Autonomous vehicle communication configuration system

• US 10,234,863 B2
• Filed: 06/08/2017
• Issued: 03/19/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Uatc, LLC (Uber Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Uber Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Ross, William, Aitken, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Doan, Kiet M
• Application Number:
  US15/617,213
• Publication Number:
  US 20170277186A1
• Time in Patent Office: 649 Days
• Field of Search: 4554141, 4554561, 4554566, 455457, 362500, 362460, 396242
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/362 received from an external device or application, e.g. PDA, mobile phone or calendar application
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0088 characterized by the autonomous decision making process, e.g. artificial intelligence, predefined behaviours using knowledge based models G06N5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/024 in combination with a laser lasers per se H01S
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0274 using mapping information stored in a memory device navigation using map-matching G01C21/30
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0291 Fleet control monitoring fleets in traffic control systems for road vehicles G08G1/127, G08G1/127
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0297 by controlling means in a control room
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/00 Registering or indicating the working of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/202 Dispatching vehicles on the basis of a location, e.g. taxi dispatching
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 Received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18504 Aircraft used as relay or high altitude atmospheric platform
• 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 4/025 using location based information parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/026 using orientation information, e.g. compass
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/20 Selecting an access point
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/1263 Mapping of traffic onto schedule, e.g. scheduled allocation or multiplexing of flows
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/51 based on terminal or device properties
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/005 : Moving wireless networks

Abstract

An autonomous vehicle (AV) can include a communication system to communicate with a backend system, a sensor system to collect sensor data representing an operational environment of the AV, and a control system that can processes the sensor data to perform a localization operation to determine a location and an orientation of the AV within a given region, and autonomously operate the AV'"'"'s acceleration, braking, and steering systems throughout the given region. Based on the localization operation, the AV can implement a set of configuration commands to configure the communication system to transmit and receive data with the backend system using one or more specified network nodes.

Claims

1. An autonomous vehicle (AV) comprising:

a communication system to communicate with a backend system;

a sensor system to generate sensor data representing an operational environment of the AV;

acceleration, braking, and steering systems; and

a control system to execute an instruction set, causing the control system to;

process the sensor data to (i) perform a localization operation to determine a location and an orientation of the AV within a given region, and (ii) autonomously operate the acceleration, braking, and steering systems throughout the given region;

access a network resource map to determine one or more specified network nodes based on the location and the orientation of the AV within the given region, the network resource map indicating network sources throughout the given region, wherein the network resource map is stored locally in a memory resource of the AV or stored remotely and is accessible by the control system via one or more networks; and

based on the determined location and orientation of the AV, implement a set of configuration commands to configure the communication system to connect with the one or more specified network nodes to transmit and receive data with the backend system.

2. The AV of claim 1, wherein the executed instruction set further causes the control system to:

perform one or more ray tracing operations to identify the one or more specified network nodes; and

generate the set of configuration commands based on the one or more ray tracing operations.

3. The AV of claim 1, wherein the executed instruction set further causes the control system to:

transmit localization data, corresponding to the location and the orientation of the AV, to the backend system; and

receive the set of configuration commands from the backend system;

wherein the backend system utilizes the localization data to determine the set of configuration commands for the AV based on the network resource map indicating network sources throughout the given region.

4. The AV of claim 3, wherein the executed instruction set causes the control system to dynamically perform the localization operation, transmit the localization data to the backend system, receive respective sets of configuration commands from the backend system, and implement the respective sets of configuration commands to configure the communication system as the AV travels throughout the given region.

5. The AV of claim 3, wherein the executed instruction set causes the control system to periodically perform the localization operation, transmit the localization data to the backend system, receive respective sets of configuration commands from the backend system, and implement the respective sets of configuration commands to configure the communication system as the AV travels throughout the given region.

6. The AV of claim 1, wherein the executed instruction set causes the control system to implement the set of configuration commands to configure the communication system by beam steering a radiation pattern of the communication system, while autonomously operating the acceleration, braking, and steering systems throughout the given region, to communicate with the backend system via the one or more specified network nodes.

7. The AV of claim 1, wherein the one or more specified network nodes correspond to one or more of a 900 MHz unlicensed, a 3G, a 4G, a 4G LTE, a WiFi, a WiMax, a WiGig, or a dedicated short-range communications protocol.

8. A control system for an autonomous vehicle (AV), the control system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory storing an instruction set that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the control system to;

process sensor data from a sensor system of the AV to (i) perform a localization operation to determine a location and an orientation of the AV within a given region, and (ii) autonomously operate acceleration, braking, and steering systems of the AV throughout the given region;

access a network resource map to determine one or more specified network nodes based on the location and the orientation of the AV within the given region, the network resource map indicating network sources throughout the given region, wherein the network resource map is stored locally in a memory resource of the AV or stored remotely and is accessible by the control system via one or more networks; and

based on the determined location and orientation of the AV, implement a set of configuration commands to configure a communication system of the AV to connected with the one or more specified network nodes to transmit and receive data with a backend system.

9. The control system of claim 8, wherein the executed instruction set further causes the control system to:

perform one or more ray tracing operations to identify the one or more specified network nodes; and

generate the set of configuration commands based on the one or more ray tracing operations.

10. The control system of claim 8, wherein the executed instruction set further causes the control system to:

transmit localization data, corresponding to the location and the orientation of the AV, to the backend system; and

receive the set of configuration commands from the backend system;

wherein the backend system utilizes the localization data to determine the set of configuration commands for the AV based on the network resource map indicating network sources throughout the given region.

11. The control system of claim 10, wherein the executed instruction set causes the control system to dynamically perform the localization operation, transmit the localization data to the backend system, receive respective sets of configuration commands from the backend system, and implement the respective sets of configuration commands to configure the communication system as the AV travels throughout the given region.

12. The control system of claim 10, wherein the executed instruction set causes the control system to periodically perform the localization operation, transmit the localization data to the backend system, receive respective sets of configuration commands from the backend system, and implement the respective sets of configuration commands to configure the communication system as the AV travels throughout the given region.

13. The control system of claim 8, wherein the executed instruction set causes the control system to implement the set of configuration commands to configure the communication system by beam steering a radiation pattern of the communication system, while autonomously operating the acceleration, braking, and steering systems throughout the given region, to communicate with the backend system via the one or more specified network nodes.

14. A computer-implemented method of operating an autonomous vehicle (AV), the method being performed by one or more processors of a control system of the AV and comprising:

processing sensor data from a sensor system of the AV to (i) perform a localization operation to determine a location and an orientation of the AV within a given region, and (ii) autonomously operate acceleration, braking, and steering systems of the AV throughout the given region;

access a network resource map to determine one or more specified network nodes based on the location and the orientation of the AV within the given region, the network resource map indicating network sources throughout the given region, wherein the network resource map is stored locally in a memory resource of the AV or stored remotely and is accessible by the control system via one or more networks; and

based on the determined location and orientation of the AV, implementing a set of configuration commands to configure a communication system of the AV to connect with one or more specified network nodes to transmit and receive data with a backend system.