This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application serial no. 105141094, filed on Dec. 12, 2016. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.
The disclosure relates to a tele-operated vehicle (TOV), a vehicle control device of the TOV and a control method of the TOV.
Existing umnanned vehicle control mechanisms are divided into two types of automatic (autonomous) driving and remote control driving. An automatic (autonomous) driving vehicle is installed with a plurality of sensors, a computing unit and a control unit. According to the complexity of the algorithm, the computing unit and the control unit on the automatic driving vehicle may execute a single driving behaviour or multiple driving behaviours. A remote control driving vehicle is installed with a communication unit and a control unit. The communication unit receives a control command from a remote operator (a remote control platform), and the control unit on the remote control driving vehicle may execute the control command to implement vehicle control.
In the aforementioned two unmanned vehicle control mechanisms, development of automatic (autonomous) driving is still immature. The automatic (autonomous) driving mostly has limited functions, or is a specific application under a specific environment. Although the remote control driving vehicle can be controlled according to the intention of the remote operator (the remote control platform), in case of poor communication quality and limited awareness of the remote operator on a driving environment, a performance of the remote control driving vehicle is not as well as a performance of a general vehicle (a vehicle with a driver).
The disclosure is directed to a tele-operated vehicle (TOV) and a vehicle control device and a control method thereof. The vehicle control device and the control method may combine an automatic (autonomous) driving mode with a remote control driving mode. A remote operator (a remote control platform) may make up for deficiency of an automatic (autonomous) driving algorithm, and the automatic (autonomous) driving may correct a poor control command of the remote operator (a remote control platform).
An embodiment of the disclosure provides a tele-operated vehicle (TOV) including a communication circuit, at least one sensor, a vehicle control device and a driving circuit. The sensor is configured to sense an environment of the TOV. The vehicle control device is coupled to the communication circuit to receive a remote driving command from a remote control platform. The vehicle control device is coupled to the sensor to receive a sensing result. The vehicle control device generates an automatic driving command based on the sensing result. The vehicle control device determines an actual control command based on the remote driving command and the automatic driving command. The driving circuit is coupled to the vehicle control device to receive the actual control command. The driving circuit drives the TOV according to the actual control command.
An embodiment of the disclosure provides a vehicle control device including an automatic driving circuit and a lane keeping circuit. The automatic driving circuit is coupled to at least one sensor of a tele-operated vehicle (TOV) to receive a sensing result related to an environment of the TOV. The automatic driving circuit calculates an automatic driving path according to the sensing result, and determines an automatic driving command according to the automatic driving path. The lane keeping circuit is coupled to the automatic driving circuit to receive the automatic driving command. The lane keeping circuit receives a remote driving command from a remote control platform through a communication circuit of the TOV. The lane keeping circuit determines an actual control command based on the remote driving command and the automatic driving command. The lane keeping circuit controls a driving circuit of the TOV according to the actual control command, so as to drive the TOV.
An embodiment of the disclosure provides a control method of a tele-operated vehicle (TOV). The TOV includes a communication circuit, at least one sensor, a vehicle control device and a driving circuit. The control method includes: sensing an environment of the TOV by the sensor to obtain a sensing result; generating an automatic driving command by the vehicle control device based on the sensing result; receiving a remote driving command from a remote control platform by the communication circuit; determining an actual control command by the vehicle control device based on the remote driving command and the automatic driving command; and driving the TOV by the driving circuit according to the actual control command.
According to the above description, the vehicle control device and the control method thereof provided by the embodiments of the disclosure can be applied to vehicles having a remote control function and an automatic (autonomous) driving function. The remote control platform may send the remote driving command to the TOV, and the driving circuit correspondingly drives the TOV (for example, steering, speed control, etc.). Therefore, a driving operation of the remote operator (the remote control platform) may compensate deficiency of an automatic (autonomous) driving algorithm. Meanwhile, the automatic driving command of the automatic (autonomous) driving may correct a poor remote driving command of the remote operator (the remote control platform).
Several exemplary embodiments accompanied with figures are described in detail below to further describe the disclosure in details
The accompanying drawings are included to provide further understanding, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate exemplary embodiments and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure.
A term “couple (or connect)” used in the full text of the disclosure (including the claims) refers to any direct and indirect connections. For example, if a first device is described to be coupled to a second device, it is interpreted as that the first device is directly coupled to the second device, or the first device is indirectly coupled to the second device through other devices or connection means. Moreover, wherever possible, components/members/steps using the same referential numbers in the drawings and description refer to the same or like parts. Components/members/steps using the same referential numbers or using the same terms in different embodiments may cross-refer related descriptions.
