Automated Driving Sensor Range Control Under Reduced Visibility
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Solution Overview
Problem
Automated and highly automated driving operations are compromised when environment recording sensors' ranges are reduced due to dirt, functional disturbances, or adverse weather conditions, making it unsafe to maintain current speeds.
Innovation Solution
The method estimates the range of environment recording sensors, such as radar, lidar, and camera sensors, and adjusts vehicle speed or requests driver takeover based on sensor ranges, ensuring safety by maintaining sufficient sensor coverage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If automated driving operation continues at current speed, then productivity is maintained, but safety is compromised when sensor range is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the vehicle speed based on the estimated sensor range. When the sensor range is sufficient, the vehicle operates at the current speed. When the sensor range becomes insufficient, the system reduces the speed to a limited speed that ensures the vehicle can stop within the available sensor range, thereby maintaining safety while adapting to changing conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously estimates the sensor range by evaluating sensor signals and uses this feedback to determine whether to maintain current speed or reduce to limited speed. The estimated sensor range serves as feedback that triggers speed adjustment when it falls below the required stopping distance, ensuring safety is maintained through continuous monitoring and adaptation.
2Reliability
If driver takeover is requested immediately, then safety is improved, but operation continuity is disrupted
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary speed reduction to a limited speed when sensor range becomes insufficient, before requesting driver takeover. This preliminary action creates a safety buffer that allows the automated driving operation to continue for a longer period with reduced speed, delaying the need for immediate driver intervention and maintaining operation continuity while still ensuring safety.
3Reliability
If sensor range estimation is continuously monitored, then safety is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses the existing environment recording sensors to estimate their own operational range by evaluating the sensor signals they already generate. This self-service approach allows the system to monitor sensor effectiveness without requiring additional dedicated sensors or complex external monitoring equipment, thereby improving safety through continuous monitoring while minimizing the increase in device complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A respective range of environment recording sensors of the vehicle is estimated by evaluating sensor signals of the sensors to check whether the ranges of the sensors respectively is sufficient for automated driving operation. If only one of, or only a predetermined subset of, the sensors do not have a sufficient estimated range, the vehicle continues to be moved in automated driving operation maintaining a speed of the vehicle or reducing it to a predetermined limited extent. A request to take over a driving task is output instantly or after a pre-determined time delay. If all of the sensors or more or different sensors than the predetermined subset do not have a sufficient estimated range, the vehicle continues to be moved with the speed of the vehicle reduced to a predetermined more significant extent, and the request to take over the task of driving the vehicle is instantly output.