Formulating lane level routing plans

• US 9,721,472 B2
• Filed: 09/22/2015
• Issued: 08/01/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2015
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Jain, Jinesh J, Levine, Daniel
• Primary Examiner(s): To, Tuan C.
• Application Number:
  US14/861,745
• Publication Number:
  US 20170084178A1
• Time in Patent Office: 679 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/143 Alarm means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/146 Display means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/00 Input parameters relating to objects
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/45 External transmission of data to or from the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/55 using telemetry
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/00 Purposes of road vehicle drive control systems not related to the control of a particular sub-unit, e.g. of systems using conjoint control of vehicle sub-units
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/10 Path keeping cruise control for automatically following a preceding vehicle B60W30/165
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/16 Tactile feedback to the driver, e.g. vibration or force feedback to the driver on the steering wheel or the accelerator pedal
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3658 Lane guidance
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0212 with means for defining a desired trajectory involving a plurality of land vehicles G05D1/0287
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096827 where the route is computed onboard
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096844 where the complete route is dynamically recomputed based on new data
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096861 where the immediate route instructions are output to the driver, e.g. arrow signs for next turn
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/167 Driving aids for lane monitoring, lane changing, e.g. blind spot detection

Abstract

The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for formulating lane level routing plans. In general, aspects of the invention are used in motorized vehicles to guide a driver to a terminal vehicle configuration according to a lane level routing plan that balances travel time with routing plan robustness. A lane level routing plan can be based on terminal guidance conditions (e.g., exiting a highway in the correct off ramp lane), statistical patterns of lanes themselves, current vehicle state, and state of the local environment near the vehicle. Lane level routing plans can be communicated to the driver with audio, visual, and/or haptic cues. Lane level routing plans can be revised online and in (essentially) real-time in response to changing conditions in the local environment (e.g., a trailing vehicle in a neighboring lane has decided to increase speed).

Claims

1. A method for formulating a lane level routing plan for a vehicle, the method comprising:

sending a plan request, including a local environment state of the vehicle and an end vehicle configuration for the vehicle, to a statistics module, the statistics module communicatively linked to lane level data for roads having multiple lanes in the same direction of travel, the local environment state including a current configuration for the vehicle;

receiving lane level statistics from the statistics module, the lane level statistics for one or more roads to be traversed when traveling a distance separating the current vehicle configuration from the end vehicle configuration;

formulating the lane level routing plan based on the lane level statistics, the lane level routing plan for a route from the current configuration to the end configuration over the one or more roads, the lane level routing plan including cues for predicted lane changes on at least one road having multiple lanes in the same direction of travel; and

presenting the lane level routing plan at the display device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the current vehicle configuration based on telemetry from the telemetry modules.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the local environment state of the vehicle based on telemetry and sensor data, the local environment state including the current configuration for the vehicle.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving lane level statistics comprises receiving lane level statistics derived from one or more of:

telemetry data from other vehicles, environmental data, and sensor data.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting the lane level routing plan at a display device in the vehicle.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising monitoring implementation of the lane level routing plan, including presenting a cue for a predicted lane change at a user-interface to alert a vehicle occupant about the predicted lane change.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein presenting a cue for a predicted lane change comprises presenting one or more of:

an audio cue, a video cue, and a haptic cue.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein formulating a lane level routing plan comprises formulating a lane level routing plan for switching between lanes on a multi-lane highway.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein formulating a lane level routing plan comprises formulating a lane level routing plan for switching lanes to an on ramp or off ramp from a multi-lane highway.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicle is an autonomous vehicle.

