US 11,855,691 B1
Vehicle with free-space optical link for log data uploading
Michael Sleator, Woodside, CA (US)
Assigned to Waymo LLC, Mountain View, CA (US)
Filed by Waymo LLC, Mountain View, CA (US)
Filed on Jun. 2, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/831,084.
Application 17/831,084 is a continuation of application No. 17/155,161, filed on Jan. 22, 2021, granted, now 11,381,308.
Application 17/155,161 is a continuation of application No. 16/678,458, filed on Nov. 8, 2019, granted, now 10,931,374, issued on Feb. 23, 2021.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/779,142, filed on Dec. 13, 2018.
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. H04B 10/11 (2013.01); H04B 10/112 (2013.01); G05D 1/00 (2006.01); B60W 30/18 (2012.01); H04B 10/50 (2013.01); G05D 1/02 (2020.01)
CPC H04B 10/1123 (2013.01) [B60W 30/181 (2013.01); G05D 1/0022 (2013.01); G05D 1/0223 (2013.01); G05D 1/0231 (2013.01); H04B 10/1129 (2013.01); H04B 10/503 (2013.01); H04B 10/11 (2013.01)] 21 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system comprising:
a driving system configured to operate a vehicle autonomously;
a transmitter mounted on the vehicle; and
a computing device in communication with the driving system and the transmitter, the computing device being configured to:
operate the driving system to move the vehicle through a predetermined area proximate to a structure in which a remote computing device is located, the remote computing device including one or more optical receivers;
control the transmitter to transmit a plurality of optical beams at different angles while the vehicle moves through the predetermined area;
receive one or more signals from the remote computing device in response to the plurality of optical beams, the one or more signals indicating a signal strength of each of the plurality of optical beams that has been received by the one or more optical receivers of the remote computing device while the vehicle moved through the predetermined area;
select one of the plurality of optical beams based on the signal strength of each of the plurality of optical beams that has been received;
control the transmitter using the selected one of the plurality of optical beams to establish at least one optical communication link between the transmitter and the one or more optical receivers; and
control the transmitter to transmit data to the one or more optical receivers over the at least one optical communication link.