JP7571003B2 - Control device and mobile unit - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a control device and a mobile object equipped with the control device.

In recent years, there has been a demand for improved traffic safety to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. From the perspective of improving traffic safety, for example, driving assistance systems have been developed in which a control device called an ECU (Electronic Control Unit) communicates with various in-vehicle devices (e.g., sensors) to control the operation of the vehicle, thereby assisting the driver in driving the vehicle.

Patent document 1 discloses a technology that determines whether a CPU reset is caused by an abnormality in the CPU based on the counter value of a reset signal output from a watchdog monitoring circuit, which outputs a reset signal to the CPU in response to determining that an abnormality has occurred in the CPU.

JP 2004-362059 A

In the prior art, when a communication anomaly occurs between a control device mounted on a mobile object and another device, it is not possible to determine whether the communication anomaly is one that will recover naturally over time without requiring any special work (hereinafter also referred to as a "temporary communication anomaly"), or one that will not recover naturally even over time (hereinafter also referred to as a "non-temporary communication anomaly"), and it is not possible to provide appropriate control according to the type of communication anomaly that has occurred.

The present invention provides a control device that, when a communication anomaly occurs between the control device mounted on the mobile object and another device, can perform appropriate control according to the type of the communication anomaly, and a mobile object equipped with the control device.

The first invention is
A control device mounted on a moving body and communicably connected to other devices mounted on the moving body,
The control device includes:
An acquisition unit that acquires information about the moving object;
A control unit that controls the moving object;
Equipped with
the information about the moving body includes information representing an inertia parameter correlated with inertia generated with the movement of the moving body,
The control unit is
an anomaly type determination unit that, when a communication anomaly occurs between the control device and the other device, determines whether the communication anomaly is a temporary communication anomaly or a non-temporary communication anomaly based on the inertia parameter at the time when the communication anomaly occurs;
When the abnormality type determination unit determines that the communication abnormality is a temporary abnormality, the operation mode of the moving body is set to a standby operation mode;
When the anomaly type determination unit determines that the communication anomaly has occurred due to a non-temporary communication anomaly, the operation mode of the mobile unit is set to a fail-safe operation mode;
the standby operation mode is an operation mode that maintains the function of the moving object before the communication abnormality occurs,
The fail-safe operation mode is an operation mode in which the function is not maintained .
It is a control device.

The second invention is
A control device according to a first aspect of the present invention;
The other device;
It is a moving body equipped with.

The present invention provides a control device that, when a communication anomaly occurs between a control device mounted on a mobile object and another device, can perform appropriate control according to the type of communication anomaly, and a mobile object equipped with the control device.

1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a vehicle according to an embodiment; 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a communication abnormality occurrence location table stored in a server device capable of communicating with the vehicle control device of the embodiment; FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a process executed by a control device of an embodiment. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a prediction process executed by a control device of an embodiment.

Below, an embodiment of the control device of the present invention and a mobile body equipped with the control device will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Below, an example will be described in which the mobile body of the present invention is a vehicle. Note that in this specification and the like, to simplify and clarify the explanation, each direction such as front/rear, left/right, up/down, etc. will be described according to the direction as seen by the driver of the vehicle. Also, below, identical or similar elements will be given the same or similar reference numerals, and their explanations may be omitted or simplified as appropriate.

[vehicle]
The vehicle 1 of the present embodiment shown in FIG. 1 is an automobile having a drive source, and wheels including drive wheels driven by the power of the drive source and steerable wheels (both not shown). For example, the vehicle 1 is a four-wheel automobile having a pair of left and right front wheels and rear wheels. The drive source of the vehicle 1 may be an electric motor, an internal combustion engine such as a gasoline engine or a diesel engine, or a combination of an electric motor and an internal combustion engine. In addition, the drive source of the vehicle 1 may drive a pair of left and right front wheels, a pair of left and right rear wheels, or a pair of left and right front wheels and rear wheels, i.e., four wheels. Either one of the front wheels or the rear wheels may be a steerable wheel, or both of the front wheels and the rear wheels may be steerable wheels.

