CN114743371A

CN114743371A - Intelligent vehicle, control method thereof and driving system

Info

Publication number: CN114743371A
Application number: CN202210314933.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 童超; 张运方
Original assignee: Alibaba China Co Ltd
Current assignee: Alibaba China Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-03-28
Filing date: 2022-03-28
Publication date: 2022-07-12
Also published as: WO2023185773A1

Abstract

The embodiment of the application provides an intelligent vehicle, a control method of the intelligent vehicle and a driving system of the intelligent vehicle. Due to the fact that the millimeter wave base station is low in cost and high in deployment efficiency, the driving system can be rapidly deployed in any area, the distribution range of the intelligent vehicle is not limited, and the intelligent vehicle can be flexibly applied to various distribution scenes. In addition, the millimeter wave base station has enough available bandwidth and higher antenna gain, can support ultra-high-speed transmission rate, is narrow in wave beam, flexible and controllable, and can be connected with a large number of intelligent vehicles, so that the ever-increasing unmanned distribution requirement is met.

Description

Intelligent vehicle, control method thereof and driving system

Technical Field

The application relates to the technical field of unmanned driving, in particular to an intelligent vehicle and a control method and a driving system thereof.

Background

With the continuous development of the unmanned technology, more and more industries are influenced by the unmanned technology, and the industrial landing is realized. The intelligent vehicle is one of the applications of unmanned technique under the limited scene, for example, in the delivery scene, the intelligent vehicle can be automatically delivered goods to the delivery person, practices thrift artifical delivery cost, and compares artifical delivery, and the intelligent vehicle can work in all weather, can improve delivery efficiency by a wide margin.

The operation process of the intelligent vehicle has extremely high requirements on data flow and time delay, so in the related technology, the operation of the intelligent vehicle is usually realized by adopting a WiFi private network. However, the WiFi private network is easily interfered and has a limited coverage area, so that the smart car can only operate in a limited range, and the network requirements of more and more smart cars cannot be met.

Disclosure of Invention

Aspects of the application provide an intelligent vehicle, a control method thereof and a driving system, so as to solve the technical problem that in a traditional driving system, the operating range of the intelligent vehicle is limited due to limited network coverage area.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a control method for an intelligent vehicle, where the intelligent vehicle includes: the intelligent vehicle is in communication connection with the millimeter wave base station through the wireless communication unit, and the control method comprises the following steps: acquiring real-time information of the intelligent vehicle acquired by an information acquisition unit; the method comprises the steps that real-time information is sent to a millimeter wave base station through a wireless communication unit, the real-time information is used for indicating the millimeter wave base station to forward the real-time information to an edge server, the edge server is used for generating first instruction information based on the real-time information, and the first instruction information is sent to an intelligent vehicle through the millimeter wave base station; receiving first instruction information through a wireless communication unit; and controlling the intelligent vehicle to operate based on the first instruction information through the control unit.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a driving system, including: the intelligent vehicle is provided with an information acquisition unit, a wireless communication unit and a control unit; the intelligent vehicle is used for acquiring real-time information of the intelligent vehicle through the information acquisition unit and sending the real-time information to the millimeter wave base station through the wireless communication unit; the millimeter wave base station is used for receiving the real-time information and forwarding the real-time information to the edge server; the edge server is used for generating first instruction information based on the real-time information; the millimeter wave base station is further configured to: acquiring first instruction information sent by an edge server, and sending the first instruction information to a control unit through a wireless communication unit; and the control unit is used for controlling the operation of the intelligent vehicle based on the first instruction information.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a control device for an intelligent vehicle, where the intelligent vehicle includes: information acquisition unit, wireless communication unit and the control unit, intelligent car passes through wireless communication unit and millimeter wave base station communication connection, and controlling means includes: the acquisition module is used for acquiring the real-time information of the intelligent vehicle acquired by the information acquisition unit; the sending module is used for sending real-time information to the millimeter wave base station through the wireless communication unit, the real-time information is used for indicating the millimeter wave base station to forward the real-time information to the edge server, the edge server is used for generating first instruction information based on the real-time information, and the first instruction information is sent to the intelligent vehicle through the millimeter wave base station; the receiving module is used for receiving the first instruction information through the wireless communication unit; and the processing module is used for controlling the operation of the intelligent vehicle based on the first instruction information through the control unit.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides an intelligent vehicle, including: at least one processor; and a memory communicatively coupled to the at least one processor; the storage stores instructions executable by the at least one processor, and the instructions are executed by the at least one processor to enable the intelligent vehicle to execute the control method of the intelligent vehicle in any one of the first aspect.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, where the computer program is executed by a processor, and the control method for a smart car provided in the first aspect is provided.

The intelligent vehicle, the control method thereof and the driving system thereof, provided by the embodiment of the application, acquire real-time information of the intelligent vehicle acquired by the information acquisition unit; the method comprises the steps that real-time information is sent to a millimeter wave base station through a wireless communication unit, the real-time information is used for indicating the millimeter wave base station to forward the real-time information to an edge server, the edge server is used for generating first instruction information based on the real-time information, and the first instruction information is sent to an intelligent vehicle through the millimeter wave base station; receiving first instruction information through a wireless communication unit; and controlling the operation of the intelligent vehicle based on the first instruction information through the control unit. In the embodiment of the application, the millimeter wave base station is low in cost and high in deployment efficiency, and the driving system can be rapidly deployed in a designated area, so that the delivery range of the intelligent vehicle is not limited, and the intelligent vehicle can be flexibly applied to various delivery scenes. In addition, the millimeter wave base station has enough available bandwidth and higher antenna gain, can support ultra-high-speed transmission rate, is narrow in wave beam, flexible and controllable, and can be connected with a large number of intelligent vehicles, so that the ever-increasing unmanned distribution requirement is met.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the application and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate embodiment(s) of the application and together with the description serve to explain the application and not to limit the application. In the drawings:

