Patent Description:
Prior art defines an automated vehicle, also known as an AV, an autonomous vehicle, a self-driving car, a driverless car, a robo-car, or a robotic car, which is a vehicle that is capable of sensing its environment and moving safely with little or no human input.

Automated vehicles combine a variety of sensors to perceive their surroundings, such as radar, lidar, sonar, GPS, odometry and inertial measurement units. Advanced control systems interpret information obtained from sensors to identify appropriate navigation paths, as well as obstacles and relevant signage.

Further, automotive applications and mobile communications become more and more entangled, particularly due to the increasing interest in automatic driving that requires larger amounts of data when compared to conventional driving. These data amounts are provided partially by the vehicle itself (i.e., by sensors thereof) and partially via an air interface. Via the air interface such as a vehicle to vehicle, V2V, communication or a vehicle to infrastructure, V2I, communication or a vehicle to everything, V2X, communication is carried out, the latter including communication with road side units, RSUs.

Autonomous driving applications greatly benefit from V2X communications. In the case of tele-operated driving, ToD, V2X allows a control center, CC, to remotely support an automated vehicle. Different kinds of supports exist. One distinguishes between: direct control, indirect control or remote support. In case of direct control, the automated vehicle is completely operated by the control center, which is for example providing direct steering, acceleration and braking commands to the vehicle. In case of indirect control or remote support, more responsibility is moved to the automated vehicle. This means that the automated vehicle is supported by the CC but is mostly responsible for its decisions.

It is known from prior art that in cases of indirect control or remote support, tele-operated driving, ToD, operations are used in situations which cannot be safely handled by an automated vehicle automatically, in order to enable the automated vehicle to solve the traffic/road situation. Those ToD operations include that the automated vehicle gets support from the control center in the form of an indication or high level command, on which it makes decisions independently afterwards. For instance, these indications could be traffic light recognition, object identification, permission to use different lanes or the side walk, crossing railroad tracks or perception issues due to bad weather conditions.

Document <CIT>, for example, discloses methods and apparatuses that enable an automated vehicle to request assistance from a remote operator when the vehicle's confidence in operation is low. The document discloses that during the operation of the autonomous vehicle, the vehicle identifies a situation where confidence in operation falls below a predetermined threshold. The vehicle then sends a request for assistance to a remote assistor. However, the document does not take into account what may happen in case of communication problems between an automated vehicle and a control center.

If the communication between the control center and the automated vehicle becomes unreliable, more responsibility is moved to the remotely controlled automated vehicle. For example, document <CIT> describes a method of setting the operation mode of the AV based on the PQoS and the environment of the AV. In cases where the predicted quality of service, PQoS, of the communication for example indicates a low quality, the command center will not use direct control but will support the automated vehicle in terms of indirect control or by simple support comments. This means that the AV gets support from the CC in the form of an indication or high level command. Document <CIT>, for example, describes the communication between a control center and an AV using a <NUM> network. Document <CIT> further describes a method for determining which support comments for the AV are possible based on the PQoS. In document <CIT>, the AV is to be controlled by an operator. For this purpose, the best operator is selected, among other things also based on the channel quality.

Support comments however may arrive with high delays at the automated vehicle due to the unreliable communication. Document <CIT> therefore proposes a method in which a possible delay is already included during the calculation of control information for the AV in the control center, so that they allow compensation of the delay by the AV. But even those control information may not be valid anymore when received by the AV. Performing such an invalid command would severely compromise the safety of the automated vehicle's passengers.

It is thus an object of the present disclosure to overcome or reduce at least some of the drawbacks of the prior art and to provide a method of a control center for safely operating an automated vehicle, including the case of unreliable communication.

The given task is solved by the subject-matter of the independent claims <NUM> and <NUM>.

Advantageous embodiments of the invention can further be gained from the dependent claims. A first aspect of the invention refers to a method of a control center for operating an automated vehicle, preferably for operating an automated vehicle in case of unreliable communication between the control center and the automated vehicle.

