IP Library Granted Patent US 9,435,652
Granted Patent B2
US 9,435,652 · App. 14/134,738 · Granted Sep 6, 2016

Dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system

Inventors: Robert E. Ralston (Eugene, OR); Justin D. Bloom (Eugene, OR)
Assignee: Novatel Wireless, Inc.
G01C21/26G08G1/0108G08G1/0116G08G1/0133G08G1/0141G08G1/0145G08G1/096741G08G1/096775G08G1/096783G08G1/096811G08G1/096844G01C21/3492
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 9,435,652
App. No.
14/134,738
Granted
Sep 6, 2016
Kind
B2
Abstract

Embodiments of the invention provide a dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system and method. Intelligent land buoys can be proximately disposed to roadways. Each of the intelligent land buoys can gather situational awareness information about the roadways and one or more vehicles traveling thereon. The intelligent land buoys can compress the situational awareness information. One or more remote computer servers can receive the compressed situational awareness information from the plurality of intelligent land buoys, decompress it, and process the decompressed situational awareness information. The one or more remote computer servers can generate vehicle operational intelligence information based at least on the decompressed situational awareness information, and can transmit the vehicle operational intelligence information to the plurality of intelligent land buoys and/or directly to one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles.

Claims (99)

1. A dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system, comprising:

a plurality of intelligent land buoys that are proximately disposed to a plurality of roadways, each of the intelligent land buoys being configured to gather situational awareness information about the roadways and one or more vehicles traveling thereon, and to compress the situational awareness information; and

one or more remote computer servers communicatively coupled to the plurality of intelligent land buoys and configured to receive the compressed situational awareness information from the plurality of intelligent land buoys, to decompress the situational awareness information, to process the decompressed situational awareness information, to generate vehicle operational intelligence information based at least on the decompressed situational awareness information, and to transmit the vehicle operational intelligence information to the plurality of intelligent land buoys;

wherein each of the plurality of intelligent land buoys further comprises:

one or more short range radio transceivers configured to receive, from the one or more vehicles, at least a first portion of the situational awareness information about the roadways and the one or more vehicles traveling thereon;

one or more visible light cameras configured to receive at least a second portion of the situational awareness information about the roadways and the one or more vehicles traveling thereon;

a processor configured to compress the first and second portions of the situational awareness information;

one or more long range radio transceivers configured to transmit, to the one or more remote computer servers, the compressed situational awareness information; and

one or more infrared cameras configured to receive at least a third portion of the situational awareness information about the roadways and the one or more vehicles traveling thereon.

2. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 1 , wherein the intelligent land buoys are configured to transmit a beacon including the vehicle operational intelligence information to the one or more vehicles.

3. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more vehicles include at least one of an autonomous vehicle or a semiautonomous vehicle.

4. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle operational intelligence information includes dynamic vehicle routing information.

5. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle operational intelligence information includes a predictive awareness alert indicating a time period within which an occupant in a particular vehicle from among the one or more vehicles is advised to take operational control of the particular vehicle.

6. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of intelligent land buoys are configured to be located at an elevation that is higher than tops of the one or more vehicles, and to transmit a beacon including the vehicle operational intelligence information toward the one or more vehicles.

7. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 1 , wherein the first portion of the situational awareness information includes at least one of a vehicle identification or a service set identification (SSID).

8. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 1 , wherein:

the first portion of the situational awareness information includes a service set identification (SSID); and

the plurality of intelligent land buoys are configured to detect a first location of a particular vehicle from among the one or more vehicles associated with the SSID, and to detect a second location of the particular vehicle from among the one or more vehicles associated with the SSID.

9. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 8 , wherein:

the plurality of intelligent land buoys are configured to transmit the first location information and the second location information to the one or more remote computer servers; and

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to determine a speed of the particular vehicle based at least on the first location information and the second location information.

10. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 1 , wherein the first portion of the situational awareness information includes at least one of road temperature, wheel slippage information, or pothole presence information.

11. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of intelligent land buoys further comprises:

one or more motion detectors configured to receive at least a fourth portion of the situational awareness information about the roadways and the one or more vehicles traveling thereon; and

one or more temperature sensors configured to receive at least a fifth portion of the situational awareness information about the roadways and the one or more vehicles traveling thereon.

12. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 11 , wherein each of the plurality of intelligent land buoys is configured to receive at least a sixth portion of the situational awareness information from at least one of an inductive traffic sensor or a strain gauge.

13. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of intelligent land buoys further comprises:

identification logic configured to identify, based at least on the situational awareness information, the presence of a traffic obstruction.

14. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 13 , wherein each of the plurality of intelligent land buoys further comprises:

tracking logic configured to track, based at least on the situational awareness information, the presence, position, and speed of the traffic obstruction.

15. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 14 , wherein the traffic obstruction includes at least one of a vehicle, a pedestrian, an animal, road debris, or an object.

16. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 1 , wherein:

the plurality of intelligent land buoys are configured to gather the situational awareness information about each of a plurality of route segments, and to compress the situational awareness information about each of the plurality of route segments into a corresponding route segment impedance score;

the plurality of intelligent land buoys are configured to transmit the route segment impedance scores to the one or more remote computer servers;

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to aggregate a first portion of the route segment impedance scores associated with a first route between a first geographic location and a second geographic location, to aggregate a second portion of the route segment impedance scores associated with a second route between the first geographic location and the second geographic location, and to aggregate N portions of the route segment impedance scores associated with corresponding N routes between the first geographic location and the second geographic location.

17. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 16 , wherein:

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to select from among the aggregated N portions a present lowest aggregated impedance score associated with a particular one route from among the N routes; and

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to transmit a present lowest impedance route selection to the plurality of intelligent land buoys based at least on the present lowest aggregated impedance score.

18. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 16 , wherein:

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to select from among the aggregated N portions a predicted future lowest aggregated impedance score associated with a particular one route from among the N routes, wherein the predicted future score is based at least on a history of prior impedance scores; and

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to determine a predicted lowest impedance route selection based at least on the predicted future lowest aggregated impedance score, and to transmit the selection to the plurality of intelligent land buoys.

19. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 18 , wherein:

the plurality of intelligent land buoys are configured to generate the route segment impedance scores based at least on a plurality of weighted factors;

the plurality of weighted factors include at least one of rain, fog, visibility, traffic density, pedestrian density, road hazard, or road condition;

the plurality of intelligent land buoys are configured to generate impedance score probability functions in the time domain based on the route segment impedance scores for predefined time periods;

the plurality of intelligent land buoys are configured to transform the impedance score probability functions into the frequency domain;

the plurality of intelligent land buoys are configured to transmit the transformed impedance score probability functions to the one or more remote computer servers; and

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to generate the predicted lowest impedance route selection based at least on the transformed impedance score probability functions.

20. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 19 , wherein the plurality of intelligent land buoys are configured to transform the impedance score probability functions into the frequency domain using at least one of a Laplace series transform, a Fourier series transform, or a Z-Transform.

21. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 19 , wherein:

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to periodically receive new situational awareness information from the plurality of intelligent land buoys; and

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to alter in real-time the predicted lowest impedance route selection based at least on the new situational awareness information periodically received; and

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to transmit the altered predicted lowest impedance route selection to the plurality of intelligent land buoys.

22. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 19 , wherein:

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to receive external data from one or more devices not connected with the plurality of intelligent land buoys; and

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to generate the predicted lowest impedance route selection based at least on the external data.

23. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 1 , wherein:

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to receive client preference information from a plurality of clients;

the plurality of clients include at least one of a vehicle, a computer, a smartphone, a vehicle navigation system, or a map service;

the client preference information includes at least one of a fuel economy preference, a transit time preference, a proximity to points of interest preference, or an avoidance of hazards preference; and

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to generate the vehicle operational intelligence based at least on the client preference information.

24. A dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system, comprising:

a plurality of intelligent land buoys that are proximately disposed to a plurality of roadways, each of the intelligent land buoys being configured to gather situational awareness information about the roadways and one or more vehicles traveling thereon, and to compress the situational awareness information; and

one or more remote computer servers communicatively coupled to the plurality of intelligent land buoys and configured to receive the compressed situational awareness information from the plurality of intelligent land buoys, to decompress the situational awareness information, to process the decompressed situational awareness information, to generate vehicle operational intelligence information based at least on the decompressed situational awareness information, and to transmit the vehicle operational intelligence information to the plurality of intelligent land buoys;

wherein each of the plurality of intelligent land buoys further comprises:

one or more short range radio transceivers configured to receive, from the one or more vehicles, at least a first portion of the situational awareness information about the roadways and the one or more vehicles traveling thereon;

one or more visible light cameras configured to receive at least a second portion of the situational awareness information about the roadways and the one or more vehicles traveling thereon;

a processor configured to compress the first and second portions of the situational awareness information;

one or more long range radio transceivers configured to transmit, to the one or more remote computer servers, the compressed situational awareness information;

identification logic configured to identify, based at least on the situational awareness information, the presence of a traffic obstruction; and

tracking logic configured to track, based at least on the situational awareness information, the presence, position, and speed of the traffic obstruction.

25. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 24 , wherein the traffic obstruction includes at least one of a vehicle, a pedestrian, an animal, road debris, or an object.

26. A dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system, comprising:

a plurality of intelligent land buoys that are proximately disposed to a plurality of roadways, each of the intelligent land buoys being configured to gather situational awareness information about the roadways and one or more vehicles traveling thereon, and to compress the situational awareness information; and

one or more remote computer servers communicatively coupled to the plurality of intelligent land buoys and configured to receive the compressed situational awareness information from the plurality of intelligent land buoys, to decompress the situational awareness information, to process the decompressed situational awareness information, to generate vehicle operational intelligence information based at least on the decompressed situational awareness information, and to transmit the vehicle operational intelligence information to the plurality of intelligent land buoys;

wherein the plurality of intelligent land buoys are configured to gather the situational awareness information about each of a plurality of route segments, and to compress the situational awareness information about each of the plurality of route segments into a corresponding route segment impedance score;

the plurality of intelligent land buoys are configured to transmit the route segment impedance scores to the one or more remote computer servers; and

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to aggregate a first portion of the route segment impedance scores associated with a first route between a first geographic location and a second geographic location, to aggregate a second portion of the route segment impedance scores associated with a second route between the first geographic location and the second geographic location, and to aggregate N portions of the route segment impedance scores associated with corresponding N routes between the first geographic location and the second geographic location.

27. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 26 , wherein:

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to select from among the aggregated N portions a present lowest aggregated impedance score associated with a particular one route from among the N routes; and

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to transmit a present lowest impedance route selection to the plurality of intelligent land buoys based at least on the present lowest aggregated impedance score.

28. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 26 , wherein:

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to select from among the aggregated N portions a predicted future lowest aggregated impedance score associated with a particular one route from among the N routes, wherein the predicted future score is based at least on a history of prior impedance scores; and

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to determine a predicted lowest impedance route selection based at least on the predicted future lowest aggregated impedance score, and to transmit the selection to the plurality of intelligent land buoys.

29. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 28 , wherein:

the plurality of intelligent land buoys are configured to generate the route segment impedance scores based at least on a plurality of weighted factors;

the plurality of weighted factors include at least one of rain, fog, visibility, traffic density, pedestrian density, road hazard, or road condition;

the plurality of intelligent land buoys are configured to generate impedance score probability functions in the time domain based on the route segment impedance scores for predefined time periods;

the plurality of intelligent land buoys are configured to transform the impedance score probability functions into the frequency domain;

the plurality of intelligent land buoys are configured to transmit the transformed impedance score probability functions to the one or more remote computer servers; and

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to generate the predicted lowest impedance route selection based at least on the transformed impedance score probability functions.

30. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 29 , wherein the plurality of intelligent land buoys are configured to transform the impedance score probability functions into the frequency domain using at least one of a Laplace series transform, a Fourier series transform, or a Z-Transform.

31. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 29 , wherein:

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to periodically receive new situational awareness information from the plurality of intelligent land buoys; and

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to alter in real-time the predicted lowest impedance route selection based at least on the new situational awareness information periodically received; and

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to transmit the altered predicted lowest impedance route selection to the plurality of intelligent land buoys.

32. The dynamic routing intelligent vehicle enhancement system of claim 29 , wherein:

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to receive external data from one or more devices not connected with the plurality of intelligent land buoys; and

the one or more remote computer servers are configured to generate the predicted lowest impedance route selection based at least on the external data.

Assignments (10)
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Aug 6, 2025
From: INSEEGO NORTH AMERICA, LLC
To: BMO BANK, N.A.
Reel/Frame 071946/0705 →
CHANGE OF NAME Recorded Mar 13, 2025
From: FEENEY WIRELESS, LLC
To: INSEEGO NORTH AMERICA, LLC
Reel/Frame 070499/0215 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Nov 8, 2024
From: INSEEGO CORP.; INSEEGO WIRELESS, INC.; INSEEGO NORTH AMERICA, LLC
To: WILMINGTON SAVINGS FUND SOCIETY, FSB
Reel/Frame 069216/0095 →
CORRECTIVE ASSIGNMENT TO CORRECT THE THE THREE CONVEYING PARTIES SHOULD HAVE STARTED WITH THE LETTER "I" INSTEAD OF A LOWERCASE "L" PREVIOUSLY RECORDED AT REEL: 68102 FRAME: 297. ASSIGNOR(S) HEREBY CONFIRMS THE ASSIGNMENT. Recorded Aug 2, 2024
From: INSEEGO CORP.; INSEEGO WIRELESS, INC.; INSEEGO NORTH AMERICA, LLC
To: SOUTH OCEAN FUNDING, LLC
Reel/Frame 068671/0885 →
SECURITY AGREEMENT Recorded Jul 1, 2024
From: INSEEGO CORP.; INSEEGO WIRELESS, INC.; INSEEGO NORTH AMERICA, LLC
To: SOUTH OCEAN FUNDING, LLC
Reel/Frame 068102/0297 →
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Aug 28, 2017
From: LAKESTAR SEMI INC.
To: INSEEGO NORTH AMERICA, LLC
Reel/Frame 043417/0557 →
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST Recorded May 18, 2017
From: WELLS FARGO BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
To: INSEEGO NORTH AMERICA, LLC F/K/A FEENEY WIRELESS, LLC
Reel/Frame 042423/0274 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded May 12, 2017
From: ENFORA, INC.; NOVATEL WIRELESS, INC.; INSEEGO NORTH AMERICA, LLC F/K/A FEENEY WIRELESS, INC.
To: LAKESTAR SEMI INC.
Reel/Frame 042452/0518 →
PATENT AND TRADEMARK SECURITY AGREEMENT Recorded Apr 1, 2015
From: FEENEY WIRELESS, LLC
To: WELLS FARGO BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
Reel/Frame 035353/0376 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jan 8, 2014
From: RALSTON, ROBERT E; BLOOM, JUSTIN D
To: FEENEY WIRELESS, LLC
Reel/Frame 031921/0311 →
Continuity (1)
Related Publication 20150179062A1 · Jun 25, 2015