11. A system, the system comprising:

one or more processors;

system memory;

a display device;

one or more telemetry modules, the telemetry modules providing telemetry indicative of the operating state of a motor vehicle;

one or more computer storage devices having stored thereon computer-executable instructions representing a plan formulation module, the plan formulation module configured to;

determine the local environment state of the motor vehicle based on telemetry and sensor data, the local environment state including a current configuration for the motor vehicle;

receive an indication of an end configuration for the motor vehicle, the current configuration and the end configuration separated by a distance;

send a plan request, including the local environment state and the end configuration, to a statistics module, the statistics module communicatively linked to lane level data for roads having multiple lanes in the same direction of travel;

receive lane level statistics from the statistics module, the lane level statistics for one or more roads to be traversed when traveling the distance separating the current configuration and the end configuration;

formulate a lane level routing plan based on the lane level statistics, the lane level routing plan for a route from the current configuration to the end configuration over the one or more roads, the lane level routing plan including cues for predicted lane changes on at least one road having multiple lanes in the same direction of travel; and

present the lane level routing plan at the display device.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the plan formulation module being configured to determine the current configuration of the motor vehicle comprises the plan formulation module being configured to determine one or more of:

the vehicle location, the vehicle speed, the vehicle direction, and the vehicle acceleration.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the plan formulation module being configured to receive lane level statistics comprises the plan formulation module being configured to access lane level statistics from a cloud computing environment, the lane level statistics calculated from one or more of:

telemetry data from other vehicles, environmental data, and sensor data.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein to formulate a lane level routing plan based on the lane level statistics comprises to formulate a lane level routing plan for one or more of:

switching between lanes on a multi-lane highway and switching lanes to an on ramp or off ramp from the multi-lane highway.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the vehicle is human operated vehicle.

16. A method for cueing a driver of a vehicle to transition from one lane to another lane on a multi-lane road having multiple lanes in the same direction of travel, the method comprising:

formulating a lane level routing plan, the lane level routing plan formulated from lane level statistics, the lane level routing plan defining a route from a current configuration of the vehicle to an end configuration of the vehicle over one or more roads, the one or more roads including the multi-lane road, the lane level routing plan including lane changes predicted to be of benefit when traveling between the current configuration and the end configuration, the lane level statistics received from a statistics module in response to a plan request sent to the statistics module, the plan request including a local environment state of the vehicle and the end configuration, the lane level statistics for the one or more roads;

detecting that the vehicle is in a configuration associated with a predicted lane change; and

indicating the predicted lane change to the driver.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein formulating a lane level routing plan comprises formulating a schedule of predicted lane changes.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein indicating the predicted lane change to the driver comprises presenting a cue to alert an occupant of the vehicle.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein presenting a cue to alert an occupant of the vehicle comprises present one or more of:

an audio cue, a video cue, and a haptic cue.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the vehicle is an autonomous vehicle.

21. A system, the system comprising:

one or more processors;

system memory coupled to the one or more processors, the system memory storing instructions that are executable by the one or more processors;

a display device; and

the one or more processors executing the instructions stored in the system memory to formulate a lane level routing plan for a vehicle, including the following;

send a plan request, including a local environment state of the vehicle and an end configuration for the vehicle, to a statistics module, the statistics module communicatively linked to lane level data for roads having multiple lanes in the same direction of travel;

receive lane level statistics from the statistics module, the lane level statistics for one or more roads to be traversed when traveling a distance separating a current configuration and the end configuration;

formulate the lane level routing plan based on the lane level statistics, the lane level routing plan for a route from the current configuration to the end configuration over the one or more roads, the lane level routing plan including cues for predicted lane changes on at least one road having multiple lanes in the same direction of travel; and

present the lane level routing plan at the display device.

22. The system of claim 21, further comprising the one or more processors executing the instructions stored in the system memory to determine the current configuration of the motor vehicle by determining one or more of:

the vehicle location, the vehicle speed, the vehicle direction, and the vehicle acceleration.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the one or more processors executing the instructions stored in the system memory to receive lane level statistics comprises the one or more processors executing the instructions stored in the system memory to access lane level statistics from a cloud computing environment, the lane level statistics calculated from one or more of:

telemetry data from other vehicles, environmental data, and sensor data.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein the one or more processors executing the instructions stored in the system memory to formulate a lane level routing plan based on the lane level statistics comprises the one or more processors executing the instructions stored in the system memory to formulate a lane level routing plan for one or more of:

switching between lanes on a multi-lane highway and switching lanes to an on ramp or off ramp from the multi-lane highway.