Method for controlling a deployment operation of motor vehicles in a parking environment, and management system for a parking area

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10990112-B2
Application number	US-201716317509-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 23, 2017
Priority date	Jul 15, 2016
Publication date	Apr 27, 2021
Grant date	Apr 27, 2021

Abstract

Method for controlling the deployment operation of motor vehicles in a parking environment, in which, controlled by a management device of the parking environment, motor vehicles can be automatically parked after delivery by the driver and, after detection of a pick-up request on the part of the driver, taken from the parking place to a pick-up position in a pick-up area, wherein authentication information assigned to the motor vehicle, specific to the parking process and optically and/or wirelessly retrievable via a readout connection is provided by the management device to the driver when delivering the motor vehicle, wherein to pick up the motor vehicle, the authentication information is read out by a readout device in the parking environment, particularly in the pick-up area, and the deployment process is initiated only when the authentication information is present.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for controlling a deployment operation of a motor vehicle in a parking environment, comprising:
connecting between a management device of the parking environment and a mobile device of a driver of the motor vehicle via a communication connection,
wherein the communication connection is provided by the management device to the mobile device at a time of delivery of the motor vehicle by the driver to a transfer area of the parking environment;

generating, by the management device, authentication information specific to the motor vehicle and a parking process;
transmitting, by the management device to the mobile device of the driver over the communication connection, the authentication information;
automatically parking, by the management device, the motor vehicle according to the parking process in a parking space of the parking environment;
detecting, by the management device at a later time, a pick-up request by the driver of the motor vehicle, wherein the pick-up request is transmitted from the mobile device of the driver to a readout device in a pick-up area of the parking environment;
reading the authentication information, by the readout device, from the mobile device of the driver;
receiving, by the management device from the readout device, the authentication information;
identifying, by the management device, the motor vehicle from the authentication information; and
initiating, by the management device, a retrieval process of the motor vehicle from the parking space of the parking environment, wherein the driver receives the motor vehicle in a pick-up position of the pick-up area of the parking environment as a result of the retrieval process.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the mobile device of the driver is a smartphone, and wherein the transmitting by the management device of the authentication information further comprises wirelessly receiving, by the smartphone, the authentication information from the management device.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the mobile device of the driver is a smartphone, and wherein the reading of the authentication information by the readout device further comprises optically reading a display of the smartphone.

4. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
transmitting, by the management device to an Internet portal, the authentication information, wherein the driver has access to the Internet portal;
logging in, by the mobile device of the driver, to the Internet portal; and
retrieving, by the mobile device of the driver, the authentication information from the Internet portal.

5. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
printing, from a printing device of the parking environment, an optically readable printout of the authentication information; and
reading, by the readout device, the authentication information from the optically readable printout.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the reading of the authentication information by the readout device further comprises optically reading a barcode or a Quick Response (QR) code on a display of the mobile device.

7. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
reading, via a near-field communication (NFC) interface of the mobile device, at least one part of the authentication information.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the controlling the deployment operation of the motor vehicle in the parking environment further comprises using an application on the mobile device, the application responding to user selection of a deployment function by preparing the authentication information to be read out from the mobile device by the readout device.

9. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
after the detecting, by the management device, of the pick-up request by the driver of the motor vehicle, initiating a preparation process of the retrieval process, wherein the motor vehicle is moved from the parking space to a buffer zone of the parking environment;
checking, by the management device, for availability of the authentication information within a predetermined waiting period; and
upon confirming the availability of the authentication information within the predetermined waiting period, initiating, by the management device, the deployment process, wherein the motor vehicle is moved to the pick-up position in the pick-up area.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the receiving of the authentication information by the management device from the readout device comprises interpreting an instruction to deploy the motor vehicle specified by the authentication information.

11. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
in a parking environment having multiple pick-up areas, assigning a corresponding pick-up position in a corresponding pick-up area of the multiple pick-up areas to the motor vehicle based on the authentication information specific to the motor vehicle read by a corresponding readout device of the corresponding pick-up area.

12. The method according to claim 11 , further comprising:
reading user profile information of the driver from an Internet portal or the management device, the user profile information displaying a preferred pick-up area of the multiple pick-up areas, wherein the driver receives the motor vehicle in the corresponding pick-up position of the preferred pick-up area of the parking environment as the result of the retrieval process.

13. A management system for a parking environment, comprising:
a management device having at least one processor; and
at least one readout device,
wherein the at least one processor is configured to:
connect the management device of the parking environment to a mobile device of a driver of a motor vehicle via a communication connection,
wherein the communication connection is provided by the management device to the mobile device at a time of delivery of the motor vehicle by the driver to a transfer area of the parking environment;

generate authentication information specific to the motor vehicle and a parking process;
transmit, to the mobile device of the driver over the communication connection, the authentication information;
perform operations to automatically park the motor vehicle according to the parking process in a parking space of the parking environment;
detect, at a later time, a pick-up request by the driver of the motor vehicle,
wherein the pick-up request is transmitted from the mobile device of the driver to one of the at least one readout device in a pick-up area of the parking environment, and
wherein the one of the at least one readout device is configured to read the authentication information from the mobile device of the driver;

receive, from the one of the at least one readout device, the authentication information;
identify the motor vehicle from the authentication information; and
initiate a retrieval process of the motor vehicle from the parking space of the parking environment, wherein the driver receives the motor vehicle in a pick-up position of the pick-up area of the parking environment as a result of the retrieval process.

14. The management system according to claim 13 , wherein the mobile device of the driver is a smartphone, and wherein the at least one processor of the management device is further configured to transmit the authentication information wirelessly to the smartphone.

15. The management system according to claim 13 , wherein the mobile device of the driver is a smartphone, and wherein the one of the at least one readout device is further

Assignees

• Audi Ag

Inventors

• Altinger Harald
• Schuller Florian
• Feist Christian

Classifications

• B62D15/0285 Primary

  Parking performed automatically · CPC title

• B60W30/06

  Automatic manoeuvring for parking · CPC title

• G06Q10/10

  Office automation; Time management · CPC title

• B60W2556/45

  External transmission of data to or from the vehicle · CPC title

• G06K19/06037

  multi-dimensional coding · CPC title