The method comprises as a first step a receiving of a request message from the automated vehicle. The request message preferably comprises a request for driving assistance and information on a traffic scenario of the automated vehicle. The information on the traffic scenario preferably contains data obtained from the automated vehicle by means of sensors and describing the traffic scenario in which the automated vehicle requires assistance. The data is preferably obtained by means of at least one on-board sensor of the automated vehicle. Especially preferred, the data is obtained by means of at least one sensor configured for acquiring ambient data. Such a sensor may be a radar, lidar, sonar, GPS, odometry, inertial and/or camera sensor. Further preferred, the data is obtained by means of at least one sensor configured for acquiring vehicle data. Additionally preferred, the request message contains suggestions for maneuvers that could be performed in the traffic scenario by the automated vehicle. The suggestions are preferably determined by the automated vehicle.

In a further step of the method, the control center determines at least one command for a maneuver of the automated vehicle based on the traffic scenario. A maneuver according to this disclosure is preferably a movement or a series of movements the automated vehicle may perform in the traffic scenario. A command according to this disclosure is preferably a control signal, which causes the automated vehicle to perform a specific maneuver. The at least one command is preferably determined based on a channel quality. The channel quality preferably relates to at least one parameter that measures the quality of service of the communication between the control center and the automated vehicle. Further the control center determines in this step of the method a validity information for the at least one command. The validity information relates to a time of feasibility of the at least one command. Preferably the control center determines a validity information for each of the at least one command. The validity information is preferably determined based on the channel quality. Further preferred, the at least one command is further determined based on the suggestion received from the vehicle. The method according to this disclosure further comprises the step of submitting the at least one command and the validity information to the automated vehicle.

Advantageously, the method according to the invention ensures that the channel quality between the control center and the automated vehicle is not disregarded during the operation of an automated vehicle by a control center. This advantageously guarantees that no invalid commands are sent to the automated vehicle even under unreliable communication conditions. In a particularly advantageous manner, further no commands are sent that would become invalid during delayed transmission to the automated vehicle. This significantly improves the safety of the operation of the automated vehicle.

In a preferred embodiment of the method of the present disclosure, the validity information specifies a time length and/or a time point. Preferably the validity information specifies a time length in which the at least one command has to be executed, in other words, a time length in which the maneuver of the at least one command has to be started. Further preferred, the validity information specifies a time point until which the at least one command has to be executed, in other words, a time point until which the maneuver of the at least one command has to be started.

In a further preferred embodiment of the method of the present disclosure, the channel quality relates to a latency of a transmission of the request message, hereinafter referred to as uplink latency, or to a latency of a transmission of the at least one command, hereinafter referred to as downlink latency. Preferably, the channel quality relates to the uplink latency and the downlink latency. The control center is preferably configured for determining the channel quality. It is preferred that the control center is configured to calculate the uplink latency based on a timestamp. The timestamp is preferably contained in the request message and indicates the time at which the request message was sent. The downlink latency is preferably predicted by the control center. Further preferred, the downlink latency is predicted by the control center based on the uplink latency.

In another preferred embodiment of the method of the present disclosure, the channel quality relates to an error bit rate, BER, or a signal to interference plus noise ratio, SNR, or a predicted quality of service, PQOS. In such embodiment, the control center preferably determines at least one command that can be fully transmitted to the automated vehicle within a predetermined time. In other words, if the communication between the control center and the automated vehicle becomes unreliable, e.g., in cases where the predicted quality of service, PQoS, of the communication indicates a low quality, the command center will not use commands for complicated or extended maneuvers but will rather support short command for easy maneuvers or short commands triggering predefined maneuver routines in the automated vehicle. In other words, by considering the channel quality when determining the command, the amount of responsibility laid upon the automated vehicle can be adaptively adjusted.

In a further preferred embodiment, the channel quality is related to a specific area and/or time. After determining it, the control center is preferably configured to link the channel quality with the specific area and/or time. Further preferred, the control center is configured to store the channel quality with the linked area and/or time. Preferably, the control center is configured for determining the channel quality based on an area and/or time, especially preferred based on a stored area and/or time. The control center can thus store channel quality information related to specific areas and/or times and can use such information for subsequent driving assistance.

