Patent ID: 11972689
Assignee: VOLKSWAGEN AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT
Field: Control (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G  B  H | IPC B  G  H

Claim 0:
1. An apparatus for controlling a platoon of one or more transportation vehicles, the apparatus comprising:
one or more interfaces including at least one hardware component configured to obtain, receive, transmit, or provide analog or digital signals or information between one or more interfaces for communicating with the one or more transportation vehicles of the platoon and a mobile communication system; and
a control module including a processor, a computer or a programmable hardware component being operable with accordingly adapted software, the control module configured to control the apparatus to:
obtain information related to a predicted quality of service (pQoS) of communication links between the one or more transportation vehicles of the platoon, a speed of the transportation vehicles of the platoon, and one or more maximum decelerations of the one or more transportation vehicles of the platoon;
calculate a permitted minimum inter-vehicular distance using a functional, mathematical relationship between the pQoS, the speed, the one or more maximum decelerations, and an inter-vehicular distance, the permitted minimum inter-vehicular distance being a minimum distance to be permitted between a preceding transportation vehicle and an adjacent proceeding transportation vehicle of the one or more transportation vehicles at which, in an emergency braking situation, the preceding transportation vehicle and the adjacent proceeding transportation vehicle reach a stand-still without a collision, wherein the pQoS includes a packet inter-reception time;
calculate a permitted maximum packet inter-reception time for maintaining the permitted minimum inter-vehicular distance;
adapt the speed of the one or more transportation vehicles based on the permitted minimum inter-vehicular distance and the permitted maximum packet inter-reception time to provide the permitted minimum inter-vehicular distance between the transportation vehicles included in the platoon;
monitor maneuvers of the platoon and repeatedly store data on pQoS, speed, decelerations, and inter-vehicular distances of the platoon during travel of the one or more transportation vehicles; and
repeatedly update the functional, mathematical relationship between the pQoS, the speed, the one or more maximum decelerations, and the inter-vehicular distance that is used to calculate the permitted minimum inter-vehicular distance between the preceding transportation vehicle and the adjacent proceeding transportation vehicle of the one or more transportation vehicles based on the stored pQoS, speed, decelerations, and inter-vehicular distance data to alter the functional, mathematical relationship therebetween,
wherein the pQoS includes a packet inter-reception ratio (PIR) which is an expected time between two successive communication messages between the communication links regarding a data packet and is based on a total number of transportation vehicles proximate to the communication links of the one or more transportation vehicles, and wherein the updating of the functional, mathematical relationship includes a derivation of a maximum value of the PIR permitting maintenance of the permitted minimum inter-vehicular distance for a plurality of combinations of a target speed, a target distance, and a maximal deceleration so as to generate an updated functional mathematical relationship that is based on a dataset linking target speed, PIR, and maximal deceleration over a plurality of observations.