Emergency Vehicle Peripheral Time Synchronization for Clear Alerts
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Solution Overview
Problem
Emergency vehicles lack a means to synchronize peripherals such as sirens and light bars, leading to ambiguity in messages relayed to drivers, which can compromise the effectiveness of alerting the public to their presence and ensuring safe passage through traffic.
Innovation Solution
A synchronization system comprising a master node and slave nodes, where the master node transmits synchronization messages with timestamps, allowing slave nodes to adjust their local time to align with a global time, using a PID controller to compensate for time drift, ensuring synchronized operation of peripherals like sirens and light bars within or between emergency vehicles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If emergency vehicles use multiple peripherals (sirens, light bars) without synchronization, then the system is simple and easy to operate, but the message relayed to drivers becomes ambiguous and the alerting effectiveness is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a master node as an intermediary device that coordinates synchronization messages between peripherals. The master node receives timing information from a time source and distributes synchronized timing signals to all slave nodes (sirens, light bars), ensuring they operate in unison without requiring direct peer-to-peer communication between each peripheral pair.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where slave nodes receive timing information from the master node, compare it with their local time, and adjust their operation accordingly. The master node continuously monitors and redistributes timing signals to maintain synchronization, creating a closed-loop control system that ensures all peripherals remain coordinated.
2Loss of information
If emergency vehicles implement precise time synchronization between peripherals, then the clarity of messages to drivers is enhanced, but the system complexity and difficulty of implementation increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables slave nodes to automatically adjust their timing based on synchronization messages from the master node without requiring manual intervention. Each slave node autonomously compares received timing information with its local time and adjusts its operation accordingly, eliminating the need for operators to manually coordinate each peripheral.
Solution Approach 2:
The master node serves multiple functions: it acts as a central coordinator, time distribution hub, and synchronization monitor all in one device. This multi-functional approach consolidates the synchronization complexity into a single component, allowing individual peripherals to remain simple while the overall system achieves coordinated operation.
3Adaptability or versatility
If emergency vehicles use peripherals operating on different local times, then each peripheral can operate independently, but the synchronized operation and consistent messaging are compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the emergency vehicle system into hierarchical segments: a master node that handles time coordination and slave nodes that execute specific peripheral functions. This segmentation allows each slave node to maintain operational independence for its specific function while simultaneously ensuring synchronized operation through the master node's time distribution to all segments.
Data Source
AI summary
A system, method and storage medium for synchronization between nodes includes transmitting, by a first node, a first synchronization message; determining, by the first node, a first time at which the first synchronization message is transmitted; transmitting, by the first node, a second synchronization message containing a tx timestamp corresponding to the first time; receiving, by a second node, the first synchronization message from the first node; determining, by the second node, a second time at which the first synchronization message is received; storing, by the second node, a rx timestamp corresponding the second time; receiving, by the second node, the second synchronization message from the first node; determining, by the second node, a current local time at which the second synchronization message is received; reading, by the second node, the tx timestamp in the first synchronization message; adjusting, by the second node, the current local time of the second node by adding a difference between the tx timestamp and the rx timestamp; and setting, by the second node, the adjusted current local time as a global time.