Caravanning autonomous vehicles
AssigneeThe Trustees of Indiana University
InventorsYaobin CHEN, Euzeli C. DOS SANTOS, Clayton Lowell NICHOLAS
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Abstract
A caravanning vehicle system includes a lead vehicle having an engine and at least one trailing vehicle having an electric motor. The at least one trailing vehicle is non-mechanically connected to the lead vehicle. The lead vehicle includes a power transfer system that is configured to transfer electric power, wirelessly, to the at least one trailing vehicle.
Claims20
A caravanning vehicle system, comprising:
- a lead vehicle having an engine;
- and
- at least one trailing vehicle having an electric motor, wherein the at least one trailing vehicle is non-mechanically connected to the lead vehicle.
A method of operating a caravanning vehicle system, comprising:
- non-mechanically connecting a first trailing vehicle to a lead vehicle, the lead vehicle having an engine;
- non-mechanically connecting a second trailing vehicle to the first trailing vehicle;
- programming the first trailing vehicle to travel to a first destination along a first route;
- and
- programming the second trailing vehicle to travel to a second destination along a second route, wherein the first and second routes include a shared route portion during which the first and second trailing vehicles are programmed to caravan with the lead vehicle.
A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions, which, when executed on a processor, causes a caravanning vehicle system having a lead vehicle having an engine and at least a first trailing vehicle non-mechanically connected to the lead vehicle to non-mechanically connect a second trailing vehicle to the first trailing vehicle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.