fig. 1 is a first scene schematic diagram of a driving system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a first schematic view of a driving system provided in an exemplary embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a first flowchart illustrating a control method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 4 is a schematic view of a second scenario of the driving system according to the exemplary embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a second flowchart illustrating a control method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a second principle of a driving system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a control device provided in an exemplary embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of an edge server according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present application more apparent, the technical solutions of the present application will be described in detail and completely with reference to the following specific embodiments of the present application and the accompanying drawings. It should be apparent that the described embodiments are only a few embodiments of the present application, and not all embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present application.

With the rapid development of industries such as express delivery, take-out and the like, the use of intelligent vehicles for receiving and sending express delivery and delivery take-out gradually becomes a trend. However, the intelligent vehicle has high requirements for the data traffic and the time delay of the network, if the operator 4G is used for communication, the data traffic and the time delay provided by the intelligent vehicle cannot meet the requirements of vehicle driving, and if the operator public network 5G system is used, although the data traffic and the time delay can meet the driving requirements, because the number of base stations of the 5G public network is small, the coverage area of the intelligent vehicle is limited, the intelligent vehicle can only operate in a limited area, and meanwhile, the cost of the operator public network 5G system is very high.

In the related technology, one solution is to drive an unmanned logistics vehicle by adopting an industrial WiFi private network, but due to too much interference received by WiFi, the normal work of an intelligent vehicle is easily influenced; meanwhile, WiFi has poor mobility and is limited by transmitting power, so that a WiFi private network is mostly built indoors, and the outdoor coverable area is very small (effective within hundreds of square meters).

In view of this, the embodiment of the application provides an intelligent vehicle, a control method thereof and a driving system thereof, a millimeter wave base station is built to form a millimeter wave dedicated network, and a dedicated wireless communication unit is configured on the intelligent vehicle, so that the communication between the intelligent vehicle and the millimeter wave base station is realized through the wireless communication unit, and the operation of the intelligent vehicle is controlled through an edge server based on the millimeter wave dedicated network, thereby completing unmanned delivery. In the embodiment of the application, the millimeter wave base station is low in cost and high in deployment efficiency, and the driving system can be rapidly deployed in a designated area, so that the delivery range of the intelligent vehicle is not limited, and the intelligent vehicle can be flexibly applied to various delivery scenes. In addition, the millimeter wave base station has enough available bandwidth and higher antenna gain, can support ultra-high-speed transmission rate, is narrow in wave beam, flexible and controllable, and can be connected with a large number of intelligent vehicles, so that the ever-increasing unmanned distribution requirement is met.

The technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present application are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 is a first scene schematic diagram of a driving system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 1, the scenario includes: at least one millimeter wave base station (millimeter wave base station 101a and millimeter wave base station 101b are shown in the figure as an example, but the number and the arrangement manner of the millimeter wave base stations are not specifically limited in practical application), an intelligent vehicle 102, and an edge server 103.

In some optional embodiments, the millimeter wave base stations may be plug and play Small base stations (Small Cells), and the millimeter wave base stations may be deployed in a certain scale according to the size of the area where the driving system is located, so that the network of the millimeter wave base stations can cover the whole area. Illustratively, as shown in fig. 1, area 1 is the mm wave network coverage area of mm wave base station 101a, and area 2 is the mm wave network coverage area of mm wave base station 101 b.

It should be understood that the area where the traveling system is deployed may be any area, and the embodiment of the present application is not limited to this area, for example, an industrial park, a campus, and the like.

Accordingly, the smart car 102 provided in the embodiment of the present application may also be applied to different scenarios, and the types of the smart cars in the different scenarios are not as different as possible, and for example, the smart car 102 includes but is not limited to the following types: unmanned logistics vehicles, unmanned patrol vehicles, unmanned plug-in vehicles, unmanned sweeper vehicles, unmanned transport vehicles, unmanned retail vehicles and the like, but are not limited to the typical multifunctional intelligent vehicles; the series of intelligent vehicles can adopt an automatic driving technology to replace people to complete logistics, patrol, ferry, cleaning, freight, retail and other tasks, and the intelligent service level is greatly improved.

In addition, the edge server 103 may be a single server, a server cluster, a distributed server, a centralized server, or a cloud server, which is not specifically limited in this embodiment of the application, where the cloud server may be an edge cloud server.

In the embodiment of the present disclosure, a wireless communication unit is provided in the smart car 102, and is used for establishing a communication connection with the millimeter wave base station. In the operation process, when the intelligent vehicle 102 operates within the coverage range of a certain millimeter wave base station, the wireless communication unit can establish communication connection with the millimeter wave base station, so that the intelligent vehicle communicates with the edge server 103 through the millimeter wave base station.

Correspondingly, the edge server 103 is configured to obtain real-time information of the smart car based on the millimeter wave base station, so as to make a decision according to the real-time information, obtain instruction information according to a decision result, and send the instruction information to the smart car 102 through the millimeter wave base station, so as to control the operation of the smart car 102 through the instruction information.

It should be noted that the above description of the driving system is only for illustration and description, and does not limit the application scope of the embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious to those skilled in the art that various modifications and changes can be made to the driving system described above under the guidance of one or more embodiments of the present application. Of course, such modifications and variations are within the scope of the present description.

