WO2005057519A1

WO2005057519A1 - Vehicle information collecting/managing method, vehicle information collecting/managing system, information management base station apparatus used in that system, and vehicle used in that system

Info

Publication number: WO2005057519A1
Application number: PCT/JP2003/015997
Authority: WO
Inventors: Akihiro Ohkawa; Seiji Asano
Original assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
Priority date: 2003-12-12
Filing date: 2003-12-12
Publication date: 2005-06-23
Also published as: JPWO2005057519A1; AU2003289082A1

Abstract

A vehicle information collecting/managing method for allowing a base station to collect information transmitted from a vehicle via radio communication and to manage the vehicle information. In this method, the information transmitted from the vehicle to the base station includes information of the vehicle position and information of the vehicle status that includes information of the self-diagnosis. This method allows the base station to store the information of the vehicle status and position from the vehicle plus related information indicative of the environmental status of the vehicle, and then perform, based on these stored information, statistical processings as to failures by use of a host computer of the base station.

Description

Description Vehicle information collection / management method, vehicle information collection / management system, information management base station device used in the system, and vehicle technical field

The present invention relates to a vehicle information collection / management method, a vehicle information collection / management system, an information management base station apparatus, and a vehicle, and more particularly, to a base station for collecting state information of a vehicle such as an automobile by mobile communication or wireless communication. The present invention relates to a vehicle information collection and management system, an information management base station device and a vehicle used in the system. Background art

In recent years, automobiles have an electronically controlled vehicle control device equipped with a microprocessor, and the vehicle control device generally controls various devices such as an internal combustion engine (engine), a transmission, and a braking device. It has become a target.

These electronically controlled vehicles have an on-board failure diagnosis device (OBD) that performs failure diagnosis based on signals from various on-board sensors. Vehicle-based failure diagnosis devices include a device that has a mouth-gating function that displays a warning when an abnormality occurs to notify the driver of the occurrence of the abnormality, stores the failure details in a vehicle-mounted mouth garage, and a mobile device. Some have a function of transmitting the details of a failure to a base station for vehicle information management by communication or the like (for example, Japanese Patent Office Publication: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 9-144549).

Also, vehicle control information such as accelerator amount, brake amount, steering amount, etc., and vehicle component state information such as CPU status, battery voltage, oil temperature, etc. are transmitted to the vehicle information management base station by wireless communication, and the base station transmits the information. There is a vehicle information collection system that performs statistical analysis of information and performs a failure diagnosis and the like (for example, Japanese Patent Office Publication No. JP-A-2001-76012).

If fault diagnosis information for each vehicle and related information indicating the vehicle environmental status can be centrally managed by the host computer of the base station, it is possible to perform advanced statistical processing of the fault information, and analyze the fault. It is very effective. And the vehicle breaks down In such a case, if statistical processing and detailed analysis can be performed on the failure location, it will be possible to reflect the improvement in the reliability of the vehicle and the identification of an appropriate maintenance time. For this purpose, it is better to prepare a wide range of data that can be a cause of failure, in addition to the location of the failure.

However, in the conventional technology, the information obtained at the time of occurrence of a failure diagnosis is narrow and limited, and the information necessary for performing a detailed analysis of the failure factor is insufficient.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems. The object of the present invention is to provide, in addition to vehicle failure diagnosis information, information indicating a vehicle environment state that may be a cause of a failure. In order to collect and manage vehicle position, date and time, weather information, road traffic information, etc. at the time of failure, vehicle diagnostic information collection management method and vehicle diagnostic information collection management that enable detailed analysis of failure phenomena An object of the present invention is to provide a system, an information management base station device and a vehicle used in the system. Disclosure of the invention

The present invention relates to a vehicle information collection and management method for collecting information transmitted from a vehicle by wireless communication at a base station and managing the vehicle information, wherein self-diagnosis information is transmitted as information transmitted from the vehicle to the base station. The base station stores the vehicle state information and the vehicle position information including the vehicle state information from the vehicle, the vehicle position information, and the related information indicating the vehicle environmental state, and accumulates the base station based on the accumulated information. It is possible to provide a vehicle information collection and management method for performing statistical processing on a failure by the host computer.

According to the present invention, information transmitted from a large number of vehicles is collectively managed in the base station, and the host computer performs at least one of a failure occurrence tendency, a maintenance time, and reliability as a statistical process on the failure. It can provide a method of collecting and managing vehicle information.

