A robotic cart platform with a navigation and movement system that integrates into a conventional utility cart to provide both manual and autonomous modes of operation. The platform includes a drive unit with drive wheels replacing the front wheels of the cart. The drive unit has motors, encoders, a processor and a microcontroller. The system has a work environment mapping sensor and a cabled array of proximity and weight sensors, lights, control panel, battery and on/off, “GO” and emergency stop buttons secured throughout the cart. The encoders obtain drive shaft rotation data that the microcontroller periodically sends to the processor. When in autonomous mode, the system provides navigation, movement and location tracking with or without wireless connection to a server. Stored destinations are set using its location tracking to autonomously navigate the cart. When in manual mode, battery power is off, and back-up power is supplied to the encoders and microcontroller, which continue to obtain shaft rotation data. When in autonomous mode, the shaft rotation data obtained during manual mode is used to determine the present cart location.

A map information system includes: an in-vehicle device that executes automated driving control of a vehicle; and an external device having external map information used for the automated driving control. The in-vehicle device includes: a memory device in which map information is stored; and a control device configured to execute the automated driving control based on the map information stored in the memory device. The control device is further configured to: determine whether or not a takeover occurs during the automated driving control; set an upload target area including the takeover occurrence position, in a case where the takeover occurs during the automated driving control; and upload the map information regarding the upload target area to the external device. The external device updates the external map information based on the map information uploaded from the in-vehicle device.

A driving operation handover system includes a memory and a processor, wherein the processor is configured to: acquire a first characteristic value of preset setting characteristics during travel of a vehicle equipped with a manual operation unit that an occupant operates; acquire a second characteristic value of the preset setting characteristics during travel of a virtual vehicle that simulates the vehicle, which a remote operator operates using a remote operation unit; calculate a difference value between the first characteristic value and the second characteristic value; in a case in which the difference value is lower than a setting threshold value, notify the occupant and the remote operator that operation of the vehicle can be handed over; and after notification, switch operation of the vehicle from one of the remote operator or the occupant to another of the remote operator or the occupant.

Vehicles may have the capability to navigate according to various levels of autonomous capabilities, the vehicle having a different set of autonomous competencies at each level. In certain situations, the vehicle may shift from one level of autonomous capability to another. The shift may require more or less driving responsibility from a human operator. Sensors inside the vehicle collect human operator parameters to determine an alertness level of the human operator. An alertness level is determined based on the human operator parameters and other data including historical data or human operator-specific data. Notifications are presented to the user based on the determined alertness level that are more or less intrusive based on the alertness level of the human operator and on the urgency of an impending change to autonomous capabilities. Notifications may be tailored to specific human operators based on human operator preference and historical performance.

There is provided an information processing apparatus including an eyeball behavior analysis unit (300) that analyzes an eyeball behavior of a driver who drives a moving object, in which the eyeball behavior analysis unit dynamically switches an analysis mode according to a driving mode of the moving object.

A vehicle management system manages a vehicle in a management area via communication. The vehicle management system includes one or more processors. The one or more processors are configured to: acquire first vehicle information indicating at least a position of a first vehicle configured to switch between autonomous driving and manual driving; acquire second vehicle information indicating at least a position of a second vehicle that performs at least autonomous driving; determine whether a possibility of collision between the first vehicle being driven manually and the second vehicle being driven autonomously is higher than a first threshold, based on the first vehicle information and the second vehicle information; and when the possibility of collision is higher than the first threshold, instruct the first vehicle being driven manually to impose a driving limitation on the first vehicle.

The disclosure describes various embodiments for monitoring safety of an autonomous driving vehicle (ADV). In one embodiment, a method includes the operations of receiving, by a vehicle controller, one or more error message from a patrol module, the one or more error messages generated by an autonomous driving system of the ADV operating in an autonomous mode, the patrol module monitoring the autonomous driving system; evaluating a status of the autonomous driving system based on the one or more error messages; and keeping the ADV in the autonomous mode or switching it to a manual mode based on the status of the autonomous driving system.

A vehicle control device includes: a situation detection device that detects a situation around a periphery of a vehicle and outputs a situation detection signal based on detection results; and a processor (i) that is input with the situation detection signal when the vehicle travels in an autonomous automatic driving mode, that controls travel of the vehicle based on the situation detection signal, and (ii) that enters a prohibited state that prohibits control of the travel of the vehicle in the autonomous automatic driving mode in a prohibited area in which the travel of the vehicle in the autonomous automatic driving mode is prohibited.

A driving handover control device includes a memory and a processor coupled to the memory. In a case in which driving is handed over from a first state in which a vehicle is traveling by remote driving by a first driver from outside the vehicle or by occupant driving by the first driver in the vehicle, to a second state in which the vehicle travels by the remote driving or the occupant driving by a second driver who is different from the first driver, the processor is configured to cause transition from the first state to a third state in which the vehicle is caused to travel by automatic driving, and then cause transition from the third state to the second state.

A method detects presence of a multi-tone siren type in an acoustic signal. The multi-tone siren type is associated with one or more siren patterns, where each siren pattern includes a number of time patterns at corresponding frequencies. The method includes processing a number of frequency components of a frequency domain representation of the acoustic signal over time to determine a corresponding plurality of values. That processing includes determining, for each frequency component, a value characterizing a presence of a time pattern associated with at least one siren pattern. The method also includes processing the values according to the siren patterns to determine a detection result indicating whether the multi-tone siren type is present in the acoustic signal.