System and method for automatic maintenance

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10319157-B2
Application number	US-201715465079-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 21, 2017
Priority date	Mar 22, 2016
Publication date	Jun 11, 2019
Grant date	Jun 11, 2019

Abstract

Systems and methods for automatic maintenance of an autonomous vehicle include: identifying a maintenance requirement for an autonomous vehicle, wherein identifying a maintenance requirement includes using one or more sensors to obtain vehicle maintenance data; in response to identifying the maintenance requirement, generating a maintenance request comprising a description or data relating to the maintenance requirement; transmitting the maintenance request; receiving maintenance instructions comprising maintenance routing instructions and a maintenance schedule for a maintenance session for resolving the maintenance requirement; and implementing the maintenance instructions.

First claim

We claim:

1. A system for automatically detecting and performing maintenance of an autonomous vehicle, the system comprising:
an autonomous vehicle comprising one or more sensors that obtain maintenance data regarding one or more systems or physical characteristics of the autonomous vehicle,
wherein the autonomous vehicle is configured to:
analyze the maintenance data to identify whether a maintenance need for the autonomous vehicle exists;
generate a maintenance request based on identifying the maintenance need;
transmit the maintenance request to an external maintenance entity capable of assisting the autonomous vehicle with the maintenance request; and
receive maintenance routing instructions for directing the autonomous vehicle to a maintenance location for servicing the maintenance need; and

a maintenance coordinator associated with the external maintenance entity that is configured to:
receive the maintenance request;
analyze the maintenance request and coordinate the maintenance location for the autonomous vehicle and the external maintenance entity; and
communicate the maintenance location and the routing instructions to the autonomous vehicle.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the maintenance request comprises:
a description of the maintenance need, wherein the description of the maintenance need comprises one or more of an error message, an error code, an image of one or more components of the autonomous vehicle, and sensor data that triggered the maintenance need.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the maintenance request further comprises a severity level selected from a plurality of severity levels in a maintenance severity continuum, wherein the severity level is used to determine a priority for responding to the maintenance request.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the maintenance coordinator is a remote server configured to receive and process maintenance requests from a fleet of autonomous vehicles to generate maintenance routing instructions for each of the maintenance requests, and wherein the maintenance entity performs one or more operations for servicing the maintenance need.

5. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a maintenance station that is configured to receive the autonomous vehicle having the maintenance need and attempt to resolve the maintenance need, wherein the maintenance routing instructions comprises routing instructions that direct the autonomous vehicle to the maintenance station for servicing the maintenance need.

6. A method for automatic maintenance of an autonomous vehicle, the method comprising:
identifying a maintenance requirement for an autonomous vehicle, wherein identifying a maintenance requirement includes using one or more sensors to obtain vehicle maintenance data;
in response to identifying the maintenance requirement, generating a maintenance request comprising a description or data relating to the maintenance requirement;
in response to the maintenance request, receiving maintenance instructions comprising a maintenance location, maintenance routing instructions and a maintenance schedule for a maintenance session for resolving the maintenance requirement; and
controlling the autonomous vehicle to obtain the automatic maintenance based on the maintenance instructions.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein identifying a maintenance requirement includes:
comparing the obtained vehicle maintenance data to one or more predetermined sensor data profiles for one or more components of the vehicle, wherein each the one or more predetermined sensor data profiles include data relating to a normal operating range or normal operating data for a feature or component of the autonomous vehicle; and
detecting a potential maintenance requirement (1) when the obtained vehicle maintenance data is outside a normal operating range for a component or feature of the autonomous vehicle or (2) when the obtained vehicle maintenance data does not match normal operation data for a feature or a component of the autonomous vehicle, wherein when the maintenance requirement is detected the maintenance request further comprises results of the comparison causing the maintenance requirement.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the maintenance routing instructions are generated based on identifying a location of the autonomous vehicle and identifying a location of a nearest available maintenance station or maintenance entity, wherein the maintenance routing instructions include routing instructions that allow the autonomous vehicle to interact with the maintenance station or the maintenance entity for purposes of servicing the maintenance requirement.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein the maintenance schedule is generated based on identifying:
(i) a location or one or more route paths of the autonomous vehicle,
(ii) an availability of the autonomous vehicle to interact with a maintenance entity,
(iii) a location of the maintenance entity, and
(iv) an availability of the maintenance entity,
(v) wherein when the maintenance entity is nearest a location or a segment of the one or more route paths of the autonomous vehicle and the availability of the autonomous vehicle overlaps the availability of the maintenance entity, the maintenance schedule is generated such that the maintenance session is performed when the availability of the autonomous vehicle and the availability of the maintenance entity overlaps.

10. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
in response to generating maintenance instructions for the autonomous vehicle, dispatching a mobile maintenance entity for servicing the maintenance requirement of the autonomous vehicle, wherein dispatching the mobile maintenance entity includes:
providing a location or future location of the autonomous vehicle or providing routing instructions to the mobile maintenance entity for traveling to the location or the future location of the autonomous vehicle,
providing a maintenance servicing need or maintenance servicing instructions to the mobile maintenance entity, wherein the maintenance servicing need describes the maintenance requirement of the autonomous vehicle, and wherein the maintenance servicing instructions include instructions for resolving the maintenance requirement of the autonomous vehicle.

11. The method of claim 6 , wherein identifying the maintenance requirement comprises predicting a future maintenance requirement based on the vehicle maintenance data obtained by the one or more sensors, wherein predicting the future maintenance requirement includes:
analyzing the vehicle maintenance data to identify sensor data associated with one or more components or characteristics of the autonomous vehicle that have an associated maintenance prediction schedule in a maintenance requirement prediction database;
comparing sensor data from the vehicle maintenance data associated with the one or more components or characteristics of the autonomous vehicle that have the associated maintenance prediction schedule; and
predicting one or more future maintenance requirements based on results of the comparison.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein predicting the future maintenance requirement is further based on determining a predicted future usage of the autonomous vehicle based on historical operation data or historical usage of the autonomous vehicle.

13. The method of claim 6 , wherein identifying the maintenance requirement comprises predicting a future maintenance requirement based on the vehicle maintenance data obtained by the one or more sensors of the autonomous vehicle, wherein predicting the future maintenance requirement includes:
applying

Assignees

• Gm Global Tech Operations Llc

Inventors

• Minster Gautier
• Bier Solomon
• Wisniowski Matthias

Classifications

• G07C5/008

  communicating information to a remotely located station (transmission systems for measured values G08C) · CPC title

• G07C5/006 Primary

  Indicating maintenance · CPC title

• G06Q10/00

  Administration; Management · CPC title

• G05D1/0297

  by controlling means in a control room · CPC title

• G05D2201/0213

  Physics · mapped topic