Remote Vehicle Guidance via Waypoint Validation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Autonomous vehicles often become stuck when encountering obstacles or scenarios that violate their operational protocols, such as road blockages or construction zones, as they lack the capability to navigate around these obstacles without violating safety or operational rules.
Innovation Solution
A remote vehicle guidance system that allows an operator to input waypoints and orientations for the vehicle through a graphical user interface, enabling the vehicle to receive guidance and verify that the suggested path adheres to safety and operational protocols, thereby allowing it to navigate through challenging scenarios.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the autonomous vehicle operates strictly within defined operations protocol parameters, then safety and rule compliance are improved, but the vehicle becomes unable to navigate around obstacles requiring protocol violations
Solution Approach 1:
A remote operator serves as an intermediary between the autonomous vehicle's safety constraints and the need to navigate obstacles. The operator receives sensor data from the vehicle, determines appropriate actions that may temporarily violate operations protocols, and transmits control commands back to the vehicle. This mediator resolves the contradiction by enabling protocol violations only when necessary and approved by human judgment.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically switches between autonomous operation mode and remote operator control mode based on environmental conditions. When obstacles are detected that cannot be navigated within operations protocol constraints, the system transitions to remote control mode, allowing the vehicle to adapt its operational autonomy level according to situational requirements.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the vehicle attempts to navigate around obstacles by violating operations protocols, then obstacle navigation capability is improved, but safety and rule compliance deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The remote operator acts as a safety intermediary who reviews and approves any operations protocol violations before they are executed. The operator assesses the necessity and safety of potential violations, ensuring that navigation maneuvers around obstacles do not compromise overall safety standards. This human-in-the-loop approach maintains reliability while enabling adaptability.
3Speed
If the autonomous vehicle independently determines navigation paths around obstacles, then response speed is improved, but the complexity of the planning system increases
Solution Approach 1:
The complex path planning and decision-making functions are extracted from the autonomous vehicle and relocated to a remote operator. The vehicle's onboard system retains only basic obstacle detection and communication capabilities, while the operator performs the cognitively intensive tasks of route planning and protocol violation assessment. This extraction reduces vehicle complexity while maintaining response capability through human expertise.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
A vehicle computing system may identify a scenario in an environment that violates an operating constraint. The vehicle computing system may request remote guidance from a guidance system of a service computing device. The vehicle computing system may receive input from the guidance system including one or more waypoints and/or associated orientations for the vehicle to navigate through the scenario. The vehicle computing system may be configured to validate the input. A validation may include processing the input to determine whether the waypoint(s) and/or orientation(s) associated therewith may cause the vehicle to violate a safety protocol. Based on a determination that the input will not cause the vehicle to violate the safety protocol, the vehicle computing system may control the vehicle according to the input, such as by causing a drive system to operate the vehicle to each waypoint at the associated orientation.