Systems and techniques for field-of-view improvements in autonomous trucking systems
AssigneeWaymo LLC
InventorAndre Strobel
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Aspects and implementations of the present disclosure relate to performance and safety improvements for autonomous trucking systems, such as mitigation of blind spots in the field of view of a sensing system of an autonomous vehicle, using shielding by other vehicles in adverse weather conditions, and deploying a cooperative expansion of the sensing field of view using external sensing systems.
Claims20
A method to operate a traveling autonomous vehicle (AV), the method comprising:
- shifting, using an AV control system, the AV in a first direction that is lateral to a direction of motion of the AV and expose a first portion of an occluded, by the AV, region of an environment of the AV to a first sensor of a sensing system of the AV;
- receiving, by a data processing system of the AV, a sensing data from the sensing system, wherein the sensing data comprises a first part obtained using the first sensor and imaging the first portion of the occluded region;
- establishing, by the data processing system of the AV and using the received sensing data, an existence of a driving condition, wherein the driving condition comprises one of:
- a presence of a vehicle within the occluded region of the environment of the AV, or
- an absence of a vehicle within the occluded region of the environment of the AV;
- and
- causing, by the data processing system of the AV, a driving path of the AV to be determined in view of the established driving condition.
A method to operate a first autonomous vehicle (AV) having a first sensing system, the method comprising:
- establishing a communication channel with an external host having access to an information obtained by a second sensing system;
- obtaining, using a first sensing system, a first run-time data for a first region of a driving environment of the first AV;
- receiving, by a data processing system of the first AV, over the communication channel, a second run-time data for a second region of the driving environment of the first AV, wherein at least a portion of the second region is not accessible to the first sensing system;
- and
- causing, by the data processing system of the first AV, a driving path of the first AV to be determined in view of the first run-time data and the second run-time data.
A method to operate a first vehicle, wherein the first vehicle is an autonomous vehicle (AV), the method comprising:
- identifying, by a data processing system of the AV, a presence of a second vehicle within a predetermined vicinity of the first vehicle;
- identifying, by a data processing system of the first vehicle, a plurality of factors comprising:
- a crosswind speed, and
- an amount of moisture in an ambient air caused by the second vehicle;
- computing, by the data processing system of the first vehicle, an evaluation measure that characterizes a relative strength of the crosswind speed and the amount of moisture in the ambient air caused by the second vehicle;
- and
- causing, by the data processing system of the first vehicle and based on the evaluation measure, the AV to be positioned on a first side of the second vehicle, wherein the first side is one of:
- an upwind side of the second vehicle, or
- a downwind side of the second vehicle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.