Onboard Sensor Adjustment for Terrain-Adaptive Vehicle Sensing
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current autonomous vehicles (AVs) face challenges in achieving higher levels of automation due to the limitations of onboard sensors, which struggle to adapt to terrain changes, leading to reduced detection range, noisy data, and blind spots, hindering safe navigation and driver assistance.
Innovation Solution
The system adjusts onboard sensors based on future terrain metrics, using machine learning models to compute sensor adjustment metrics, allowing angular, radial, vertical, and horizontal adjustments to maintain optimal sensor positioning and avoid blind spots.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If onboard sensors are kept fixed in position, then device complexity is reduced, but sensor performance deteriorates due to terrain changes causing blind spots and noisy data
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the Dynamics principle by making the sensor positioning dynamic rather than fixed. The sensor adjustment mechanism actively modifies sensor position and orientation in real-time based on detected terrain metrics, allowing the system to adapt to changing road conditions, slopes, and curves while maintaining optimal detection performance and eliminating blind spots.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements self-service through autonomous sensor adjustment. The control unit automatically computes adjustment metrics based on terrain detection and executes sensor repositioning without human intervention. The sensor system serves itself by detecting terrain changes and triggering appropriate adjustments to maintain optimal performance.
2Reliability
If sensors are adjusted frequently to maintain optimal positioning, then sensor performance is improved, but loss of time increases due to continuous adjustments
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies preliminary action by detecting terrain metrics in advance and computing sensor adjustments before the vehicle reaches problematic areas. By anticipating terrain changes ahead and pre-positioning sensors accordingly, the system maintains continuous optimal performance without reactive delays or interruptions in detection capability.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple sensors are used to cover all terrain conditions, then detection coverage is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Rather than deploying multiple static sensors, the patent uses a dynamic adjustment mechanism that allows a single sensor to adapt its position and orientation to cover various terrain conditions. This dynamic repositioning provides versatile detection coverage across different road slopes, curves, and elevations without the complexity of a multi-sensor array.
Data Source
AI summary
An embodiment includes detecting a future terrain metric by a vehicle. The embodiment includes responsive to detecting the future terrain metric, computing a sensor adjustment metric based on a current terrain metric and the future terrain metric. The embodiment also includes adjusting an onboard sensor of the vehicle based on the sensor adjustment metric.