# US 2018/0022361 A1 · Adaptive passenger comfort enhancement in autonomous vehicles

> Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt

- Number: US 2018/0022361 A1
- Document ID: US20180022361A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 15/213,532
- Filed: 2016-07-19
- Published: 2018-01-25
- Earliest claimed: 2016-07-19
- Assignees: Futurewei Technologies, Inc.
- Applicants: Futurewei Technologies, Inc.
- Inventors: Lei Rao; Jian Li; Ron-Chung Hu
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20180022361A1

## CPC

- B60W 50/0098: {Details of control systems ensuring comfort, safety or stability not otherwise provided for}
- B60R 16/037: for occupant comfort {, e.g. for automatic adjustment of appliances according to personal settings, e.g. seats, mirrors, steering wheel}
- B60R 16/0373: {Voice control (in general G10L)}
- B60W 10/30: including control of auxiliary equipment, e.g. air-conditioning compressors or oil pumps
- B60W 30/143: {Speed control (B60W30/16 takes precedence)}
- B60W 30/18: Propelling the vehicle
- B60W 50/085: {Changing the parameters of the control units, e.g. changing limit values, working points by control input}
- G05B 13/024: {in which a parameter or coefficient is automatically adjusted to optimise the performance}
- G05B 13/028: {using expert systems only}
- B60W 2050/0014: {Adaptive controllers}
- B60W 2050/0075: {Automatic parameter input, automatic initialising or calibrating means}
- B60W 2420/403: Image sensing, e.g. optical camera
- B60W 2420/54: Audio sensitive means, e.g. ultrasound
- B60W 2540/21: Voice
- B60W 2540/215: Selection or confirmation of options
- B60W 2720/10: Longitudinal speed
- B60Y 2300/18: Propelling the vehicle
- B60W: CONJOINT CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUB-UNITS OF DIFFERENT TYPE OR DIFFERENT FUNCTION; CONTROL SYSTEMS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR HYBRID VEHICLES; ROAD VEHICLE DRIVE CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR PURPOSES NOT RELATED TO THE CONTROL OF A PARTICULAR SUB-UNIT
- B60R: VEHICLES, VEHICLE FITTINGS, OR VEHICLE PARTS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- G05B: CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS OR ELEMENTS (systems for controlling or regulating non-electric variables G05D; systems for regulating electric or magnetic variables G05F; control devices or systems insofar as characterised by mechanical features only G05G)
- B60Y: INDEXING SCHEME RELATING TO ASPECTS CROSS-CUTTING VEHICLE TECHNOLOGY

## Abstract

A system and method for performing self-learning for adaptively achieving passenger comfort enhancement in an autonomous vehicle. The system comprises a plurality of sensor inputs. Each sensor input provides data representative of voice responses and image responses from a passenger in the vehicle. A controller is coupled to the plurality of sensor inputs. The controller generates and updates a reward function that includes a plurality of driving state transitions. The reward function is updated based on destination information and the data representative of the voice and image responses. The controller further generates a goal function that determines an optimized driving state transition updates the goal function based on the updated reward function and a previous goal function. The controller also generates a vehicle speed control signal, based on the updated goal function, to control the speed of the autonomous vehicle.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A system to perform self-learning for adaptively achieving passenger comfort enhancement in an autonomous vehicle, the system comprising:
a plurality of sensor inputs configured to provide data representative of voice and image responses of a passenger in the vehicle; and
a controller coupled to the plurality of sensor inputs, the controller configured to generate and update a reward function comprising a plurality of driving state transitions, the reward function updated based on a received destination and the data representative of the voice and image responses, the controller further configured to generate a goal function that determines an optimized driving state transition and to update the goal function based on the updated reward function and a previous goal function, the controller further configured to generate a vehicle speed control signal based on the updated goal function to control a vehicle speed.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the optimized driving state transition comprises a maximized vehicle speed and the controller is further configured to assign weights to the maximized vehicle speed and to the updated goal function, the weights based on the data representative of the voice or image responses.

### Claim 3 (depends on 2)

The system of claim 2, wherein each of the plurality of driving state transitions comprises a range of vehicle speeds and a range of road segment curvatures.

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

The system of claim 3, wherein the reward function comprises a reward function matrix of transition and non-transition indications indicating possibilities for transitioning from a first state to a second state.