As shown in FIG. 1, the vehicle 1 includes a sensor group 10, a navigation device 20, a control device 30 which is an example of a control device of the present invention, an EPS system (electric power steering system) 40, a communication unit 50, a driving force control system 60, and a braking force control system 70.

The sensor group 10 acquires various detection values related to the vehicle 1 or the surroundings of the vehicle 1. The detection values acquired by the sensor group 10 are provided to the control device 30 for controlling the vehicle 1. The sensor group 10 includes a front camera 11a, a rear camera 11b, a left side camera 11c, a right side camera 11d, a front sonar group 12a, a rear sonar group 12b, a left side sonar group 12c, and a right side sonar group 12d. These cameras and sonar groups can function as external sensors that acquire information about the surroundings of the vehicle 1.

The front camera 11a, rear camera 11b, left side camera 11c, and right side camera 11d output image data of the surrounding images obtained by capturing images of the surroundings of the vehicle 1 to the control device 30. The surrounding images captured by the front camera 11a, rear camera 11b, left side camera 11c, and right side camera 11d are also referred to as the front image, rear image, left side image, and right side image, respectively. An image composed of the left side image and right side image is also referred to as a lateral image.

The front sonar group 12a, rear sonar group 12b, left side sonar group 12c, and right side sonar group 12d emit sound waves around the vehicle 1 and receive reflected sound from other objects. The front sonar group 12a includes, for example, four sonars. The sonars constituting the front sonar group 12a are provided diagonally forward to the left, front left, front right, and diagonally forward to the right of the vehicle 1, respectively. The rear sonar group 12b includes, for example, four sonars. The sonars constituting the rear sonar group 12b are provided diagonally backward to the left, rear left, rear right, and diagonally backward to the right of the vehicle 1, respectively. The left side sonar group 12c includes, for example, two sonars. The sonars constituting the left side sonar group 12c are provided in the front left side and rear left side of the vehicle 1, respectively. The right side sonar group 12d includes, for example, two sonars. The sonars that make up the right side sonar group 12d are provided at the front and rear of the right side of the vehicle 1.

The sensor group 10 further includes wheel sensors 13a and 13b, a vehicle speed sensor 14, an inertial measurement unit (IMU) 15, and an operation detection unit 16. The wheel sensors 13a and 13b each detect the rotation angle of a wheel (not shown). The wheel sensors 13a and 13b may be configured with an angle sensor or a displacement sensor. The wheel sensors 13a and 13b output a detection pulse to the control device 30 each time the wheel rotates a predetermined angle. The detection pulses output from the wheel sensors 13a and 13b can be used to calculate the rotation angle and rotation speed of the wheel. The travel distance of the vehicle 1 can be calculated based on the rotation angle of the wheel. The wheel sensor 13a detects, for example, the rotation angle θa of the left rear wheel. The wheel sensor 13b detects, for example, the rotation angle θb of the right rear wheel.

The vehicle speed sensor 14 detects the traveling speed of the vehicle 1 (vehicle body), i.e., the vehicle speed V, and outputs the detected vehicle speed V to the control device 30. The vehicle speed sensor 14 detects the vehicle speed V, for example, based on the rotation of the countershaft of the transmission.

The inertial measurement unit 15 detects the angular velocities in the pitch, roll, and yaw directions of the vehicle 1, and the accelerations in the front-rear, left-right, and up-down directions of the vehicle 1, and outputs these detection results to the control device 30. Note that in this embodiment, an example in which the inertial measurement unit 15 is provided is described, but this is not limited to this. For example, instead of the inertial measurement unit 15, an acceleration sensor that simply detects the acceleration in a specified direction of the vehicle 1, or a gyro sensor that detects the angular velocity in a specified direction of the vehicle 1 may be provided.

