Sensor Mirror Layout for Autonomous Vehicle Blind Spot Coverage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Autonomous vehicles, particularly large-sized vehicles like cargo trucks and buses, face challenges with blind spots that obstruct the field of view of sensors, leading to reduced visibility and increased costs and complexity when additional sensors are added to mitigate this issue.
Innovation Solution
The use of external reflective components, such as mirrors, to redirect sensor beams and enhance the sensor's field of view, allowing for improved visibility around obstructions like trailers, without the need for additional sensors, thereby reducing costs and complexity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If additional sensors are added to reduce blind spots, then the field of view is improved, but the system cost and processing complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces mirrors as intermediary components that redirect sensor beams around obstructions such as trailers. The mirrors serve as mediators between the sensor and the blind spot areas, allowing a single sensor to achieve coverage that would otherwise require multiple sensors. This resolves the contradiction by providing extended field of view without proportionally increasing system complexity.
2Area of stationary object
If additional sensors are added to reduce blind spots, then the field of view is improved, but the system cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The mirrors act as cost-effective intermediary components that enable a single sensor to cover areas that would otherwise require additional expensive sensors. By using simple reflective surfaces to redirect beams, the system achieves extended coverage without the high cost of adding multiple sensor units.
Solution Approach 2:
The mirrors create optical copies or reflections of the sensor's field of view, allowing the same sensor to effectively 'see' multiple directions simultaneously. This copying mechanism provides the benefit of multiple sensor perspectives without the cost of actually installing multiple sensors.
3Volume of moving object
If the vehicle size is increased for cargo transport, then the cargo capacity is improved, but the blind spot area increases
Solution Approach 1:
The mirrors serve as intermediaries that bridge the gap created by the vehicle's large size. They redirect sensor beams around the vehicle body and trailer, allowing the sensor to see past the very structures that create the blind spots. This enables large cargo vehicles to maintain adequate surveillance coverage despite their inherent size-related visibility limitations.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution effectively reduces blind spots and enhances sensor visibility around external obstructions, improving the vehicle's ability to operate in autonomous mode by redirecting beams and providing a more comprehensive field of view without increasing sensor count or processing complexity.
Implementation Method 1
The one or more mirrors are configured to reflect received signals towards at least one of the one or more sensors to enhance a sensor field of view
Data Source
AI summary
The technology relates to enhancing or extending the field of view of sensors for vehicles configured to operate in an autonomous driving mode. One or more mirrors are used to reflect or redirect beams emitted from onboard sensors that would otherwise be wasted, for instance due to obstruction by a portion of the vehicle or because they are emitted at high pitch angles to the side. The mirrors are also used to redirect incoming beams from the external environment toward one or more of the onboard sensors. Using mirrors for such redirection can reduce or eliminate blind spots around the vehicle. A calibration system may be employed to account for mirror movement due to vibration or wind drag. Each mirror may be a front surface mirror. The mirrors may be positioned on the vehicle body, on a faring, or extending from a sensor housing on the vehicle.