Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

University of Michigan

James McBride

Shane Elwart

Dale Scott Crombez

Yifan Chen

Hai Yu

Edwin B Olson

Gaurav Pandey

Peter Francis Worrel

Ryan M Eustice

Paul Joseph Szuszman

Wayne Williams

Jerome Charles Ivan

Enric Galceran

Jianbo Lu

Rajit Johri

Roger Arnold Trombley

John Patrick Joyce

Hongtei Eric Tseng

Douglas Scott Rhode

John Shutko

Justin Miller, Jr

Abhishek Sharma

Devinder Singh Kochhar

Andrew P Richardson

Jeff Allen Greenberg

John Randolf Vincent

Schuyler H Cohen

Christopher Attard

Shan Chy Chueh

Mark Crawford

Prashant Rao

Alexander Glencairn Cunningham

A method for controlling a robotic vehicle in a delivery environment includes causing the robotic vehicle to deploy from an autonomous vehicle (AV) at a first AV position in the delivery environment. The method further includes localizing, via a robotic vehicle controller, an initial position within a global reference map using a robot vehicle perception system, receiving, from the AV, a 3-dimensional (3D) augmented map and localizing an updated position in the delivery environment based on the 3D augmented map and the global reference map. The robot vehicle perception system senses obstacle characteristics, and generates a unified 3D augmented map with robot-sensed obstacle characteristics. The method further includes generating a dynamic path plan to a package delivery destination using the unified 3D augmented map, and actuating the robot vehicle to the package delivery destination according to the dynamic path plan.

Autonomous vehicle and infrastructure aided robotic system for end-to-end package delivery

Pointing and interaction control devices for large scale tabletop models are provided herein. An example method includes determining a frame of reference for a first display, where the first display provides a multi-dimensional representation. The method includes determining a location and a direction of a laser beam emitted by a mobile device having a laser pointing apparatus using motion signals obtained from the mobile device, and the frame of reference. The first display can include a two-dimensional display surface and a physical three-dimensional representation placed onto the two-dimensional display surface. The method can include determining an intersection of a laser beam of the laser pointing apparatus with either the physical three-dimensional representation or the two-dimensional display surface based on the location and the direction of the mobile device relative to the frame of reference.

Pointing and interaction control devices for large scale tabletop models

A LIDAR sensor is mountable to a vehicle exterior with a field of view including a vehicle interior view first portion and a vehicle exterior view first portion. Data can be received from the LIDAR sensor. A state of a vehicle occupant can be determined based at least in part on data from the LIDAR sensor.

Vehicle interior and exterior monitoring

A vehicle camera cleaning system includes an air source and a computer processing unit configured to communicate with the air source. The air source is configured to apply an air flow to a lens of a camera. The camera includes a successive and repeated operational mode and non-operational mode. The computer processing unit includes a non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions to cause the computer processing unit to transmit a signal to the air source to actuate the air flow based on the camera being in the non-operational mode.

Vehicle camera cleaning system

A system includes a computer programmed to identify, from a first vehicle, one or more second vehicles within a specified distance to the first vehicle. The computer is further programmed to receive data about operations of each of the second vehicles, including trajectory data. Based on the data, the computer is programmed to identify, for each of the second vehicles, a distribution of probabilities of each of a set of potential planned trajectories. The computer is further programmed to determine a planned trajectory for the first vehicle, based on the respective distributions of probabilities of each of the set of potential planned trajectories for each of the second vehicles. The computer is further programmed to provide an instruction to at least one controller associated with the first vehicle based on the determined planned trajectory.

Vehicle trajectory determination

At least one first model represents a person. A request to pick up a passenger includes a first location and a personal identifier for the passenger. A vehicle is caused to navigate to the first location. The passenger is identified by comparing a second model generated from vehicle sensor data with the first model.

Vehicle passenger identification

A system includes a computer programmed to determine, along a nominal path to be traversed by a vehicle, a potential field representing a driving corridor for the vehicle. The computer is further programmed to identify a position of the vehicle relative to the potential field at a current time, and apply a torque to q steering column of the vehicle. The torque is based at least in part on the position. The potential field includes an attractive potential that guides the vehicle to remain within the corridor.

Field-based torque steering control

A system includes a first battery configured to power at least one vehicle subsystem and a second battery configured to power an electric motor to propel a vehicle. A processing device is configured to detect an inadequate power level provided from the first battery to the at least one vehicle subsystem and selectively partition the second battery to power the at least one vehicle subsystem.

Redundant electrical power for autonomous vehicles

Vehicle operating systems are autonomously operated. A transient in an upcoming path of the vehicle is determined from a comparison of vehicle path data and vehicle status data to a threshold of mechanism first operating system. Operational parameters for one of first and second operating systems are selected according to the comparison. The selected operational parameters are applied to the operation of the one of the first and second operating systems.

System and method for energy optimization in autonomous vehicle operation

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Saline, MI, United States of America

James McBride