Policy based navigation control

Abstract

The described technology is generally directed towards policy-based navigation control. Map inputs including, e.g., information about blocked routes or other map information, can be collected from mobile devices. Policies can be applied to the map inputs in order to generate navigation advisories that synthesize information from multiple map inputs. For example, a size and shape of a route blockage zone can be determined from multiple discrete map inputs. In some embodiments, the techniques disclosed herein can be applied in connection with shared overlay maps to support automated, real-time, cross-platform sharing of map information, including navigation advisories, among digital navigational map users, including but not limited to unmanned ground vehicles.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A non-transitory machine-readable medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:
 monitoring a stream of map inputs, wherein a first policy agent comprises a first capability to identify a first group of map inputs within the stream of map inputs, and wherein the first group of map inputs satisfies a first defined policy;   receiving a second policy agent, wherein the second policy agent comprises a second capability to identify a second group of map inputs within the stream of map inputs, and wherein the second group of map inputs satisfies a second defined policy;   including the first policy agent and the second policy agent in a group of policy agents, resulting in an updated group of policy agents;   identifying, by one of the updated group of policy agents, the first group of map inputs or the second group of map inputs within the stream of map inputs, resulting in an identified group of map inputs;   in response to the identifying, generating navigation advisory data representative of a navigation advisory, wherein the navigation advisory comprises a navigation advisory map location based on the identified group of map inputs; and   enabling respective re-routings of mobile devices based on the navigation advisory data by sending the navigation advisory data to the mobile devices.   
     
     
         2 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein map inputs in the stream of map inputs comprise route blockage information. 
     
     
         3 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 2 , wherein the navigation advisory data comprises route blockage zone data representative of a route blockage zone. 
     
     
         4 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise receiving the stream of map inputs from at least one of the mobile devices. 
     
     
         5 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the mobile devices comprise unmanned ground vehicles. 
     
     
         6 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein sending the navigation advisory to the mobile devices comprises determining a group of the mobile devices and distributing the navigation advisory data to the group of the mobile devices. 
     
     
         7 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the mobile devices comprise first mobile devices equipped with a first digital navigational map type and second mobile devices equipped with a second digital navigational map type different than the first digital navigational map type. 
     
     
         8 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the navigation advisory data comprises a clearance instruction to clear the navigation advisory after a navigation advisory duration. 
     
     
         9 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the first defined policy specifies occurrence of a planned event. 
     
     
         10 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 9 , wherein the identifying comprises identifying the first group of map inputs during the planned event. 
     
     
         11 . A method, comprising:
 generating, by a user equipment, map overlay information associated with a map location corresponding to a current position of the user equipment;   sending, by the user equipment, the map overlay information to a shared service that is accessible by a group of user equipment comprising the user equipment and other user equipment other than the user equipment, wherein at least a first user equipment of the group of user equipment uses a different digital navigational map type than used by at least a second user equipment of the group of user equipment;   receiving, by the user equipment, from the shared service, navigation advisory data representative of a navigation advisory that was generated using the map overlay information and other map overlay information associated with the other user equipment; and   using, by the user equipment, the navigation advisory to update a route determination for the user equipment.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the user equipment is physically coupled with an unmanned ground vehicle. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising updating, by the user equipment, a digital navigational map of the different digital navigational map type used by the user equipment, resulting in an updated digital navigational map of the different digital navigational map type used by the user equipment. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising:
 receiving, by the user equipment, the other map overlay information; and   monitoring, by the user equipment, the other map overlay information in order to identify a group of map overlay information that satisfies a defined map overlay policy.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising, in response to identifying the group of map overlay information that satisfies the defined map overlay policy, generating, by the user equipment, local navigation advisory data representative of a local navigation advisory that is localized with respect to a location of the user equipment. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the navigation advisory data comprises a route blockage zone. 
     
     
         17 . Network equipment, comprising:
 a processor; and   a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:
 receiving a stream of map inputs, wherein the map inputs in the stream of map inputs comprise respective map locations of mobile subscriber devices, and wherein the mobile subscriber devices use different digital navigational map types; 
 using different policy agents to monitor the stream of map inputs, wherein the different policy agents identify different groups of map inputs within the stream of map inputs, and wherein the different groups of map inputs satisfy different respective policies specified by the different policy agents; 
 generating a navigation advisory in response to identifying a group of map inputs within the stream of map inputs that satisfies a policy of a policy agent of the different policy agents; and 
 enabling re-routing of the mobile subscriber devices by sending the navigation advisory to the mobile subscriber devices, wherein the mobile subscriber devices are configured to use the navigation advisory to update respective routes. 
   
     
     
         18 . The network equipment of  claim 17 , wherein the operations further comprise receiving a new policy agent and including the new policy agent among the different policy agents to monitor the stream of map inputs, resulting in updated policy agents to monitor the stream of map inputs. 
     
     
         19 . The network equipment of  claim 17 , wherein the navigation advisory comprises a navigation advisory map location based on map locations of the group of map inputs. 
     
     
         20 . The network equipment of  claim 17 , wherein the network equipment comprises an edge server in a cellular communications network.