The relevant information indicating the vehicle environmental condition includes date and time, weather information, road traffic information, and the like. The road traffic information may be acquired from the vehicle as information transmitted from the vehicle.

According to the present invention, further, information on a result of the statistical processing in the base station is transmitted from the base station to the vehicle. It is possible to provide a reliable vehicle information collection and management method.

Further, the present invention has a base station including a host computer capable of wirelessly communicating with a vehicle in two directions, collecting information transmitted from the vehicle by wireless communication to the base station, and managing vehicle information. A management system that transmits vehicle status information and vehicle position information including self-diagnosis information from a vehicle to a base station, and the base station transmits the vehicle status information from the vehicle and the vehicle position information to indicate the vehicle environmental status. It is possible to provide a vehicle information collection and management system that adds and accumulates information and that performs a statistical process on a failure by the host computer of the base station based on the accumulated information.

According to the present invention, information transmitted from a large number of vehicles is collectively managed in the base station, and the host computer performs at least one of a failure occurrence tendency, a maintenance time, and reliability as a statistical process on the failure. A vehicle information collection and management system can be provided.

The present invention can further provide a vehicle information collection and management system that transmits information on the result of the statistical processing in the base station from the base station to the vehicle.

The present invention can provide an information management base station device installed in a base station of the vehicle information collection and management system according to the above invention.

Further, the present invention can provide a vehicle such as an automobile to which the vehicle information collection and management system according to the above-described invention is applied.

The vehicle information collection and management method and the vehicle information collection and management system according to the present invention include the date and time, weather information, road traffic information, and the like as relevant information indicating the vehicle environmental condition, and the road traffic information is transmitted from the vehicle. Information can also be obtained from the vehicle. Vehicle status information includes cooling water temperature, engine oil temperature, battery voltage, exhaust gas temperature, remaining fuel amount, etc. in addition to self-diagnosis information.

Therefore, according to the present invention, the vehicle immediately transmits the failure diagnosis result of the vehicle control device and the accompanying information such as vehicle position information to the base station by radio, and the base station side transmits data such as weather information and traffic congestion information. It can be added.

In addition, the host computer of the base station can freely grasp the correlation between the vehicle failure and other data by referring to the information accumulated by the base station, and the vehicle failure can be monitored. Detailed analysis is possible, and the failure factors It becomes easy to specify. Furthermore, the accumulated information allows the analysis result to be more reliable and to be reflected in the improvement of the vehicle system, thereby improving the reliability of the vehicle.

According to the present invention, the vehicle transmits the fault diagnosis data and the related information such as the position information to the base station, and the base station that has received the information statistically processes the fault location and occurrence time of the fault phenomenon, Detailed analysis becomes possible.

In addition, what has conventionally required a lot of man-hours due to the accumulation of reports from dealers and artificial analysis can now be processed in a short time. Brief Description of Drawings

FIG. 1 is an overall block diagram showing one embodiment of a vehicle information collection and management system according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing one embodiment of information collection and management processing in the vehicle information collection and management system according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing one embodiment of data processing in the vehicle information collection and management system according to the present invention, and FIG. 4 is an example of a statistical result of weather dependency of a component failure in the vehicle information collection and management system according to the present invention. Fig. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the statistical results of the number of occurrences of the devices in the vehicle information collection and management system according to the present invention by year and month. Fig. 6 is the cooling water temperature dependency of parts in the vehicle information collection and management system according to the present invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the statistical result of. BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Preferred embodiments according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an overall configuration of one embodiment of a diagnostic information collection system according to the present invention.

Each of the vehicles 10 has an information terminal device 11 having a wireless communication function, and a base station 50 for performing information collection management of the vehicle has a transmitting and receiving device 51 for mobile communication (wireless communication) using electromagnetic waves. The vehicle 10 and the base station 50 transmit and receive information to and from each other by the information terminal device 11 and the transmitting and receiving device 51. That is, the vehicle 10 and the base station 50 perform bidirectional wireless communication.

Mobile communications between the base station 50 and the vehicle 10 include S-band satellite communications and broadcasting systems. Satellite communication such as wireless communication system, dedicated short-range communication such as DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communication), and automobile telephone network (mobile telephone network using public line).

The vehicle 10 includes an engine control device 12, a transmission control device 13, and a brake control device 14 each including a microprocessor. Each of the engine control unit 12, the transmission control unit 13, and the brake control unit 14 has a well-known on-board failure diagnosis function (OBD) by software processing.