The communication circuit 110 can be a wireless communication circuit, which is, for example, a long term evolution (LTE) (or a 4th generation (4G) mobile communication network) circuit, a dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) circuit or other communication circuit. A remote control platform 10 outside the TOV 100 can be connected with the communication circuit. The vehicle control device 130 is coupled to the communication circuit 110 to receive a remote driving command B (a control command of a remote operator) coming from the remote control platform 10. The vehicle control device 130 may determine an actual control command C based on the remote driving command B and the automatic driving command A. For example (though the disclosure is not limited thereto), if the control command of the remote operator (the remote driving command B) does not make the TOV 100 to go out of the drivable area, the vehicle control device 130 takes the remote driving command B as the actual control command C for outputting to the driving circuit 140. Conversely, if the control command of the remote operator (the remote driving command B) may make the TOV 100 to go out of the drivable area, the vehicle control device 130 may mix the remote driving command B and the automatic driving command A to produce the actual control command C for outputting to the driving circuit 140. When the communication between the remote control platform 10 and the TOV 100 is interrupted, or a communication delay is too large, the vehicle control device 130 may take the automatic driving command A as the actual control command C for outputting to the driving circuit 140.
The driving circuit 140 is coupled to the vehicle control device 130 to receive the actual control command C. The driving circuit 140 correspondingly drives the TOV 100 according to the actual control command C. For example (though the disclosure is not limited thereto), the driving circuit 140 may correspondingly drive a steering mechanism of the TOV 100 according to the actual control coir and C, so as to change a moving direction of the TOV 100. Alternatively, the driving circuit 140 may correspondingly drive a speed control mechanism of the TOV 100 according to the actual control command C, so as to change a moving speed of the TOV 100 (for example, to accelerate or stop the TOV 100).
In the embodiment of
The lane keeping circuit 132 is coupled to the automatic driving circuit 131 to receive the automatic driving command A. The lane keeping circuit 132 receives the remote driving command B from the remote control platform 10 through the communication circuit 110 of the TOV 100. The lane keeping circuit 132 determines the actual control command C based on the remote driving command B and the automatic driving command A. The lane keeping circuit 132 controls the driving circuit 140 of the TOV 100 according to the actual control command C, so as to drive the TOV 100.
For example, the lane keeping circuit 132 may determine whether the remote driving command B makes the TOV 100 to be in an unsafe condition according to the sensing result of the sensor 120. When the lane keeping circuit 132 determines that the remote driving command B may make the TOV 100 to be in the unsafe condition, the lane keeping circuit 132 may modify the remote driving command B according to the automatic driving command A, so as to obtain the actual control command C.
For example, according to the design requirement, the sensor 120 may include a video camera or an optical radar sensor. When the sensor 120 is the video camera, the sensor 120 may capture a field of view (FOV) image along a moving direction of the TOV 100. The FOV image can be transmitted back to the remote control platform 10 through the communication circuit 110. Moreover, the FOV image can also be provided to the automatic driving circuit 131. The automatic driving circuit 131 performs image recognition to the FOV image to calculate the drivable area and the automatic driving path. According to a design requirement, implementation of the “image recognition” may adopt the conventional algorithm or other algorithms. When the sensor 120 is the optical radar sensor, the sensor 120 may emit laser lights and receive the laser lights reflected by objects. By using an optical radar detection technique, the sensor 120 (or the vehicle control device 130) may calculate relative moving coordinates of the objects (vehicles or pedestrians) around the TOV 100 relative to the sensor 120. According to a design requirement, the optical radar detection technique can be the conventional radar detection technique or other detection techniques.
In step S215, the lane keeping circuit 132 waits and receives the remote driving command B coming from the remote platform 10 through the communication circuit 110. The step S210 and the step S215 are independent to each other and are executed in the same time. In step S220, the lane keeping circuit 132 determines whether the remote driving command B is received from the remote control platform 10. In case of a poor communication condition (for example, the communication is unstable, interrupted, or delay thereof is excessively large, etc.), the lane keeping circuit 132 is probably unable to receive the remote driving command B. In case that the remote driving command B cannot be received, the lane keeping circuit 132 may execute a step S225. In the step S225, the lane keeping circuit 132 may take the automatic driving command A as the actual control command C for outputting to the driving circuit 140.
