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EP-4558944-B1 - METHOD FOR TRANSPORTING A DRIVER OF A VEHICLE TO BE DEPOSITED USING AN AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE

EP4558944B1EP 4558944 B1EP4558944 B1EP 4558944B1EP-4558944-B1

Inventors

  • MILANES, Vicente

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20230612

Claims (10)

  1. Method for transporting a driver to a pick-up station for vehicles that are to be dropped off, after said driver has dropped off a vehicle at a predetermined drop-off place among a group of drop-off places, said method comprising using at least one transport vehicle capable of navigating in an autonomous driving mode, said transport vehicle comprising a preloaded digital map (11) of at least one pre-established operational area including at least said pick-up station, said predetermined drop-off place and at least traffic lanes between the pick-up station and said drop-off place, said method comprising the following steps: - A) establishing a route for guiding the transport vehicle from the pick-up station for vehicles that are to be dropped off, to the predetermined drop-off place by supplying a route generator module (14) with: - the coordinates, on said digital map (11), of the predetermined drop-off place, - the coordinates and the course of said transport vehicle on said digital map (11), then generating the parameters of the guidance route by means of a random exploration algorithm comprised by said route generator module (14), in the form of a set of points over a selected viewing distance of between 30 and 70 metres, comprising the coordinates of the vehicle, the course of the vehicle, the curvature of the route trajectory, the speed of the vehicle, the acceleration of the vehicle; then - B) supplying said parameters of the guidance route to an obstacle management module (16); - C) detecting obstacles present on said guidance route, and, in the event that at least one obstacle is detected, supplying the coordinates of said obstacle on said digital map (11) to said obstacle management module (16), so that the latter generates instructions capable of modifying parameters of the guidance route, in particular the speed and/or the acceleration of the transport vehicle; - D) sending data relating to the guidance route from the obstacle management module (16) to the module (17) for controlling the vehicle, which module converts these data into commands, - E) sending the commands generated by said control module to the actuators (18) of said transport vehicle in order to activate them.
  2. Method according to Claim 1, characterized in that , in step A), the route generator module (14) generates the parameters of the guidance route in the form of a set of points over a selected viewing distance of between 40 and 60 metres.
  3. Method according to either of Claims 1 and 2, characterized in that , in step A), the generation of the parameters of the guidance route by means of the route generator module (14) comprises a first generation of parameters by a random exploration algorithm of "rapidly exploring random tree" type comprised by said route generator module, then an optimization of these first generation parameters by smoothing by a polynomial approach, in order to generate the parameters of the guidance route in the form of said set of points over a selected viewing distance of between 30 and 70 metres, comprising the coordinates of the vehicle, the course of the vehicle, the curvature of the route trajectory, the speed of the vehicle, the acceleration of the vehicle.
  4. Method according to one of Claims 1 to 3, characterized in that said method comprises, in step C): generating an instruction to stop the transport vehicle in the event that an obstacle is detected according to a setpoint comprised by said obstacle management module (16).
  5. Method according to one of Claims 1 to 4, characterized in that said method comprises a step of instructing said transport vehicle in autonomous driving mode to stop near said predetermined drop-off place.
  6. Method according to one of Claims 1 to 5, characterized in that it comprises at least one of the following steps: - activating an autonomous driving mode of said transport vehicle upon departure of said vehicle to said predetermined drop-off place, in particular by remote control, - activating a manual driving mode of said transport vehicle once stopped near said predetermined drop-off place, in particular by deactivating the autonomous driving mode, and in particular by remote control.
