Patent Issued for Technology For Real-Time Detection And Mitigation Of Remote Vehicle Anomalous Behavior (USPTO 10,540,892)

2020 JAN 31 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States) has been issued patent number 10,540,892, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Fields, Brian Mark (Normal, IL); Nepomuceno, John A. (Victoria, CA); Christensen, Scott Thomas (Salem, OR); Christiansen, Duane (Normal, IL); Cielocha, Steven C. (Bloomington, IL); Gaudin, Kristopher Keith (Bloomington, IL); Bernico, Michael (Bloomington, IL); Tofte, Nathan L. (Downs, IL); Roberson, Steve (Normal, IL).

This patent was filed on October 26, 2017 and was published online on February 3, 2020.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “Generally, vehicle operators may drive erratically at times. For example, some vehicle operators may get distracted (e.g., texting on a mobile phone, retrieving a dropped object, etc.), be impaired (e.g., falling asleep at the wheel, intoxicated, under the influence of prescription medications, etc.), or in some extreme cases be disabled by a medical emergency (e.g., a heart attack or stroke) while driving. In another example, anomalous behavior of a vehicle may be caused by its driver responding to an unexpected event (e.g., a deer crossing the road, road kill, a group of bicyclers and/or pedestrians, an icy patch, potholes, etc.), which drivers of other vehicles may not be able to see yet. Operating a vehicle while distracted, while unexpectedly disabled, and/or while responding to an unexpected event may lead to erratic, anomalous behavior of the vehicle, which may put the vehicle operator, additional vehicle occupants, and the occupants of other vehicles in close proximity at risk of an accident, injury, or death. Generally speaking, ‘anomalous’ behavior of a vehicle generally refers to vehicle behavior that deviates from or is inconsistent with common or expected vehicle behavior (for example, incongruous, inconsistent, abnormal, unusual, erratic, and/or unsafe behavior), and anomalous vehicle behavior may include vehicle behaviors that increase the risk of accident, injury, or death to proximate vehicles and pedestrians.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present disclosure generally relates to systems, methods, and techniques for the detection and mitigation of anomalous behavior of a remote vehicle, e.g., in real-time. Embodiments of example systems and methods are summarized below. The methods and systems summarized below may include additional, less, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“In an embodiment, a method may include monitoring an environment in which the first vehicle is operating, e.g., a vehicle environment. The monitoring of the vehicle environment may use data collected by set of sensors associated with the first vehicle. The method may also include determining, using one or more processors associated with the first vehicle and based upon a set of sensor data, a set of characteristics that is indicative of one or more behaviors of a remote vehicle operating within the vehicle environment, and accessing, using the one or more processors, a set of anomalous vehicle behavior characteristics determined based upon a set of historical vehicle behavior data, where the set of historical vehicle behavior data is based upon data obtained by a plurality of sensors while a plurality of drivers operated a plurality of vehicles. The method additionally includes comparing, using the one or more processors, the set of characteristics indicative of the one or more behaviors of the remote vehicle with the set of anomalous vehicle behavior characteristics; determining, using the one or more processors and based upon the comparing, that the remote vehicle is exhibiting an anomalous behavior; and mitigating an effect of the anomalous behavior of the remote vehicle, including providing an indication of the detected, anomalous behavior of the remote vehicle to the first vehicle, a second vehicle operating in the vehicle environment, and/or a public safety authority.

