External Brake Signal Recognition for Autonomous Vehicle Stopping
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Solution Overview
Problem
In automatic driving operations, if the driver fails to notice abnormalities or loses judgment and physical movement abilities, ensuring safety becomes challenging.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle control device that acquires surrounding environment information, recognizes external brake instructions, and initiates a braking sequence based on this information, including imaging, audio, radar, and communication, while allowing driver intervention and recording invalidation history.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If automatic driving operation is performed without external monitoring, then driver autonomy and operational simplicity are improved, but safety and reliability deteriorate when driver abnormality occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an external terminal device as an intermediary that remotely monitors the driver's state and communicates with the vehicle control device. When the driver is detected to be abnormal (asleep, unconscious, etc.), the external terminal initiates a braking sequence to stop the vehicle safely, thus maintaining reliability without compromising driver autonomy during normal operation.
2Reliability
If external brake control is implemented, then safety in automatic driving is improved, but system complexity and control authority management worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary monitoring of the driver's state continuously during automatic driving. When abnormality is detected, the braking sequence is initiated in advance before a critical situation develops. This preliminary action ensures safety is maintained without requiring complex real-time intervention systems, as the braking is triggered proactively based on pre-determined abnormality criteria.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements a feedback mechanism where the external terminal device receives driver state information from the vehicle, processes it to determine abnormality, and sends control signals back to the vehicle's braking system. This closed-loop feedback ensures safety while maintaining manageable system complexity through clear information flow and decision-making protocols.
3Adaptability or versatility
If driver intervention is allowed to invalidate braking sequence, then operational flexibility is improved, but safety control and accountability worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The system records the invalidation operation and the state at the time of invalidation in advance, creating an encrypted log that cannot be altered. This preliminary recording of the intervention ensures that while operational flexibility is maintained through allowing driver override, safety control and accountability are preserved through immutable records that can be reviewed later to determine if the invalidation was appropriate.
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is an environment information acquisition unit that acquires an image in which environment around a vehicle has been imaged, information indicating a contact with the vehicle or an impact on the vehicle, surround sounds, approach identification information for enabling an approach of an emergency vehicle to be identified, and the like as surrounding environment information of the vehicle. A vehicle control processing unit recognizes predetermined external stimulation information included in the surrounding environment information, for example, a specific signal or a movement with a specific pattern, a contact to a specific part, and a specific sound. The vehicle control processing unit uses the recognized predetermined external stimulation information as a vehicle brake instruction from outside and starts a vehicle braking sequence to stop the vehicle.