Management of mobile objects

• US 9,865,163 B2
• Filed: 12/16/2015
• Issued: 01/09/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Gotoh, Yasuhisa, Nishimura, Yasutaka, Sasaki, Taku, Tanibayashi, Makoto
• Primary Examiner(s): Edwards, Jerrah
• Assistant Examiner(s): Williams, Kelly D
• Application Number:
  US14/970,631
• Publication Number:
  US 20170178504A1
• Time in Patent Office: 755 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0112 from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0129 for creating historical data or processing based on historical data
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0133 for classifying traffic situation
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0141 for traffic information dissemination
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096725 where the received information generates an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096758 where no selection takes place on the transmitted or the received information
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 where the origin of the information is a central station
• 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 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]

Abstract

To use a high-quality driving support and automatic driving system that manages a plurality of mobile objects through communication with the mobile objects to manage mobile objects that do not communicate with this system, provided is a system including a mobile object server operable to assist with movement of a plurality of mobile objects within a geographic space, wherein the mobile object server having: a monitoring section operable to monitor movement of a first mobile object that does not receive at least a portion of movement assistance and an assisting section operable to assist with movement of a second mobile object that is an assistance target, using a result obtained by monitoring the first mobile object. Also provided is a method and program product.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a mobile object server operable to assist with movement of a plurality of mobile objects within a geographic space, wherein the mobile object server includes;

a monitoring section operable to monitor movement of the plurality of mobile objects;

a receiving section operable to receive information of a first mobile object observed by one or more of;

a second mobile object, and a monitoring apparatus located on a route on which the plurality of mobile objects move;

an observation instruction section operable to monitor the first mobile object, wherein monitoring the first mobile object is based on an observation that the first mobile object does not communicate with the mobile object server by judging that the first mobile object does not match any second mobile object, and wherein monitoring the first mobile object comprises designating one or more parameters of a monitoring device of the second mobile object or the monitoring apparatus, wherein the one or more parameters are selected from the group consisting of;

sensitivity, number of frames, angle of field, image quality, and monitoring direction; and

an assisting section operable to assist with movement of the second mobile object that is an assistance target, using a result obtained by monitoring the first mobile object, wherein assisting with movement of the second mobile object comprises issuing commands for automatic driving.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein

the monitoring section is operable to monitor the first mobile object using the received information of the first mobile object.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein

the mobile object server further includes an observation instructing section operable to instruct another second mobile object positioned within a predetermined range from the first mobile object to observe the first mobile object.

4. The system according to claim 2, wherein

the receiving section is operable to receive information of another mobile object observed by at least one of the second mobile object and a monitoring apparatus provided on a route on which the mobile objects move, and the monitoring section is operable to begin newly monitoring the other mobile object as the first mobile object in response to the other mobile object not matching any second mobile object that is an assistance target.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein

the assisting section is operable to assist with the movement of the second mobile object using at least one of an outer appearance of the observed first mobile object, a driving characteristic, a characteristic of a passenger, and a characteristic of a route on which the first mobile object is positioned.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein

the assisting section is operable to notify the second mobile object about information of the first mobile object positioned within a reference range from the second mobile object.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the mobile object server further includes a history storage section operable to store history information of the first mobile object that is a monitoring target, and the assisting section is operable to assist with the movement of the second mobile object using the history information of the first mobile object stored in the history storage section.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein

the mobile object server further includes a movement predicting section operable to predict a movement destination of the first mobile object;

and

the assisting section is operable to assist with the movement of the second mobile object using a prediction result of the movement predicting section.

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein the assisting section is operable to instruct the second mobile object to be distanced from the first mobile object by at least a reference distance.

10. The system according to claim 1, wherein the assisting section is operable to guide the second mobile object to a route differing from a route on which the first mobile object is moving.

11. The system according to claim 1, wherein

the assisting section is operable to assist with automatic driving of the second mobile object;

and

the monitoring section is operable to monitor the first mobile object that is driven manually or the first mobile object that is driven automatically without receiving assistance from the system.

12. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

an event server that is operable to manage events occurring within the geographic space, wherein the monitoring section is operable to notify the event server about information of the first mobile object;

the event server is operable to register presence of the first mobile object as an event; and

the assisting section is operable to assist with the movement of the second mobile object based on the events registered in the event server.

13. A method for assisting with movement of a plurality of mobile objects within a geographic space, comprising:

monitoring, by a mobile object server, movement of the plurality of mobile objects;

receiving, by the mobile object server, information of a first mobile object observed by one or more of;

a second mobile object, and a monitoring apparatus located on a route on which the plurality of mobile objects move;

determining that the first mobile object does not communicate with the mobile object server by judging that the first mobile object does not match any second mobile object;

based on determining that the first mobile object does not communicate with the mobile object server, monitoring the first mobile object, wherein monitoring the first mobile object comprises designating one or more parameters of a monitoring device of the second mobile object or the monitoring apparatus, wherein the one or more parameters are selected from the group consisting of;

sensitivity, number of frames, angle of field, image quality, and monitoring direction; and

assisting with movement of the second mobile object that is an assistance target, using a result obtained by monitoring the first mobile object, wherein assisting with movement of the second mobile object comprises issuing commands for automatic driving.

14. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a computer to cause the computer to perform:

monitoring, by a mobile object server, movement of a plurality of mobile objects;

receiving, by a mobile object server, information of a first mobile object observed by one or more of;

a second mobile object, and a monitoring apparatus located on a route on which the plurality of mobile objects move;

determining that the first mobile object does not communicate with the mobile object server by judging that the first mobile object does not match any second mobile object;

based on determining that the first mobile object does not communicate with the mobile object server, monitoring the first mobile object, wherein monitoring the first mobile object comprises designating one or more parameters of a monitoring device of the second mobile object or the monitoring apparatus, wherein the one or more parameters are selected from the group consisting of;

sensitivity, number of frames, angle of field, image quality, and monitoring direction; and

assisting with movement of the second mobile object that is an assistance target, using a result obtained by monitoring the first mobile object, wherein assisting with movement of the second mobile object comprises issuing commands for automatic driving.