Operation selection device deciding on vehicle operation using weighting

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11634164-B2
Application number	US-202016891296-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 3, 2020
Priority date	Jul 30, 2019
Publication date	Apr 25, 2023
Grant date	Apr 25, 2023

Abstract

An operation selection device includes a memory and a processor. The processor is configured to perform communication between a self-driving device provided at a vehicle which performs self-driving, and a plurality of operating devices that enable the vehicle to be driven remotely via a remote-control operation performed by a remote-control driver, and that are individually provided for each of a plurality of remote-control drivers, and to acquire information relating to remote-control operations performed by each remote-control driver using each of the plurality of operating devices for a receiving remote-control operation in the vehicle currently being driven remotely, using a predetermined weighting, one remote-control operation among many acquired remote-control operations, and to output information related to remote-control operation that has been decided on to the vehicle, and to allocate a score, which is reflected in the weighting, to the remote-control driver who performed the remote-control operation that has been decided.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An operation selection device comprising a memory and a processor, wherein
the processor is configured to:
perform communication between a self-driving device that is provided at a vehicle which performs self-driving, and a plurality of operating devices that enable the vehicle to be driven remotely via a remote-control operation performed by a remote-control driver, and that are individually provided for each of a plurality of remote-control drivers;
acquire information relating to remote-control operations performed by each remote-control driver using each of the plurality of operating devices for an event receiving the remote-control operation in the vehicle currently being driven remotely;
acquire, from the self-driving device, information relating to an autonomous operation that is required to perform the self-driving and that was created for the event;
determine whether the self-driving that is necessary to perform the autonomous operation would be difficult;
in a case that the self-driving is determined not to be difficult, cause the self-driving device to perform driving of the vehicle; and
in a case that the self-driving is determined to be difficult:
allocate a score, to each remote-control driver that could perform one of the plurality of remote-control operations instead of the autonomous operation;
decide, using a predetermined weighting, whether to choose the one of the plurality of remote-control operations or instead to proceed with the autonomous operation;
select one device among the plurality of operating devices or the self-driving device based upon the deciding; and
cause the selected device to perform driving of the vehicle by communicating with the selected device.

2. The operation selection device according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to alter the weighting in accordance with the score belonging to the remote-control driver and a mode of the remote-control operation.

3. The operation selection device according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured so that, when an incorrect operation is contained in the remote-control operations, the processor decides on the one operation after removing the incorrect operation.

4. The operation selection device according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to allocate a frequency of remote-control operations to a remote-control driver based upon the score of the remote-control driver, wherein the higher the score of the remote-control driver, the higher the frequency of the remote-control operations allocated to the driver.

5. The operation selection device according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to alter the weighting in accordance with an area and time of occurrence of the event.

6. An operation selection method performed by a processor, the method comprising:
performing communication between a self-driving device that is provided at a vehicle which performs self-driving, and a plurality of operating devices that enable the vehicle to be driven remotely via a remote-control operation performed by a remote-control driver, and that are individually provided for each of a plurality of remote-control drivers;
acquiring information relating to remote-control operations performed by each remote-control driver using each of the plurality of operating devices for an event receiving the remote-control operation in the vehicle currently being driven remotely;
acquiring, from the self-driving device, information relating to an autonomous operation that is required to perform the self-driving and that was created for the event;
determining whether the self-driving that is necessary to perform the autonomous operation would be difficult;
in a case that the self-driving is determined not to be difficult, cause the self-driving device to perform driving of the vehicle; and
in a case that the self-driving is determined to be difficult:
allocating a score, to each remote-control driver that could perform one of the plurality of remote-control operations instead of the autonomous operation;
deciding, using a predetermined weighting, whether to choose the one of the plurality of remote-control operations or instead to proceed with the autonomous operation;
selecting one device among the plurality of operating devices or the self-driving device based upon the deciding; and
causing the selected device to perform driving of the vehicle by communicating with the selected device.

7. The operation selection method according to claim 6 , further comprising altering the weighting in accordance with the score belonging to the remote-control driver and a mode of the remote-control operation.

8. The operation selection method according to claim 6 , wherein, when an incorrect operation is contained in the remote-control operations, the processor decides on the one operation after removing the incorrect operation.

9. The operation selection method according to claim 6 , further comprising allocating a frequency of remote-control operations to a remote-control driver based upon the score of the remote-control driver, wherein the higher the score of the remote-control driver, the higher the frequency of the remote-control operations allocated to the driver.

10. The operation selection method according to claim 6 , further comprising altering the weighting in accordance with an area and time of occurrence of the event.

11. A non-transitory storage medium on which is stored a program that is executable by a processor to perform operation selection processing in which:
communication is performed between a self-driving device that is provided at a vehicle which performs self-driving, and a plurality of operating devices that enable the vehicle to be driven remotely via a remote-control operation performed by a remote-control driver, and that are individually provided for each of a plurality of remote-control drivers;
information relating to remote-control operations performed by each remote-control driver is acquired using each of the plurality of operating devices for an event receiving the remote-control operation in the vehicle currently being driven remotely;
information relating to an autonomous operation that is required to perform the self-driving and that was created for the event is acquired from the self-driving device;
whether the self-driving that is necessary to perform the autonomous operation would be difficult is determined;
in a case that the self-driving is determined not to be difficult, the self-driving device is caused to perform driving of the vehicle; and
in a case that the self-driving is determined to be difficult:
a score is allocated to each remote-control driver that could perform one of the plurality of remote-control operation instead of the autonomous operation;
whether to choose the one of the plurality of remote-control operations or instead to proceed with the autonomous operation is decided on using a predetermined weighting;
one device among the plurality of operating devices or the self-driving device is selected based upon the deciding; and
the selected device is caused to perform driving of the vehicle by communicating with the selected device.

12. The non-transitory storage medium according to claim 11 , wherein, in the operation selection processing, the weighting is altered in accordance with the score belonging to the remote-control driver and a mode of the remote-control operation.

13. The non-transitory storage medium according to claim 11 , wherein, in the operation selection processing, when an incorrect operation is contained in the remote-control operations, the one o

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Nakagawa Yasuki
• Hanawa Atsushi
• Matsushita Makoto
• Yokota Yusuke
• Kuriyama Tomoyuki
• Sugimura Tae

Classifications

• G08G1/0141

  for traffic information dissemination · CPC title

• G08G1/0129

  for creating historical data or processing based on historical data · CPC title

• G08G1/0145

  for active traffic flow control · CPC title

• B60W2556/45

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

• B60W60/0059 Primary

  Estimation of the risk associated with autonomous or manual driving, e.g. situation too complex, sensor failure or driver incapacity · CPC title