Management of mobile objects

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9865163-B2
Application number	US-201514970631-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 16, 2015
Priority date	Dec 16, 2015
Publication date	Jan 9, 2018
Grant date	Jan 9, 2018

Abstract

To use a high-quality driving support and automatic driving system that manages a plurality of mobile objects through communication with the mobile objects to manage mobile objects that do not communicate with this system, provided is a system including a mobile object server operable to assist with movement of a plurality of mobile objects within a geographic space, wherein the mobile object server having: a monitoring section operable to monitor movement of a first mobile object that does not receive at least a portion of movement assistance and an assisting section operable to assist with movement of a second mobile object that is an assistance target, using a result obtained by monitoring the first mobile object. Also provided is a method and program product.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a mobile object server operable to assist with movement of a plurality of mobile objects within a geographic space, wherein the mobile object server includes:
a monitoring section operable to monitor movement of the plurality of mobile objects;
a receiving section operable to receive information of a first mobile object observed by one or more of: a second mobile object, and a monitoring apparatus located on a route on which the plurality of mobile objects move;
an observation instruction section operable to monitor the first mobile object, wherein monitoring the first mobile object is based on an observation that the first mobile object does not communicate with the mobile object server by judging that the first mobile object does not match any second mobile object, and wherein monitoring the first mobile object comprises designating one or more parameters of a monitoring device of the second mobile object or the monitoring apparatus, wherein the one or more parameters are selected from the group consisting of: sensitivity, number of frames, angle of field, image quality, and monitoring direction; and
an assisting section operable to assist with movement of the second mobile object that is an assistance target, using a result obtained by monitoring the first mobile object, wherein assisting with movement of the second mobile object comprises issuing commands for automatic driving.

2. The system according to claim 1 , wherein
the monitoring section is operable to monitor the first mobile object using the received information of the first mobile object.

3. The system according to claim 2 , wherein
the mobile object server further includes an observation instructing section operable to instruct another second mobile object positioned within a predetermined range from the first mobile object to observe the first mobile object.

4. The system according to claim 2 , wherein
the receiving section is operable to receive information of another mobile object observed by at least one of the second mobile object and a monitoring apparatus provided on a route on which the mobile objects move, and the monitoring section is operable to begin newly monitoring the other mobile object as the first mobile object in response to the other mobile object not matching any second mobile object that is an assistance target.

5. The system according to claim 1 , wherein
the assisting section is operable to assist with the movement of the second mobile object using at least one of an outer appearance of the observed first mobile object, a driving characteristic, a characteristic of a passenger, and a characteristic of a route on which the first mobile object is positioned.

6. The system according to claim 1 , wherein
the assisting section is operable to notify the second mobile object about information of the first mobile object positioned within a reference range from the second mobile object.

7. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the mobile object server further includes a history storage section operable to store history information of the first mobile object that is a monitoring target, and the assisting section is operable to assist with the movement of the second mobile object using the history information of the first mobile object stored in the history storage section.

8. The system according to claim 1 , wherein
the mobile object server further includes a movement predicting section operable to predict a movement destination of the first mobile object; and
the assisting section is operable to assist with the movement of the second mobile object using a prediction result of the movement predicting section.

9. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the assisting section is operable to instruct the second mobile object to be distanced from the first mobile object by at least a reference distance.

10. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the assisting section is operable to guide the second mobile object to a route differing from a route on which the first mobile object is moving.

11. The system according to claim 1 , wherein
the assisting section is operable to assist with automatic driving of the second mobile object; and
the monitoring section is operable to monitor the first mobile object that is driven manually or the first mobile object that is driven automatically without receiving assistance from the system.

12. The system according to claim 1 , further comprising:
an event server that is operable to manage events occurring within the geographic space, wherein the monitoring section is operable to notify the event server about information of the first mobile object;
the event server is operable to register presence of the first mobile object as an event; and
the assisting section is operable to assist with the movement of the second mobile object based on the events registered in the event server.

13. A method for assisting with movement of a plurality of mobile objects within a geographic space, comprising:
monitoring, by a mobile object server, movement of the plurality of mobile objects;
receiving, by the mobile object server, information of a first mobile object observed by one or more of: a second mobile object, and a monitoring apparatus located on a route on which the plurality of mobile objects move;
determining that the first mobile object does not communicate with the mobile object server by judging that the first mobile object does not match any second mobile object;
based on determining that the first mobile object does not communicate with the mobile object server, monitoring the first mobile object, wherein monitoring the first mobile object comprises designating one or more parameters of a monitoring device of the second mobile object or the monitoring apparatus, wherein the one or more parameters are selected from the group consisting of: sensitivity, number of frames, angle of field, image quality, and monitoring direction; and
assisting with movement of the second mobile object that is an assistance target, using a result obtained by monitoring the first mobile object, wherein assisting with movement of the second mobile object comprises issuing commands for automatic driving.

14. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a computer to cause the computer to perform:
monitoring, by a mobile object server, movement of a plurality of mobile objects;
receiving, by a mobile object server, information of a first mobile object observed by one or more of: a second mobile object, and a monitoring apparatus located on a route on which the plurality of mobile objects move;
determining that the first mobile object does not communicate with the mobile object server by judging that the first mobile object does not match any second mobile object;
based on determining that the first mobile object does not communicate with the mobile object server, monitoring the first mobile object, wherein monitoring the first mobile object comprises designating one or more parameters of a monitoring device of the second mobile object or the monitoring apparatus, wherein the one or more parameters are selected from the group consisting of: sensitivity, number of frames, angle of field, image quality, and monitoring direction; and
assisting with movement of the second mobile object that is an assistance target, using a result obtained by monitoring the first mobile object, wherein assisting with movement of the second mobile object comprises issuing

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Gotoh Yasuhisa
• Nishimura Yasutaka
• Sasaki Taku
• Tanibayashi Makoto

Classifications

• G08G1/096775

  where the origin of the information is a central station · CPC title

• H04W4/44

  for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H] · CPC title

• H04W4/021 Primary

  Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences · CPC title

• G08G1/096725

  where the received information generates an automatic action on the vehicle control · CPC title

• H04L67/12

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title