Autonomous Vehicle Latency Protocol for Safe Stop
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing autonomous vehicle communication protocols do not effectively manage latency issues, which can impact the safe operation of autonomous vehicles by failing to provide clear guidelines on how to handle excessive latency in communication between the vehicle controller and subsystems.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a vehicle controller-to-subsystems latency protocol that determines communications latency between the vehicle controller and subsystems and stops the autonomous vehicle if the latency exceeds a user-configurable threshold, ensuring safe operation by maintaining valid communications links and preventing potential errors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If autonomous vehicle communicates with base station and vehicle controller with subsystems, then vehicle operation is enabled, but communication latency may exceed acceptable thresholds causing safety issues
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary latency detection by continuously monitoring communication latency between the vehicle controller and subsystems, and between the base station and vehicle, before latency becomes critical. This allows the system to take preventive actions (such as stopping the vehicle) before communication failures occur, resolving the contradiction by anticipating and preventing latency-related reliability issues.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where the processor continuously detects communication latency and compares it against threshold values. Based on this feedback, the system automatically adjusts its operation by stopping the vehicle when latency exceeds acceptable levels, thereby maintaining reliability despite variable communication latency conditions.
2Reliability
If vehicle stops when latency exceeds threshold, then safety is improved, but operational time is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies partial action by stopping the vehicle only when communication latency partially exceeds acceptable thresholds, rather than stopping under all communication variations. This selective approach maintains safety for critical latency conditions while allowing continued operation during acceptable latency variations, thus balancing safety improvements with operational time preservation.
3Reliability
If latency threshold is set low for safety, then communication reliability is improved, but vehicle productivity decreases due to frequent stops
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs dynamic threshold adjustment where the latency threshold is not fixed but can be modified based on operational context, vehicle state, and communication conditions. This allows the system to maintain higher thresholds during low-risk operations to preserve productivity while lowering thresholds during critical operations to ensure reliability, thus dynamically balancing the contradiction between communication reliability and vehicle productivity.
Data Source
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AI summary
In an embodiment, an autonomous vehicle system includes an autonomous vehicle (10). The autonomous vehicle (10) includes a communications system (60) configured to communicate with a base station (12), and a control system (36) communicatively coupled to the communications system (60), the control system (36) comprising a processor (50). The processor (50) is configured to receive driving commands from the base station (12), execute the driving commands to drive the autonomous vehicle, and execute (118) a vehicle controller-to-subsystems latency protocol to determine a communications latency between a vehicle controller (49) and vehicle subsystems, and to stop the autonomous vehicle (10) if the communications latency exceeds a user-configurable latency value, wherein the vehicle controller (49) and vehicle subsystem are disposed in the autonomous vehicle (10).