Vehicle Path Planning for Remote Tendering and Task Resumption
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for controlling the path plan of vehicles, such as autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles, often result in disrupted work when the vehicle returns to a base station for charging, leading to duplication of work.
Innovation Solution
A method for controlling a vehicle's path plan that includes determining the need for tendering based on fuel or battery levels, allowing for remote selection of a tendering location, and resuming normal operations after service, with a system that plans a path to the destination tendering location and navigates during the transition.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If the vehicle returns to a base station for battery charging, then the battery charge level is improved, but the work continuity is disrupted and prior work is duplicated
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by detecting low battery levels before complete depletion, notifying the remote operator in advance, and allowing selection of tendering locations before the vehicle stops working. This enables smooth transition to charging without abrupt work interruption and duplication
Solution Approach 2:
A remote operator serves as an intermediary between the vehicle's autonomous operation and the charging decision. The operator receives notifications, selects appropriate tendering locations based on work context, and manages the transition, preventing automatic disruptions that would cause work duplication
2Productivity
If the vehicle operates autonomously along a path, then the operational efficiency is improved, but the ability to respond to service needs requires complex monitoring systems
Solution Approach 1:
The vehicle performs self-service by autonomously detecting its own service needs through onboard sensors (fuel level, battery charge), self-reporting to the remote operator, and self-navigating to selected tendering locations. This maintains autonomous operational efficiency while simplifying the monitoring system to only require notification and selection capabilities
Data Source
AI summary
A controller is configured to determine that the vehicle requires tendering or service based upon one or more sensors. A wireless device is configured to send wirelessly, via a communications system, an alert message to an end user, who is supervising the vehicle, to confirm end user seeks to select a destination tendering location. Further, the alert message may be sent alone or together with a predefined list of candidate destination tendering locations for the end user to select and to activate the tendering mode. If the end user activates the tendering mode, the controller is configured to record or store in a data storage device a saved first position and corresponding saved first pose of the vehicle, a saved first implement state and saved first implement settings for any potential return to or resumption of the normal mode after tendering.