Cross-Vehicle Status Display for Coordinated Fault Response
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current vehicle monitoring systems fail to promptly disseminate information about operational issues or decreased states of components in one vehicle to operators of other vehicles within the same system, leading to delayed discovery and potential further damage.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle control system with a controller that receives and aggregates state information from multiple vehicles, presenting statuses and facilitating operator input to adjust vehicle group operations, including automatic control, to address operational issues and maintain system efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If a monitoring system displays only local vehicle information to each operator, then the system is simple and easy to operate, but information about other vehicles in the system is not readily accessible, leading to delayed discovery of problems
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines monitoring data from multiple vehicles into a centralized system. The controller receives state information from vehicles in a group and aggregates this data, allowing any operator to access information about any vehicle in the group through display devices, thereby eliminating information silos while maintaining manageable system architecture through modular vehicle interfaces.
Solution Approach 2:
The monitoring system is designed to be universally accessible across the vehicle group. Any display device in any vehicle can present state information from any other vehicle in the group, making the system multi-functional rather than dedicated to single-vehicle monitoring. This allows operators to access relevant information from anywhere in the group as needed.
2Ease of operation
If operators can only control their own vehicle, then control is simple and direct, but coordinated control of the vehicle group based on system-wide information is not possible
Solution Approach 1:
The controller acts as an intermediary between individual vehicle operators and the overall vehicle group coordination. The controller receives state information from all vehicles, processes this data, and can send control signals to any vehicle in the group based on system-wide conditions, enabling coordinated control while keeping individual vehicle interfaces simple.
Solution Approach 2:
The control system is segmented into independent vehicle units that can be controlled individually, yet are coordinated through the central controller. Each vehicle maintains its own operator interface for simple local control, while the central controller provides group-level coordination by processing aggregated state information and issuing appropriate control commands to individual vehicles as needed.
3Reliability
If problem information is not shared across the vehicle group, then each operator has independent control, but the vehicle system continues operating with undetected issues, potentially causing further damage
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements continuous feedback by constantly monitoring state information from all vehicles and making this information available to all operators in real-time. When a vehicle experiences a problem, the information is immediately communicated to the controller and displayed to operators in other vehicles, enabling rapid response and preventing further damage through timely intervention.
Solution Approach 2:
The monitoring system enables preliminary action by detecting and communicating potential problems before they escalate. By continuously monitoring vehicle states and making this information accessible across the group, operators can take preventive measures or prepare for coordinated responses before actual failures occur, reducing overall system downtime and damage.
Data Source
AI summary
A vehicle control system and method may receive state information from a vehicle group having one or more vehicles. The state information may indicate an operational parameter of one of the vehicles. The controller may direct a display device to present one or more statuses of the one or more vehicles based at least in part on the state information that is received by the controller. This state information may be used to notify an operator of a potential component fault before continued operation of the vehicle group further damages the component or a vehicle. In another example, the state information may be used to control or change operation of one vehicle based on the state or status of another vehicle, such as by changing movement of one or more drones in a swarm responsive to a lower state of charge of another drone in the same swarm.