“In an embodiment, a system for the detection and mitigation of anomalous behavior of a vehicle is provided. The system may include one or more communication interfaces; one or more processors associated with a first vehicle and communicatively connected to a set of sensors associated with the first vehicle via the one or more communication interfaces; one or more tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable media coupled to the one or more processors; and computer-executable instructions stored on the one or more computer-readable media thereby particularly configuring the one or more computer-readable media. The one or more processors may be configured to execute computer-executable instructions to cause the system to monitor, via the set of sensors, an environment in which the first vehicle is operating, the environment in which the first vehicle is operating being a vehicle environment; determine, based upon a set of sensor data generated by the set of sensors, a set of characteristics indicative of one or more behaviors of a remote vehicle operating within the vehicle environment; and access a set of anomalous vehicle behavior characteristics, where the set of anomalous vehicle behavior characteristics is generated from a set of historical vehicle behavior data, and the set of historical vehicle behavior data corresponds to data obtained by a plurality of sensors while a plurality of drivers operated a plurality of vehicles. The computer-executable instructions, when executed, may further cause the system to compare the set of characteristics indicative of the one or more behaviors of the remote vehicle with the set of anomalous vehicle behavior characteristics; determine, based upon the comparison of the one or more behaviors of the remote vehicle and the set of anomalous vehicle behavior characteristics, an anomalous behavior exhibited by the vehicle; and mitigate an effect of the anomalous behavior of the remote vehicle, which may include providing, via the one or more communication interfaces, an indication of the detected, anomalous behavior to the first vehicle, a second vehicle operating in the vehicle environment, and/or a public safety authority.

“Systems or computer-readable media storing executable instructions for implementing all or part of the systems and/or methods described herein may also be provided in some embodiments. Systems for implementing such methods may include one or more of the following: a special-purpose computing device, a mobile computing device, a personal electronic device, an on-board computer or electronic device, one or more remote servers or cloud computing system, one or more remote data storage entities, one or more sensors, one or more communication modules configured to communicate wirelessly via radio links, radio frequency links, and/or wireless communication channels, and/or one or more non-transitory, tangible program memories coupled to one or more processors of the special-purpose computing device, mobile computing device, personal electronic device, on-board computer or electronic device, and/or one or more remote servers or cloud computing system. Such program memories may store instructions, which, when executed by the one or more processors, may cause a system described herein to implement part or all of one or more methods described herein. Additional or alternative features described herein below may be included in some embodiments.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed:

“1. A method for detecting and mitigating anomalous behavior of a vehicle, the method comprising: monitoring, using data collected by a set of sensors associated with a first vehicle operated by a first driver, an environment in which the first vehicle is operating, the environment in which the first vehicle is operating being a vehicle environment; determining, using one or more processors associated with the first vehicle and based upon sensor data generated by the set of sensors, a set of characteristics indicative of one or more behaviors of a remote vehicle operating within the vehicle environment; accessing, using the one or more processors, a set of anomalous vehicle behavior characteristics determined based upon a set of historical vehicle behavior data, the set of historical vehicle behavior data based upon data obtained by a plurality of sensors while a plurality of drivers operated a plurality of vehicles; comparing, using the one or more processors, the set of characteristics indicative of the one or more behaviors of the remote vehicle with the set of anomalous vehicle behavior characteristics; determining, using the one or more processors and based upon the comparing, that the remote vehicle is exhibiting an anomalous behavior; mitigating an effect of the anomalous behavior of the remote vehicle, including communicating an indication of the detected, anomalous behavior of the remote vehicle to an electronic device associated with a second vehicle operating in the vehicle environment, the second vehicle being distinct from the remote vehicle, and providing an indication of the detected, anomalous behavior of the remote vehicle for presentation via a user interface disposed in the second vehicle.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein monitoring the vehicle environment using the data collected by the set of sensors associated with the first vehicle comprises monitoring the vehicle environment using the data collected by at least one of: a first set of sensors disposed at the first vehicle; a second set of sensors disposed in the vehicle environment external to the first vehicle, the second set of sensors fixedly attached to one or more other vehicles operating in the vehicle environment; or a third set of sensors disposed in the vehicle environment external to the first vehicle, the third set of sensors fixedly attached to one or more fixtures or infrastructure components disposed in the vehicle environment.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein monitoring the vehicle environment comprises monitoring a set of current behaviors of one or more other vehicles within a threshold distance of the first vehicle, the one or more other vehicles including the remote vehicle.

“4. The method of claim 3, wherein monitoring the vehicle environment further comprises monitoring a set of current contextual conditions of the vehicle environment.

