Autonomous Vehicle Route Reservations for Congested Bottlenecks
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current systems for managing timed space reservations for autonomous vehicles, particularly in high-traffic bottlenecks, result in overly restrictive path reservations due to accumulating uncertainty, limiting the number of vehicles that can be accommodated and causing prolonged waiting times, especially for aircraft hovering in waiting areas.
Innovation Solution
A route reservation system that optimizes and adjusts routes in real-time by planning new routes with tighter reservation margins, allowing for more efficient use of space by deleting unnecessary timed space reservations and prioritizing vehicles based on their capabilities and battery levels, enabling more vehicles to transit through bottlenecks without conflicts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If timed space reservations are established with large uncertainty margins to ensure safety, then collision avoidance is improved, but the number of vehicles that can be accommodated decreases and waiting times increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts reservation margins based on real-time vehicle state information (battery level, speed, location accuracy) rather than using static conservative margins. This allows the reservation boundaries to adapt to actual uncertainty levels, tightening margins when confidence is high and expanding them when uncertainty increases, thereby resolving the contradiction between safety and throughput
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the parameters used to calculate reservation margins from fixed conservative values to dynamic values based on multiple factors including vehicle speed, battery level, location accuracy, and traffic conditions. This parameter transformation enables more efficient space utilization while maintaining safety, allowing more vehicles to be accommodated in high-traffic areas
2Reliability
If conservative reservation margins are used to account for accumulating uncertainty, then safety is improved, but space utilization decreases and waiting times in bottleneck areas increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements continuous feedback loops where vehicle state information (position, speed, battery level) is constantly monitored and used to adjust reservation margins in real-time. This feedback mechanism allows the system to maintain safety by expanding margins when uncertainty increases while reducing waiting times by tightening margins when confidence is high, preventing the need for vehicles to wait in bottleneck areas
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary calculations of optimal reservation margins based on predicted vehicle states and traffic conditions before vehicles reach bottleneck areas. This allows the system to proactively optimize reservation parameters to minimize waiting times while maintaining safety, rather than reacting to congestion after it occurs
3Productivity
If tight reservation margins are used to increase vehicle capacity, then space utilization is improved, but the risk of collision due to uncertainty increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system transforms the calculation of reservation margins from static conservative values to dynamic parameters based on real-time vehicle state information including battery level, speed, location accuracy, and environmental factors. This allows tight margins to be used when vehicle states indicate low uncertainty while maintaining safety buffers when uncertainty increases, thereby increasing capacity without compromising collision avoidance
Solution Approach 2:
The system makes reservation margins dynamic rather than static, continuously adjusting them based on changing vehicle states and traffic conditions. This dynamic adaptation allows the system to use tighter margins when confidence in vehicle state and trajectory is high, increasing vehicle capacity, while automatically expanding margins when uncertainty increases, maintaining collision avoidance reliability
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques are provided to improve routing of autonomous vehicles through highly congested areas. In some embodiments, routes that include sequences of timed space reservations are provided to autonomous vehicles by a route reservation system. In some embodiments, the route reservation system detects route alteration states (including but not limited to an arrival of an autonomous vehicle at a waiting area), determines a new route for the autonomous vehicle that passes through the highly congested area, and transmits the new route to the autonomous vehicle for navigating from the waiting area to an endpoint.