DYNAMIC ROUTING INTELLIGENT VEHICLE ENHANCEMENT SYSTEM

• US 20150179062A1
• Filed: 12/19/2013
• Published: 06/25/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Feeney Wireless LLC (Inseego Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Feeney Wireless LLC (Inseego Corp.)
• Inventors: Ralston, Robert E., Bloom, Justin D.
• Granted Patent: US 9,435,652 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3492 employing speed data or traffic data, e.g. real-time or historical traffic control systems for road vehicles involving transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0108 based on the source of data
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0116 from roadside infrastructure, e.g. beacons
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0133 for classifying traffic situation
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0141 for traffic information dissemination
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0145 for active traffic flow control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096741 where the source of the transmitted information selects which information to transmit to each vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 where the origin of the information is a central station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096783 where the origin of the information is a roadside individual element
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096811 where the route is computed offboard
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096844 where the complete route is dynamically recomputed based on new data

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention provide a dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system and method. Intelligent land buoys can be proximately disposed to roadways. Each of the intelligent land buoys can gather situational awareness information about the roadways and one or more vehicles traveling thereon. The intelligent land buoys can compress the situational awareness information. One or more remote computer servers can receive the compressed situational awareness information from the plurality of intelligent land buoys, decompress it, and process the decompressed situational awareness information. The one or more remote computer servers can generate vehicle operational intelligence information based at least on the decompressed situational awareness information, and can transmit the vehicle operational intelligence information to the plurality of intelligent land buoys and/or directly to one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles.

Claims

1. A dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system, comprising:

a plurality of intelligent land buoys that are proximately disposed to a plurality of roadways, each of the intelligent land buoys being configured to gather situational awareness information about the roadways and one or more vehicles traveling thereon, and to compress the situational awareness information; and

one or more remote computer servers communicatively coupled to the plurality of intelligent land buoys and configured to receive the compressed situational awareness information from the plurality of intelligent land buoys, to decompress the situational awareness information, to process the decompressed situational awareness information, to generate vehicle operational intelligence information based at least on the decompressed situational awareness information, and to transmit the vehicle operational intelligence information to the plurality of intelligent land buoys.

2. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 1, wherein the intelligent land buoys are configured to transmit a beacon including the vehicle operational intelligence information to the one or more vehicles.

3. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 1, wherein the one or more vehicles include at least one of an autonomous vehicle or a semi-autonomous vehicle.

4. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle operational intelligence information includes dynamic vehicle routing information.

5. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle operational intelligence information includes a predictive awareness alert indicating a time period within which an occupant in a particular vehicle from among the one or more vehicles is advised to take operational control of the particular vehicle.

6. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of intelligent land buoys are configured to be located at an elevation that is higher than tops of the one or more vehicles, and to transmit a beacon including the vehicle operational intelligence information toward the one or more vehicles.

7. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of intelligent land buoys further comprises:

one or more short range radio transceivers configured to receive, from the one or more vehicles, at least a first portion of the situational awareness information about the roadways and the one or more vehicles traveling thereon;

one or more visible light cameras configured to receive at least a second portion of the situational awareness information about the roadways and the one or more vehicles traveling thereon;

a processor configured to compress the first and second portions of the situational awareness information; and

one or more long range radio transceivers configured to transmit, to the one or more remote computer servers, the compressed situational awareness information.

8. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 7, wherein the first portion of the situational awareness information includes at least one of a vehicle identification or a service set identification (SSID).

9. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 7, wherein:

the first portion of the situational awareness information includes a service set identification (SSID); and

the plurality of intelligent land buoys are configured to detect a first location of a particular vehicle from among the one or more vehicles associated with the SSID, and to detect a second location of the particular vehicle from among the one or more vehicles associated with the SSID.

10. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 9, wherein:

the plurality of intelligent land buoys are configured to transmit the first location information and the second location information to the one or more remote computer servers; and

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to determine a speed of the particular vehicle based at least on the first location information and the second location information.

11. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 7, wherein the first portion of the situational awareness information includes at least one of road temperature, wheel slippage information, or pothole presence information.

12. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 7, wherein each of the plurality of intelligent land buoys further comprises:

one or more infrared cameras configured to receive at least a third portion of the situational awareness information about the roadways and the one or more vehicles traveling thereon.

13. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 12, wherein each of the plurality of intelligent land buoys further comprises:

one or more motion detectors configured to receive at least a fourth portion of the situational awareness information about the roadways and the one or more vehicles traveling thereon; and

one or more temperature sensors configured to receive at least a fifth portion of the situational awareness information about the roadways and the one or more vehicles traveling thereon.

14. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 13, wherein each of the plurality of intelligent land buoys is configured to receive at least a sixth portion of the situational awareness information from at least one of an inductive traffic sensor or a strain gauge.

15. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 7, wherein each of the plurality of intelligent land buoys further comprises:

identification logic configured to identify, based at least on the situational awareness information, the presence of a traffic obstruction.

16. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 15, wherein each of the plurality of intelligent land buoys further comprises:

tracking logic configured to track, based at least on the situational awareness information, the presence, position, and speed of the traffic obstruction.

17. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 16, wherein the traffic obstruction includes at least one of a vehicle, a pedestrian, an animal, road debris, or an object.

18. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 1, wherein:

the plurality of intelligent land buoys are configured to gather the situational awareness information about each of a plurality of route segments, and to compress the situational awareness information about each of the plurality of route segments into a corresponding route segment impedance score;

the plurality of intelligent land buoys are configured to transmit the route segment impedance scores to the one or more remote computer servers;

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to aggregate a first portion of the route segment impedance scores associated with a first route between a first geographic location and a second geographic location, to aggregate a second portion of the route segment impedance scores associated with a second route between the first geographic location and the second geographic location, and to aggregate N portions of the route segment impedance scores associated with corresponding N routes between the first geographic location and the second geographic location.

19. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 18, wherein:

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to select from among the aggregated N portions a present lowest aggregated impedance score associated with a particular one route from among the N routes; and

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to transmit a present lowest impedance route selection to the plurality of intelligent land buoys based at least on the present lowest aggregated impedance score.

20. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 18, wherein:

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to select from among the aggregated N portions a predicted future lowest aggregated impedance score associated with a particular one route from among the N routes, wherein the predicted future score is based at least on a history of prior impedance scores; and

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to determine a predicted lowest impedance route selection based at least on the predicted future lowest aggregated impedance score, and to transmit the selection to the plurality of intelligent land buoys.

21. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 20, wherein:

the plurality of intelligent land buoys are configured to generate the route segment impedance scores based at least on a plurality of weighted factors;

the plurality of weighted factors include at least one of rain, fog, visibility, traffic density, pedestrian density, road hazard, or road condition;

the plurality of intelligent land buoys are configured to generate impedance score probability functions in the time domain based on the route segment impedance scores for predefined time periods;

the plurality of intelligent land buoys are configured to transform the impedance score probability functions into the frequency domain;

the plurality of intelligent land buoys are configured to transmit the transformed impedance score probability functions to the one or more remote computer servers; and

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to generate the predicted lowest impedance route selection based at least on the transformed impedance score probability functions.

22. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 21, wherein the plurality of intelligent land buoys are configured to transform the impedance score probability functions into the frequency domain using at least one of a Laplace series transform, a Fourier series transform, or a Z-Transform.

23. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 21, wherein:

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to periodically receive new situational awareness information from the plurality of intelligent land buoys; and

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to alter in real-time the predicted lowest impedance route selection based at least on the new situational awareness information periodically received; and

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to transmit the altered predicted lowest impedance route selection to the plurality of intelligent land buoys.

24. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 21, wherein:

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to receive external data from one or more devices not connected with the plurality of intelligent land buoys; and

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to generate the predicted lowest impedance route selection based at least on the external data.

25. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 1, wherein:

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to receive client preference information from a plurality of clients;

the plurality of clients include at least one of a vehicle, a computer, a smartphone, a vehicle navigation system, or a map service;

the client preference information includes at least one of a fuel economy preference, a transit time preference, a proximity to points of interest preference, or an avoidance of hazards preference; and

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to generate the vehicle operational intelligence based at least on the client preference information.