Autonomous Vehicle Maintenance Scheduling for Sensor Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Self-driving vehicles often require maintenance to ensure accurate sensor alignment and system precision, but owners may neglect manufacturer specifications, leading to potential operational issues and safety hazards.
Innovation Solution
A system and method using a self-driving vehicle controller to determine maintenance needs, retrieve operator and facility schedules, and autonomously schedule and perform maintenance operations, including driving the vehicle to and from maintenance facilities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the self-driving vehicle autonomously schedules and performs maintenance operations, then maintenance timeliness and operational safety are improved, but the complexity of the vehicle control system increases
Solution Approach 1:
The self-driving vehicle controller autonomously determines maintenance needs, schedules maintenance operations, and directs the vehicle to maintenance facilities without requiring manual intervention from the operator. The system self-manages the entire maintenance workflow including monitoring sensor alignment, comparing against manufacturer specifications, scheduling service appointments, and navigating to facilities, thereby improving reliability through consistent maintenance while avoiding the complexity of additional manual control interfaces
Solution Approach 2:
The system proactively monitors sensor alignment and system conditions to determine when maintenance is needed before operational issues arise. By performing preliminary assessments of sensor calibration status and comparing against manufacturer specifications, the system schedules maintenance in advance, ensuring operational safety is maintained while preventing the need for complex reactive maintenance systems
2Ease of operation
If the vehicle autonomously drives to maintenance facilities, then operator time and convenience are improved, but the automation extent and control complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The vehicle controller autonomously handles the entire process of determining maintenance needs, scheduling appointments, and directing the vehicle to maintenance facilities. The operator simply receives notifications and approves or declines maintenance recommendations without needing to manually schedule or navigate to service centers, significantly improving ease of operation while the automation manages the complex coordination of calendars, facility schedules, and vehicle navigation
Solution Approach 2:
The vehicle controller acts as an intermediary between the operator, maintenance facilities, and navigation systems. It automatically communicates with facility schedules to find appropriate appointment times, coordinates with the operator's calendar, and manages the vehicle's autonomous navigation to the facility, thereby simplifying the operator's experience while handling the automation complexity centrally
Data Source
AI summary
A computer-based method for maintaining an autonomous or self-driving vehicle is provided. The method is implemented using a vehicle controlling (“VC”) computer device installed on the vehicle. The method may include determining that a maintenance operation is required for the self-driving vehicle, retrieving an operator schedule for an operator of the self-driving vehicle, retrieving a facility schedule for a facility, determining a time for performing the maintenance operation based upon the operator schedule, the facility schedule, and an amount of time required to (i) complete the maintenance operation, (ii) drive the self-driving vehicle from a first location to the facility to arrive at the determined time, and (iii) drive the self-driving vehicle to a second location, instructing the self-driving vehicle to drive from the first location to the facility to arrive at the determined time; and/or instructing the self-driving vehicle to drive from the facility a second location.