  7. Method for transporting at least a first driver among a plurality of drivers, each driver having to drop off a vehicle, respectively, at a predetermined drop-off place among a group of parking places, comprising using a transport vehicle capable of navigating in an autonomous mode, said transport vehicle comprising a preloaded digital map (11) of at least one pre-established delimited operational area including at least said pick-up station, a parking area comprising said group of parking places, and at least traffic lanes between the pick-up station and said parking area, said transport method comprising the steps of: - digitizing said group of parking places on the basis of information supplied to a parking placement module (13) by the digital map (11), - attributing a digital position to each place of said group of parking places by means of said parking placement module (13), - assigning a drop-off place to each of the vehicles that is to be dropped off by the plurality of drivers, by means of said parking placement module (13), so that said drivers will each have to go to the drop-off place assigned to their respective vehicle, in the shortest time over which the transport vehicle will need to travel the required distance to said drop-off places, - determining a drop-off place constituting, among all the drop-off places assigned to the vehicles that are to be picked up by said plurality of drivers, the first drop-off place of a first vehicle that is to be dropped off and that is driven by a first driver, where the transport vehicle will return to in order to ensure the transport of said first driver once said first driver has dropped off said first vehicle, and said method comprising at least the steps according to the method for transporting a driver of a vehicle that is to be dropped off according to one of Claims 1 to 6, said driver being said first driver, and said predetermined drop-off place being said first drop-off place.
  8. Method for transporting at least a first driver among a plurality of drivers according to Claim 7, characterized in that it comprises the steps of: - switching the transport vehicle to a manual driving mode under the control of said first driver who has dropped off their vehicle that is to be dropped off, - going to the drop-off places respectively assigned to the other vehicles that are to be dropped off, according to an order indicated by the parking placement module (13) in order to pick up the other drivers of the plurality of drivers after they have dropped off their vehicle that is to be dropped off, then - bringing the plurality of drivers back to said pick-up station.
  9. Use of the method for transporting at least a first driver among a plurality of drivers according to either of Claims 7 and 8, for managing the logistics flow of storing motorized rolling products leaving a manufacturing plant, in particular motor vehicles leaving a manufacturing line, on parking areas within the manufacturing plant, teams of drivers being in charge of conveying said products to drop-off places, said method being applied to each team constituting a plurality of drivers.
  10. Management system for transporting at least one driver of a vehicle, said driver leaving and returning to the same determined location such as a pick-up station for vehicles that are to be dropped off, after said driver has dropped off said vehicle at a predetermined drop-off place among a group of drop-off places, said system being configured to perform the method for transporting a driver of a vehicle according to one of Claims 1 to 6 or the method for transporting at least a first driver among a plurality of drivers according to either of Claims 7 and 8, the management system comprising: - at least one transport vehicle capable of navigating in an autonomous driving mode and comprising a digital map of a pre-established delimited operational area, - a parking placement module (13) configured to attribute the coordinates, on said digital map (11), of a group of drop-off places, and to determine said predetermined drop-off place from said group of drop-off places, - a module (12) for positioning a vehicle, configured to generate the coordinates of said transport vehicle and the course of the transport vehicle on said digital map (11), - a route generator module (14) configured to communicate with said parking placement module (13) and said module (12) for positioning a vehicle, and to generate parameters of a route for guiding the transport vehicle to at least said predetermined drop-off place, - an obstacle management module (16) configured to communicate with said route generator module (14) and an obstacle detection module (15), and with a module (17) for controlling the vehicle, in order to generate instructions for modifying parameters of the guidance route in the event that an obstacle is detected, and send the parameters of the guidance route and said instructions for modifying parameters to said module (17) for controlling the transport vehicle, and said route generator module of said management system comprising a random exploration algorithm of "rapidly exploring random tree" type, and polynomial shape smoothing, in order to generate the parameters of the guidance route in the form of a set of points over a given viewing distance.