The operation detection unit 16 detects the operation contents performed by the user using the operation input unit 80, and outputs the detected operation contents to the control device 30. The operation input unit 80 may include, for example, an operation button that accepts an operation to execute lane keeping assist control or autonomous movement control, which will be described later. The operation input unit 80 may be shared with the touch panel 21, which will be described later.

The navigation device 20 detects the current position of the vehicle 1 using, for example, a Global Positioning System (GPS), and provides the user of the vehicle 1 (hereinafter simply referred to as the "user") with a route to the destination. The navigation device 20 has a storage device (not shown) that is equipped with a map information database.

The navigation device 20 is equipped with a touch panel 21 and a speaker 22. The touch panel 21 can function as an input device that accepts input of various information to the control device 30, and as a display device controlled by the control device 30. That is, the user can input various commands to the control device 30 via the touch panel 21. In addition, the touch panel 21 can display a screen that guides and notifies the user of various information. In addition, the speaker 22 outputs various information to the user by voice.

The control device 30 is mounted on the vehicle 1 and is communicatively connected to other devices mounted on the vehicle 1, and controls the entire vehicle 1 by communicating with the other devices. The control device 30 is realized by an ECU that includes, for example, a processor that performs various calculations, a storage device (storage medium) that stores various information, and an input/output device that controls the input and output of data between the inside and outside of the control device 30. The control device 30 may be realized by one ECU or multiple ECUs.

Other devices (hereinafter simply referred to as "other devices") connected to the control device 30 include the cameras, sonar groups, and sensors included in the sensor group 10, the EPS ECU 45 of the EPS system 40, the drive ECU 61 of the drive force control system 60, and the braking ECU 71 of the braking force control system 70. The EPS ECU 45, drive ECU 61, and braking ECU 71 will be described later.

The control device 30 and other devices are connected via a wired communication network consisting of, for example, various wire harnesses, cables, connectors, etc. arranged inside the vehicle 1. In addition, for example, CAN (Controller Area Network), LIN (Local Interconnect Network), FlexRay, CAN FD (CAN with Flexible Data Rate), etc. can be used for communication between the control device 30 and other devices.

The control device 30 is configured to be capable of executing lane keeping assist control, known as "lane keep assist," as a control related to the vehicle 1. This lane keeping assist control includes control that detects the lane while the vehicle 1 is traveling and assists steering via the EPS system 40 described below so that the vehicle 1 maintains its position near the center of the lane, and control that warns the driver with a steering vibration when the vehicle 1 is about to deviate from the lane and assists steering to return the vehicle to the center of the lane. In addition to the lane keeping assist control described above, the control device 30 may be configured to be capable of executing autonomous movement control, for example, to move the vehicle 1 autonomously (to perform so-called "automated driving"). The control device 30 will be described again later.

The EPS system 40 includes a steering angle sensor 41, a torque sensor 42, an EPS motor 43, a resolver 44, and an EPS ECU (EPS electronic control unit) 45. The steering angle sensor 41 detects the steering angle θst of the steering wheel 46. The torque sensor 42 detects the torque TQ applied to the steering wheel 46.

The EPS motor 43 can assist the steering operation of a user (e.g., the driver of the vehicle 1) by applying a driving force or a reaction force to a steering column 47 connected to the steering wheel 46, for example, during the lane keeping assist control described above. The resolver 44 detects the rotation angle θm of the EPS motor 43. The EPS ECU 45 is responsible for the overall control of the EPS system 40.

The driving force control system 60 includes a driving ECU 61. The driving force control system 60 executes driving force control of the vehicle 1. The driving ECU 61 controls the driving force of the vehicle 1, for example, by controlling an engine (not shown) or the like in response to a user's operation of an accelerator pedal (not shown). In addition, during the autonomous movement control described above, the driving ECU 61 may control the driving force of the vehicle 1 so that the vehicle 1 travels at a predetermined speed.

