Vehicle-Based Drone Navigation for Unmapped Autonomous Driving
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Autonomous vehicles face challenges in navigation when primary navigation data is insufficient or unavailable, particularly in areas with incomplete or no map data, uneven terrain, or when onboard sensors are blocked or malfunctioning, leading to a need for supplementary navigation information to ensure safe and reliable operation.
Innovation Solution
A method where a vehicle-based drone is deployed to provide secondary navigation data, including location information of roads and obstacles, which is used by the vehicle's control system to determine and adjust its path of travel, and can be commanded to fly away to areas of interest to gather and relay additional data, such as images or sensor data, to assist in vehicle operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a vehicle uses only primary navigation data from onboard sensors and known paths, then the system complexity remains low, but the reliability of navigation fails in areas with incomplete or no map data
Solution Approach 1:
A drone is introduced as an intermediary device between the vehicle and the environment. The drone carries sensors to collect navigation data in areas where primary navigation data is insufficient, then relays this secondary navigation data back to the vehicle. This intermediary approach enables the vehicle to access additional spatial information without permanently carrying heavy sensor equipment, thereby improving navigation reliability while maintaining relatively simple system architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions from a two-dimensional ground-based sensing approach to a three-dimensional aerial sensing approach by deploying a drone. The drone can fly above obstacles and terrain features that block ground-based sensors, providing navigation data from elevated perspectives that complement the vehicle's onboard sensor data, thus enhancing navigation reliability in complex environments.
2Loss of information
If the vehicle deploys a drone to gather secondary navigation data, then the navigation data completeness improves, but the energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of continuously operating the drone, the system activates the drone only partially - specifically when the vehicle determines that primary navigation data is insufficient or incomplete. The drone is deployed on-demand to gather only the specific secondary navigation data needed to complete the navigation information, then returns. This partial action approach ensures navigation data completeness while minimizing unnecessary energy consumption during periods when primary data is sufficient.
3Measurement precision
If the drone flies to areas of interest to collect data, then the measurement precision of the environment improves, but the time required for data collection increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary assessment using the vehicle's onboard sensors to determine areas where navigation data is incomplete or insufficient. Based on this preliminary evaluation, the drone is strategically deployed only to those specific areas of interest rather than conducting comprehensive surveys of the entire environment. This preliminary action approach enables the system to focus measurement resources on critical gaps, improving environment understanding precision while minimizing the time required for data collection.
Data Source
AI summary
In at least some implementations, a method of controlling a vehicle-based drone includes determining a need for secondary navigation data within a sensing area of one or more vehicle sensors, commanding the drone to depart from the vehicle, receiving at the vehicle secondary navigation data from the drone, and operating the vehicle at least in part as a function of the secondary navigation data.