“5. The method of claim 1, wherein comparing the set of characteristics indicative of one or more behaviors of the remote vehicle with the set of anomalous vehicle behavior data comprises applying a model to the set of characteristics indicative of the one or more behaviors of the remote vehicle, the model generated based upon a statistical analysis or a learning method performed on the set of historical vehicle behavior data.

“6. The method of claim 5, wherein determining the remote vehicle is exhibiting the anomalous behavior comprises determining the remote vehicle is exhibiting the anomalous behavior based upon an output generated from the application of the model to the set of characteristics indicative of the one or more behaviors of the remote vehicle.

“7. The method of claim 6, wherein: the output generated from the application of the model to the set of characteristics indicative of the one or more behaviors of the remote vehicle includes an indication of one or more mitigation actions corresponding to the anomalous behavior; and mitigating the effect of the anomalous behavior includes suggesting or performing the one or more mitigation actions.

“8. The method of claim 1, wherein mitigating the effect of the anomalous behavior of the remote vehicle comprises at least one of: providing a first instruction to automatically modify an operating behavior of the first vehicle, the first instruction based upon the detected, anomalous behavior of the remote vehicle; or providing a second instruction to automatically modify an operating behavior of the second vehicle operating within the vehicle environment, the second instruction based upon the detected, anomalous behavior of the remote vehicle.

“9. The method of claim 1, wherein mitigating an effect of the anomalous behavior of the remote vehicle comprises at least one of: providing an indication of the detected, anomalous behavior of the remote vehicle for presentation via at least one of a user interface disposed in the first vehicle operating within the vehicle environment; providing an indication of a suggested modification to an operating behavior of the first vehicle for presentation via the user interface disposed in the first vehicle; or providing an indication of a suggested modification to an operating behavior of the second vehicle for presentation via the user interface disposed in the second vehicle, wherein the second vehicle is operating within the vehicle environment.

“10. The method of claim 1, wherein mitigating the effect of the anomalous behavior of the remote vehicle comprises automatically notifying a public safety authority of the detected, anomalous behavior of the remote vehicle.

“11. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the set of anomalous vehicle behavior characteristics based upon the set of historical vehicle behavior data, the set of historical vehicle behavior data including data indicative of historical contextual conditions.

“12. A system for detection and mitigation of anomalous behavior of a vehicle, the system comprising: one or more communication interfaces; one or more processors associated with a first vehicle operated by a first driver, the one or more processors being communicatively connected to a set of sensors associated with the first vehicle via the one or more communication interfaces; one or more tangible, non-transitory computer-readable media coupled to the one or more processors; and computer-executable instructions stored on the one or more tangible, non-transitory computer-readable media thereby particularly configuring the one or more tangible, non-transitory computer-readable media, the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, causing the system to: monitor, via the set of sensors, an environment in which the first vehicle is operating, the environment in which the first vehicle is operating being a vehicle environment; determine, based upon a set of sensor data generated by the set of sensors, a set of characteristics indicative of one or more behaviors of a remote vehicle operating within the vehicle environment; access a set of anomalous vehicle behavior characteristics, the set of anomalous vehicle behavior characteristics generated from a set of historical vehicle behavior data, the set of historical vehicle behavior data corresponding to data obtained by a plurality of sensors while a plurality of drivers operated a plurality of vehicles; compare the set of characteristics indicative of the one or more behaviors of the remote vehicle with the set of anomalous vehicle behavior characteristics; determine, based upon the comparison of the one or more behaviors of the remote vehicle and the set of anomalous vehicle behavior characteristics, an anomalous behavior exhibited by the vehicle; and mitigate an effect of the anomalous behavior of the remote vehicle, including: communicating, via the one or more communication interfaces, an indication of the detected, anomalous behavior to an electronic device associated with a second vehicle operating in the vehicle environment, the second vehicle being distinct from the remote vehicle, and providing an indication of the detected, anomalous behavior of the remote vehicle for presentation via a user interface disposed in the second vehicle.