When it is determined that the remote driving command B is received from the remote control platform 10 in the step S220, the lane keeping circuit 132 may execute a step S230. In the step S230, the lane keeping circuit 132 determines whether the remote driving command B makes the TOV 100 to be in the unsafe condition. When the lane keeping circuit 132 determines that the remote driving command B does not make the TOV 100 to be in the unsafe condition, the lane keeping circuit 132 may take the remote driving command B as the actual control command C for outputting to the driving circuit 140 (step S235). When the lane keeping circuit 132 determines that the remote driving command B may make the TOV 100 to be in the unsafe condition, the lane keeping circuit 132 may modify the remote driving command B according to the automatic driving command A, so as to obtain the actual control command C (step S240).
The lane keeping circuit 132 may calculate a prediction path according to the remote driving command B. According to the prediction path, the lane keeping circuit 132 may determine whether the remote driving command B makes the TOV 100 to depart from the drivable area. For example, the lane keeping circuit 132 may adopt a trajectory prediction formula to predict a trajectory (the prediction path) of the remote driving command B. In the present embodiment, the lane keeping circuit 132 may adopt a conventional bicycle model (a following equation (1)) to serve as the trajectory prediction formula. In the equation (1), y represents a lateral position of the TOV 100 in the drivable area, ý represents a lateral speed of the TOV 100, Ψ represents a yaw-angle, {acute over (Ψ)} represents a yaw-rate, Caf and Car are respectively cornering stiffness of front and rear wheels, lf is a distance between the front wheel and a center of gravity, lr is a distance between the rear wheel and the center of gravity, in is a vehicle weight of the TOV 100, Vx is a longitudinal velocity of the TOV 100, Iz is a rotary inertia, and δ is a front wheel rotation angle.
The method of generating the actual control command C is not limited to the aforementioned embodiment. For example, in some other embodiments, the lane keeping circuit 132 may calculate an equation (2) to obtain the actual control command C. In the equation (2), A represents the automatic driving command, B represents the remote driving command, and a weight w is a real number and 0≤w≤1.
C=(w)A+(1−w)B Equation (2)
The automatic driving circuit 131 may calculate the automatic driving path according to the sensing result of the sensor 120, and determine the automatic driving command A according to the automatic driving path. When the lane keeping circuit 132 determines that the remote driving command B does not make the TOV 100 to be in the unsafe condition (for example, the situation shown in
Referring to
It should be noted that in different application situations, related functions of the vehicle control device 130, the automatic driving circuit 131, the lane keeping circuit 132 and/or the driving circuit 140 can be implemented as software, firmware or hardware through general programming languages (for example, C or C++), hardware description languages (for example, Verilog HDL or VHDL) or other suitable programming languages. The software (or firmware) capable of executing the related functions can be stored in any known computer-accessible medias, for example, magnetic tapes, semiconductor memories, magnetic disks or compact disks (for example, CD-ROM or DVD-ROM), or the software (or firmware) can be transmitted through the Internet, wired communication, wireless communication or other communication media. The software (or firmware) can be stored in computer-accessible media to facilitate a processor of a computer to access/execute programming codes of the software (or firmware). Moreover, the apparatus and method of the disclosure can be implemented through a combination of hardware and software.
In summary, the TOV 100 of the embodiments of the disclosure can be applied to vehicles having a remote control function and an automatic (autonomous) driving function. The TOV 100 is installed with the communication circuit 110, the sensor 120 and the vehicle control device 130. The automatic driving circuit 131 of the vehicle control device 130 may dynamically calculate an optimal driving path (the automatic driving command A) according to a driving area, a communication status and surrounding objects. When the remote driving command B of the remote operator (the remote control platform 10) is interrupted, or the remote driving command B may cause a danger (for example, the TOV 100 is about to collide with a lateral vehicle, or the TOV 100 is about to exceeds the drivable region 320), the lane keeping circuit 132 of the vehicle control device 130 may modify the remote driving command B according to the optimal driving path (the automatic driving command A) until the TOV 100 returns back to a safe state. In case that the communication status is normal and the remote driving command B is save, the lane keeping circuit 132 executes the remote driving command B in priority.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the disclosed embodiments without departing from the scope or spirit of the disclosure. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the disclosure cover modifications and variations of this disclosure provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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105141094 | Dec 2016 | TW | national |