According to a further preferred embodiment of the present disclosure, the communication between the control center and the automated vehicle is carried out via a mobile communication network. Preferably, the communication is carried out in a <NUM>, <NUM> or <NUM> network with sidelink carries at the PHY layer (PC5 sidelink) or based on WLAN communication according to IEEE <NUM>. 11p standard.

In a further preferred embodiment of the present disclosure, channel quality information is received from at least one server of the mobile communication network. The channel quality information is preferably a data structure containing data that relates to at least one parameter that measures the quality of service of the mobile communication network. Further preferred, the channel quality information is related to a specific area and/or time. Preferably the channel quality information is received by the control center or the automated vehicle. Further preferred, the control center and the automated vehicle are configured to determine the channel quality, e.g., a downlink and/or uplink latency, based on the channel quality information.

According to a further preferred embodiment of the present disclosure, the channel quality information is received periodically or as a single notification from the at least one server. Preferably, the channel quality information is received as a single notification based on a request, that is send to the at least one server. Further preferred, the channel quality information is received periodically or as notifications in case of specified conditions, wherein the receiving is based on a subscription send to the at least one server. A specified condition preferably occurs, if a change in the at least one parameter exceeds a predetermined threshold.

According to another preferred embodiment of the method of the present disclosure, the validity information for each command is determined as a difference of a time window for the maneuver of the command and a duration of the maneuver. According to this disclosure, the time window preferably relates to a time span in which the maneuver has to be completed. The time window is preferably based on the traffic scenario and sets a temporal boundary condition on the performance of the maneuver, e.g., in order to fulfil safety requirements. In other words, the time window relates to the time span in which the automated vehicle, being in the traffic scenario, has to perform the maneuver completely, preferably in order to satisfy a predefined safety criteria. The duration of the maneuver, according to this disclosure is preferably the amount of time it takes for the maneuver to be completely performed by the automated vehicle. Hence, the duration refers to the time length of the maneuver.

In a further preferred embodiment, the validity information for each command is determined as a difference of the time window of the maneuver of the command and a total of the duration of the maneuver and the latency. The latency is preferably the uplink latency or the downlink latency. Further preferred, the latency is a combination of the uplink latency and the downlink latency. Especially preferred, the validity information further contains an indication whether the uplink latency or the downlink latency or both were included in the determination of the validity information.

According to an especially preferred embodiment of the method of the present disclosure, the step of determining at least one command comprises the step of determining a set of commands based on the traffic scenario and determining the duration of the maneuver of every command in the set of commands. Further the determining of the at least one command comprises the step of determining, for every maneuver, the time window based on the traffic scenario. The control center determines the time window for every maneuver preferably additionally based on traffic information. The traffic information preferably includes information on rail vehicles, traffic lights, congestion, pollution or damage to the road, construction sites and/or obstacles. As a further step, the determining of the at least one command comprises selecting at least one command from the set of commands for which the validity information exceeds a predetermined threshold. The validity information for each command is preferably determined by the control center based on the time window and the duration of the maneuver of the command. Alternatively preferred, the validity information for each command is determined based on the time window of the maneuver of the command, the duration of the maneuver and the latency. The predetermined threshold is preferably below <NUM>, further preferred below <NUM> and especially preferred below <NUM>.

According to another preferred embodiment of the method of the present disclosure, the step of determining at least one command comprises the step of determining a set of commands based on the traffic scenario and determining a bit number of the each of the set of commands. As a further step, the determining of the at least one command comprises determining a channel quality related to a bit error rate, a signal to interference plus noise ratio or a predicted quality of service and selecting at least one command from the set of commands based on the determined bit number and the determined channel quality. Therein, based on such determination a reliable transmission of the command in readable form to the automated vehicle shall be ensured and the necessity of retransmission shall be minimized. Hence, the determined command is less likely to be executed within a shorter time span, hence increasing safety.