In addition, the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application may be applicable to various communication systems, such as a 5G System, a 6G System, and the like, and the System further includes a core network portion, such as an Evolved Packet System (EPS), a 5G System (5GS), and the like. Correspondingly, the millimeter wave base station in the embodiment of the present application may be a 5G millimeter wave base station or a 6G millimeter wave base station, and the like.

In the following, the technical solution of the present application is described in detail by specific embodiments in conjunction with the application scenario shown in fig. 1. It should be noted that the following specific embodiments may be combined with each other, and the same or similar concepts or processes may not be described in detail in some embodiments.

Referring to fig. 2, fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a first principle of a driving system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 2, the traveling system includes: smart car 102, millimeter wave base stations 101a/101b, and edge server 103.

Wherein, intelligent car 102 includes: the intelligent vehicle 102 comprises an information acquisition unit 1021, a wireless communication unit 1022 and a control unit 1023, and the wireless communication unit 1022 can be used for being in communication connection with the millimeter wave base station.

Next, the operation principle of the traveling system will be described in detail with reference to fig. 3. Referring to fig. 3, fig. 3 is a first flowchart illustrating a control method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 3, the control method of the smart car provided in the embodiment of the present application includes the following steps:

s301, the intelligent vehicle acquires the real-time information of the intelligent vehicle acquired by the information acquisition unit.

In practical application, the information acquisition unit 1021 on the intelligent vehicle 102 can be flexibly set according to the information acquisition requirement, and the specific category of the information acquisition unit is not limited in the embodiment of the application. Illustratively, the information collection unit 1021 includes, but is not limited to, one or more of the following: image acquisition modules (e.g., cameras, etc.), audio acquisition modules (e.g., microphones, etc.), sensors (e.g., temperature and humidity sensors, gas sensors, thermal imagery sensors, pressure sensors, photoelectric sensors, gyroscopes, acceleration sensors, meteorological sensors, anemometers, etc.), ranging modules (e.g., infrared, ultrasonic, lidar, millimeter wave radar, etc.), and the like.

Correspondingly, the information acquisition unit 1021 is used for acquiring real-time information in the driving process.

The real-time information includes, but is not limited to, the following types according to different categories of the information acquisition unit 1021: image information, audio information, and environment perception information, etc., wherein the environment perception information includes, but is not limited to, one or more of the following: temperature and humidity information, thermodynamic diagram information, distance information (e.g., distance to road edge, distance from vehicle, distance from obstacle, etc.), pressure information of vehicle (e.g., impact pressure, vehicle load pressure, etc.), vehicle speed information, wind power level, wind speed, etc., which are not listed here.

And S302, the intelligent vehicle sends real-time information to the millimeter wave base station through the wireless communication unit.

And S303, the millimeter wave base station forwards the real-time information to the edge server.

It should be noted that, the embodiment of the present application is not limited to the type of the wireless communication unit 1022, and the wireless communication unit 1022 may include, for example, a Vehicle-to-event networking module (V2X).

It should be understood that the wireless communication unit 1022 in the embodiment of the present application at least includes a V2N module, configured to communicate with the millimeter wave base station through the V2N module, and obtain the instruction information sent by the edge server based on the millimeter wave base station.

It should be noted that, for a specific manner of sending real-time information to the millimeter wave base station, the embodiment of the present application is not particularly limited. For example, the position of the smart car 102 may be determined, and then the millimeter wave base station for forwarding the current real-time information may be determined based on the coverage area of the millimeter wave base station at the position. For example, referring to fig. 1, if the smart car 102 is currently in the coverage of the millimeter wave base station 101a, the real-time information is sent to the millimeter wave base station 101a, so that the millimeter wave base station 101a forwards the real-time information to the edge server 103.

In some optional embodiments, the coverage areas of the millimeter wave base stations may overlap, and in this scenario, on one hand, the currently acquired real-time information may be forwarded through the millimeter wave base station closest to the smart car; on the other hand, the channel quality of the millimeter wave base stations can be obtained, and the real-time information is forwarded through the millimeter wave base stations with better channel quality; in other aspects, the real-time information may also be sent in a broadcast message manner, and when a certain millimeter wave base station receives the broadcast message, the real-time information is forwarded. Through several kinds of above-mentioned implementation methods, all can prevent the condition of real-time information transmission failure, promote the reliability of real-time information's transmission course, ensure intelligent vehicle control process's real-time.

S304, the edge server generates first instruction information based on the real-time information.

It should be noted that, the edge server may provide a plurality of real-time services, and the first instruction information corresponding to different services is different, for example, the edge server may provide, but is not limited to, at least one of the following services: danger warnings (e.g., zebra crossing warnings, collision warnings, vehicle fault warnings), speed suggestions, violation warnings (e.g., overspeed warnings, red light running warnings, etc.), route planning, etc.

Accordingly, the first instruction information includes, but is not limited to, at least one of: braking, decelerating, accelerating, traveling at x speed, turning left, turning right, etc.

S305, the edge server sends the first instruction information to the millimeter wave base station.

S306, the millimeter wave base station sends the first instruction information to the wireless communication unit.

The millimeter wave base station in steps S305 and S306 may be a base station for forwarding the real-time information to the edge server 103, or may be another base station.

Taking the millimeter wave base station for forwarding the real-time information as the millimeter wave base station 101a as an example, in the first example, the data processing efficiency of the edge server 103 is high, the response speed for obtaining the first instruction information is high, when the edge server obtains the first instruction information, the smart car 102 may still be within the coverage of the millimeter wave base station 101a, and at this time, the edge server 103 may send the first instruction information to the millimeter wave base station 101a, thereby completing forwarding. Through the scheme, the millimeter wave base station for forwarding the first instruction information does not need to be determined again, the real-time performance of the control process of the intelligent vehicle can be guaranteed, and the reliability of the intelligent vehicle is improved.

