Roadside Broadcast Alerts for Occluded Obstacle Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles face challenges in detecting obstacles obstructed from their sensors, leading to delayed reaction times and potential collisions due to blocked sensor views.
Innovation Solution
An infrastructure component equipped with sensors and a transmitter broadcasts messages to nearby vehicles about approaching objects, including estimated time of arrival and zone identifiers, allowing vehicles to react promptly even if their own sensors are obstructed.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If vehicles rely solely on their own sensors to detect obstacles, then the vehicle's autonomous operation is simple and self-contained, but the vehicle cannot detect obstacles that are obstructed from its sensor view
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an infrastructure component as an intermediary between obstacles and vehicles. This component includes sensors that detect objects in the environment and a transmitter that communicates object information to vehicles. The infrastructure component acts as a mediator that provides vehicles with obstacle information that would otherwise be inaccessible due to sensor obstructions, thereby improving obstacle detection reliability without requiring complex modifications to the vehicle itself.
2Loss of time
If vehicles use onboard sensors to detect obstacles, then the system is autonomous and independent, but the reaction time is delayed when sensors are obstructed
Solution Approach 1:
The infrastructure component performs preliminary detection of obstacles and continuously monitors the environment, maintaining an updated database of object positions and characteristics. This preliminary action ensures that when a vehicle approaches an obscured obstacle, the information is already available and can be immediately transmitted to the vehicle, eliminating the detection delay that would occur if the vehicle had to rely on its own obstructed sensors.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements a feedback mechanism where the infrastructure component continuously transmits obstacle information to vehicles based on real-time sensor data. This feedback loop ensures that vehicles receive current obstacle information even when their own sensors are blocked, allowing for timely reactions without information loss.
3Loss of information
If the infrastructure broadcasts detailed object information to all vehicles, then vehicles have complete situational awareness, but the communication bandwidth and message complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The infrastructure component applies local quality by customizing the broadcast messages based on vehicle-specific needs and contexts. Rather than transmitting identical comprehensive data to all vehicles, the system adjusts the information content according to each vehicle's location, trajectory, and detection capabilities. This approach ensures that each vehicle receives the specific information it needs for situational awareness while minimizing unnecessary data transmission and message complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
An infrastructure component includes a sensor, a transmitter, and a computer communicatively coupled to the sensor and to the transmitter. The computer is programmed to, in response to receiving data from the sensor indicating an object approaching a predesignated zone, determine an estimated time until the object reaches the predesignated zone; and then instruct the transmitter to broadcast a message to nearby vehicles, the message including an identifier of the predesignated zone and the estimated time.