In a further embodiment, selecting the at least one command further comprises selecting one of the at least one command that is providing the highest safety margin. Preferably the safety margin is based on the validity information. Exemplarily, when the validity information specifies a time of feasibility for a command, the command with the largest time of feasibility is providing the highest safety margin. Further preferred, the safety margin is also based on fuel economy, low acceleration and/or low risk of damage related to the command, e.g., takes into account further weighing factors next to the validity information.

In a further aspect, the present disclosure relates to a control center for operating an automated vehicle comprising a communication unit configured for a communication with the automated vehicle and a control unit configured to execute all steps of the above described method of a control center.

Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to an automated vehicle, in particular an automated passenger car with internal combustion engine, electric motor or hybrid engine, comprising at least one first sensor configured for acquiring ambient data, at least one second sensor configured for acquiring vehicle data, a communication module configured for a communication with a control center, and a controller.

According to the present disclosure, the at least one first sensor is configured to detect sensor signals relating to the environment of the vehicle. Preferably the at least one first sensor is a radar, lidar, sonar, GPS, odometry, inertial and/or camera sensor. The at least one second sensor is preferably configured to detect sensor signals relating to the vehicle itself, such as e.g., a fuel level, a battery level, a number of occupants, and/or a velocity of the vehicle. The communication module is configured to receive and send information directly or indirectly via vehicle-to-vehicle, V2V, communication, vehicle to everything, V2X, communication or especially preferred via vehicle to infrastructure, V2I, communication.

The controller is preferably configured for determining a traffic scenario based on data received by the at least one first sensor and by the at least one second sensor. The controller is further preferably configured for partially or fully automated longitudinal and/or lateral guidance of the automated vehicle based on the traffic scenario and/or based on at least one command.

Particularly preferred, the controller is configured to detect a situation that requires assistance from the control center based on the traffic scenario. The controller is preferably configured for, if it detected a situation that requires assistance, sending a request message comprising a request for driving assistance and information on the traffic scenario to the control center via the communication module. Further preferred, the controller is configured for receiving at least one command and a validity information for the at least one command from the control center via the communication module. Further the controller is preferably configured for determining a feasibility of the at least one command based on the validity information, selecting one of the at least one command based on the feasibility and performing the selected command. Particularly preferred, the validity information has been determined based on a channel quality, particularly based on a channel quality of a communication channel between vehicle and control center. Further preferred, the validity information comprises information related to such channel quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the automated vehicle, the controller is further configured for determining a time of feasibility from the validity information. Preferably, the validity information contains an indication whether the uplink latency or the downlink latency or both were included in the determination of the validity information. Further preferred, the controller is configured to detect from the indication whether one or both latencies were included in the determination of the validity information. If both latencies were included, the controller is preferably configured to determine the time of feasibility as the time contained in the validity information. The controller in this preferred embodiment is further configured for selecting the one command with the largest time of feasibility from the at least one command. Further preferred, the controller is configured for discarding any command with the time of feasibility being below a predetermined threshold. The predetermined threshold is preferably below <NUM>, further preferred below <NUM> and especially preferred below <NUM>.

In a particularly preferred embodiment of the automated vehicle, the controller is further configured for determining a latency of the communication with the control center. It is preferred that the automated vehicle is configured to calculate the downlink latency based on a timestamp. The timestamp is preferably contained in the received command and indicates the time at which the command was sent. Further preferred, the uplink latency is estimated by the automated vehicle based on the downlink latency. Particularly preferred the uplink and/or downlink latency is determined by the automated vehicle based on the channel quality information received from at least one server of the mobile communication network. Advantageously, the vehicle thus considers channel quality during an assisted driving operation.

In this particularly preferred embodiment the controller is further configured for determining the time of feasibility based on the validity information and the determined latency. Preferably, the validity information contains an indication whether the uplink latency or the downlink latency or both were included in the determination of the validity information. Further preferred, the controller is configured to detect from the indication whether a latency was not included in the determination of the validity information. If a latency was not included, the controller is preferably configured to determine the time of feasibility as the difference of the time contained in the validity information and the latency that was not included. The controller in this particularly preferred embodiment is further configured for selecting the one command with the largest time of feasibility from the at least one command. Further preferred, the controller is configured for discarding any command with the time of feasibility being below a predetermined threshold. The predetermined threshold is preferably below <NUM>, further preferred below <NUM> and especially preferred below <NUM>.