In the second example, while the real-time information is being sent, the smart car 102 may be located at the network coverage edge of the millimeter wave base station 101a, and after the millimeter wave base station 101a completes forwarding the real-time information, since the smart car 102 may still be in the driving process, when the edge server 103 obtains the first instruction information, the smart car 102 is likely not within the network coverage area of the original millimeter wave base station 101 a.

In this scenario, on one hand, after obtaining the first instruction information, the edge server 103 may obtain the current location of the smart car 102, and determine the coverage area of the millimeter wave base station where the smart car is located based on the current location, so as to forward the first instruction information to the smart car through the millimeter wave base station. For example, referring to fig. 1, when the edge server 103 acquires the first instruction information according to the real-time information, the smart car 102 may have traveled to the coverage of the millimeter wave base station 101b, and at this time, the edge server sends the first instruction information to the millimeter wave base station 101 b.

On the other hand, after obtaining the first instruction information, the edge server 103 may still send the first instruction information to the millimeter wave base station for forwarding the real-time information, and the millimeter wave base station determines whether the smart car 102 is still within the network coverage area of the smart car, and if so, directly forwards the first instruction information to the smart car 102; if not, the first instruction information is forwarded to other millimeter wave base stations, and the other millimeter wave base stations forward to the intelligent vehicle 102. For example, after obtaining the first instruction information, the edge server 103 may forward the first instruction information to the millimeter wave base station 101a, determine whether the smart car is currently within the network coverage area of the smart car by the millimeter wave base station 101a, forward the first instruction information to the surrounding millimeter wave base station 101b if the smart car is not currently within the network coverage area of the smart car, and forward the first instruction information to the smart car 102 by the millimeter wave base station 101 b.

Through above-mentioned several kinds of implementation methods, all can ensure that first instruction information can forward smoothly to corresponding intelligent car, prevent to promote the reliability of intelligent car because first instruction information is forwarded untimely potential safety hazard that causes.

In other aspects, the edge server 103 may also send the first indication information in the form of a broadcast message, and when a certain millimeter wave base station receives the broadcast message, the millimeter wave base station forwards the first indication information to the smart car. Through this embodiment, edge server and millimeter wave basic station all need not to confirm the position of intelligent car, can promote the efficiency of forwardding of first instruction information, and then guarantee intelligent car control process's real-time, promote the reliability of intelligent car.

S307, the intelligent vehicle receives the first instruction information through the wireless communication unit, and the control unit controls the intelligent vehicle to operate based on the first instruction information.

In the embodiment of the application, the millimeter wave base station is low in cost and high in deployment efficiency, and the driving system can be rapidly deployed in a designated area, so that the delivery range of the intelligent vehicle is not limited, and the intelligent vehicle can be flexibly applied to various delivery scenes. In addition, the millimeter wave base station has enough available bandwidth and higher antenna gain, can support ultra-high-speed transmission rate, is narrow in wave beam, flexible and controllable, and can be connected with a large number of intelligent vehicles, so that the ever-increasing unmanned distribution requirement is met.

Meanwhile, the same edge server can serve a plurality of intelligent vehicles, the response speed of the edge server is high, the accuracy is high, the service requirements of a large number of intelligent vehicles can be met, the real-time performance and the accuracy of decision can be guaranteed, and the reliability of the intelligent vehicles can be improved.

In some optional embodiments, the wireless communication unit 1022 in the embodiment of the present application may further include one or more of a Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) module, a Vehicle-to-Pedestrian (V2P) module, and a Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) module.

The functions that the modules can realize include the following aspects:

(1) the smart car 102 can perform real-time communication with other vehicles based on the V2V module, so as to perform at least one service of collision early warning, lane change assistance, left turn assistance, cooperative adaptive cruise control, and the like;

(2) the intelligent vehicle 102 can perform real-time communication with infrastructure (such as traffic lights, roadblocks, road signs and the like) based on the V2I module, so as to realize at least one function of speed suggestion, traffic priority, road condition early warning, red light running early warning, current weather influence early warning, parking space and charging pile position finding;

(3) the smart car 102 can implement early warning and protection of the vulnerable road users based on the V2P module, for example, warning of yielding of vulnerable people and special emergency vehicles on the road.

It should be noted that, when the wireless communication unit 1022 is only configured as the V2N module, the corresponding functions of the other modules described above can also be realized by the V2N module. Specifically, the acquired real-time information can be sent to the edge server through the V2N module, the edge server processes the acquired real-time information according to the real-time information to obtain first instruction information, and the first instruction information is sent to the intelligent vehicle 102.

Taking a collision early warning function as an example, the distance information acquired by the information acquisition unit 1021 in real time may be sent to an edge server through a millimeter wave base station, and the edge server determines the current distance between the intelligent vehicle 102 and another vehicle according to the distance information, so as to perform collision early warning on the intelligent vehicle 102, and obtain first instruction information according to an early warning result, so as to control the operation of the intelligent vehicle 102 through the first instruction information, in this scenario, the first instruction information includes at least one of the following: and the command information is used for indicating braking, deceleration and normal running.

In a second example, taking a traffic light early warning function as an example, the image information of the traffic light acquired by the information acquisition unit 1021 in real time may be sent to the edge server through the millimeter wave base station, the edge server may determine a current traffic condition according to the image information, and obtain the first instruction information according to the traffic condition, so as to send the first instruction information to the smart car through the millimeter wave base station, so as to control the operation of the smart car 102. For example, if the current light is red, the first instruction information is used for controlling the intelligent vehicle 102 to brake, and if the current light is green, the first instruction information is used for controlling the intelligent vehicle to continue to run.

