A method of operating a vehicle, such as an autonomous vehicle, includes the steps of receiving a message from roadside infrastructure via an electronic receiver and providing, by a computer system in communication with said electronic receiver, instructions based on the message to automatically implement countermeasure behavior by a vehicle system. Additionally or alternatively, the method may include the steps of receiving a message from another vehicle via an electronic receiver and providing, by a computer system in communication with said electronic receiver, instructions based on the message to automatically implement countermeasure behavior by a vehicle system.

In a magnetic marker system including a magnetic marker disposed in a travel environment so as to be detectable by a magnetic sensor attached to a vehicle and a server apparatus which acquires detection information of the magnetic marker from each vehicle, the detection information uploaded from a vehicle side to the server apparatus includes marker information, which is identification information of a corresponding magnetic marker, and the server apparatus estimates the state of the magnetic marker based on the detection information from each vehicle.

A method for positioning a robot at start-up includes: when the robot is started up, controlling the robot to rotate in a preset rotation direction in a start-up positioning region; determining position information about a rotation path of the positioning transmitting unit according to the preset rotation direction and a set of at least three different position distances, where the at least three different position distances are between the positioning transmitting unit and the two positioning receiving units disposed at the different fixed positions and are determined during a rotation process; using a direction extending from the center position of the rotation path to a position of the positioning transmitting unit when the robot stops rotation as orientation information of the robot; and using the center position of the rotation path and the orientation information of the robot as start-up positioning information of the robot.

In an operation method of marker system (1) in which laying position information indicating a position where a magnetic marker (10) is laid is provided to a vehicle (3) side for achieving control for assisting driving of the vehicle (3) by using the magnetic marker (10), since positional accuracy required when laying magnetic markers (10) can be relaxed, the laying position information of the magnetic marker (10) positioned on the vehicle (3) side which performs the control for assisting driving is used as correction information to correct the laying position information indicating the position where the magnetic marker (10) is laid, and laying cost of magnetic markers (10) can be suppressed.

A cleaning system and a cleaning method configured for cleaning task of solar panels are provided. The cleaning system includes an operation region, cleaning robots, shuttle robots, and a data processing system. The cleaning method includes a first carrying step, a cleaning step, and a second carrying step. The cleaning system and the cleaning method dispatch a suitable number of cleaning robots and shuttle robots according to workload of cleaning task to complete the cleaning task. The cleaning task of all solar panels and panel arrays can be completed in the shortest time.

A position alignment method, performed by a vehicle assembly (VA) including a reception pad receiving power transmitted from a transmission pad of a ground assembly (GA) is provided. The method includes transmitting a magnetic field using a transmitting device disposed on a reception pad, the transmitting device operating with low frequency (LF); receiving a magnetic field related value from the GA, the magnetic field being detected by an LF receiving device disposed on the transmission pad of the GA; and calculating, by a controller, a distance between the transmission pad and the reception pad using the magnetic field related value. A part of the transmitting device is disposed to arrange a magnetic field formed by the part of the transmitting device in a 0°, 90°, 180°, or 270° direction with respect to a magnetic field formed by a part of the LF receiving device.

A marker detection method in which a magnetic detection unit (11) of a vehicle side that includes a plurality of magnetic sensors arranged in a vehicle width direction is used to detect magnetic markers (10) that are laid in a road, the method executes detection of a center position in the vehicle width direction of a magnetic distribution that acts on the magnetic detection unit (11) and processing of an index representing a degree of a positional change of the center position when a vehicle (5) passes over the magnetic markers (10) to determine a possibility of the presence of magnetic generation sources that causes disturbance, thereby suppressing erroneous detection of the magnetic markers (10).

In a magnetic marker system for achieving assists for vehicle driving operation by a driver or vehicle control for automatic driving independent from driver's operation, magnetic markers are laid so that orientations of magnetic poles are alternately reversed along a road and arranged so that magnetic fields of magnetic markers adjacent to each other as being spaced with a gap along the road interfere with each other, thereby improving reliability of detecting a magnetic marker on a vehicle side while reducing magnetic force of the magnetic marker itself.

An assistance system for a road vehicle which can be used on a roadway having one or more lanes, includes a position determination system for determining a lateral relative position of the road vehicle on the roadway. The position determination system has an electrical signal line disposed parallel to the roadway, a signal generator for generating and feeding an electrical signal into the signal line, resulting in a current flow which can be generated in the signal line, an on-vehicle sensor assembly for capturing a field strength and/or a field direction of an electromagnetic field forming about the signal line as a result of the current flow generated, and an on-vehicle evaluation unit, configured to determine, from the captured field strength and/or field direction, a lateral relative position of the road vehicle relative to the signal line. A more reliable position determination system is thus provided.

A system and method is provided for delivering electric energy to an electric vehicle via electric charging stations or kiosks where an energy delivery point is configured to provide energy to the electric vehicle via a connector or a wireless energy source. The method involves charging an electric vehicle by detecting, using a RFID tag reader associated with an electric vehicle, signals emanating from a marker positioned on the ground, where the marker includes one or more RFID tags, and where the RFID tag reader is able to recognize the signals despite weather conditions where the ground is covered by snow.