles

Abstract

Systems, apparatus and methods implemented in algorithms, hardware, software, firmware, logic, or circuitry may be configured to process data and sensory input to determine whether an object external to an autonomous vehicle (e.g., another vehicle, a pedestrian, road debris, a bicyclist, etc.) may be a potential collision threat to the autonomous vehicle. The autonomous vehicle may be configured to implement interior active safety systems to protect passengers of the autonomous vehicle during a collision with an object or during evasive maneuvers by the autonomous vehicle, for example. The interior active safety systems may be configured to provide passengers with notice of an impending collision and/or emergency maneuvers by the vehicle by tensioning seat belts prior to executing an evasive maneuver and/or prior to a predicted point of collision.

Claims

1. A method for robotic vehicle internal safety system activation, comprising:

detecting that a seat of an autonomous vehicle is occupied;

detecting that a seat belt coupled with the seat is fastened;

applying, by a belt tensioner coupled with the seat belt, a first tension to seat belt;

autonomously navigating the autonomous vehicle toward a destination;

identifying an occurrence of a safety event from a plurality of safety related events, wherein the plurality of safety related events include a breaking event, and an acceleration event;

increasing, by the belt tensioner, the first tension to a second tension based, at least in part, on the occurrence of the safety event; and

reducing, by the belt tensioner, during the navigating, the second tension to the first tension.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining that an avoidance maneuver has completed and based, at least in response to determining that the avoidance maneuver has completed, reducing, by the belt tensioner, during the navigating, the second tension to the first tension.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

releasing, by the belt tensioner, after reaching the destination, the tension from the seat belt.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the detecting that the autonomous vehicle has reached the destination further comprises:

receiving, at a perception system of the autonomous vehicle, data representing a sensor signal, the sensor signal being generated by a sensor system of the autonomous vehicle;

generating at the perception system, based at least in part on the sensor signal, data representing object data indicative of an environment external to the autonomous vehicle;

receiving, at a localizer system of the autonomous vehicle, data representing location data associated with a location of the autonomous vehicle in the environment;

generating, at the localizer system, based at least in part on the location data, data representing position and orientation data; and

comparing, at a planner system of the autonomous vehicle, the object data with the position and orientation data to determine that the autonomous vehicle has reached the destination.

5. The method of claim 1, where the detecting that the seat of the autonomous vehicle is occupied further comprises:

receiving data representing a sensor signal from an occupancy sensor coupled with the seat; and

determining, based at least in part on the sensor signal, the seat is occupied.

6. The method of claim 1, where the detecting that the seat belt coupled with the seat is fastened further comprises:

receiving data representing a sensor signal from a seat belt sensor being configured to sense fastening of the seat belt; and

determining, based at least in part on the sensor signal, the seat belt is fastened.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the applying by the belt tensioner further comprises:

receiving, at the belt tensioner, data representing a belt tensioner select signal indicative of the belt tensioner being selected to apply tension to the seat belt; and

receiving, at the belt tensioner, data representing a trigger signal being configured to cause the belt tensioner to apply tension to the seat belt.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the releasing by the belt tensioner further comprises:

receiving, at the belt tensioner, data representing a release signal, the release signal being configured to cause the belt tensioner to release the tension from the seat belt.

9. A method for robotic vehicle internal safety system activation, comprising:

determining, based at least in part on data representing a location of an autonomous vehicle in an environment, data representing a trajectory of the autonomous vehicle in the environment;

determining data representing a location of an object in the environment, the object having an object track and an object classification;

predicting a collision between the object and the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the data representing the location of the object and the data representing the trajectory of the autonomous vehicle; and

causing activation of an interior safety system of the autonomous vehicle at a parametric range in which the collision is predicted, wherein causing activation of the interior safety system includes deaccelerating, by a counter force device, motion of a seat while the seat is being displaced from a first position internal to the autonomous vehicle to a second position internal to the autonomous vehicle.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the seat is mounted to a sled, and wherein the sled is coupled to the counter force device.

11. The method of claim 10 and further comprising:

applying, by a belt tensioner, tension to a seat belt coupled to the seat, the belt tensioner being coupled to the seat belt.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein causing activation of the interior safety system comprises:

moving, by an active seat actuator, the seat from the first position internal to the autonomous vehicle to the second position internal to the autonomous vehicle, the active seat actuator being coupled to the seat.

13. The method of claim 12 and further comprising:

applying, by a belt tensioner, tension to a seat belt coupled to the seat, the belt tensioner being coupled to the seat belt.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein causing activation of the interior safety system comprises:

applying, by a belt tensioner, tension to a seat belt coupled to a seat disposed internal to the autonomous vehicle, the belt tensioner being coupled to the seat belt.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the parametric range includes a predicted impact time associated with the collision between the object and the autonomous vehicle.

16. The method of claim 15 and further comprising:

applying, by a belt tensioner, prior to the predicted impact time, tension to a seat belt coupled to a seat disposed internal to the autonomous vehicle, the belt tensioner being coupled to the seat belt.

17. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

moving, by an active seat actuator, prior to the predicted impact time, the seat from the first position internal to the autonomous vehicle to the second position internal to the autonomous vehicle, the active seat actuator being coupled to the seat.

18. The method of claim 9, wherein the counter force device is one or more of a spring, a dampener, or a shock absorber that is coupled to the seat.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the counter force device includes a magnetorheological fluid.

20. The method of claim 19 and further comprising:

applying, during the moving, a fluid control signal to the magnetorheological fluid, the fluid control signal being configured to change a fluid dynamic characteristic of the magnetorheological fluid.