Vehicle roundabout management

• Main Authors: Perry Robinson MacNeille, Yimin Liu, David Charles Weber
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 04.07.2018
• Subjects: CONJOINT CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUB-UNITS OF DIFFERENT TYPE ORDIFFERENT FUNCTION; CONTROL SYSTEMS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR HYBRID VEHICLES; CONTROLLING; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICS; REGULATING; ROAD VEHICLE DRIVE CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR PURPOSES NOT RELATED TOTHE CONTROL OF A PARTICULAR SUB-UNIT; SIGNALLING; SYSTEMS FOR CONTROLLING OR REGULATING NON-ELECTRIC VARIABLES; TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS; TRANSPORTING; VEHICLES IN GENERAL

A first phantom or ghost vehicle 12AP is projected into one of a branch and a circle lane of a roundabout 98 in association with a first autonomous vehicle. The first autonomous vehicle 12A is caused to enter the circle lane 100 upon predicting no collision with oncoming vehicles. The first autonomous vehicle is caused to exit from the roundabout. The method may further involve merging or melding (Fig.7, 12E, 12EP) the autonomous vehicle into the phantom vehicle, once the vehicle enters the roundabout. The method may also select a particular branch lane 104 for the autonomous vehicle to enter and exit the roundabout. A platoon of phantom vehicles may be created to form a queue of vehicles 12H-K entering the roundabout or in a circle lane. This may allow vehicles to flow regularly through the roundabout by controlling the platoon to move through the roundabout when a vehicle has been waiting in the queue for a certain amount of time or to maintain a certain distance between vehicles.