Roadside Sensor Networks for Proactive Road Condition Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Autonomous vehicles face challenges in accurately and efficiently detecting and gathering data on road and weather conditions, which can lead to unsafe and inefficient operation.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising fixed installations with sensors along roads that collect and transmit real-time data on road and weather conditions to vehicles, enabling them to make informed motion planning decisions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If environmental conditions are estimated indirectly based on vehicle dynamics data, then the system can operate with existing onboard sensors, but the estimation takes extended duration and occurs after the vehicle is already experiencing conditions, making it unsafe for real-time control
Solution Approach 1:
The patent deploys fixed installations with sensors along the road to detect road and weather conditions in advance before the vehicle reaches them. This preliminary detection allows the vehicle to receive condition information proactively, enabling safe and efficient motion planning decisions to be made before encountering adverse conditions, thus resolving the time delay and safety issues of post-hoc estimation
2Measurement precision
If fixed installations with sensors are deployed along roads to collect real-time data, then the accuracy and timeliness of environmental data improve, but the device complexity and infrastructure requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The fixed installations are designed to perform multiple functions: detecting road conditions (ice, snow, rain, fog), measuring weather parameters (temperature, humidity, wind speed), and communicating with vehicles. This multi-functionality consolidates what would otherwise require separate detection systems into a single integrated infrastructure, reducing overall complexity while maintaining high measurement precision
Solution Approach 2:
The fixed installations serve as intermediary nodes between the environment and the vehicle's control system. These installations collect environmental data and relay it to vehicles through communication systems, acting as a mediator that simplifies the vehicle's sensing burden while providing accurate, real-time condition information without requiring the vehicle to carry complex environmental sensing equipment
Data Source
AI summary
This application is directed to monitoring environmental conditions (e.g., weather and road conditions) associated with a vehicle to facilitate autonomous vehicle control or planning. A computer system is associated with a fixed installation having one or first more sensors. The computer system obtains, via the plurality of sensors, weather information and road surface information for a segment of a road. The computer system generates a road and weather condition estimation based on the weather information and the road surface information. The computer system transmits the road and weather condition estimation to one or more first vehicles in a vicinity of the fixed installation such that the road and weather condition estimation is configured to be used by the one or more first vehicles to at least partially autonomously drive in a first trajectory in accordance with the road and weather condition estimation.