According to a further preferred embodiment of the automated vehicle, the controller is further configured for sending a new request message to the control center if the feasibility of each of the at least one command is insufficient. In other words, if each of the at least one command was discarded for having a time of feasibility below the predetermined threshold, the controller is configured for sending the new request message to the control center. Particularly preferred, the controller is sending the new request message instead of selecting one command of the at least one command and performing the one command. In other words, the controller is restarting the method if each of the at least one command is found to be insufficient.

The different embodiments of the invention described herein may be advantageously combined unless the contrary is indicated herein.

Reference is now made to the following figures, in order to describe preferred embodiments of the invention in more detail.

Some portions of the detailed description which follows are presented in terms of data processing procedures, steps or other symbolic representations of operations on data bits that can be performed on computer memory. Therefore, a computer executes such logical steps thus requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities.

Usually these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated in a computer system. For reasons of common usage, these signals are referred to as bits, packets, messages, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like.

Additionally, all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Terms such as "processing" or "creating" or "transferring" or "executing" or "determining" or "detecting" or "obtaining" or "selecting" or "calculating" or "generating" or the like, refer to the action and processes of a computer system that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computer's registers and memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the memories or registers or other such information storage.

As utilized herein, the term "example" means serving as a non-limiting example, instance, or illustration. As utilized herein, the terms "for example" and "e.g." introduce a list of one or more non-limiting examples, instances, or illustrations.

Further, the use of "may" when describing embodiments of the present invention refers to "one or more embodiments of the present invention. " Further, in the following description of embodiments of the present invention, the terms of a singular form may include plural forms unless the presented context clearly indicates otherwise.

It will be understood that although the terms "first" and "second" are used to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another element. For example, a first element may be named a second element and, similarly, a second element may be named a first element, without departing from the scope of the present invention. As used herein, the term "and/or" includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items and expressions such as "at least one of" when preceding a list of elements, modify the entire list of elements.

Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments which are illustrated in the drawings. Effects and features of the exemplary embodiments will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. Therein, like reference numerals denote like elements, and redundant descriptions are omitted. The present invention, however, may be embodied in various different forms, and should not be construed as being limited to only the illustrated embodiments herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided solely as examples for fully conveying the aspects and features of the present invention to those skilled in the art.

<FIG> illustrates a method of a control center for operating an automated vehicle according to a preferred embodiment of the invention. In a first step S1 of the method, the control center receives a request message from the automated vehicle. The request message comprises a request for driving assistance and information on a traffic scenario of the automated vehicle.

The control center determines in a second step S2 of the method at least one command based on the traffic scenario received in the first step S1, wherein each of the one or more commands is for a maneuver of the automated vehicle. Further the control center determines a validity information for each command in the second step S2. Thereby at least one command and/or the validity information is determined based on a channel quality.

In a third step S3 of the method, the control center submits the at least one command and the validity information as determined in the second step S2 to the automated vehicle.

<FIG> illustrates an automated vehicle <NUM>, in particular an automated passenger vehicle with an internal combustion engine, an electric engine, or a hybrid engine, a control center <NUM> and a mobile communication network <NUM> according to preferred embodiments of the invention.

The automated vehicle <NUM> comprises a plurality of first sensors, in particular a first sensor <NUM>, a second sensor <NUM>, and a third sensor <NUM>. The first sensors <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> are arranged for detecting ambient data of the motor vehicle <NUM> and comprise, for example, a camera for detecting an image of a roadway and/or roadway boundaries located in front of the automated vehicle <NUM>, distance sensors, such as ultrasonic sensors, for detecting distances to objects surrounding the automated vehicle <NUM>, such as roadway boundaries, such as walls or guard rails. The first sensors <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> transmit the ambient data they detect to a controller <NUM> of the automated vehicle <NUM>.