Taking the vulnerable crowd detection function on the road as an example, the image information of the road collected by the information collection unit 1021 in real time may be sent to the edge server through the millimeter wave base station, the edge server determines whether there is a pedestrian on the current road according to the image information, and obtains the first instruction information based on the determination result, so as to send the first instruction information to the smart car through the millimeter wave base station, so as to control the operation of the smart car 102. For example, if the intelligent vehicle is judged to be at risk of colliding with a pedestrian, the intelligent vehicle 102 is controlled to brake.

It should be noted that the specific scheme for the edge server to implement other functions is similar to the above example, and is not described here again.

Therefore, in the scenarios V2V and V2I, the smart car needs to establish a communication connection with other devices (for example, a vehicle or an infrastructure), which requires that corresponding communication modules need to be installed on the devices, otherwise, corresponding functions cannot be implemented, and therefore, the usage scenarios of these technologies are very limited. In the embodiment of the application, the functions can be realized through the edge server and the intelligent vehicle, so that the scheme can be flexibly applied to various traffic scenes, meanwhile, the edge server can realize 'instant calculation', data can be rapidly processed, the real-time performance and the reliability of the various early warning functions can be guaranteed, and the safety of the intelligent vehicle can be guaranteed; in addition, according to the scheme, the intelligent vehicle is not required to be provided with modules such as V2V and V2I, and the manufacturing cost of the intelligent vehicle can be reduced.

In some alternative embodiments, the millimeter wave base station may be installed in plug and play manner on any public facilities at the roadside, such as street lamps, telegraph poles, signs, and street trees.

In some optional embodiments, at least a part of the millimeter wave base stations in the traveling system may be set as omnidirectional antennas. Fig. 4 is a scene schematic diagram of a driving system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application. It should be noted that fig. 4 illustrates millimeter wave base station 101a as an example, and the setting manner of other millimeter wave base stations may refer to this setting manner, which is not shown in the figure one by one.

As shown in fig. 4, millimeter-wave base station 101a is configured as an omnidirectional antenna, which may form a spherical network coverage in space (only a coverage area projected on the ground is shown in fig. 4), and illustratively, the network coverage area of millimeter-wave base station 101a on the ground is area 1, and the network coverage area of millimeter-wave base station 101a on the ground is area 2.

As shown in fig. 4, in practical applications, there may be blind areas that are not covered by the millimeter wave base station in the driving system, and when the smart car 102 travels into the blind area, the smart car 102 cannot communicate with the edge server, which affects normal operation of the smart car 102.

In view of this, in the embodiment of the present application, roadside communication units may be further added in the blind areas, and normal communication of the intelligent vehicle 102 in the millimeter wave base station coverage blind area is realized through the roadside communication units, and meanwhile, the deployment cost of the driving system is reduced. As shown in fig. 4, a roadside communication unit 111a and a roadside communication unit 111b are deployed in the traveling system, where the coverage area of the roadside communication unit 111a is area 3 and the coverage area of the roadside communication unit 111b is area 4.

Specifically, when the smart car 102 travels to the area 3, communication with the edge server 103 may be achieved by the roadside communication unit 111 a; accordingly, when the smart car 102 travels to the area 4, communication with the edge server 103 may be achieved through the roadside communication unit 111 b.

Next, the operation principle of the traveling system will be described in detail with reference to fig. 5. Referring to fig. 5, fig. 5 is a schematic flowchart illustrating a second control method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 5, the control method of the smart car provided in the embodiment of the present application includes the following steps:

s501, the intelligent vehicle acquires the real-time information of the intelligent vehicle acquired by the information acquisition unit.

S502, the intelligent vehicle responds to the fact that the connection with the millimeter wave base station cannot be established through the wireless communication unit, and real-time information is sent to the roadside communication unit through the vehicle-mounted communication unit.

Referring to fig. 6, fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a second principle of a driving system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 6, a vehicle-mounted communication unit 1024 may be further disposed on the smart car, and the vehicle-mounted communication unit 1024 is used for performing communication connection with the roadside communication unit 111a and/or the roadside communication unit 111 b.

Specifically, after the information collecting unit 1021 collects the real-time information, the real-time information is sent to the roadside communication unit 111a and/or the roadside communication unit 111b through the vehicle-mounted communication unit 1024.

It should be noted that step S501 is similar to the related scheme of step S301 in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, and reference may be made to step S302 described above by means of the vehicle-mounted communication unit 1024 sending real-time information to the roadside communication unit. For example, in one aspect, the in-vehicle communication unit 1024 may send real-time information to the roadside communication unit closest to the smart car 102; on the other hand, the vehicle-mounted communication unit 1024 may determine a roadside communication unit with better channel quality, so as to forward the real-time information through the roadside communication unit; in other aspects, the real-time information may also be sent by way of a broadcast message, and when a certain edge communication unit receives the broadcast message, the real-time information is forwarded.

And S503, the roadside communication unit receives the real-time information and forwards the real-time information to the millimeter wave base station.

It should be understood that, as to the manner in which the roadside communication unit forwards the real-time information to the millimeter wave base station, the embodiment of the present application is not particularly limited, and for example, includes, but is not limited to, the following several manners:

in one example, the real-time information may be sent to a millimeter wave base station closest to the roadside communication unit.

In another example, the channel quality of the surrounding millimeter wave base stations may also be obtained, and the millimeter wave base station with better channel quality forwards the real-time information.

