Autonomous Safety Rider Control for Driverless Vehicle Testing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Ensuring autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles meet safety standards during testing without human intervention, as they operate in various environments.
Innovation Solution
An autonomous safety rider system that can control the brakes, throttle, and/or steering of the vehicle via drive-by-wire or physical actuators, monitoring sensors and engaging actuators to maintain safety parameters.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If autonomous vehicles are deployed without safety riders, then operational efficiency and cost are improved, but safety and reliability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The safety rider drone acts as an intermediary between the autonomous vehicle and the environment, providing aerial monitoring and hazard detection capabilities without requiring physical contact with the vehicle. The drone serves as a mediator that enhances safety while maintaining the autonomy of the vehicle.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical presence of a human safety rider with an autonomous aerial drone system equipped with sensors and communication devices. This substitution eliminates the need for physical infrastructure and human intervention while maintaining safety monitoring functions through electronic and optical systems.
2Reliability
If a human safety rider is used, then safety monitoring is improved, but operational cost and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The safety rider drone operates autonomously without requiring human pilots or operators. It self-navigates, self-monitors the vehicle, and self-communicates hazard information to the vehicle's control system, eliminating the need for human safety riders and reducing operational complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The drone is designed to perform multiple functions including hazard detection, navigation assistance, and communication relay, making it a universal safety system that can monitor various aspects of vehicle operation with a single device rather than requiring multiple specialized systems.
3Ease of manufacture
If traditional safety systems are used, then implementation simplicity is maintained, but adaptability to new hazards deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The safety rider drone system is designed with dynamic adaptability, allowing it to adjust its monitoring parameters, sensor configurations, and response protocols based on the specific vehicle type, environment, and detected hazards. This dynamic nature enables the system to adapt to new hazards while maintaining relatively simple implementation through software updates rather than hardware redesign.
Data Source
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AI summary
System and methods are disclosed that provide an autonomous safety rider system for an autonomous vehicle. The autonomous safety rider system, for example, may allow the autonomous vehicle to undergo various on road tests without having a human safety rider. The autonomous safety rider system may be able to control the brakes, throttle, and/or steering of the autonomous vehicle such as, for example, via a drive by wire (or CAN) interface or via one or more physical actuators that physically engage with the brakes, throttle, and/or steering.