Orchestrating autonomous movements of parked vehicles to optimize parking efficiency

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9449512-B2
Application number	US-201414226244-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 26, 2014
Priority date	Mar 26, 2014
Publication date	Sep 20, 2016
Grant date	Sep 20, 2016

Abstract

Technologies for optimized vehicle parking include a parking management computing device and a number of advanced vehicles, each having an in-vehicle computing system. The parking management computing device establishes a secure control channel with each of the in-vehicle computing systems. Each of the in-vehicle computing systems may send a parking request to park or access the vehicle to the parking management computing device. The parking management computing device queries a number of the advanced vehicles that are already parked for positional or sensor data and determines an optimized parking configuration based on the parking request. The parking management computing device transmits movement requests to the in-vehicle computing systems to implement the optimized parking configuration. Each in-vehicle computing system may perform the movement request by using an autonomous driving capability, by using a remote control capability, or by notifying an operator. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A parking management computing device to manage vehicle parking, the parking management computing device comprising:
a secure communications module to establish a secure control connection with a vehicle located in a parking zone;
a parking configuration module to (i) receive a parking request from the vehicle via the secure control connection, (ii) query a plurality of parked vehicles positioned in the parking zone for positional data of the parked vehicles, and (iii) determine a parking configuration including the plurality of parked vehicles and the vehicle; and
a vehicle movement module to transmit a movement request to a parked vehicle of the parked vehicles, wherein the movement request includes at least one instruction to move the parked vehicle to implement the parking configuration.

2. The parking management computing device of claim 1 , wherein:
the parking request comprises a request to park the vehicle; and
the vehicle movement module is further to transmit a movement request to the vehicle, the movement request to cause the vehicle to park in the parking zone.

3. The parking management computing device of claim 1 , wherein the parking request comprises a request to access the vehicle, and wherein the parked vehicles in the parking zone comprises the vehicle.

4. The parking management computing device of claim 3 , wherein to receive the parking request comprises to receive a request to access the vehicle from a mobile computing device associated with the vehicle.

5. The parking management computing device of claim 1 , wherein to determine the parking configuration comprises to determine a physical position in the parking zone for each of the parked vehicles and the vehicle.

6. The parking management computing device of claim 1 , wherein to determine the parking configuration comprises to submit a parking configuration request to a compute service.

7. The parking management computing device of claim 1 , wherein to determine the parking configuration comprises to determine a parking configuration as a function of user access requirements associated with the vehicle.

8. The parking management computing device of claim 1 , wherein to transmit the movement request comprises to transmit destination data to an autonomous driving system of the vehicle, the destination data to enable the autonomous driving system to autonomously drive the vehicle to a destination identified by the destination data.

9. The parking management computing device of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle movement module is further to transmit a query to the vehicle to determine an autonomous movement capability of the vehicle.

10. The parking management computing device of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle movement module is further to:
track a movement of the vehicle in response to transmission of the movement request,
determine whether the movement request is completed based on tracking of the movement of the vehicle; and
transmit confirmation information to a user of the vehicle in response to a determination that the movement request is completed.

11. An in-vehicle computing system for managed vehicle parking, the in-vehicle computing system comprising:
a secure communications module to establish a secure control connection with a parking management computing device associated with a parking zone;
a request management module to transmit a parking request to the parking management computing device via the secure control connection, the parking request to park the vehicle in the parking zone; and
a movement control module to (i) receive a movement request from the parking management computing device in response to transmission of the parking request, the movement request to be based on a parking configuration of a plurality of parked vehicles positioned in the parking zone, and (ii) perform the movement request received from the parking management computing device to park the vehicle;
wherein the request management module is further to monitor the secure control connection for a second request from the parking management computing device after the vehicle is parked.

12. The in-vehicle computing system of claim 11 , further comprising a sensor module to receive sensor data from a location sensor of the vehicle or a proximity sensor of the vehicle, wherein the request management module is further to:
receive an information request from the parking management computing device in response to the monitoring of the secure control connection; and
transmit a response to the parking management computing device in response to receipt of the information request, wherein to transmit the response comprises to transmit the sensor data.

13. The in-vehicle computing system of claim 11 , wherein the movement control module is further to:
receive a second movement request from the parking management computing device in response to the monitoring of the secure control connection; and
perform the second movement request received from the parking management computing device.

14. The in-vehicle computing system of claim 11 , wherein:
to receive the movement request comprises to receive permissible geographic bounds of the movement request; and
to perform the movement request comprises to restrict a movement of the vehicle to within the permissible geographic bounds.

15. One or more computer-readable storage media comprising a plurality of instructions that in response to being executed cause a parking management computing device to:
establish a secure control connection with a vehicle located in a parking zone;
receive a parking request from the vehicle via the secure control connection;
query a plurality of parked vehicles positioned in the parking zone for positional data of the parked vehicles;
determine a parking configuration including the plurality of parked vehicles and the vehicle; and
transmit a movement request to a parked vehicle of the parked vehicles, wherein the movement request includes at least one instruction to move the parked vehicle to implement the parking configuration.

16. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 15 , wherein:
to receive the parking request comprises to receive a request to park the vehicle; and
the one or more computer-readable storage media further comprises a plurality of instructions that in response to being executed cause the parking management computing device to transmit a movement request to the vehicle, the movement request to cause the vehicle to park in the parking zone.

17. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 15 , wherein to receive the parking request comprises to receive a request to access the vehicle, wherein the parked vehicles in the parking zone comprises the vehicle.

18. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 15 , wherein to transmit the movement request comprises to transmit destination data to an autonomous driving system of the vehicle, the destination data to enable the autonomous driving system to autonomously drive the vehicle to a destination identified by the destination data.

19. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 15 , wherein to transmit the movement request comprises to transmit an instruction to the vehicle to remotely control a movement of the vehicle.

20. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 15 , further comprising a plurality of instructions that in response to being executed cause the parking management computing device to:
track a movemen

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Zafiroglu Alexandra C
• Healey Jennifer A
• Correa Juan I
• Saba Dos Reis Maria Paula
• Abreu Alejandro
• Fang Victoria S
• Szostak Dalila
• Fox Sarah E

Classifications

• G08G1/143

  inside the vehicles · CPC title

• G08G1/168

  Driving aids for parking, e.g. acoustic or visual feedback on parking space · CPC title

• G08G1/065 Primary

  by counting the vehicles in a section of the road or in a parking area, i.e. comparing incoming count with outgoing count · CPC title

• G08G1/146

  where the parking area is a limited parking space, e.g. parking garage, restricted space · CPC title

• B62D15/0285

  Parking performed automatically · CPC title