Coordinated Path Planner for Automated Vehicles
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for scheduling multiple non-holonomic automated vehicles in dynamic warehouse environments are inadequate, leading to delays, deadlocks, and inefficient resource utilization due to limitations in path planning and collision avoidance, particularly when dealing with continuous curve paths and unknown obstacles.
Innovation Solution
A method and apparatus for coordinated path planning that uses a multi-level graph and a traffic manager to optimize vehicle paths, ensuring collision-free and efficient movement by querying an online path planner, forecasting future tasks, and communicating plans to ensure vehicles perform tasks according to a coordinated schedule, utilizing smooth continuous curvature paths and modifying Dubins paths for faster navigation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional path planning methods are used for multiple automated vehicles, then individual vehicle paths can be planned, but vehicle interactions cause deadlocks and delays
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple vehicle path planning into a unified coordinated planning system. Instead of planning paths for each vehicle independently, the system considers all vehicles simultaneously and generates coordinated paths that avoid deadlocks and conflicts from the outset, ensuring reliable task completion without delays.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary coordinated path planning before vehicles execute tasks. By calculating conflict-free paths in advance for all vehicles considering their non-holonomic constraints and potential interactions, the system prevents deadlocks before they occur, eliminating delays caused by vehicle interactions during task execution.
2Productivity
If a priori path planning is performed, then initial paths are established, but dynamic environment changes make planning obsolete
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic coordinated path planning that continuously adapts to environmental changes. The system recalculates coordinated paths for multiple vehicles in real-time as obstacles move or new situations arise, maintaining task execution efficiency while adapting to the dynamic warehouse environment.
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates feedback mechanisms that monitor the dynamic environment and vehicle positions during task execution. Based on this feedback, the coordinated path planning is updated and adjusted, allowing the system to maintain productivity while adapting to changing environmental conditions and unknown obstacles.
3Reliability
If coordinated path planning for multiple non-holonomic vehicles is implemented, then vehicle interactions are managed, but computational complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the complex coordinated path planning problem into manageable components. The system divides the planning space, vehicle constraints, and task requirements into discrete elements that can be processed systematically, reducing computational complexity while maintaining reliable collision avoidance for multiple non-holonomic vehicles.
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies local quality optimization by focusing computational resources on critical areas where vehicle interactions and potential collisions are most likely to occur. Instead of uniformly processing all possible paths, the planning algorithm concentrates effort on local regions and time windows where coordination is most challenging, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining safety.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for coordinating path planning for one or more automated vehicles is described, including querying an online path planner for possible solutions for at least one executable task for each of the one or more automated vehicles, examining the results of the query, deciding a coordinated path plan for each vehicle, and communicating the coordinated path plan to a traffic manager, wherein the traffic manager ensures that the one or more automated vehicles perform each executable task according to the coordinated path plan.