“13. The system of claim 12, wherein at least a portion of the one or more processors associated with the first vehicle is disposed in at least one of: (i) an electronic device that is fixedly attached to the first vehicle, or (ii) a portable device associated with the first driver and disposed in the first vehicle.

“14. The system of claim 13, wherein: at least another portion of the one or more processors associated with the first vehicle is disposed at one or more remote servers that are associated with the first vehicle and that are communicatively connected, via the one or more communication interfaces, to the at least one of the electronic device that is fixedly attached to the first vehicle, or the portable device associated with the first driver and disposed in the first vehicle; and at least a portion of the set of anomalous vehicle behavior characteristics is accessible to the one or more remote servers.

“15. The system of claim 12, wherein at least a subset of the set of anomalous vehicle behavior characteristics is generated from the set of historical vehicle behavior data by using at least one of a statistical analysis or a learning method.

“16. The system of claim 12, wherein the set of sensors associated with the first vehicle operated by the first driver includes at least one of: a first set of sensors disposed at the first vehicle; or a second set of sensors disposed at one or more other vehicles operating in the vehicle environment; or a third set of sensors disposed on one or more stationary fixtures disposed in the vehicle environment.

“17. The system of claim 12, wherein at least one of the first vehicle or the second vehicle is an autonomous vehicle.

“18. The system of claim 12, wherein the first vehicle and the second vehicle are communicatively connected via the one or more communication interfaces.

“19. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing computer-readable instructions to be executed on one or more processors of a system for detection and mitigation of anomalous behavior of a vehicle, the computer-readable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, causing the system to: monitor, using data collected by a set of sensors associated with a first vehicle operated by a first driver, an environment in which the first vehicle is operating, the environment in which the first vehicle is operating being a vehicle environment; determine, based upon a set of sensor data generated by the set of sensors, a set of characteristics indicative of one or more behaviors of a remote vehicle operating within the vehicle environment; access a set of anomalous vehicle behavior characteristics determined based upon a set of historical vehicle behavior data, the set of historical vehicle behavior data based upon data obtained by a plurality of sensors while a plurality of drivers operated a plurality of vehicles; compare the set of characteristics indicative of the one or more behaviors of the remote vehicle with the set of anomalous vehicle behavior characteristics; determine, based upon the comparing, that the remote vehicle is exhibiting an anomalous behavior; and mitigate an effect of the anomalous behavior of the remote vehicle, including: communicating, via the one or more communication interfaces, an indication of the detected, anomalous behavior to an electronic device associated with a second vehicle operating in the vehicle environment, the second vehicle being distinct from the remote vehicle, and providing an indication of the detected, anomalous behavior of the remote vehicle for presentation via a user interface disposed in the second vehicle.

“20. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 19, wherein the computer-readable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the system to at least one of: (a) provide a first instruction to automatically modify an operating behavior of the first vehicle, the first instruction based upon the detected, anomalous behavior of the remote vehicle; (b) provide a second instruction to automatically modify an operating behavior of the second vehicle operating within the vehicle environment, the second instruction based upon the detected, anomalous behavior of the remote vehicle; © provide an indication of the detected, anomalous behavior of the remote vehicle for presentation via at least one of a user interface disposed in the first vehicle operating within the vehicle environment; (d) provide an indication of a suggested modification to an operating behavior of the first vehicle for presentation via the user interface disposed in the first vehicle; or (e) provide an indication of a suggested modification to an operating behavior of the second vehicle for presentation via the user interface disposed in the second vehicle, wherein the second vehicle is operating within the vehicle environment.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Fields, Brian Mark; Nepomuceno, John A.; Christensen, Scott Thomas; Christiansen, Duane; Cielocha, Steven C.; Gaudin, Kristopher Keith; Bernico, Michael; Tofte, Nathan L.; Roberson, Steve. Technology For Real-Time Detection And Mitigation Of Remote Vehicle Anomalous Behavior. U.S. Patent Number 10,540,892, filed October 26, 2017, and published online on February 3, 2020. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=10,540,892.PN.&OS=PN/10,540,892RS=PN/10,540,892

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