Navigational constraints for autonomous vehicles

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10942525-B2
Application number	US-201715783391-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 13, 2017
Priority date	May 9, 2017
Publication date	Mar 9, 2021
Grant date	Mar 9, 2021

Abstract

Systems and methods for controlling the motion of an autonomous vehicle are provided. In one example embodiment, one or more computing devices on-board an autonomous vehicle receive one or more constraint files including constraint data descriptive of one or more geographic identifiers (e.g., a polygon) and an application type (e.g., partial inclusion, complete inclusion, partial exclusion, complete exclusion) associated with each of the one or more geographic identifiers. Map data descriptive of the identity and location of different travel ways within the surrounding environment of the autonomous vehicle is accessed. A travel route for navigating the autonomous vehicle is determined, wherein the travel route is determined at least in part from the map data evaluated relative to the constraint data. Motion of the autonomous vehicle can be controlled based at least in part on the determined travel route.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method of controlling navigation of an autonomous vehicle, comprising:
accessing, by one or more computing devices on-board the autonomous vehicle, map data descriptive of an identity and location of different travel ways within a surrounding environment of the autonomous vehicle;
accessing, by the one or more computing devices, constraint data descriptive of one or more geographic areas or geographic identifiers, within the map data, for which associated navigational constraints are defined;
receiving, by the one or more computing devices, one or more constraint files descriptive of additional navigational constraints for the one or more geographic areas or geographic identifiers, each of the one or more constraint files including one or more polygons each having a boundary defined relative to a geographic area and an associated application type, the application type associated with each polygon of the one or more polygons being selected from a predetermined set of application types comprising partial inclusion, complete inclusion, partial exclusion, and complete exclusion;
modifying, by the one or more computing devices, the constraint data based at least in part on the one or more constraint files to obtain composite constraint data;
determining, by the one or more computing devices, a travel route for navigating the autonomous vehicle based at least in part from the map data evaluated relative to the composite constraint data, wherein determining the travel route comprises (i) determining, by the one or more computing devices, permitted travel way portions, the permitted travel way portions being described by a first constraint set as having a default permit state, being completely enclosed by a complete inclusion polygon, or being completely enclosed or partially touched by a partial inclusion polygon, (ii) determining, by the one or more computing devices, forbidden travel way portions, the forbidden travel way portions being described by a second constraint set as having a default forbid state, being completely enclosed by a complete exclusion polygon, or being completely enclosed or partially touched by a partial exclusion polygon, and (iii) evaluating, by the one or more computing devices, the map data to account for the permitted travel way portions and the forbidden travel way portions; and
controlling, by the one or more computing devices, motion of the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the determined travel route.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more computing devices receive the one or more constraint files from one or more remote computing devices configured to manage operation of a fleet of autonomous vehicles.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , further comprising:
sending, by the one or more computing devices, a notification signal to the one or more remote computing devices in response to receipt of the one or more constraint files, wherein the notification signal includes one or more of an acknowledgement of the one or more constraint files or the determined travel route for navigating the autonomous vehicle.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein each of the one or more constraint files includes an assigned default state indicating whether to, by default, permit or forbid areas described by the one or more constraint files.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the determined travel route comprises a plurality of travel way portions, each travel way portion of the plurality of travel way portions being defined by one or more of a travel way identifier, a start point, an end point, a directionality, or connectivity identifiers for other adjacent travel way portions.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein each of the one or more constraint files includes (i) one or more inclusion polygons identifying geographic areas to be included in a permissible area for navigation by the autonomous vehicle, or (ii) one or more exclusion polygons identifying geographic areas to be excluded from a permissible area for navigation by the autonomous vehicle.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein modifying the constraint data comprises adding to or revising the constraint data in a manner that does not conflict with inviolate constraints within the constraint data.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting, by the one or more computing devices, one or more objects that are proximate to the autonomous vehicle along the determined travel route;
wherein controlling motion of the autonomous vehicle is further based on the one or more detected objects.

9. A computing system for controlling navigation of an autonomous vehicle, comprising:
one or more processors on-board the autonomous vehicle; and
one or more memory devices on-board the autonomous vehicle, the one or more memory devices storing instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the computing system to perform operations, the operations comprising:
accessing map data descriptive of an identity and location of different travel ways within a surrounding environment of the autonomous vehicle;
receiving one or more constraint files, each constraint file including zero or more polygons, each polygon corresponding to (i) an inclusion polygon identifying a geographic area that should be included in a permissible area for navigation by the autonomous vehicle, or (ii) an exclusion polygon identifying a geographic area that should be excluded from a permissible area for navigation by the autonomous vehicle,
modifying existing constraint data based at least in part on the one or more constraint files to obtain composite constraint data;
determining a travel route for navigating the autonomous vehicle based at least in part from the map data evaluated relative to the composite constraint data, wherein determining the travel route comprises (i) determining permitted travel way portions, the permitted travel portions being completely enclosed by a first type of inclusion polygon or completely enclosed or partially touched by a second type of inclusion polygon, (ii) determining forbidden travel way portions, the forbidden travel way portions being completely enclosed by a first type of inclusion polygon or completely enclosed or partially touched by a second type of exclusion polygon, and (iii) evaluating the map data to account for the determined permitted travel way portions and the determined forbidden travel way portions; and
controlling motion of the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the determined travel route.

10. The computing system of claim 9 , wherein each of the one or more constraint files further includes an assigned default state indicating whether to, by default, permit or forbid areas described by the one or more constraint files.

11. The computing system of claim 9 , wherein the determined travel route comprises a plurality of travel way portions, each travel way portion of the plurality of travel way portions being defined by one or more of a travel way identifier, a start point, an end point, a directionality, or connectivity identifiers for other adjacent travel way portions.

12. The computing system of claim 9 , wherein modifying the existing constraint data comprises adding to or revising the existing constraint data in a manner that does not conflict with inviolate constraints within the existing constraint data.

13. The computing system of claim 12 , wherein the operations further comprise sending a notification signal to one or more remote computin

Assignees

• Uatc Llc

Inventors

• Nagy Bryan
• Romaidis Jordan
• Bavar Brett
• Derence Julie
• Hernandez Marcial
• Khurana Tashwin

Classifications

• G08G1/207 Primary

  with respect to certain areas, e.g. forbidden or allowed areas with possible alerting when inside or outside boundaries · CPC title

• G08G1/096827

  where the route is computed onboard · CPC title

• G08G1/09685

  where the complete route is computed only once and not updated · CPC title

• G08G1/096725

  where the received information generates an automatic action on the vehicle control · CPC title

• G08G1/096775

  where the origin of the information is a central station · CPC title