Limited Visibility Map Sync for Autonomous Vehicle Updates
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Solution Overview
Problem
Autonomous vehicles face challenges in updating maps in real-time due to the large size of full maps, which leads to bandwidth and compute resource issues, causing delays and potential data inconsistencies among downstream nodes, resulting in undefined data inputs/outputs during navigation.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a system that provides limited visibility maps to downstream nodes, synchronized by a management service, which delivers updates only when they do not modify the current map version, ensuring consistency and avoiding version confusion, thus allowing for real-time or near-real-time updates without halting navigation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If full map updates are provided to autonomous vehicles, then map data completeness is improved, but bandwidth consumption and compute resources increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the full map into multiple tiles or chunks, allowing selective transmission of only those map segments that have changed or are relevant to the vehicle's current location. This divides the large-scale map update problem into smaller, manageable units that can be transmitted efficiently.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts and transmits only the specific map portions that contain changes or are relevant to navigation, rather than transmitting the entire map. This extraction approach removes unnecessary data from the transmission stream, reducing bandwidth consumption while maintaining data completeness for relevant areas.
2Reliability
If full map updates are transmitted, then data consistency across nodes is improved, but update speed and time efficiency deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting map updates into smaller tiles, the system can transmit and apply updates incrementally rather than waiting for complete map transmission. This segmentation enables parallel processing of different map segments, improving update speed while maintaining consistency through version control mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies partial updates by transmitting only the necessary map portions rather than complete map updates. This partial action approach achieves sufficient data consistency for navigation purposes without the time cost of transmitting and processing entire map updates.
3Loss of energy
If selective map updates are implemented, then bandwidth efficiency is improved, but risk of data inconsistency among nodes increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements feedback mechanisms where downstream nodes report their current map version and received updates back to the managing node. This feedback loop enables the managing node to track the state of distributed nodes and coordinate updates to maintain consistency across the network.
Solution Approach 2:
The managing node acts as an intermediary that coordinates map updates among downstream nodes. It receives map data from upstream sources, processes selective updates, and distributes them to downstream nodes while maintaining version control and consistency information.
4Measurement precision
If real-time map updates are provided, then navigation accuracy is improved, but system complexity and coordination overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
Segmenting map data into tiles simplifies real-time update management by allowing independent processing and transmission of small map segments. This segmentation reduces the coordination complexity compared to managing large-scale map updates while maintaining navigation accuracy through timely delivery of relevant map portions.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems, methods, and devices are disclosed for synchronizing map updates for a navigating autonomous vehicle. A management service on a managing node can receive an update to a portion of a first map, where a limited visibility map, which is a subset of the first map, can be determined based on a geographical area around an autonomous vehicle navigating a route. The limited visibility map can be synchronized among all the nodes while the autonomous vehicle is using the limited visibility map by the management service delivering, to a plurality of downstream nodes, the update to the limited visibility map when the update does not modify a portion of the limited visibility map, and by bypassing, to the plurality of downstream nodes, the update to the limited visibility map when the update modifies a portion of the limited visibility map.