These control devices 12, 13, and 14 are connected so as to be capable of bidirectional data communication via an in-vehicle LAN 15 such as a CAN (CntrollerrAreaNewwork). An information terminal device 11 for performing mobile communication (wireless communication) using electromagnetic waves is connected to the vehicle LAN 15. The information terminal device 11 is an in-vehicle information terminal called BIT, and has a common user interface (not shown) and a centralized monitor 16.

The vehicle 10 is equipped with a car navigation system device 17. The car navigation system 17 includes a GPS receiver 18 for positioning the vehicle by receiving radio waves from a Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite. VICS (Vehicle Information and Communication System) that informs the vehicle navigation system 17 of vehicle traffic information such as traffic congestion and traffic regulations using beacons and FM multiplex broadcasts installed in vehicles. ) Receiver 18 is connected. The information terminal device 11 is connected to the navigation system device 17 and receives vehicle position information indicating the own vehicle position and road traffic information from the navigation system device 17.

The information terminal device 11 includes vehicle identification information, self-diagnosis vehicle information, vehicle state information such as cooling water temperature, engine oil temperature, battery voltage, exhaust gas temperature, remaining fuel amount, and vehicle position information by GPS. The road traffic information by VICS is transmitted to the base station 50.

The transmission of this information can be performed by event communication when the self-diagnosis result is an abnormal diagnosis result, or by cyclic communication when a certain mileage is reached. Good. For example, by transmitting the information accumulated in the mouth garage of the vehicle 10 to the base station 50 at every 10,000 km of the traveling distance, it is expected that an effect similar to the periodic inspection of the vehicle is obtained.

The base station 50 has a host computer 52 connected to the transmitting / receiving device 51 as an information management base station device. The host computer 52 is connected to a database device 53 for storing various information (data).

The host computer 52 can read and write data such as the vehicle identification information, the location of the failure based on the self-diagnosis vehicle information, the failure date and time, the weather information, and the counting result in the database device 53. These data are stored.

The host computer 52 must be able to collect weather information and other real-time fluctuating vehicle environment information in addition to vehicle status information, vehicle position information, and road traffic information transmitted from the vehicle 10. . In this example, an example is shown in which the host computer 52 is connected to the Internet 54 in order to collect vehicle environmental information such as weather information. However, if the above purpose can be achieved, the means is limited to this. It does not need to be done.

As described above, the vehicle state information transmitted by the vehicle 10 to the base station includes, in addition to the self-diagnosis information, a cooling water temperature, an engine oil temperature, a battery voltage, an exhaust gas temperature, a remaining fuel amount, and the like. The vehicle 10 adds information indicating the transmission date and time as a time stamp when transmitting the information, or when the base station 50 receives this information, the base station 50 adds the information indicating the reception date and time as a time stamp. Thus, the date and time information can be obtained on the base station 50 side.

The base station 50 transmits self-diagnosis information transmitted from each of the large number of vehicles 10 by wireless communication, vehicle state information such as cooling water temperature, engine oil temperature, battery voltage, exhaust gas temperature, remaining fuel amount, and the like. Relevant information indicating vehicle environmental conditions, such as date and time, weather information, vehicle position information, road traffic information, etc., is collected and stored in the database device 53 for centralized management.

Then, the base station 50 performs statistical processing on the failure by the host computer 52 based on the information accumulated in the database device 53. The host computer 52 performs statistical processing on failures, including information on failure trends, maintenance times, and reliability. Do at least one of the following: The result of the statistical processing of the base station 50 can be transmitted to a manufacturer, a dealer, or a repair shop via a communication network.

Then, the base station 50 transmits information indicating the importance of the failure and a countermeasure, and information on the result of the statistical processing to the vehicle 10 as necessary in consideration of urgency and the like.

In the vehicle 10, the information terminal device 11 receives information indicating the importance of the failure from the base station 50 and the countermeasures (response measures) and information on the result of the statistical processing, and the importance of the failure, the countermeasures, Information that should be notified to the driver, such as failure occurrence tendency, maintenance time (replacement time), and reliability, is displayed on the monitor 16 of the information terminal device 11. As a result, it is possible to display on the monitor 16 important information that cannot be obtained by OBD alone, such as failure occurrence statistical information and preventive information obtained from a large number of vehicles.

Next, an information collection management processing procedure in the vehicle information collection management system will be described with reference to a flowchart shown in FIG.

The vehicle 10 performs an abnormality diagnosis (self-diagnosis) so that when the onboard control devices 12, 13, 14 are broken, the vehicle 10 can detect it. For example, it is assumed that the self-diagnosis routine is performed in parallel with a general control program and is started at regular intervals of about 6 Oms. .

