Architecture for Automation and Fail Operational Automation

• Main Authors: Colosky, Mark P, Lew, Leland W, Baker, Paul A, Mujica, Fernando A, Kwong, Joyce Y
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 25.11.2021
• Subjects: ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES; CONJOINT CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUB-UNITS OF DIFFERENT TYPE ORDIFFERENT FUNCTION; CONTROL SYSTEMS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR HYBRID VEHICLES; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; GYROSCOPIC INSTRUMENTS; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION ORRERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; MEASURING; MEASURING DISTANCES, LEVELS OR BEARINGS; NAVIGATION; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHOTOGRAMMETRY OR VIDEOGRAMMETRY; PHYSICS; RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; ROAD VEHICLE DRIVE CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR PURPOSES NOT RELATED TOTHE CONTROL OF A PARTICULAR SUB-UNIT; SURVEYING; TESTING; TRANSPORTING; VEHICLES IN GENERAL

In an embodiment, an automation system for a vehicle may employ a variety of diversities to enhance reliability, accuracy, and stability in automating operation of the vehicle. For example, in an embodiment, an automation system for a vehicle may include multiple sensor pods with overlapping fields of view. Each sensor pod may include multiple different sensors in an embodiment, providing diverse views of the environment surrounding the vehicle. A set of sensor pods with overlapping fields of view may also transmit their object data at different points in time, providing diversity in time. Redundancy in other areas, such as the network switches which connect the sensor pods to an automation controller, may also aid in provided fail operational functionality. In an embodiment, the sensor pods may include local processing to process the data captured by the sensors into object identification.