Intelligent road infrastructure system (IRIS): systems and methods

專利號(hào)

US10867512B2

公開日期

2020-12-15

申請(qǐng)人

CAVH LLC（US WI Fitchburg）

發(fā)明人

Bin Ran; Yang Cheng; Shen Li; Zhen Zhang; Fan Ding; Huachun Tan; Yuankai Wu; Shuoxuan Dong; Linhui Ye; Xiaotian Li; Tianyi Chen; Kunsong Shi

IPC分類

G08G1/09; G08G1/0967; B60W30/165; G08G1/16

技術(shù)領(lǐng)域

rsu,rsus,module,vehicle,lane,iris,tcu,tcc,data,traffic

地域： WI WI Fitchburg

摘要

The invention provides systems and methods for an Intelligent Road Infrastructure System (IRIS), which facilitates vehicle operations and control for connected automated vehicle highway (CAVH) systems. IRIS systems and methods provide vehicles with individually customized information and real-time control instructions for vehicle to fulfill the driving tasks such as car following, lane changing, and route guidance. IRIS systems and methods also manage transportation operations and management services for both freeways and urban arterials. In some embodiments, the IRIS comprises or consists of one of more of the following physical subsystems: (1) Roadside unit (RSU) network, (2) Traffic Control Unit (TCU) and Traffic Control Center (TCC) network, (3) vehicle onboard unit (OBU), (4) traffic operations centers (TOCs), and (5) cloud information and computing services. The IRIS manages one or more of the following function categories: sensing, transportation behavior prediction and management, planning and decision making, and vehicle control. IRIS is supported by real-time wired and/or wireless communication, power supply networks, and cyber safety and security services.

說明書

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This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 62/627,005, filed Feb. 6, 2018, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD

The present invention relates to an intelligent road infrastructure system providing transportation management and operations and individual vehicle control for connected and automated vehicles (CAV), and, more particularly, to a system controlling CAVs by sending individual vehicles with customized, detailed, and time-sensitive control instructions and traffic information for automated vehicle driving, such as vehicle following, lane changing, route guidance, and other related information.

BACKGROUND

Autonomous vehicles, vehicles that are capable of sensing their environment and navigating without or with reduced human input, are in development. At present, they are in experimental testing and not in widespread commercial use. Existing approaches require expensive and complicated on-board systems, making widespread implementation a substantial challenge.

Alternative systems and methods that address these problems are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/628,331, filed Jun. 20, 2017, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/626,862, filed Feb. 6, 2018, the disclosures which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety (referred to herein as a CAVH system).

權(quán)利要求

We claim:

1. An Intelligent Road Infrastructure System (IRIS) for providing vehicle operations and control to a connected automated vehicle highway (CAVH) system, said IRIS comprising:a) a roadside unit (RSU) network comprising RSUs;

b) a traffic control unit (TCU) and traffic control center (TCC);

c) vehicle onboard units (OBU) and vehicle interfaces;

d) traffic operations centers; and/or

e) a cloud-based platform of information and computing services,

wherein:

said TCC is configured to optimize traffic operations, provide data processing and archiving functionality, and provide human operations interfaces;

said TCU is configured to provide automated real-time vehicle control and data processing; and/or

said network of RSUs is configured to receive data from connected vehicles, detect traffic conditions, and send targeted instructions to vehicles.

2. The IRIS of claim 1 wherein the IRIS is configured to provide vehicles with detailed customized information and time-sensitive control instructions.

3. The IRIS of claim 1 wherein the IRIS is configured to provide operations and maintenance services for vehicles.

4. The IRIS of claim 1 configured to manage:a) sensing functions;

b) transportation behavior prediction and management functions;

c) planning and decision making functions; and/or

d) vehicle control functions.

5. The IRIS of claim 4 wherein said sensing functions provide information for transportation behavior prediction and management, planning and decision making, and/or vehicle control.

6. The IRIS of claim 1 further comprising:a) a component configured to provide real-time communication via wired and wireless media;

b) a power supply network; and/or

c) a cyber-safety and security system.

7. The IRIS of claim 1 wherein said RSUs are configured to provide real-time vehicle environment sensing and traffic behavior prediction.

8. The IRIS of claim 1 wherein said RSUs are configured to send instantaneous vehicle control instructions to vehicle OBUs.

9. The IRIS of claim 1 wherein said TCU/TCC and traffic operation centers are configured to:a) predict and manage transportation behavior;

b) perform planning and decision making; and

c) collect and/or process transportation information.

10. The IRIS of claim 1 wherein said OBUs comprise a communications module configured to:a) send vehicle data to RSUs;

b) receive information and/or control instructions from RSUs; and/or

c) exchange data with other OBUs.

11. The IRIS of claim 1 wherein said OBUs comprise a data collection module configured to collect data from vehicle sensors monitoring vehicle status and human status.

