Dynamic traffic control systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11080996-B2
Application number	US-201816219005-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 13, 2018
Priority date	Dec 13, 2018
Publication date	Aug 3, 2021
Grant date	Aug 3, 2021

Abstract

A vehicle includes a controller. The controller is programmed to broadcast state information for the vehicle and receive state information from other vehicles; identify a contested roadway area for the vehicle and another of the vehicles based on expected future paths of the vehicle and the other vehicle calculated per the state information; and update a ledger with an indication of which of the vehicle or the other vehicle is agreed to proceed through the contested roadway area.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A vehicle comprising:
a controller programmed to
broadcast state information for the vehicle and receive state information from other vehicles;
identify a contested roadway area for the vehicle and another of the vehicles based on expected future paths of the vehicle and the other vehicle calculated per the state information;
update a ledger with an indication of which of the vehicle or the other vehicle is agreed to proceed through the contested roadway area as well as with vehicle signals to be used for forensic analysis of operation of the vehicles at the contested roadway area, the vehicle signals indicative of steering angle, speed, and brake actions; and
discard the vehicle signals by removal of the vehicle signals from the ledger responsive to the vehicle and the other vehicle successfully traversing the contested roadway area.

2. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further programmed to:
raise a local conflict event if the future paths create the contested roadway area for the vehicles;
broadcast the conflict event to the vehicles; and
initiate conflict resolution responsive to receiving a conflict event broadcast from the other vehicle affected by the contested roadway area.

3. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the state information includes one or more of location, speed, acceleration, mass, and dimensions of the vehicles.

4. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further programmed to maintain map information and use the map information to identify the expected future paths from the state information.

5. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further programmed to access priority rules to determine an order of access of the vehicle and the other vehicle to the contested roadway area.

6. The vehicle of claim 5 , wherein the priority rules indicate traffic laws, directives by governing departments of transportation (DOT), and inherent or earned elevated privileges of passage for particular vehicles.

7. A method comprising:
responsive to detecting a conflict between traffic participants for use of a contested roadway area, performing distributed conflict resolution by the traffic participants to identify an ordering of the traffic participants to have exclusive access to the contested roadway area;
using a distributed ledger to record agreement of the traffic participants to the ordering;
recording, into the ledger, signals representative of movement of the traffic participants within the contested roadway area; and
discarding the signals by removal of the signals from the ledger responsive to the traffic participants successfully traversing the contested roadway area.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein one or more of the traffic participants is a vehicle.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein one or more of the traffic participants is a pedestrian, and further comprising utilizing roadway infrastructure to represent a location of the pedestrian for performing the distributed conflict resolution.

10. The method of claim 7 , further comprising, for each traffic participant, broadcasting occurrence of the conflict to another of the traffic participants and initiating the distributed conflict resolution responsive to receiving the broadcast of the conflict from the other traffic participants affected by the contested roadway area.

11. The method of claim 7 , further comprising broadcasting state information for one of the traffic participants and receiving broadcast state information from another of the traffic participants, wherein the state information includes one or more of location, speed, acceleration, mass, and dimensions of the traffic participants.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising maintaining map information and using the map information to identify expected future paths of the traffic participants from the state information for detecting the conflict.

13. The method of claim 7 , further comprising accessing priority rules to determine the ordering of the traffic participants.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions of a dynamic traffic control system for performing distributed conflict resolution that, when executed by processors of traffic participants, causes the traffic participants to:
broadcast state information for one of the traffic participants;
receive broadcast state information from other traffic participants;
use maintained map information to identify expected future paths of the traffic participants per the state information;
responsive to detecting a conflict between the traffic participants for use of a contested roadway area, perform distributed conflict resolution by the traffic participants to identify an ordering of the traffic participants to have exclusive access to the contested roadway area;
use a distributed ledger to record agreement of the traffic participants to the ordering;
record, into the ledger, signals representative of movement of the traffic participants within the contested roadway area; and
discard the signals responsive to the traffic participants successfully traversing the contested roadway area.

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Zagajac Jovan Milivoje
• Kiledal Erik
• Walpuck John
• Apczynski Thomas E

Classifications

• H04L9/50

  using hash chains, e.g. blockchains or hash trees · CPC title

• H04L63/105

  Multiple levels of security · CPC title

• G08G1/0112 Primary

  from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD] · CPC title

• H04W4/46 Primary

  for vehicle-to-vehicle communication [V2V] · CPC title

• G08G1/163

  involving continuous checking · CPC title