Remote vehicle control and operation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10367869-B2
Application number	US-201514882781-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 14, 2015
Priority date	Dec 30, 2014
Publication date	Jul 30, 2019
Grant date	Jul 30, 2019

Abstract

A plurality of data streams are received from a vehicle, at least one of the data streams including multimedia data. A prioritization of the data streams is performed according to one or more factors. At least one of adjusting at least one of the data streams and preventing transmission of at least one of the data streams according to the prioritization is performed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
a computer at a remote site, the computer comprising a processor and a memory; and
a vehicle computer onboard a vehicle, the vehicle computer and the vehicle geographically remote from the computer and the remote site, the vehicle operable by an operator of the computer at the remote site, whereby the operator is geographically remote from the vehicle and the vehicle computer;
wherein the memory of the computer at the remote site stores instructions executable by the processor of the computer at the remote site to:
receive a plurality of data streams from the vehicle via the vehicle computer, at least some of the data streams including multimedia data;
determine an available bandwidth and a bandwidth consumption of each of the data streams;
perform a prioritization of the data streams according to one or more factors including at least data describing the operator at the remote site operating the vehicle and the available bandwidth, the prioritization including an identification of one of the data streams having a higher priority than another of the data streams based on sensor data indicating behavior of the operator at the remote site; and
instruct the vehicle computer to at least one of adjust at least one of the data streams and prevent transmission of at least one of the data streams to the computer according to the prioritization.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the data streams includes at least one of speed and steering angle data from the vehicle.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein adjusting at least one of the data streams includes adjusting at least one of a resolution and a size of an image being transmitted in the at least one of the data streams.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein some of the data streams include images from respective multimedia sensors mounted on the vehicle.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more factors include data concerning a vehicle state.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the data concerning the vehicle state include at least one of a vehicle speed, direction of travel steering angle, steering rate of change, and an orientation of a vehicle sensor.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the data streams includes a command to actuate a vehicle component.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the data concerning the operator of the computer at the remote site include at least one of eye movement and a direction of gaze of the operator.

9. A method, comprising:
operating a vehicle computer onboard a vehicle with a computer at a remote site, the vehicle computer and the vehicle geographically remote from the computer and the remote site, the vehicle operable by an operator of the computer at the remote site, whereby the operator is geographically remote from the vehicle and the vehicle computer;
receiving, at the computer at the remote site, a plurality of data streams from the vehicle via the vehicle computer, at least some of the data streams including multimedia data;
determining an available bandwidth and a bandwidth consumption of each of the data streams;
performing, with the computer at the remote site, a prioritization of the data streams according to one or more factors including at least data describing the operator at the remote site operating the vehicle and the available bandwidth, the prioritization including an identification of one of the data streams having a higher priority than another of the data streams based on sensor data indicating behavior of the operator at the remote site; and
instructing the vehicle computer to at least one of adjust at least one of the data streams and prevent transmission of at least one of the data streams to the computer according to the prioritization.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein at least one of the data streams includes at least one of speed and steering angle data from the vehicle.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein some of the data streams include images from respective multimedia sensors mounted on the vehicle.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein the one or more factors include data concerning a vehicle state.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein adjusting at least one of the data streams includes adjusting at least one of a resolution and a size of an image being transmitted in the at least one of the data streams.

14. The method of claim 9 , wherein at least one of the data streams includes a command to actuate a vehicle component.

15. A system, comprising:
a computer at a remote site, the computer comprising a processor and a memory; and
a vehicle computer onboard a vehicle, the vehicle computer and the vehicle geographically remote from the computer and the remote site, the vehicle operable by an operator of the computer at the remote site, whereby the operator is geographically remote from the vehicle and the vehicle computer;
wherein the computer is programmed to:
receive data from a plurality of multimedia sensors mounted on the vehicle via the vehicle computer;
determine an available bandwidth and a bandwidth consumption of each of the data streams;
perform a prioritization, according to one or more factors including at least data describing the operator at the remote site operating the vehicle and the available bandwidth, of respective data streams that each include data from one of the multimedia sensors, the prioritization including an identification of one of the data streams having a higher priority than another of the data streams based on sensor data indicating behavior of the operator at the remote site; and

instruct the vehicle computer to adjust at least one of the data streams according to the prioritization.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the computer is programmed to provide at least one data stream via the network that includes at least one of speed and steering angle data from the vehicle.

17. The system of claim 15 , wherein adjusting at least one of the data streams includes adjusting at least one of a resolution and a size of an image being transmitted in the at least one of the data streams.

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc
• Georgia Tech Res Inst

Inventors

• Tinskey Michael Robert
• Bell Donna L
• Mccreadie David
• Gokhale Renuka Vikram
• Alregib Ghassan
• Alshawi Tariq
• Aabed Mohammed
• Bras Berdinus

Classifications

• B60R16/00

  Electric or fluid circuits specially adapted for vehicles and not otherwise provided for; Arrangement of elements of electric or fluid circuits specially adapted for vehicles and not otherwise provided for {(devices for protecting vehicle occupants in case of accidents B60R21/00; safety belts B60R22/00; central door locking E05B49/00, E05B77/50)} · CPC title

• B60R16/02

  electric {constitutive elements} · CPC title

• G05D1/0038 Primary

  by providing the operator with simple or augmented images from one or more cameras located onboard the vehicle, e.g. tele-operation (images analyzed by a computer and used for automatic navigation G05D1/0246) · CPC title

• H04L67/12 Primary

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title

• H04N7/00

  Television systems (details H04N3/00, H04N5/00; methods or arrangements, for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/00; selective content distribution H04N21/00) · CPC title