Vehicle Sensor Coordinator for Adaptive Mode Switching

The patent introduces a coordinator as an intermediary component that manages the object detection sensor and distributes objects to appropriate driver assistance functions. The coordinator receives objects from the sensor, evaluates their relevance to different functions using importance density functions, and distributes them accordingly. This mediator approach resolves the complexity by centralizing the coordination logic, preventing exponential growth in coordination difficulty while maintaining versatile detection capabilities across multiple operating modes and driver assistance functions.

The patent applies local quality by assigning different importance density functions to different driver assistance functions, where each function has a customized importance profile tailored to its specific needs. For example, long-range functions like adaptive cruise control have importance density concentrated at larger distances, while short-range functions like emergency braking have importance density concentrated at smaller distances. This allows the system to process only the most relevant objects for each function, improving processing efficiency while maintaining the ability to operate in multiple modes with different detection ranges.

The coordinator serves as a centralized intermediary that manages all access to the object detection sensor. Instead of allowing direct uncoordinated access from multiple driver assistance functions, the coordinator receives objects from the sensor, evaluates their relevance to each function using importance density functions, and distributes them accordingly. This approach maintains access flexibility for all functions while reducing coordination overhead by centralizing the evaluation and distribution logic in a single component, avoiding the exponential complexity that would arise from direct peer-to-peer coordination.