Introspective autonomous vehicle operational management

An autonomous vehicle comprising:

• a processor configured to execute instructions stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium to control the autonomous vehicle to traverse a vehicle transportation network by:
• operating an introspective autonomous vehicle operational management controller, wherein the introspective autonomous vehicle operational management controller includes an introspective autonomous vehicle operational management policy for an introspective autonomous vehicle operational management model of an introspective autonomous vehicle operational management domain, wherein the introspective autonomous vehicle operational management model includes:
• a defined set of exceptions;
• and
• a defined set of available handlers;
• and
• wherein operating the introspective autonomous vehicle operational management controller includes the introspective autonomous vehicle operational management controller:
• determining whether a current exception belief state probability distribution of the introspective autonomous vehicle operational management policy indicates an exceptional condition from the set of exceptions;
• in response to a determination that the current exception belief state probability distribution of the introspective autonomous vehicle operational management policy indicates the exceptional condition:
• identifying an exception handler from the set of available handlers as an active handler for controlling the autonomous vehicle, wherein identifying the exception handler includes:
• in response to a determination that the set of available handlers includes an internal exception handler that models the exceptional condition, identifying the internal exception handler as the active handler;
• and
• in response to a determination that the set of available handlers omits the internal exception handler that models the exceptional condition, identifying an external assistance exception handler as the active handler;
• in response to a determination that the current exception belief state probability distribution of the introspective autonomous vehicle operational management policy indicates an unexceptional condition, identifying a primary handler from the set of available handlers as the active handler for controlling the autonomous vehicle;
• controlling the autonomous vehicle to traverse a current portion of the vehicle transportation network in accordance with the active handler;
• and
• in response to receiving an indicator from the active handler subsequent to controlling the autonomous vehicle to traverse the current portion of the vehicle transportation network in accordance with the active handler:
• generating an updated exception belief state probability distribution based on the current exception belief state probability distribution and the indicator;
• and
• traversing a subsequent portion of the vehicle transportation network based on the updated exception belief state probability distribution.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, facilitate performance of introspective autonomous vehicle operational management, comprising:

• traversing, by an autonomous vehicle, a vehicle transportation network, wherein traversing the vehicle transportation network includes:
• operating an introspective autonomous vehicle operational management controller, wherein the introspective autonomous vehicle operational management controller includes an introspective autonomous vehicle operational management policy for an introspective autonomous vehicle operational management model, wherein the introspective autonomous vehicle operational management model defines a set of available handlers, wherein the defined set of available handlers includes:
• a primary hander that includes a model of a defined limited autonomous vehicle operational management domain that omits a description of one or more exceptional conditions;
• and
• an internal exception handler that includes a model that includes a description of at least one exceptional condition from the one or more exceptional conditions;
• wherein operating the introspective autonomous vehicle operational management controller includes:
• identifying the primary handler as an active handler for controlling the autonomous vehicle to traverse a first portion of the vehicle transportation network for a defined temporal term;
• in response to receiving an indicator from the primary handler subsequent to the autonomous vehicle to traversing the current portion of the vehicle transportation network in accordance with the primary handler for the defined temporal term, generating an exception belief state probability distribution;
• in response to a determination that the exception belief state probability distribution indicates that a current state of the autonomous vehicle corresponds to the at least one exceptional condition:
• suspending the primary handler;
• identifying the internal exception handler as the active handler for controlling the autonomous vehicle to traverse a second portion of the vehicle transportation network;
• and
• controlling the autonomous vehicle to traverse the second portion of the vehicle transportation network in accordance with the exception handler.