Multi-perspective system and method for behavioral policy selection by an autonomous agent

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11269331-B2
Application number	US-202117181155-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 22, 2021
Priority date	Jul 20, 2018
Publication date	Mar 8, 2022
Grant date	Mar 8, 2022

Abstract

A system and a method for autonomous decisioning and operation by an autonomous agent includes: collecting decisioning data including: collecting a first stream of data includes observation data obtained by onboard sensors of the autonomous agent, wherein each of the onboard sensors is physically arranged on the autonomous agent; collecting a second stream of data includes observation data obtained by offboard infrastructure devices, the offboard infrastructure devices being arranged geographically remote from and in an operating environment of the autonomous agent; implementing a decisioning data buffer that includes the first stream of data from the onboard sensors and the second stream of data from the offboard sensors; generating current state data; generating/estimating intent data for each of one or more agents within the operating environment of the autonomous agent; identifying a plurality of candidate behavioral policies; and selecting and executing at least one of the plurality of candidate behavioral policies.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for operating an autonomous agent, the system comprising:
a set of offboard infrastructure devices configured to collect a first set of observation data;
a communication interface of the autonomous agent in communication with the set of offboard infrastructure devices;
an onboard sensor system arranged onboard the autonomous agent and configured to collect a second set of observation data;
a time synchronization module configured to synchronize at least one of the first and second sets observation data with the autonomous agent;
a computing system configured to:
identify a set of candidate behavioral policies for the autonomous agent based on the first and second sets of observation data and the time synchronization module;
select a behavioral policy from the set of candidate behavioral policies; and
control the autonomous agent according to the behavioral policy.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first set of observation data is related to at least a portion of a route of travel of the autonomous agent.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the set of offboard infrastructure devices is arranged remote from and in an operating environment of the autonomous agent.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first set of observation data is associated with a first perspective of onboard sensor system, and wherein the second set of observation data is associated with a second perspective of the set of offboard infrastructure devices, wherein the first and second perspectives are separate and distinct.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the time synchronization module synchronizes the first set of observation data with the autonomous agent based on a first latency and synchronizes the second set of observation data with the autonomous agent based on a second latency.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the first and second latencies are computed at the computing system.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the computing system is at least partially arranged onboard the autonomous agent.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the computing system is partially arranged offboard the autonomous agent.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein synchronizing the first set of observation data and the second set of observation data with the autonomous agent produces a first set of synchronized observation data and a second set of synchronized observation data, wherein the computing system is further configured to perform a tracking of a set of agents in an environment of the autonomous agent based on the first and second sets of synchronized observation data, wherein the set of candidate behavioral policies is determined based on the tracking.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein synchronizing the first set of observation data and the second set of observation data with the autonomous agent produces a first set of synchronized observation data and a second set of synchronized observation data, wherein the computing system is further configured to compute an intent estimation for each of a set of agents in an environment of the autonomous agent based on the first and second sets of synchronized observation data, wherein the set of candidate behavioral policies is determined based on the intent estimation.

11. A method for operating an autonomous agent, the method comprising:
collecting a first set of observation data at an autonomous agent;
collecting a second set of observation data from a set of offboard infrastructure devices;
with a synchronization process, synchronizing at least one of the first and second sets of observation data with the autonomous agent, wherein the synchronization process produces a first set of synchronized observation data and a second set of synchronized observation data;
identifying a plurality of candidate behavioral policies for the autonomous agent based on the first and second sets of synchronized observation data;
selecting a behavioral policy from the set of candidate behavioral policies; and
controlling the autonomous agent according to the behavioral policy.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the set of offboard infrastructure devices is arranged remote from and in an operating environment of the autonomous agent.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the operating environment comprises a predetermined region relative to a geographical position of the autonomous agent.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the second set of observation data comprises a set of sensed observations within the operating environment of the autonomous agent.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the set of sensed observations is collected from a set of sensors arranged onboard the set of offboard infrastructure devices.

16. The method of claim 12 , further comprising, in response to detecting that the autonomous agent is located within a communication proximity associated with at least one of the set of offboard infrastructure devices, automatically collecting the second set of observation data.

17. The method of claim 11 , wherein synchronizing at least one of the first and second sets of observation data with the autonomous agent comprises synchronizing the first set of observation data with the autonomous agent based on a first latency and synchronizes the second set of observation data to the autonomous agent based on a second latency.

18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising computing the first and second latencies.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein computing the second latency comprises calculating a difference between a first timestamp data indicating a first time at which the second set of data was obtained by the set of offboard infrastructure devices and a second timestamp data indicating a second time at which the second set of data was collected by the autonomous agent.

20. The method of claim 11 , wherein the first set of observation data is associated with a first perspective of onboard sensor system, and wherein the second set of observation data is associated with a second perspective of the set of offboard infrastructure devices, wherein the first and second perspectives are separate and distinct.

Assignees

• May Mobility Inc

Inventors

• Vozar Steve
• Olson Edwin
• Voorheis Tom

Classifications

• G05D1/81

  Handing over between on-board automatic and on-board manual control · CPC title

• H04W4/38

  for collecting sensor information · CPC title

• B60W60/0027

  using trajectory prediction for other traffic participants · CPC title

• B60W2554/402

  Type · CPC title

• B60W60/0011 Primary

  involving control alternatives for a single driving scenario, e.g. planning several paths to avoid obstacles · CPC title