The automated vehicle <NUM> further comprises a plurality of second sensors, in particular a fourth sensor <NUM>, a fifth sensor <NUM>, and a sixth sensor <NUM>. The second sensors <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> are sensors for determining vehicle data relating to the automated vehicle <NUM> itself, in particular current position and movement information of the automated vehicle <NUM>. Consequently, the second sensors are, for example, speed sensors, acceleration sensors, inclination sensors or the like. The second sensors <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> transmit the status data detected by them to the controller <NUM> of the automated vehicle <NUM>.

The controller <NUM> is configured for determining a traffic scenario based on the data received by first sensors <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> and by the second sensors <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>. The controller is further preferably configured for partially or fully automated longitudinal and lateral guidance of the automated vehicle <NUM> based on the traffic scenario.

Further the controller <NUM> according to the invention is configured to carry out the methods according to the invention, as explained in detail below. For this purpose, the controller <NUM> has an internal memory <NUM> and a CPU <NUM>, which communicate with one another, for example via a suitable data bus. Furthermore, the controller <NUM> is in communication connection with at least the first sensors <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, the second sensors <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> and a communication module <NUM>, for example via one or more respective CAN connections, one or more respective SPI connections or other suitable data connections.

The communication module <NUM> comprises a memory <NUM> and one or more transponders or transceivers <NUM>. The transceiver <NUM> is a radio, WLAN, GPS or Bluetooth transceiver or the like, in particular a transceiver configured for communication in a communication network. The transceiver <NUM> communicates with the internal memory <NUM> of the communication module <NUM>, for example via a suitable data bus. The communication module <NUM> also communicates with the control unit <NUM>, in particular transmitting data received therefrom and/or receiving data to be sent therefrom. Furthermore, the communication module <NUM> is adapted to communicate with a communication unit <NUM> of a control center <NUM> via V2I communication, preferably via a communication network <NUM>. Furthermore, the communication module <NUM> may also be arranged to communicate with one or more servers of the communication network <NUM>.

The communication network <NUM> is preferably a network according to 3GPP standard, for example an LTE, LTE-A (<NUM>) or <NUM> communication network. The communication network may further be configured for the following operations or according to the following standards: High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), a Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS), UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN), evolved-UTRAN (e-UTRAN), Global System for Mobile communication (GSM), Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), GSM/EDGE Radio Access Network (GERAN). Alternatively or additionally, the communication network can also be designed according to one of the following standards: Worldwide Inter-operability for Microwave Access (WIMAX) network IEEE <NUM>, Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) IEEE <NUM>. Also preferably, the communication network uses one of the following coding schemes: Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), a Wideband CDMA (WCDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), or Spatial Division Multiple Access (SDMA), etc..

The communication unit <NUM> of the control center <NUM> comprises a memory <NUM> and one or more transponders or transceivers <NUM>. The transceiver <NUM> is a radio, WLAN, GPS or Bluetooth transceiver or the like, in particular a transceiver configured for communication in a communication network. The transceiver <NUM> communicates with the internal memory <NUM> of the communication unit <NUM>, for example via a suitable data bus. The communication unit <NUM> also communicates with a control unit <NUM> of the control center <NUM>, for example via one or more respective CAN connections, one or more respective SPI connections or other suitable data connections, in particular transmitting data received therefrom and/or receiving data to be sent therefrom.

The control unit <NUM> according to the invention is configured to carry out the methods according to the invention, as explained in detail below. For this purpose, the controller <NUM> has an internal memory <NUM> and a CPU <NUM>, which communicate with one another, for example via a suitable data bus.

<FIG> illustrates an exemplary use case of the methods according to preferred embodiments of the invention with a control center <NUM> and an automated vehicle <NUM>. In particular, in this exemplary situation, a strong variation in the communication quality between the control center <NUM> and the automated vehicle <NUM> was detected, which is why a switch was made from direct control to remote support of the automated vehicle <NUM> by the control center <NUM>. This means that the automated vehicle <NUM> is supported by the control center <NUM> but is mostly responsible for its decisions.

