Autonomous winter service vehicle
AssigneeRobotic Research OpCo, LLC
InventorsAlberto Daniel Lacaze, Karl Nicholas Murphy
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An autonomous vehicle can comprise winter servicing equipment, such as a snowplow, salt spreader, etc. A controller can be supported by the vehicle and can be operatively coupled thereto. The controller can be configured to control the vehicle to autonomously move through an area along a planned route to effect servicing (e.g., snow removal or remediation) of the area. For example, the controller can be configured to discretize the area into a plurality of cells and to determine a quantity of snow in each cell. The route through the area can be planned by the controller based at least in part on simulated movements of the snow quantities in the cells.
Claims19
A non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
- discretize an area to be serviced by one or more winter service vehicles into a plurality of cells;
- determine a quantity of snow in each cell;
- plan one or more plowing routes through the area based at least in part on simulated movements of snow quantities in the cells, the planning the one or more plowing routes comprising:
- selecting an allowable route from a plurality of candidate routes for the one or more winter service vehicles that is simulated to have an associated lowest cost, the selecting an allowable route comprising performing an iterative simulation of snow movement for plow routes originating from different candidate starting vehicle poses and positions within or surrounding the area,
- wherein the associated cost for each candidate route comprises time, fuel consumed, distance, snow pile size, vehicle wear, noise produced, predetermined area clearance, probability of accident, or any combination of the foregoing;
- and
- control the one or more winter service vehicles to autonomously move along the planned one or more plowing routes.
A system comprising:
- a motorized vehicle comprising winter servicing equipment;
- and
- a controller supported by the motorized vehicle and operatively coupled thereto, the controller comprising at least one processor and memory, the controller being configured to:
- discretize an area to be serviced by the motorized vehicle into a plurality of cells;
- determine a quantity of snow in each cell;
- plan a route through the area based at least in part on simulated movements of snow quantities in the cells by:
- selecting an allowable route from a plurality of candidate routes for the motorized vehicle that is simulated to have an associated lowest cost by performing an iterative simulation of snow movement for routes originating from different candidate starting vehicle poses and positions within or surrounding the area,
- wherein the associated cost for each candidate route comprises time, fuel consumed, distance, snow pile size, vehicle wear, noise produced, predetermined area clearance, probability of accident, or any combination of the foregoing;
- and
- control the motorized vehicle to autonomously move through the area along the planned route.
A system comprising:
- a motorized vehicle comprising winter servicing equipment;
- and
- a controller supported by the motorized vehicle and operatively coupled thereto, the controller comprising at least one processor and memory, the controller being configured to:
- discretize an area to be serviced by the motorized vehicle into a plurality of cells;
- determine a quantity of snow in each cell;
- plan a route through the area based at least in part on simulated movements of snow quantities in the cells and such that a height of one or more snow banks formed along a periphery of the area by snow moved by the motorized vehicle following the planned route is less than a predetermined value;
- and
- control the motorized vehicle to autonomously move through the area along the planned route,
- wherein the controller is configured to plan the route by performing an iterative simulation of snow movement for routes originating from different candidate starting vehicle poses and positions within the area or along the periphery of the area.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.