12. The IRIS of claim 1 wherein said OBUs comprise a vehicle control module configured to execute vehicle control instructions received from an RSU.

13. The IRIS of claim 1 configured to manage vehicles and provide information to vehicles at:a) a microscopic level for individual vehicles;

b) a mesoscopic level for road corridors and road segments; and/or

c) a macroscopic level for a road network.

14. The IRIS of claim 13 wherein:a) management at said microscopic level comprises controlling vehicle longitudinal movements and/or vehicle lateral movements;

b) management at said mesoscopic level comprises providing special event notifications to vehicles, predicting incidents, controlling vehicle merging and diverging, splitting and integrating platoons, predicting variable speed limits and/or controlling vehicle speed, predicting segment travel time, and/or predicting segment traffic flow prediction; and/or

c) management at said macroscopic level comprises predicting potential congestion, predicting incidents, predicting network traffic demand, predicting network status, and/or predicting network travel time.

15. The IRIS of claim 1 configured to:a) control vehicle spacing and/or speed to maximize traffic capacity;

b) predict and/or detect accidents and send warning messages and/or accident avoidance instructions to vehicles;

c) control lane separation and spacing and lane changing;

d) adjust vehicle speed and direction for road curvature, road elevation, road geometry, and/or pavement condition;

e) manage CAVH system boundary by verifying vehicle permissions of vehicles requesting to enter the CAVH system and providing control instructions to vehicles exiting the CAVH system;

f) control platoons and/or manage fleets;

g) provide system failure safety measures; and

h) prioritize control objectives of the CAVH system.

16. The IRIS of claim 1 configured to:a) predict and/or detect incidents and coordinate with agencies for further actions;

b) provide incident warnings and rerouting instructions for traffic; and/or

c) send control instructions to vehicles to move said vehicles to safety.

17. The IRIS of claim 1 comprising:a) a sensing module configured to detect the environment;

b) a communication module configured to communicate with vehicles, TCUs, and/or the cloud;

c) a data processing module configured to process data from a sensing and/or a communication module;

d) an interface module configured to communicate data between a data processing module and a communication module; and/or

e) an adaptive power supply module configured to adjust power delivery according to conditions of a local power grid with backup redundancy.

18. The IRIS of claim 17, wherein said sensing module comprises:a) a radar based sensor configured to sense driving environment and vehicle attribute data;

b) a vision based sensor configured to provide driving environment data;

c) a satellite based navigation system configured to support vehicle locating;

d) an inertial navigation system configured to support vehicle locating; and/or

e) a vehicle identification device.

19. The IRIS of claim 1 wherein a point or segment TCU is physically combined or integrated with an RSU.

20. The IRIS of claim 1 wherein said cloud-based platform provides information and computing services comprising:a) storage as a service (STaaS) to provide storage for said IRIS;

b) control as a service (CCaaS) to provide control capability for said IRIS;

c) computing as a service (CaaS) to provide computing resources for said IRIS; and/or

d) sensing as a service (SEaaS) to provide sensing capability for said IRIS.

21. The IRIS of claim 1 configured to provide a virtual traffic light function.

22. The IRIS of claim 1 configured to provide a traffic state estimation function.

23. The IRIS of claim 22, wherein said traffic state estimation function estimates traffic by assigning weights to data using the quality of sensor data to produce weighted data and fusing weighted data.

24. The IRIS of claim 1 configured to provide a fleet maintenance function.

25. The IRIS of claim 1 configured to allocate computation power to provide sensing, prediction, planning and decision making, and control at:a) a microscopic temporal level from 1 to 10 milliseconds;

b) a mesoscopic temporal level from 10 to 1000 milliseconds; and

c) a macroscopic temporal level longer than 1 second.

26. The IRIS of claim 1 configured to manage traffic on:a) freeways;

b) high-occupancy/Toll (HOT) lanes;

c) dynamic shoulder lanes;

d) express lanes; and/or

e) urban arterials.

27. The IRIS of claim 1 configured to provide safety and efficiency measures for vehicle operations and control under adverse weather conditions comprising:a) a high-definition map service;

b) site-specific road weather information; and/or

c) vehicle control algorithms designed for adverse weather conditions supported by site-specific road weather information.

28. The IRIS of claim 1 configured to provide security, redundancy, and resiliency functions comprising:a) network security and physical equipment security functions comprising firewalls, periodic system scans, secured hardware installation, access control, and/or identification tracker;

b) system redundancy functions comprising hardware and software resources standing-by to support a failed hardware and/or software resource;

c) system backup and restore functions; and

d) system fail handover functions that are activated when a failure is detected.

29. A method to manage connected automated vehicles, said method comprising providing an Intelligent Road Infrastructure System (IRIS) for providing vehicle operations and control to a connected automated vehicle highway (CAVH) system, said IRIS comprising:a) a roadside unit (RSU) network comprising RSUs;