In a first step <NUM>, the automated vehicle <NUM> determines a traffic scenario based on data received by the first sensors <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> and by the second sensors <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>. In a second step <NUM>, a deadlock situation is determined by the automated vehicle <NUM> based on the traffic scenario, in particular, a situation, that requires assistance from the control center <NUM>. In this exemplary situation, the automated vehicle <NUM> is standing in front of an unrestricted railroad crossing. Since it cannot independently recognize whether it is safe to cross the railroad crossing, it requests assistance from the control center <NUM>, by sending a request message M1 comprising a request for driving assistance and information on the traffic scenario to the control center <NUM>.

After receiving the request message M1, the control center <NUM>, in a third step <NUM>, determines a set of commands based on the traffic scenario, every command relating to a control signal, which causes the automated vehicle <NUM> to perform a specific maneuver. Each of the commands' maneuvers in this exemplary case have the goal of moving the automated vehicle <NUM> to the other side of the railroad crossing. An example of a maneuver would be to have the vehicle move forward at a certain speed until it clears the railroad crossing. In the third step, the control center <NUM> further determines the duration of the maneuver of every command in the set of commands, the duration being the time required by the automated vehicle <NUM> to complete the maneuver.

In a forth step <NUM>, the control center <NUM> determines, for every maneuver, the time window based on the traffic scenario and on traffic information. In this exemplary case, the control center <NUM> requests information about the rail traffic and determines based on this that a train will cross the railroad crossing in <NUM>. The time window, which is in particular the time span in which a maneuver can be safely executed completely, is therefore <NUM> for every maneuver.

In a fifth step <NUM>, the control center <NUM> determines based on the duration and time window for every maneuver the validity information. The validity information for each command is in this case determined as a difference of the time window for the maneuver of the command and the duration of the maneuver. For an exemplary maneuver, where the vehicle crosses the railroad crossing at a speed of <NUM>/h and needs <NUM> to do so, the validity information is therefore calculated with <NUM> minus <NUM> as <NUM>. Neither the latency L1 of the request message M1, i.e. the uplink latency L1, nor the latency L2 of the message M2 with which the command is sent to the automated vehicle <NUM>, i.e. the downlink latency L2, was taken into account in this case. The validity information for the exemplary maneuver thus consists of the determined time span of <NUM> and of an indication that none of the latencies has been included in the determination of the validity information.

Further the control center <NUM> selects in a sixth step <NUM> at least one command, for which the validity information exceeds a predetermined threshold. The predetermined threshold was chosen in this example as <NUM>. The command for the exemplary maneuver is thus selected by the control center <NUM>, since the validity information of <NUM> exceeds the predetermined threshold of <NUM>.

In a second message M2 the command for the exemplary maneuver together with other selected commands and with the validity information to each command is send to the automated vehicle <NUM> by the control center <NUM>.

After receiving the second message M2, the automated vehicle <NUM> determines, in a seventh step <NUM>, the uplink latency L1 and the downlink latency L2, because it has concluded from the validity informations received that those have not yet been included in the determination. In this exemplary case, the automated vehicle <NUM> first calculates the downlink latency L2 based on a timestamp of the second message M2, which indicates the time at which the second message M2 was sent. Then the automated vehicle <NUM> estimates the uplink latency L1 based on the downlink latency L2. In this exemplary case, the automated vehicle <NUM> determines both the downlink latency L2 and the uplink latency L1 as <NUM>.

In an eighth step <NUM>, the automated vehicle <NUM> determines the time of feasibility for every command as the difference of the time contained in the related validity information and the latency that was not included. The time of feasibility for the command of the exemplary maneuver is thus determined from the validity information of <NUM> minus the uplink latency of <NUM> and minus the downlink latency of <NUM> as <NUM>. The automated vehicle <NUM> then selects the one command with the largest time of feasibility from the one or more commands that were sent by the control center <NUM>. In this exemplary case, the command for the exemplary maneuver is selected.

