US 12,169,131 B2
Routing multiple autonomous vehicles using local and general route planning
Michael Voznesensky, San Francisco, CA (US); Bryan John Nagy, Allison Park, PA (US); Robert Michael S Dean, North Bethesda, MD (US); and Jacob Robert Forster, San Francisco, CA (US)
Assigned to Aurora Operations, Inc., Pittsburgh, PA (US)
Filed by Aurora Operations, Inc., Pittsburgh, PA (US)
Filed on Jan. 24, 2020, as Appl. No. 16/752,199.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/796,873, filed on Jan. 25, 2019.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/796,840, filed on Jan. 25, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2020/0240800 A1, Jul. 30, 2020
Int. Cl. G01C 21/34 (2006.01); B60W 60/00 (2020.01); G05D 1/00 (2024.01); G08G 1/0968 (2006.01)
CPC G01C 21/3453 (2013.01) [B60W 60/001 (2020.02); B60W 60/0011 (2020.02); G05D 1/0088 (2013.01); G05D 1/0212 (2013.01); G05D 1/0287 (2013.01); G08G 1/096833 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method to route a plurality of autonomous vehicles, comprising:
executing, by a batch routing system, a plurality of route workers, the batch routing system being a computing system;
receiving, by the batch routing system, a first general route cost request from a first autonomous vehicle, the first general route cost request describing a first trip endpoint and a first set of local route endpoints comprising a first local route endpoint and a second local route endpoint;
selecting, by the batch routing system, a first route worker from the plurality of route workers for responding to the first general route cost request, the selecting of the first route worker being based at least in part on a location of the first autonomous vehicle;
determining, by the first route worker, a first set of general routes for the first autonomous vehicle, the first set of general routes comprising a first general route from the first local route endpoint to a first trip endpoint and a second general route from the second local route endpoint to the first trip endpoint, the determining of the first set of general routes being based at least in part on cached data generated by the first route worker while determining a previous set of general routes for a second autonomous vehicle different than the first autonomous vehicle; and
sending, by the batch routing system, a first general route cost reply to the first autonomous vehicle, the first general route cost reply indicating a first set of costs associated with the first set of general routes, the first set of costs comprising a first general cost for the first general route and a second general cost for the second general route.