When the diagnosis mode is started (step S101), it is determined whether there is an abnormality (failure) based on the diagnosis result (step S102). If there is no abnormality, this processing flow ends.

If there is an abnormality, the abnormality information, vehicle identification data such as a vehicle unique number, and other information of the vehicle 10 are transmitted (step S103). The information possessed by the vehicle includes, for example, vehicle position information obtained from the GPS receiver 18, information on traffic congestion and traffic regulation obtained from the VICS receiver 19, and information obtained from various control devices 12, 13, and 14. The vehicle's cooling water temperature, intake air temperature, engine oil temperature, battery voltage, exhaust gas temperature, remaining fuel, ignition timing, etc.

On the base station 50 side, the information collection management program of the host computer 52 is started by being triggered by the reception of information from the vehicle 10 (step S201). The host computer 52 collects, in addition to the information received from the vehicle 10, any other information that cannot be obtained from the vehicle but may be a cause of a failure (step S2). 0 2). For example, information such as weather information (weather, atmospheric temperature, humidity), date and time, road conditions, etc. are collected. This information (data) is added to the information received from the vehicle 10. At this time, if the host computer 52 is connected to the Internet 54, the relevant information may be collected at this stage, and the necessary information can always be obtained in the latest state. The correlation between the information and the failure becomes more reliable, and detailed analysis on the failure becomes possible. In addition, when such information includes information obtained on the vehicle 10 side, information that can be collected on the base station 50 side can be collected on the base station 50 side. It is also effective in reducing the load.

These information (data) is added to the information received from vehicle 10 (step S

203), the host computer 52 executes data processing routines such as data aggregation, statistical processing, and analysis (step S204).

Then, the host computer 52 transmits the corresponding treatment determined based on the processing result to the vehicle 10 (step S205), and performs a diagnosis end process (step S206).

At this time, since the vehicle 10 is in a state of waiting for the diagnosis result from the base station 50, if the base station 50 determines that there is urgency with respect to the failure content, the reply process to the vehicle 10 is performed as follows. In particular, it needs to be done immediately.

Next, the vehicle 10 starts an operation based on the reception of the diagnosis result from the base station 50 (step S104). Specifically, if the diagnosis can be dealt with by notifying the driver of the diagnosis result or rewriting the vehicle control program or correcting the data, it will be performed. The means of notification of the diagnosis result is not limited to any means such as voice display and character display, but the driver must be able to recognize it reliably. Then, a process for ending the diagnostic mode is performed (step S105).

Next, an example of a data processing routine (step S204) executed by the host computer 52 of the base station 50 will be described with reference to FIG.

The base station 50 first creates an empty (empty) response treatment list (step S301). Next, the diagnostic information received from the vehicle 10 is analyzed (step S

302), if the result is failure (NG), the item of that NG is additionally written in the corresponding action list (step S303). Then, information (history) relating to the failed vehicle is acquired from the database device 53 (step S304), and the history is searched to determine whether or not the consumable part has been replaced (step S305). If there is a part corresponding to the replacement of the consumable part, this is additionally written in the item of the corresponding treatment list (step S306).

Finally, it is determined whether or not there is an item in the corresponding treatment list (step S307). If there is an item, the corresponding treatment list is transmitted to the vehicle 10 (step S308). Next, an example of an analysis method by the host computer 52 of the base station 50 will be described with reference to FIGS.

Figure 4 is a diagram showing the correlation between the vehicle component A and the weather, and shows that the probability of failure is high in rainy weather. This result is an embodiment realized by the present invention in which weather information can be added by the base station host computer 52 in addition to the failure information received from many vehicles 10.

With this analysis data, the vehicle manufacturer can reflect this in improving the failure rate of part A. For example, the fact that part A has a high probability of failure in rainy weather can mean that part A is weak in moisture resistance or has a problem in sealing performance, and vehicle manufacturers must consider this. And make improvements.

Figure 5 shows the results of yearly and monthly statistical processing regarding the failure of device B that makes up the vehicle, and indicates that the failure rate is high in summer. This result indicates that the failure can be transmitted to the base station 50 in real time immediately by adopting wireless communication such as mobile communication as the means of transmission and reception between the vehicle 10 and the base station 50. Is realized by adding The statistical processing results by year and month show that Device B has a high failure rate in the summer, indicating that Device B is vulnerable to high temperatures.Taking measures in accordance with the results will improve reliability in the future. it can.