The automated vehicle <NUM> is configured for discarding any command with the time of feasibility being below a predetermined threshold, which may be the same or a different predetermined threshold as used by the control center <NUM>. In this exemplary case, the predetermined threshold was chosen as <NUM>. Since the time of feasibility of the selected command exceeds this predetermined threshold (<NUM> > <NUM>), the method follows the path marked y in <FIG> and the ninth step <NUM> is executed by the automated vehicle <NUM>. The ninth step <NUM> consists of performing the selected command.

In another example, where the downlink latency is <NUM> due to a communication failure, the time of feasibility of the selected command is calculated to be <NUM> minus <NUM> minus <NUM> as <NUM>. The time of feasibility is now below the predetermined threshold, which is why the method follows the path marked with n in <FIG> and starts again from the beginning.

<FIG> illustrates another exemplary use case of the method according to a preferred embodiment of the invention with a control center <NUM> and an automated vehicle <NUM> in a mobile communication network <NUM>. The beginning of the method until the forth step <NUM> is the same as described above for <FIG>.

After determining the time window for every maneuver in the forth step <NUM> in this further exemplary case, the control center <NUM> requests channel quality information from the mobile communication network <NUM> by sending a third message M3 to at least one server of the mobile communication network <NUM>. The control center <NUM> then receives a forth message M4 from the at least one server that contains the requested channel quality information. The control center <NUM> now determines the uplink latency L1 and the downlink latency L2 for the communication between the control center <NUM> and the automated vehicle <NUM> based on the channel quality information. For example, the control center <NUM> determines the uplink latency L1 as <NUM> and the downlink latency L2 as <NUM>.

In a further step <NUM>, the control center <NUM> then determines the validity information for each command as a difference of the time window of the maneuver of the command and a total of the duration of the maneuver and the latency. For the exemplary maneuver, where the vehicle crosses the railroad crossing at a speed of <NUM>/h and needs <NUM> to do so, the validity information is therefore calculated with <NUM> minus <NUM> minus <NUM> minus <NUM> as <NUM>. Both the uplink latency L1 and the downlink latency L2 were taken into account while determining the validity information in this case. The validity information for the exemplary maneuver thus consists of the determined time span of <NUM> and of an indication that both of the latencies have been included in the determination of the validity information.

As described above for <FIG>, the control center <NUM> selects in the sixth step <NUM> at least one command for which the validity information exceeds the predetermined threshold, exemplarily chosen as <NUM>. The command for the exemplary maneuver is thus still selected in this further exemplary case and then send to the automated vehicle <NUM> with the second message M2.

After receiving the second message M2, the automated vehicle <NUM> concludes from the validity informations received that the latencies L1, L2 have been included in the determination. Therefore, the automated vehicle <NUM> directly executes the further step <NUM>, in which the time of feasibility of each command is determined as the time contained in the related validity information. The time of feasibility of the exemplary maneuver corresponds in this case to <NUM>. The automated vehicle <NUM> then selects the one command with the largest time of feasibility from the one or more commands that were sent by the control center <NUM>. In this further exemplary case, the command for the exemplary maneuver is selected.

The automated vehicle <NUM> is configured for discarding any command with the time of feasibility being below a predetermined threshold, exemplarily chosen as <NUM>. Since the time of feasibility of the selected command exceeds this predetermined threshold (<NUM> > <NUM>), the method follows the path marked y in <FIG> and the ninth step <NUM> is executed by the automated vehicle <NUM>. The ninth step <NUM> consists of performing the selected command.

Claim 1:
Method of a control center (<NUM>) for operating an automated vehicle (<NUM>), the method comprising the steps of:
(S1) receiving a request message (M1) comprising a request for driving assistance and information on a traffic scenario of the automated vehicle (<NUM>);
(S2) determining at least one command for a maneuver of the automated vehicle (<NUM>) based on the traffic scenario and determining a validity information for the at least one command,
wherein the at least one command and/or the validity information is determined based on a channel quality, and
wherein the validity information relates to a time of feasibility of the at least one command and specifies a time length in which the at least one command has to be executed and/or a time point until which the at least one command has to be executed; and
(S3) submitting (M2) the at least one command and the validity information to the automated vehicle (<NUM>).