Through above-mentioned two kinds of implementation methods, all can prevent the condition of real-time information transmission failure, promote the reliability of real-time information's transmission course, ensure intelligent vehicle control process's real-time.

In other examples, when the traveling system is deployed, a fixed millimeter wave base station may be further configured for each roadside communication unit, and the received real-time information is forwarded to the corresponding millimeter wave base station, for example, the roadside communication unit 111a corresponds to the millimeter wave base station 101a, the roadside communication unit 111b corresponds to the millimeter wave base station 101b, if the roadside communication unit 111a receives the real-time information of a certain intelligent vehicle, the real-time information is forwarded to the millimeter wave base station 101a, and similarly, if the roadside communication unit 111b receives the real-time information of a certain intelligent vehicle, the real-time information is forwarded to the millimeter wave base station 101 b. Through this embodiment, roadside communication unit can directly forward when receiving real-time information, and need not to measure the distance with the millimeter wave basic station, also need not to measure data such as the channel quality of each millimeter wave basic station, can promote real-time information's retransmission efficiency, and then promote the real-time of intelligent car control process, ensure the reliability of intelligent car.

And S504, the millimeter wave base station forwards the real-time information to the edge server.

And S505, the edge server generates second instruction information based on the real-time information.

It should be noted that steps S504 to S505 are similar to steps S303 to S304 in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, and the specific scheme may refer to the above description, which is not repeated herein.

S506, the edge server sends the second instruction information to the millimeter wave base station.

It should be noted that the millimeter wave base station in step S506 may be a base station that sends the real-time information to the edge server, and may also be another base station, which is not specifically limited in this embodiment of the present invention. The specific forwarding manner corresponding to each base station may refer to step S305 in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, and is not described herein again.

And S507, the millimeter wave base station sends the second instruction information to the roadside communication unit.

And S508, the roadside communication unit sends the second instruction information to the vehicle-mounted communication unit.

The roadside communication unit in steps S507 to S508 may be a roadside communication unit that forwards real-time information to the millimeter wave base station, or may be another roadside communication unit, which is not specifically limited in this application.

Referring to fig. 6, as an alternative implementation manner, after step S506, the millimeter wave base station may further send the second instruction information to the smart car 102 through the wireless communication unit 1022 after receiving the second instruction information, and accordingly, after receiving the real-time information by the wireless communication unit 1022, the control unit 1023 implements a corresponding control action based on the second instruction information.

For example, referring to fig. 4, when the smart car 102 collects the real-time information, the smart car 102 is located in the area 3 (that is, within the coverage of the roadside communication unit 111 a), it is assumed that the roadside communication unit 111a forwards the real-time information to the millimeter wave base station 101a to the edge server 103, and when the edge server 103 acquires the second instruction information according to the real-time information and forwards the second instruction information to the millimeter wave base station 101a, the smart car 102 has already traveled into the network coverage of the millimeter wave base station 101a, and at this time, the millimeter wave base station 101a may directly send the second instruction information to the smart car 102 through the wireless communication unit 1022. In the process, the communication mode among the devices is more flexible, the transmission efficiency of the instruction information can be further improved, the real-time performance of the control process of the intelligent vehicle is guaranteed, and the reliability of the intelligent vehicle is improved.

And S509, the intelligent vehicle receives the second instruction information through the vehicle-mounted communication unit and controls the intelligent vehicle to operate through the control unit based on the second instruction information.

It should be noted that step S509 is similar to step S307 in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, and the specific scheme may refer to the above description, which is not repeated herein.

In the embodiment of the application, the problem that a network coverage blind area exists in a millimeter wave base station can be solved by deploying the roadside communication unit in the driving system, the reliability of the driving system is improved, and meanwhile the deployment cost of the driving system is reduced.

In some optional embodiments, a public cloud server (not shown in the figure) is also deployed in the traveling system. For the type of the public cloud server, the embodiment of the present application is not particularly limited, and for example, the cloud server may be a single server, a server cluster, a distributed server, a centralized server, or the like.

The public cloud server is mainly used for bearing application programs, processing and flow and instruction decision. A plurality of functional modules are deployed on the public cloud server in a VPC manner, and the functional modules include but are not limited to at least one of the following: network Slice Selection Function (NSSF), Network Exposure Function (NEF), Policy Control Function (PCF), Unified Data Management Function (UDM), Application Function (AF), Authentication Server Function (AUSF), Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), Session Management Function (SMF), Data Network (Network DN), and The like.

In some embodiments, The public cloud pushes The User Plane Function (UPF) to The edge server 103, so that The User can open The required network functions on The public cloud server and implement The functions through The edge server 103. Correspondingly, the edge server 103 may perform data processing in real time through the UPF module, thereby implementing the control method for the intelligent vehicle in the above embodiment.

In some optional embodiments, a client (not shown in the figure) is also deployed in the traveling system, and the client may be in communication connection with the edge server 103.

In practical application, a user may control the operation of the smart car 102 through a client, specifically, the user may perform a control operation at the client, the client is configured to send control information corresponding to the control operation to the edge server in response to the control operation of the user, and correspondingly, the edge server 103 is configured to receive the control information and control the operation of the smart car through the millimeter wave base station 101a/101b based on the control information.

It should be noted that, as to the type of the client, the embodiment of the present application is not particularly limited, and for example, the client may be a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) device, a handheld device (e.g., a smartphone and a tablet computer) with a wireless communication function, a computing device (e.g., a Personal Computer (PC)), an in-vehicle device, a wearable device (e.g., a smart watch and a smart band), a smart home device (e.g., a smart display device), and the like, and the embodiment of the present application is not particularly limited.

