Adaptive Vehicle Guidance Limits Using Infrastructure Risk Sensing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing fully automated vehicle control systems are limited by static functional limits that reduce driving efficiency and safety due to worst-case scenario assumptions, lacking dynamic risk assessment capabilities, especially in navigation environments like parking garages.
Innovation Solution
An infrastructure facility with stationary environmental sensors provides real-time risk assessment data to vehicles, adjusting functional limits based on dynamic risk information, allowing vehicles to adapt driving behavior dynamically.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If functional limits are defined based on worst-case scenario assumptions to ensure safety, then safety is improved, but driving efficiency and operational flexibility deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by transitioning from static functional limits to dynamic adaptive limits. The vehicle system continuously adjusts operational parameters (speed, acceleration, maneuver selection) based on real-time risk assessments from infrastructure sensors and current traffic conditions. This allows the system to operate at higher efficiency levels when conditions permit while maintaining safety boundaries when risks are detected.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes parameters by modifying operational limits (speed limits, acceleration rates, maneuver types) based on environmental conditions. The infrastructure facility provides risk information that triggers parameter adjustments in the vehicle's guidance functions, allowing the system to adapt its behavior to match actual environmental safety margins rather than always operating at conservative fixed limits.
2Device complexity
If static functional limits are used to simplify control, then device complexity is reduced, but adaptability to different navigation environments deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The infrastructure facility acts as an intermediary that performs complex risk assessment computations and returns simplified risk information to vehicles. This mediator handles the complexity of environmental analysis, sensor data processing, and risk calculation, while vehicles receive ready-to-use risk assessments that guide their operational adjustments without needing to implement complex analysis systems themselves.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback through continuous risk information exchange between infrastructure facilities and vehicles. The infrastructure monitors environmental conditions and provides real-time risk assessments, which feed back to vehicle systems to adjust operational parameters. This closed-loop feedback enables adaptability without requiring complex decision-making logic within the vehicle, as the feedback already encapsulates environmental analysis results.
3Reliability
If conservative limit operating parameters are set to cover all possible scenarios, then reliability is improved, but loss of time due to plausibility checks and slow speeds increases
Solution Approach 1:
The infrastructure facility performs preliminary risk assessments by continuously monitoring environmental conditions, identifying hazards, and calculating risk levels before vehicles encounter problematic situations. This advance preparation of safety information allows vehicles to receive pre-evaluated risk data, reducing the need for time-consuming plausibility checks during actual driving operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces mechanical/time-based safety verification (vehicle-mounted sensor analysis and plausibility checks) with information-based safety verification (infrastructure-provided risk assessments). Instead of vehicles performing time-consuming environmental analysis and safety verification, the infrastructure pre-performs these functions and delivers consolidated risk information, substituting computational mechanics with information flow.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2~3
AI summary
The invention relates to a method for adjusting fully automatic vehicle guidance functions, which are realized by means of a vehicle system (21) of a motor vehicle (15, 16, 17, 20), during the operation of the motor vehicles (15, 16, 17, 20) in a predefined navigation environment (10), in particular a parking environment, wherein: a stationary infrastructure device (13) that communicates with the motor vehicles (15, 16, 17, 20) is associated with the navigation environment (10) and function limits of each vehicle guidance function are defined by means of limit operation parameters of the vehicle guidance function; current traffic situation information describing dynamic objects in the navigation environment (10) is determined by the infrastructure device (13) by means of environment sensors (14) of the navigation environment (10), at least some of which environment sensors are fixedly installed so as to be stationary, and said current traffic situation information is used, together with a digital map (3) describing stationary objects and properties of the navigation environment (10), to determine at least one piece of risk information (8) for each motor vehicle (15, 16, 17, 20) among the dynamic objects, which risk information describes a hazard potential and/or property damage potential; the motor-vehicle-specific risk information (8) is transmitted to the associated motor vehicles (15, 16, 17, 20) and, in accordance with the risk information (8), the vehicle system (21) in question adjusts the limit operation parameters to tighter function limits in the case of risk information (8) describing a higher risk and to wider function limits in the case of risk information (8) describing a lower risk.