Vehicle Map Up-to-dateness Verification via Environmental Feature Comparison
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle navigation systems, particularly for automated vehicles, face challenges in ensuring the up-to-dateness and reliability of map data, which can lead to impaired safety due to unregistered environmental changes, faulty comparisons, and limitations in processing power, especially under varying lighting conditions and sensor system performance.
Innovation Solution
A method that records environment data, determines a comparative value between environmental and map features, assesses the map's up-to-dateness by comparing with a threshold value, and operates the vehicle based on this assessment, with the ability to request threshold values from an external server and adapt to dynamic conditions like weather and traffic states, ensuring accurate and safe operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If map data is used for navigation without continuous verification, then the system operates efficiently with low computational overhead, but the reliability and safety are impaired due to unregistered environmental changes
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by continuously recording environment data values and determining up-to-dateness of map data before navigation decisions are made. Environmental features are captured and stored in advance, allowing the comparison unit to verify map accuracy proactively rather than reactively, ensuring reliability without compromising safety.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where the comparison unit continuously compares recorded environmental features with map data, and the operation unit adjusts vehicle operations based on the determined up-to-dateness. This closed-loop feedback ensures map reliability is maintained through continuous verification while managing system complexity through automated decision-making.
2Measurement precision
If environmental features are continuously recorded and compared with map data, then the up-to-dateness of the map is ensured, but the processing power and computational resources are overwhelmed
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts only the essential and relevant environmental features for navigation purposes, rather than processing all sensed data. The recording unit captures specific environmental features, and the comparison unit focuses on comparing these extracted features with corresponding map data, reducing computational energy consumption while maintaining detection accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies local quality by focusing computational resources on specific areas and features that are most critical for navigation safety. Rather than uniformly processing all environmental data, the system prioritizes comparison of key environmental features with map data, optimizing energy usage while preserving measurement precision where it matters most.
3Speed
If the vehicle operates based on potentially outdated map data, then the system responds quickly without verification delays, but safety is compromised due to unregistered changes in the environment
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary verification of map up-to-dateness before critical navigation decisions are made. Environmental features are recorded and compared with map data in advance, so that when navigation actions are required, the vehicle can operate quickly with confidence that the map data has been recently verified, maintaining both speed and safety.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements beforehand cushioning by continuously monitoring and verifying map data accuracy in advance of potential safety-critical situations. This proactive verification creates a buffer or cushion against the risks of using outdated map data, allowing the vehicle to maintain high response speeds while safety is protected by pre-validated information.
4Productivity
If the threshold value for up-to-dateness determination is set low, then more map data is considered valid, but false determinations increase reducing safety
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies dynamics by making the threshold value adaptive rather than static. The threshold for determining map up-to-dateness can be dynamically adjusted based on environmental conditions, vehicle operating context, and the criticality of the navigation situation. This allows the system to optimize between productivity and reliability by raising thresholds when safety is paramount and lowering them when efficiency is more critical.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements parameter changes by varying the threshold value based on different operating conditions and contexts. Rather than using a fixed threshold, the system can change the threshold parameter to match the current situation, ensuring high determination accuracy when needed while maintaining navigation efficiency in less critical scenarios.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and device for operating a vehicle comprising a step of recording environment data values, which represent an environment of the vehicle, the environment comprising at least one environmental feature; a step of determining a comparative value of a comparison between the at least one environmental feature and a map, the map comprising at least one map feature, the at least one environmental feature corresponding the at least one map feature; a step of determining an up-to-dateness of the map, based on a comparison of the comparative value with a threshold value; and a step of operating the vehicle, as a function of the up-to-dateness of the map.