I began following Patents to understand the technological advancements in the field of automobiles. Patent publications are a great strategic tool and knowledge powerhouse. It offers much more scientific details (a bit cryptical!) than any other source that is publicly available.
Here is a brief summary of one such interesting patent and my analysis of its context along with the strategy of the others in this field.
Waymo's Patent
Almost a year ago, Waymo was granted patent rights to an interesting concept in the domain of "Pedestrian Safety". Waymo's autonomous software and its ambition in creating a holistic operating environment for future mobility is not a secret. The fact that they are making their own hardware (sensors, processors etc) to suit their software shows their engineering bandwidth and commitment to the industry. But how much is Waymo interested in developing other components of a vehicle? Especially, those that are not the core of the Autonomous system that Waymo is fine-tuning these days. One can only speculate.
Although it is hard/impossible to judge the strategy from analysing a company's patents, one can at least speculate out of curiosity. That is the joy for the enthusiast but not for the analyst!!
Especially for a company like Google, they could just file patent out of an individual's interest and not necessarily related to the company's ambitions. In fact, Waymo does have a track record of filing oddball patents like their adhesive based pedestrian safety system in 2013. But to know that the company has been regularly filing new patents related to vehicle crash safety definitely makes one curious about the internet behemoth's intentions in this field.
I chose one such patent, not just because of the main claim but also due to the subtle revelation of allied engineering details that Waymo has in place for the autonomous vehicle of the future.
Patent Gist
This patent deals with the concept of “ external interlocking airbags” that are designed to mitigate the impact on a pedestrian when colliding with an autonomous car. The autonomous system primarily consists of a perception system (eyes, ears and brain of the car) and enablers (steering, throttle and brake) to implement the decisions. The airbags in this Patent are developed for the times when the perception system senses an imminent collision that cannot be avoided anymore, thanks to the unpredictable road user.
The system consists of a cluster of airbags placed next to each other, which on inflation form a continuous net of cushion for the colliding pedestrian. This set of airbags will protect the pedestrian from hitting against the hard external surfaces of a vehicle. Based on the perception system's prediction of the trajectory, a particular airbag (primary) is first deployed followed by consecutive airbags (secondary) to support the pedestrian. The significant point of the claim is that the shape of the primary and secondary airbags complement each other, forming a continuous layer to prevent the pedestrian from missing/sliding off the primary airbag or impacting between the gaps between the airbags.
An example design from the document, 310, 312 and 314 are the interlocking airbags.
Design of Pedestrian Airbags
Most other carmakers who pursue the “external airbag” way for pedestrian safety deploy it only after detecting a crash. That way, the pedestrian is protected only during the secondary impact when the head hits the windshield region and not against the primary impact when the edge of the vehicle hits the lower part of the body.
But here with Waymo’s perception system, the car can deploy the airbag even before the impact, thanks to the perception system that will predict the impact. It is claimed that this is possible even when the driver is in control. The perception system will be capable of deploying the right airbag among an array of airbags placed sequentially. It is claimed that the system can predict the exact trajectory of an object (pedestrian, cyclist and even animals!) since the system is able to judge not only the size but also the mass of the object, thanks to the Neural-networks and databases that identify and predict the 'Centre of Gravity' of an object.
This way, the airbags can be triggered just before a collision and the airbags are completely inflated at the exact moment of the contact. This means that the pedestrian is protected even during the first point of impact.
The placement of multiple airbags becomes significant since it is not always possible to have the pedestrian impact at the same point, unlike the passenger who is tethered by the seat belt. The degrees of freedom for a random pedestrian is high and thus requiring this contraption of airbags with interlocking shapes. With this solution, Waymo can not only protect pedestrians but also other entities like Cyclists, perambulators, wheelchair users and even animals to some extent.
Image from the Patent document showing the deployment of the airbags during a collision with a cyclist.
Images Source:
https://patents.google.com/patent/US9802568B1/en