Referring to fig. 7, fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a control device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application. It should be understood that the control device 700 is applied to the intelligent vehicle as shown in the above embodiment, the intelligent vehicle comprises an information acquisition unit, a wireless communication unit and a control unit, and the intelligent vehicle is in communication connection with the millimeter wave base station through the wireless communication unit.

As shown in fig. 7, the control device 700 includes: the acquisition module 701 is used for acquiring the real-time information of the intelligent vehicle acquired by the information acquisition unit;

a sending module 702, configured to send real-time information to the millimeter wave base station through the wireless communication unit, where the real-time information is used to instruct the millimeter wave base station to forward the real-time information to an edge server, and the edge server is used to generate first instruction information based on the real-time information and send the first instruction information to the smart car through the millimeter wave base station;

a receiving module 703, configured to receive first instruction information through a wireless communication unit;

and the processing module 704 is used for controlling the operation of the intelligent vehicle based on the first instruction information through the control unit.

In some optional implementations, the smart car provided in this application embodiment further includes: an in-vehicle communication unit;

the sending module 702 is further configured to: in response to the fact that connection with the millimeter wave base station cannot be established through the wireless communication unit, real-time information is sent to the roadside communication unit through the vehicle-mounted communication unit, the real-time information is used for indicating the roadside communication unit to forward the real-time information to the millimeter wave base station, the millimeter wave base station is used for forwarding the real-time information to an edge server, and the roadside communication unit and the millimeter wave base station are deployed at different positions;

the receiving module 703 is further configured to: receiving second instruction information forwarded by the roadside communication unit through the vehicle-mounted communication unit, wherein the second instruction information is obtained by the edge server based on real-time information;

the processing module 704 is further configured to: and controlling the operation of the intelligent vehicle through the control unit based on the second instruction information.

It should be noted that the control device 700 provided in the embodiment of the present application is used for executing the technical solutions in the corresponding method embodiments, and the implementation principle and the technical effect are similar, and are not described herein again.

Fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a server according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 8, the server 800 includes: a memory 803 and a processor 804.

A memory 803 for storing the computer program and may be configured to store other various data to support the operations on the server. The Storage 803 may be an Object Storage Service (OSS).

The memory 803 may be implemented by any type or combination of volatile or non-volatile memory devices such as Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), read-only memory (ROM), magnetic memory, flash memory, magnetic or optical disks.

A processor 804, coupled to the memory 803, is configured to execute the computer program in the memory 803, so as to perform the method portion performed by the server in the above method embodiments. Further, as shown in fig. 8, the edge computing device 800 further includes: firewall 801, load balancer 802, communications component 805, power component 806, and other components. Only some of the components are schematically shown in fig. 8, and the server is not meant to include only the components shown in fig. 8.

Accordingly, the present application also provides a computer readable storage medium storing a computer program, which when executed by a processor causes the processor to implement the steps in the above method embodiments.

Accordingly, the present application also provides a computer program product, which includes a computer program/instruction, when the computer program/instruction is executed by a processor, the processor is caused to implement the steps in the above method embodiments.

The communications component 805 of fig. 8 is configured to facilitate communications between the device in which the communications component is located and other devices in a wired or wireless manner. The device where the communication component is located can access a wireless network based on a communication standard, such as a WiFi, a 2G, 3G, 4G/LTE, 5G and other mobile communication networks, or a combination thereof. In an exemplary embodiment, the communication component receives a broadcast signal or broadcast related information from an external broadcast management system via a broadcast channel. In one exemplary embodiment, the communication component further includes a Near Field Communication (NFC) module to facilitate short-range communications. For example, the NFC module may be implemented based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, infrared data association (IrDA) technology, Ultra Wideband (UWB) technology, Bluetooth (BT) technology, and other technologies.

The power supply module 806 of FIG. 8 provides power to the various components of the device in which the power supply module is located. The power components may include a power management system, one or more power supplies, and other components associated with generating, managing, and distributing power for the device in which the power component is located.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, embodiments of the present invention may be provided as a method, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, and the like) having computer-usable program code embodied therein.

The present invention is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each flow and/or block of the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, and combinations of flows and/or blocks in the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

In a typical configuration, a computing device includes one or more processors (CPUs), input/output interfaces, network interfaces, and memory.

The memory may include forms of volatile memory in a computer readable medium, Random Access Memory (RAM) and/or non-volatile memory, such as Read Only Memory (ROM) or flash memory (flash RAM). Memory is an example of a computer-readable medium.

Computer-readable media, including both permanent and non-permanent, removable and non-removable media, may implement the information storage by any method or technology. The information may be computer readable instructions, data structures, modules of a program, or other data. Examples of computer storage media include, but are not limited to, phase change memory (PRAM), Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), other types of Random Access Memory (RAM), Read Only Memory (ROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technology, compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM), Digital Versatile Disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other non-transmission medium, which can be used to store information that can be accessed by a computing device. As defined herein, a computer readable medium does not include a transitory computer readable medium such as a modulated data signal and a carrier wave.

It should also be noted that the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitation, an element defined by the phrase "comprising an … …" does not exclude the presence of other identical elements in the process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises the element.

The above are merely examples of the present application and are not intended to limit the present application. Various modifications and changes may occur to those skilled in the art to which the present application pertains. Any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement, etc. made within the spirit and principle of the present application should be included in the scope of the claims of the present application.

