Autonomous vehicles and methods of zone driving

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10459453-B2
Application number	US-201715806844-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 8, 2017
Priority date	Nov 8, 2016
Publication date	Oct 29, 2019
Grant date	Oct 29, 2019

Abstract

Autonomous vehicles are capable of executing missions that abide by on-street rules or regulations, while also being able to seamlessly transition to and from “zones,” including off-street zones, with their our set(s) of rules or regulations. An on-board memory stores roadgraph information. An on-board computer is operative to execute commanded driving missions using the roadgraph information, including missions with one or more zones, each zone being defined by a sub-roadgraph with its own set of zone-specific driving rules and parameters. A mission may be coordinated with one or more payload operations, including zone with “free drive paths” as in a warehouse facility with loading and unloading zones to pick up payloads and place them down, or zone staging or entry points to one or more points of payload acquisition or placement. The vehicle may be a warehousing vehicle such as a forklift.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An autonomous vehicle, comprising:
a powertrain driving a set of wheels, and further including steering and braking systems;
a memory for storing roadgraph information including driving rules and parameters associated with a roadgraph coordinate system;
a localization system operative to determine the location of the vehicle is relative to the roadgraph coordinate system;
an obstacle detection system;
an on-board computer interfaced to the powertrain, and steering and braking subsystems to execute commanded driving missions using the roadgraph information and localization and obstacle detection systems;
each mission being defined by a set of destinations or checkpoints that the vehicle is scheduled to visit; and
wherein the on-board computer is further operative to execute a mission commanding the autonomous vehicle to visit destinations or checkpoints in a plurality of zones, each zone being defined by a sub-roadgraph with its own set of zone-specific driving rules and parameters.

2. The autonomous vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the roadgraph information is associated with on-street driving, and each zone is associated with off-street driving.

3. The autonomous vehicle of claim 1 , including a mission coordinated with one or more payload operations.

4. The autonomous vehicle of claim 1 , including a zone with free drive paths.

5. The autonomous vehicle of claim 1 , including a mission with loading and unloading zones to pick up payloads and place them down.

6. The autonomous vehicle of claim 1 , including a mission that takes the vehicle from zone staging or entry points to one or more points of payload acquisition or placement.

7. The autonomous vehicle of claim 1 , wherein one or more roadgraphs are embedded within a zone, thereby inheriting the driving rules and parameters specific to that zone.

8. The autonomous vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the localization system includes GPS for latitude and longitude localization and visual sensing of environmental structures external to the vehicle.

9. The autonomous vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the localization system includes barcode location markers or other machine-readable codes for indoor localization.

10. The autonomous vehicle of claim 1 , including zones that define driving hierarchies used to separate different driving environments, each defined by an embedded Route Network Data File (RNDF) map the road systems embedded within each zone.

11. The autonomous vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle is a warehousing vehicle.

12. The autonomous vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle is a forklift.

13. A method of maneuvering an autonomous vehicle, comprising the steps of:
receiving a mission including one or more destinations or checkpoints defined by a roadgraph;
wherein the mission traverses a plurality of zones;
wherein the mission includes a set of destinations or checkpoints that the vehicle is scheduled to visit in each zone; and
wherein each zone includes a unique set of rules and parameters that define how the autonomous vehicle is to drive within that zone.

14. The method of claim 13 , including a zone with a path having one or more waypoints associated with a destination.

15. The method of claim 14 , including the step of performing a particular operation at each waypoint.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the operation includes:
the execution of a payload-specific sensor or manipulation operation; or
entry or exit of sub-zones or sub-roadgraphs with associated new rule or parameter sets that modify or replace the default rule or parameter sets.

17. The method of claim 13 , wherein one or more roadgraphs are embedded within a zone, thereby inheriting the driving rules and parameters specific to that zone.

18. The method of claim 13 , wherein the vehicle is a warehousing vehicle.

19. The method of claim 13 , wherein the vehicle is a forklift.

Assignees

• Cybernet Systems Corp

Inventors

• Beach Glenn
• Haanpaa Douglas
• Jacobus Charles J
• Rowe Steven

Classifications

• G08G1/16

  Anti-collision systems (road vehicle drive control systems for predicting or avoiding probable or impending collision otherwise than by control of a particular sub-unit B60W30/08) · CPC title

• G08G1/09626

  where the origin of the information is within the own vehicle, e.g. a local storage device, digital map · CPC title

• B60W30/00

  Purposes of road vehicle drive control systems not related to the control of a particular sub-unit, e.g. of systems using conjoint control of vehicle sub-units · CPC title

• G01C21/3407

  specially adapted for specific applications · CPC title

• B66F9/063 Primary

  Automatically guided · CPC title