Figure 6 shows the results of statistical processing of the correlation between the failure of part C that makes up the vehicle and the water temperature (cooling water temperature). The water temperature data is information obtained from the vehicle 10 when a failure occurs. This result indicates that the failure of part C depends on the water temperature and is vulnerable to high water temperature, which may be useful information for vehicle manufacturers to improve vehicles.

Based on the statistical processing result, the vehicle manufacturer can easily identify the cause of the failure of the part C, and can statistically grasp that the part C is vulnerable to high water temperature. Furthermore, this statistical processing If the improvement of this part is reflected in the next model by improving the high water temperature characteristic of part C and strengthening the engine cooling system such as the radiator based on the results of It can be assured.

In addition to the above examples, correlation with mileage is useful for estimating the life of parts and equipment, estimating reliability, and identifying maintenance times such as oil change, etc., and is reflected in vehicle system improvement. It becomes possible.

As described above, examples in the case where the present invention is implemented are shown, but these cannot be realized by the conventional technology in which detailed information of diagnosis results is not systematically collected and classified. The present invention has solved this point.

According to the present invention, the vehicle transmits the fault diagnosis data and the related information such as the position information to the base station, and the base station that has received the information statistically processes the fault location and occurrence time of the fault phenomenon, Detailed analysis becomes possible. In addition, it will be possible to process in a short period of time what has conventionally required a lot of man-hours due to the accumulation of reports from dealers and artificial analysis.

In addition, by adding data such as weather information and traffic congestion information at the base station, the reliability of the data becomes more reliable, and the correlation between the vehicle environment and the failure can be freely grasped. It can be reflected in system improvement. Furthermore, the accumulation of data makes it possible to more reliably improve vehicle reliability.

Claims

The scope of the claims

1. A vehicle information collection and management method for collecting information transmitted from a vehicle by wireless communication to a base station and managing the vehicle information,

The information transmitted from the vehicle to the base station includes vehicle state information including self-diagnosis information and vehicle position information, and the base station relates vehicle state information from the vehicle and vehicle position information to the vehicle environment state. A vehicle information collection and management method in which information is added and accumulated, and based on the accumulated information, the host computer of the base station performs statistical processing on failures.

2. The base station collectively manages information transmitted from a large number of vehicles, and the host computer performs at least one of a failure occurrence statistical process, a failure occurrence tendency, a maintenance time, and reliability as a statistical process. The vehicle information collection and management method according to claim 1.

3. The vehicle information collection and management method according to claim 1, wherein the related information indicating the vehicle environmental state includes at least one of date and time, weather information, and road traffic information.

4. The vehicle information collection and management method according to claim 1, wherein the relevant information indicating the vehicle environmental condition includes road traffic information, and the road traffic information is obtained from the vehicle as information transmitted from the vehicle. .

5. The vehicle information collection and management method according to claim 1, wherein the result information of the statistical processing in the base station is transmitted from the base station to the vehicle.

6. A vehicle information collection and management system that has a base station equipped with a host computer capable of wirelessly communicating with the vehicle bidirectionally, collects information transmitted from the vehicle by wireless communication to the base station, and manages vehicle information. So,

Vehicle status information and vehicle position information, including self-diagnosis information, are transmitted from the vehicle to the base station, and the base station accumulates the vehicle status information and vehicle position information from the vehicle, plus relevant information indicating the vehicle environmental status. A vehicle information collection and management system that performs statistical processing on failures by the host computer of the base station based on the accumulated information.

7. The base station collectively manages information transmitted from a large number of vehicles in the base station, and the host computer performs, as statistical processing regarding the failure, the tendency of failure occurrence, maintenance time, 7. The vehicle information collection and management system according to claim 6, wherein the vehicle information collection and management system performs at least one of reliability-related matters.

8. The vehicle information collection and management system according to claim 6, wherein the relevant information indicating the vehicle environmental state includes at least one of date and time, weather information, and road traffic information.

9. The vehicle information collection according to claim 6, wherein the relevant information indicating the vehicle environmental condition includes road traffic information, and the road traffic information congestion information is acquired from the vehicle as information transmitted from the vehicle. Management system.

10. The vehicle information collection and management system according to claim 6, wherein information on a result of the statistical processing in the base station is transmitted from the base station to the vehicle.

11. An information management base station device installed in a base station of the vehicle information collection and management system according to claim 6.

12. Vehicles such as automobiles to which the vehicle information collection and management system described in claim 6 is applied.