Protective action for protecting autonomous vehicles from impending weather conditions

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10894544-B2
Application number	US-201815861810-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 4, 2018
Priority date	Jan 4, 2018
Publication date	Jan 19, 2021
Grant date	Jan 19, 2021

Abstract

A protective action system and method includes detecting the impending weather conditions for a geographic region, and in response to detecting the impending weather conditions, determining that an initial location of the autonomous vehicle is located in the geographic region affected by the impending weather conditions, calculating a current risk of damage to the autonomous vehicle based on the impending weather conditions in the geographic region and a current state of the autonomous vehicle, comparing the current risk of damage to a threshold of acceptable risk of damage, wherein, the current risk of damage exceeds a threshold of acceptable risk, assessing a user calendar to determine that taking a protective action by the autonomous vehicle is acceptable, and instructing the autonomous vehicle to take the protective action so that the current state of the autonomous vehicle is changed to a safe state to avoid damage from the impending weather conditions.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for protecting an autonomous vehicle from damage caused by impending weather conditions, the method comprising:
detecting, by a processor of a computing system, the impending weather conditions for a geographic region, and in response to detecting the impending weather conditions, determining that an initial location of the autonomous vehicle is located in the geographic region affected by the impending weather conditions;
calculating, by the processor, a current risk of damage to the autonomous vehicle based on the impending weather conditions in the geographic region and a current state of the autonomous vehicle;
comparing, by the processor, the current risk of damage to a threshold of acceptable risk of damage, wherein, the current risk of damage exceeds a threshold of acceptable risk;
assessing, by the processor, a user calendar to determine that taking a protective action by the autonomous vehicle is acceptable;
determining, by the processor, which protective action to take based on the current risk of damage and the current state of the autonomous vehicle to change the current state of the autonomous vehicle to a safe state; and
instructing, by the processor, the autonomous vehicle to take the protective action so that the current state of the autonomous vehicle is changed to the safe state to avoid damage from the impending weather conditions.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the current risk of damage is calculated by analyzing, by the processor, a historical damage probability to the autonomous vehicle based on weather conditions similar to the impending weather conditions, and the current state of the autonomous vehicle.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein analyzing the current state includes detecting that the autonomous vehicle is in an unprotected state from sensor data from one or more sensors associated with the autonomous vehicle and one or more environmental sensors.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: continuously monitoring, by the processor, a time required to achieve the safe state from the current state for determining a time to instruct the autonomous vehicle to take the protective action.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
instructing, by the processor, the autonomous vehicle to return to the current state, in response to calculating an updated risk of damage based on a current weather condition and a resultant environmental condition, that is below the threshold of acceptable risk of damage;
continuously monitoring, by the processor, a time required to return to the current state from the safe state for determining a time to instruct the autonomous vehicle to return to the current state.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the autonomous vehicle is at least one of: a self-driving car, a robot, an unmanned aerial vehicle, and an unmanned surface vehicle.

7. A computer system, comprising:
a processor;
a memory device coupled to the processor; and
a computer readable storage device coupled to the processor, wherein the storage device contains program code executable by the processor via the memory device to implement a method for protecting an autonomous vehicle from damage caused by impending weather conditions, the method comprising:
detecting, by a processor of a computing system, the impending weather conditions for a geographic region, and in response to detecting the impending weather conditions, determining that an initial location of the autonomous vehicle is located in the geographic region affected by the impending weather conditions;
calculating, by the processor, a current risk of damage to the autonomous vehicle based on the impending weather conditions in the geographic region and a current state of the autonomous vehicle;
comparing, by the processor, the current risk of damage to a threshold of acceptable risk of damage, wherein, the current risk of damage exceeds a threshold of acceptable risk;
assessing, by the processor, a user calendar to determine that taking a protective action by the autonomous vehicle is acceptable;
determining, by the processor, which protective action to take based on the current risk of damage and the current state of the autonomous vehicle to change the current state of the autonomous vehicle to a safe state; and
instructing, by the processor, the autonomous vehicle to take the protective action so that the current state of the autonomous vehicle is changed to the safe state to avoid damage from the impending weather conditions.

8. The computer system of claim 7 , wherein the current risk of damage is calculated by analyzing, by the processor, a historical damage probability to the autonomous vehicle based on weather conditions similar to the impending weather conditions, and the current state of the autonomous vehicle.

9. The computer system of claim 8 , wherein analyzing the current state includes detecting that the autonomous vehicle is in an unprotected state from sensor data from one or more sensors associated with the autonomous vehicle and one or more environmental sensors.

10. The computer system of claim 7 , further comprising: continuously monitoring, by the processor, a time required to achieve the safe state from the current state for determining a time to instruct the autonomous vehicle to take the protective action.

11. The computer system of claim 10 , further comprising:
instructing, by the processor, the autonomous vehicle to return to the current state, in response to calculating an updated risk of damage based on a current weather condition and a resultant environmental condition, that is below the threshold of acceptable risk of damage;
continuously monitoring, by the processor, a time required to return to the current state from the safe state for determining a time to instruct the autonomous vehicle to return to the current state.

12. The computer system of claim 7 , wherein the autonomous vehicle is at least one of: a self-driving car, a robot, an unmanned aerial vehicle, and an unmanned surface vehicle.

13. A computer program product, comprising a computer readable hardware storage device storing a computer readable program code, the computer readable program code comprising an algorithm that when executed by a computer processor of a computing system implements a method for protecting an autonomous vehicle from damage caused by impending weather conditions, the method comprising:
detecting, by a processor of a computing system, the impending weather conditions for a geographic region, and in response to detecting the impending weather conditions, determining that an initial location of the autonomous vehicle is located in the geographic region affected by the impending weather conditions;
calculating, by the processor, a current risk of damage to the autonomous vehicle based on the impending weather conditions in the geographic region and a current state of the autonomous vehicle;
comparing, by the processor, the current risk of damage to a threshold of acceptable risk of damage, wherein, the current risk of damage exceeds a threshold of acceptable risk;
assessing, by the processor, a user calendar to determine that taking a protective action by the autonomous vehicle is acceptable;
determining, by the processor, which protective action to take based on the current risk of damage and the current state of the autonomous vehicle to change the current state of the autonomous vehicle to a safe state; and
instructing, by the processor, the autonomous vehicle to take the protective action so that the current state of the autonomous vehicle is changed to the safe state to avoid damage from the impend

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Anderson Evelyn R
• Bender Michael
• Childress Rhonda L
• Jan Ea-Ee

Classifications

• B60W60/0016

  of the vehicle or its occupants · CPC title

• B60W2555/20

  Ambient conditions, e.g. wind or rain · CPC title

• B62D15/0285 Primary

  Parking performed automatically · CPC title

• B60W40/02 Primary

  related to ambient conditions · CPC title

• B60W50/0097

  Predicting future conditions · CPC title