Description

La présente invention concerne un procédé pour transporter un conducteur jusqu'à une station de prise en charge après qu'il ait déposé un véhicule à un endroit déterminé. Il est connu de proposer des services de voiturier chargé de garer un véhicule, par exemple le véhicule d'un client d'un hôtel ou d'un restaurant. Des systèmes de service de voiturier automatisé ont été proposés. On connaît par exemple par la demande de brevet US2020/0207338, un procédé pour effectuer un service de voiturier automatisé permettant à un véhicule de transport (sans pilote) de se déplacer et de se garer de manière autonome sur une place de stationnement vide en communiquant avec une infrastructure de stationnement. Il permet aussi à un véhicule de transport (sans pilote) de se déplacer de manière autonome d'une place de stationnement à une zone de prise en charge en communiquant avec une infrastructure de stationnement. Cette demande de brevet traite plus particulièrement de la gestion des obstacles pouvant se trouver sur la trajectoire du véhicule de transport. Le procédé de voiturier automatisé comprend notamment la détermination d'une première position cible et d'un premier itinéraire de guidage à l'aide d'une carte préchargée, et la détection d'un obstacle à partir de données provenant de capteurs, et dans lequel une infrastructure met à jour la carte sur la base de l'obstacle détecté pour générer une carte mise à jour. Par ailleurs, dans le cas de la gestion logistique de matériels roulants sortant d'une ligne de production d'une usine de fabrication, en particulier de véhicules automobiles pour particuliers tels que voitures ou pour professionnels tels que camions, autocars, il est usuel de stocker ces véhicules en les amenant depuis un lieu de prise en charge vers une place de dépose dans l'enceinte de l'usine de fabrication, souvent sur de vastes parkings, par exemple offrant 10 000 places de stationnement. Le plus souvent une équipe de conducteurs, appelés aussi couramment « jockeys », prend en charge les véhicules à déposer, un par conducteur, pour le conduire à une place de dépose déterminée. Il est alors nécessaire de ramener l'équipe de conducteurs, une fois que chaque conducteur a déposé son véhicule. A cette fin, un véhicule de transport avec chauffeur vient récupérer chaque conducteur à la place de dépose du véhicule dont il était en charge, et une fois tous les conducteurs montés dans le véhicule de transport, le chauffeur revient avec eux à la station de prise en charge, afin qu'à nouveau les conducteurs prennent en charge d'autres véhicules à déposer, et ainsi de suite. Pour récupérer les conducteurs sur le parking, le véhicule de transport avec chauffeur doit aller de place de dépose en place de dépose, les places pouvant être éloignées les unes des autres, attendre le cas échéant qu'un conducteur ait déposé son véhicule, ce qui peut prendre du temps et nécessite un suivi des places de dépose par le chauffeur du véhicule de transport. Une telle opération de transport de conducteurs peut être répétée 200 fois par jour, ce qui représente une consommation de temps relativement importante. L'invention vise à résoudre les inconvénients de l'art antérieur. Elle vise en particulier à faciliter le transport d'un conducteur de véhicule, une fois le véhicule déposé, vers un lieu déterminé telle qu'une station de prise en charge de véhicules à déposer. Elle vise en particulier aussi à faciliter le transport d'une pluralité de conducteurs de véhicule, une fois leur véhicule déposé, vers la station de prise en charge de véhicules à déposer. A cet effet, la présente invention propose un procédé pour transporter un conducteur, jusqu'à une station de prise en charge de véhicules à déposer, après que ledit conducteur ait déposé un véhicule à une place de dépose prédéterminée parmi un lot de places de dépose. Selon l'invention, ledit procédé comprend l'utilisation d'au moins un véhicule de transport apte à naviguer dans un mode de conduite autonome, ledit véhicule de transport comprenant une carte numérique préchargée d'au moins un domaine opérationnel délimité pré-établi. Ledit domaine opérationnel délimité inclut au moins ladite station de prise en charge, ladite place de dépose prédéterminée, et au moins des voies de circulation entre la station de prise en charge et ladite place de dépose prédéterminée. Selon l'invention, ledit procédé comprend en outre les étapes suivantes : A) Etablir un itinéraire de guidage du véhicule de transport depuis la station de prise en charge de véhicules à déposer vers la place de dépose prédéterminée en fournissant à un module générateur d'itinéraire : les coordonnées; sur ladite carte numérique, de la place de dépose prédéterminée,les coordonnées et le cap dudit véhicule de transport sur ladite carte numérique, puis générer les paramètres de l'itinéraire de guidage par un algorithme d'exploration aléatoire que comprend ledit module générateur d'itinéraire , sous forme d'un ensemble de poi