### Claim 5 (depends on 4)

The system of claim 4, wherein the controller is further configured to update each transition indication by a first reward function value based on the image response and by a second reward function value based on the data representative of the voice response.

### Claim 6 (depends on 5)

The system of claim 5, wherein the first reward function value is less than the second reward function value with successive positive feedback collected from the data representative of the voice response.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to determine a plurality of road segments between a source and a destination, wherein the controller generates the vehicle speed control signal for each of the plurality of road segments based on the updated goal function for each road segment.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The system of claim 7, wherein the controller is further configured to update the vehicle speed control signal based on passenger comfort rating and passenger speed rating.

### Claim 9 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of sensors comprise a microphone and an image sensor.

### Claim 10

A method for adaptively updating passenger comfort enhancement in an autonomous vehicle, the method comprising:
determining a source-destination route based on a vehicle initial position, destination, and route information for the source-destination route, the route information comprising road curvature and road speed limits for each of a plurality of route segments of the source-destination route;
obtaining passenger feedback for each route segment during vehicle operation over the source-destination route, the passenger feedback comprising passenger audio data and passenger image data;
updating a reward function comprising a plurality of driving states, the updating based on a previous reward function and the passenger feedback;
updating a goal function for each route segment based on a previous goal function and an optimized driving state transition from a first driving state to a second driving state, wherein the optimized driving state transition is based on the updated reward function; and
dynamically updating a vehicle speed for each route segment based on the updated goal function.

### Claim 11 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, wherein each driving state comprises a vehicle speed range and a road curvature range.

### Claim 12 (depends on 11)

The method of claim 11, further comprising converting the passenger image data to a binary representation of a passenger facial expression, wherein a first binary representation of the passenger facial expression is assigned to a positive facial expression and a second binary representation of the passenger facial expression is assigned to a negative facial expression.

### Claim 13 (depends on 12)

The method of claim 12, wherein obtaining the passenger audio data comprises an aural response from the passenger.

### Claim 14 (depends on 13)

The method of claim 13, further comprising converting the aural response to a binary representation of the aural response, wherein a first binary representation of the aural response is assigned to a positive aural response and a second binary representation of the aural response is assigned to a negative aural response.

### Claim 15 (depends on 14)

The method of claim 14, wherein a the driving state comprises a first range of vehicle speed and a first range of road curvature and the second driving state comprises a second range of vehicle speed and a second range of road curvature, the first driving state being different from the second driving state, the method further comprising:
setting the reward function to an initial value;
transitioning from the first driving state to the second driving state;
if the binary representation of the facial expression is the first binary representation in response to the transition, assigning a first weighting value to the reward function, the first weighting value greater than the initial value;
if the binary representation of the facial expression is the second binary representation in response to the transition, maintaining the reward function at a current value;
if the binary representation of the aural response is the first binary representation in response to the transition, increasing the reward function to a smaller of: the current value plus a second weighting value or a predetermined integer multiplied by the first weighting value; and
if the binary representation of the aural response is the second binary representation in response to the transition, decreasing the reward function by a largest of: the current value minus the second weighting value or a predetermined integer.

### Claim 16 (depends on 15)

The method of claim 15, wherein updating the goal function comprises:
setting the goal function to an initial value;
assigning a source-destination route segment state to each of the plurality of route segments, wherein each route segment state comprises a speed limit for the route segment and a curvature range for the route segment; and
selecting the updated goal function based on a maximum goal function value determined from the plurality of driving states.

### Claim 17

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by processing circuitry of an autonomous vehicle to perform operations that:
generate a reward function comprising a plurality of driving state transitions;
update the reward function based on destination information and passenger feedback including data representative of voice and image responses;
generate a goal function that determines an optimized driving state transition;
update the goal function based on the updated reward function and a previous goal function; and
generate a vehicle speed control signal to control the autonomous vehicle speed based on the updated goal function.

### Claim 18 (depends on 17)

The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the operations determine a plurality of route segments between a source and a destination, each route segment comprising an assigned state having a speed limit and a road curvature for each respective route segment.

### Claim 19 (depends on 18)

The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the operations further update the vehicle speed control signal for each of the plurality of route segments.

### Claim 20 (depends on 19)

The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the operations further updates the vehicle speed control signal based on passenger comfort rating and speed rating.