Driving surface friction estimations for autonomous vehicles

An autonomous vehicle, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• one or more non-transitory computer-readable media that collectively store instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations, the operations comprising:
• issuing, by a friction probing controller of the autonomous vehicle, a request for a friction estimation associated with a surface upon which the autonomous vehicle is traveling;
• detecting at least one of an acceleration, a deceleration, or a stop associated with the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on at least one of map data, motion planning data, or route planning data associated with the autonomous vehicle;
• performing a wheel-based action in response to the request;
• obtaining operational data descriptive of the wheel-based action;
• determining the friction estimation based at least in part on the operational data;
• and
• generating at least one constraint for the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the friction estimation.

A computer-implemented method, comprising:

• issuing, by a friction probing controller of an autonomous vehicle, a request for a friction estimation associated with a surface upon which the autonomous vehicle is traveling;
• detecting at least one of an acceleration, a deceleration, or a stop associated with the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on at least one of map data, motion planning data, or route planning data associated with the autonomous vehicle;
• performing a wheel-based action in response to the request;
• obtaining operational data descriptive of the wheel-based action;
• determining the friction estimation based at least in part on the operational data;
• and
• controlling the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the friction estimation.