Unmanned Warning Sign Deployment for Autonomous Vehicle Stops
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Solution Overview
Problem
There is a lack of automatic emergency sign placement in emergency situations for autonomous vehicles, such as breakdowns or sensor failures, which can compromise vehicle safety and alert other drivers effectively.
Innovation Solution
An unmanned vehicle system is deployed with a processor that receives signals indicating a vehicle stop and its location, determining target locations to place warning signs or lights to alert other vehicles, using sensors and communication networks to navigate and dispatch warning devices like warning triangles or strobe lights.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If manual emergency sign placement is used, then drivers can alert other vehicles of hazards, but the process is time-consuming and requires user intervention which may not be available in autonomous vehicles
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by automatically detecting emergency situations (sensor failures, breakdowns) and immediately deploying warning signs without requiring driver intervention. The processor monitors system health continuously and triggers automatic warning sign placement when anomalies are detected, eliminating the time delay associated with manual intervention.
Solution Approach 2:
The autonomous vehicle performs the safety function itself by using its own processor to detect emergencies and control the warning signs. The system serves its own safety needs autonomously, particularly important when no human driver is present to perform manual emergency sign placement.
2Reliability
If automatic emergency sign placement is implemented, then response time is reduced and safety is improved, but the system complexity increases with additional sensors and processors
Solution Approach 1:
The processor serves multiple functions: it monitors sensor health, detects emergency situations, determines when warning signs should be deployed, and controls the warning sign actuators. By making the processor universal and multi-functional, the system avoids adding dedicated separate control systems, thereby limiting the increase in overall system complexity while achieving automatic emergency sign placement.
Solution Approach 2:
The system merges the emergency detection and warning sign control functions into a unified automated process. The processor combines multiple monitoring tasks (sensor health, system status) with the decision-making and actuation of warning signs, creating an integrated safety system that reduces complexity compared to having separate independent systems for each function.
3Area of stationary object
If warning signs are placed at multiple target locations, then coverage area increases and more vehicles are alerted, but the time and resources required for deployment increase
Solution Approach 1:
The processor pre-calculates and identifies multiple optimal target locations for warning sign deployment based on the vehicle's location and the nature of the emergency. By determining these locations in advance and preparing the deployment sequence, the system can rapidly deploy signs to multiple locations without the time penalty of sequential planning and deployment.
Data Source
AI summary
In some embodiments, an apparatus, comprises an unmanned vehicle configured to be disposed with a vehicle and a processor operatively coupled to the unmanned vehicle. The processor is configured to receive a first signal indicating a stop of the vehicle without a user request and a second signal indicating a location of the vehicle. The processor is configured to determine, based on the location of the vehicle, a target location in a pre-defined area surrounding the vehicle. The processor is configured to send a third signal to the unmanned vehicle to instruct the unmanned vehicle to move to the target location to alert other vehicles via a warning regarding occurrence of the stop.