It should be noted that, in some of the flows described in the above embodiments and the drawings, a plurality of operations appearing in a specific order are included, but it should be clearly understood that these operations may be executed out of the order appearing herein or in parallel, and the sequence numbers of the operations, such as S301, S302, etc., are merely used to distinguish various operations, and the sequence numbers themselves do not represent any execution order. Additionally, the flows may include more or fewer operations, and the operations may be performed sequentially or in parallel. It should be noted that, the descriptions of "first", "second", etc. in this document are used for distinguishing different messages, devices, modules, etc., and do not represent a sequential order, nor limit the types of "first" and "second" to be different.

Claims

1. A control method of an intelligent vehicle is characterized in that the intelligent vehicle comprises the following steps: the intelligent vehicle comprises an information acquisition unit, a wireless communication unit and a control unit, wherein the intelligent vehicle can be in communication connection with a millimeter wave base station through the wireless communication unit, and the control method comprises the following steps:

acquiring real-time information of the intelligent vehicle acquired by the information acquisition unit;

the wireless communication unit is used for sending the real-time information to the millimeter wave base station, the real-time information is used for indicating the millimeter wave base station to forward the real-time information to an edge server, the edge server is used for generating first instruction information based on the real-time information, and the first instruction information is sent to the intelligent vehicle through the millimeter wave base station;

receiving, by the wireless communication unit, the first instruction information;

and controlling the operation of the intelligent vehicle based on the first instruction information through the control unit.

2. The control method according to claim 1, wherein the smart car further comprises: an in-vehicle communication unit;

the control method further comprises the following steps: in response to the fact that connection with the millimeter wave base station cannot be established through the wireless communication unit, the real-time information is sent to a roadside communication unit through the vehicle-mounted communication unit, the real-time information is used for indicating the roadside communication unit to forward the real-time information to the millimeter wave base station, the millimeter wave base station is used for forwarding the real-time information to an edge server, and the roadside communication unit and the millimeter wave base station are deployed at different positions;

receiving, by the vehicle-mounted communication unit, the second instruction information forwarded by the roadside communication unit, where the second instruction information is obtained by the edge server based on the real-time information;

and controlling the operation of the intelligent vehicle through the control unit based on the second instruction information.

3. A travel system, comprising: the intelligent vehicle is provided with an information acquisition unit, a wireless communication unit and a control unit, and can be in communication connection with the millimeter wave base station through the wireless communication unit;

the intelligent vehicle is used for acquiring real-time information of the intelligent vehicle through the information acquisition unit and sending the real-time information to the millimeter wave base station through the wireless communication unit;

the millimeter wave base station is used for receiving the real-time information and forwarding the real-time information to the edge server;

the edge server is used for generating first instruction information based on the real-time information;

the millimeter wave base station is further configured to: acquiring the first instruction information sent by the edge server, and sending the first instruction information to the control unit through the wireless communication unit;

and the control unit is used for controlling the operation of the intelligent vehicle based on the first instruction information.

4. The travel system according to claim 3, further comprising: roadside communication unit, the intelligent car still includes: the roadside communication unit and the millimeter wave base station are deployed at different positions;

the vehicle-mounted communication unit is used for responding to the situation that the intelligent vehicle cannot communicate with the millimeter wave base station through the wireless communication unit, and sending real-time information of the intelligent vehicle to the roadside communication unit;

the roadside communication unit is used for receiving the real-time information and forwarding the real-time information to the millimeter wave base station;

the millimeter wave base station is used for receiving the real-time information and forwarding the real-time information to the edge server; receiving second instruction information generated by the edge server based on the real-time information; sending the second instruction information to the intelligent vehicle through the roadside communication unit;

the vehicle-mounted communication unit is further configured to: acquiring the second instruction information;

the control unit is further configured to: and controlling the operation of the intelligent vehicle based on the second instruction information.

5. The travel system of claim 3, wherein the control unit is integrated on the vehicle-mounted communication unit.

6. The travel system of claim 4, wherein the millimeter wave base station comprises a millimeter wave omni-directional antenna, the millimeter wave base station configured to be communicatively coupled to the smart vehicle via the millimeter wave omni-directional antenna and/or the roadside communication unit via the millimeter wave omni-directional antenna.

7. The travel system according to any one of claims 3 to 6, further comprising: the public cloud server is in communication connection with the edge server;

the public cloud server is used for responding to configuration operation of a user and configuring a user plane function Unit (UPF) for the edge server;

the edge server is specifically configured to: and generating instruction information based on the real-time information through the user plane functional unit.

8. The travel system according to claim 7, further comprising: the client is in communication connection with the edge server;

the client is used for responding to the control operation of the user and sending control information to the edge server;

and the edge server is used for receiving the control information and controlling the intelligent vehicle to operate through the millimeter wave base station based on the control information.

9. The utility model provides a controlling means of intelligence car which characterized in that, the intelligence car includes: information acquisition unit, wireless communication unit and the control unit, the intelligence car passes through wireless communication unit and millimeter wave base station communication connection, controlling means includes:

the acquisition module is used for acquiring the real-time information of the intelligent vehicle acquired by the information acquisition unit;

the sending module is used for sending the real-time information to the millimeter wave base station through the wireless communication unit, the real-time information is used for indicating the millimeter wave base station to forward the real-time information to an edge server, and the edge server is used for generating first instruction information based on the real-time information and sending the first instruction information to the intelligent vehicle through the millimeter wave base station;

a receiving module, configured to receive the first instruction information through the wireless communication unit;

and the processing module is used for controlling the operation of the intelligent vehicle based on the first instruction information through the control unit.

10. An intelligent vehicle, comprising: at least one processor; and a memory communicatively coupled to the at least one processor; wherein the memory stores instructions executable by the at least one processor to enable the smart car to perform the method of controlling a smart car of any of claims 1-2.