Roadside Unit Map Updates for Autonomous Vehicles
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Solution Overview
Problem
Autonomous vehicles face navigation challenges due to outdated maps, which can lead to unsafe driving when the vehicle's stored map does not match the current environment, and existing cloud-based solutions face bandwidth and latency issues in maintaining up-to-date maps.
Innovation Solution
Deploying road-side units (RSUs) that communicate with vehicles and each other to update maps locally, sending map deviation data sets instead of full maps, and processing sensor data at the edge to minimize bandwidth usage and latency, allowing for real-time updates and efficient data transmission.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If cloud-based solutions are used to maintain up-to-date maps, then map accuracy is improved, but bandwidth consumption and latency increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the map update process by dividing maps into static portions (stored locally in vehicles) and dynamic portions (transmitted via RSUs). This segmentation allows vehicles to maintain accurate navigation maps without continuously transmitting entire maps through the cloud, thereby reducing bandwidth consumption while preserving map accuracy for navigation purposes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces road-side units (RSUs) as intermediary devices between vehicles and the cloud. RSUs collect map update information from vehicles and transmit only necessary updates to the cloud, then distribute these updates to other vehicles. This intermediary approach reduces direct vehicle-to-cloud bandwidth consumption and latency while maintaining accurate map data availability.
2Measurement precision
If cloud-based solutions are used to maintain up-to-date maps, then map accuracy is improved, but communication latency increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by pre-storing static map portions in vehicles before navigation occurs. This allows vehicles to have accurate map data available immediately without waiting for cloud updates, reducing communication latency during critical navigation operations while maintaining sufficient map accuracy through periodic updates via RSUs.
Solution Approach 2:
RSUs serve as intermediaries that receive map update information from vehicles and distribute it to other vehicles locally. This peer-to-peer distribution via RSUs eliminates the need for each vehicle to directly query the cloud for map updates, significantly reducing communication latency while maintaining accurate and current map data.
3Measurement precision
If full maps are transmitted to keep vehicles updated, then map accuracy is improved, but data transmission volume increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the necessary dynamic portions of map data for transmission and storage, separating them from the static portions that remain in local vehicle memory. This extraction approach ensures that vehicles receive and store only the essential map information needed for accurate navigation, significantly reducing data transmission volume while maintaining required map accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by storing static map portions locally in vehicles and transmitting only dynamic update information through RSUs. This allows each vehicle to maintain accurate navigation maps with minimal data transmission, as the static portions are cached locally while only necessary updates are transmitted and applied.
Data Source
AI summary
Presented herein are techniques for updating detailed maps used to navigate an autonomous vehicle. The techniques include determining that a vehicle has come within a predetermined range of a road side unit, establishing a communication link with the vehicle, receiving, from the vehicle, data sufficient to identify a vehicle type of the vehicle, based on the vehicle type, selecting a map, stored by the road side unit, for the vehicle, sending a query to a neighbor road side unit seeking data to augment the map, in response to the query, receiving the data to augment the map from the neighbor road side unit, updating the map based on the data to augment the map to obtain an updated map, and sending at least a aspects of the updated map to the vehicle.