Mobile Offload Station for AV Log Data Overflow
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Solution Overview
Problem
Autonomous vehicles (AVs) face challenges in managing the massive amounts of log data generated by their sensors, leading to onboard storage overflow, which restricts their operational range and may result in data loss when operating outside nominal ranges of operations centers.
Innovation Solution
A mobile offload station is deployed to travel to AVs and ingest log data, expanding their operational range by offloading data onto a central server, even when AVs are outside nominal operating areas.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If log data is stored on onboard storage devices of AVs, then data collection capability is improved, but storage capacity is limited and operational range is constrained
Solution Approach 1:
A mobile offload station acts as an intermediary between AVs and central servers. The station travels to AVs within their operational range, establishes wireless communication links, and transfers log data from AV onboard storage to the mobile station's storage devices, enabling data offloading beyond the constraints of direct AV-to-server communication.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions from a single-dimension constraint (AV onboard storage capacity) to a multi-dimensional solution by introducing a mobile offload station that moves through space, bringing storage capacity to AVs at various locations. This creates a new spatial dimension for data transfer, allowing AVs to operate anywhere within the mobile station's travel range.
2Adaptability or versatility
If AVs operate outside nominal operating areas, then operational flexibility is improved, but data loss risk increases due to onboard storage overflow
Solution Approach 1:
The mobile offload station proactively travels to AVs before their onboard storage becomes completely full. By establishing data transfer operations in advance, the system prevents storage overflow and potential data loss, allowing AVs to maintain operational flexibility while ensuring data integrity through preemptive data offloading.
3Device complexity
If central servers are located at fixed operation centers, then data management is simplified, but AVs must return to constrained areas for data offloading
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of having AVs travel to fixed central servers for data offloading, the system inverts the approach by deploying a mobile offload station that travels to AVs. This reverses the movement direction, bringing the data management infrastructure to the vehicles rather than requiring vehicles to return to predetermined locations, thereby improving ease of operation while maintaining centralized data management.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed herein are system, method, and computer program product embodiments for a mobile offload station for disconnected terminal operation. For example, the method includes deploying a mobile offload station to within a predetermined proximity of an autonomous vehicle (AV) responsive to receipt of an instruction to ingest log data stored on a data storage device onboard the AV. The method further includes establishing, by the mobile offload station, a data communication link with the AV responsive to entry into the predetermined proximity. The method further includes storing, by the mobile offload station, on a storage device onboard the mobile offload station, the log data transferred via the data communication link from the data storage device of the AV.