Limited Visibility Map Sync for Live 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 autonomous vehicles with limited visibility maps, synchronized by a management service, which delivers updates only to specific areas of the map that do not modify the current version, ensuring consistency and avoiding version confusion, thus allowing for real-time updates without halting navigation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If full map updates are transmitted to autonomous vehicles, then map data completeness is improved, but bandwidth consumption and compute resource requirements increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the full map into multiple partitioned sections and transmits only the specific partition that contains the update, rather than transmitting the entire map. This segmentation approach maintains data completeness for the updated area while significantly reducing bandwidth and compute resource requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The system extracts and transmits only the updated portion (delta) of the map data rather than the complete map. This extraction principle allows the autonomous vehicle to receive minimal update data while maintaining access to the full map context locally, reducing transmission overhead and processing requirements.
2Loss of information
If full map updates are transmitted to autonomous vehicles, then map data completeness is improved, but update speed decreases due to large data size
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the map update into smaller partition-specific deltas, the system enables faster transmission and processing of update data. The autonomous vehicle receives only the necessary update portion, significantly reducing update time while maintaining data completeness for the updated area.
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies partial action by transmitting only the minimal necessary update data (the delta for the specific partition) rather than the complete map. This partial transmission approach achieves the required update speed while maintaining sufficient data completeness for navigation purposes.
3Reliability
If map updates are transmitted to multiple downstream nodes, then map currency is improved, but version inconsistencies and data conflicts increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a partition manager as an intermediary that coordinates map updates across multiple downstream nodes. The partition manager manages partition assignments and ensures that update deltas are distributed consistently, preventing version conflicts and maintaining data stability among nodes while improving map currency.
Solution Approach 2:
By segmenting the map into managed partitions with dedicated owners, the system enables independent update propagation to different nodes without causing version conflicts. Each partition can be updated and distributed independently, maintaining overall data consistency while improving the currency of map data across the network.
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.