The braking force control system 70 is equipped with a braking ECU 71. The braking force control system 70 executes braking force control of the vehicle 1. The braking ECU 71 controls the braking force of the vehicle 1 by controlling a brake mechanism (not shown) and the like in response to a user's operation of a brake pedal (not shown). Furthermore, during the autonomous movement control described above, the braking ECU 71 may appropriately control the brake mechanism to decelerate or stop the vehicle 1.

The communication unit 50 is a communication interface that communicates with a server device 2 external to the vehicle 1 according to the control of the control device 30. That is, the control device 30 can communicate with the server device 2 via the communication unit 50. For communication between the vehicle 1 and the server device 2, for example, a mobile communication network such as a cellular line, Wi-Fi (registered trademark), Bluetooth (registered trademark), etc. can be used.

Here, the server device 2 is a server (computer) configured to be able to distribute communication anomaly occurrence location information, including information indicating a location where a communication anomaly (described later) determined to be a temporary communication anomaly occurred in any vehicle including the vehicle 1 (hereinafter also referred to as the "communication anomaly occurrence location"), to vehicles that can communicate with the server device 2, including the vehicle 1. For example, the server device 2 is managed by the manufacturer of the vehicle 1. Furthermore, the server device 2 may be a virtual server (cloud server) realized in a cloud computing service, or may be a physical server realized as a single device.

The server device 2 has a communication abnormality occurrence location table T. As shown in FIG. 2, the communication abnormality occurrence location table T stores, in association with each other, information indicating the location (P1, P2, ... in FIG. 2) where a communication abnormality determined to be a temporary communication abnormality occurred in any vehicle including vehicle 1, identification information of the vehicle where the communication abnormality occurred (e.g. M1, M2, ... in FIG. 2), and information indicating a device that was unable to communicate due to the communication abnormality (e.g. sensor #1, sensor #2, ... in FIG. 2).

For example, when a communication anomaly determined to be a temporary communication anomaly occurs, each vehicle capable of communicating with server device 2, including vehicle 1, transmits to server device 2 location information indicating the vehicle's current location at the time (i.e., information indicating the location where the communication anomaly occurred), the vehicle's identification information, and information indicating the device that was unable to communicate due to the communication anomaly, in association with each other. Server device 2 stores the information received from each vehicle in this manner in communication anomaly occurrence location table T. Server device 2 then refers to communication anomaly occurrence location table T and distributes communication anomaly occurrence location information to each vehicle capable of communicating with server device 2, including vehicle 1 (described below).

[Control device]
Next, an example of the control device 30 will be described in detail.

As the vehicle 1 travels, vibrations may occur in the vehicle 1 due to bumps in the road surface, etc. Such vibrations may cause temporary contact problems in the connectors of the communication network connecting the control device 30 to other devices, resulting in a temporary communication interruption between the control device 30 and other devices. Such communication abnormalities are temporary communication abnormalities that naturally recover over time (specifically, as the vibrations subside).

On the other hand, in the vehicle 1, communication between the control device 30 and other devices may be interrupted due to a break in the wire harness or cable of the communication network connecting the control device 30 to other devices or a connector falling off. Unlike the temporary communication abnormality described above, such communication abnormality is a non-temporary communication abnormality that does not recover naturally even after time has passed. In other words, recovery from a non-temporary communication abnormality requires work such as replacing a broken wire harness or cable or reconnecting a fallen connector.

Generally, in a vehicle, if a communication abnormality occurs between a control device and other devices such as various sensors or cameras, a failure detection function is activated and functions using the other devices are stopped. Therefore, for example, when a driving assistance function such as the lane keeping assist control described above is activated, if a communication abnormality occurs with a device used by the driving assistance function, the driving assistance function will be stopped.

However, if the communication anomaly is a temporary one, it is expected that recovery will occur within a short period of time without the need for any special work. Therefore, from the perspective of usability, even if a communication anomaly occurs, if the communication anomaly is a temporary one, it is desirable to maintain as much of the functionality that existed before the communication anomaly occurred as possible.

When a communication abnormality occurs with another device, the control device 30 distinguishes whether the communication abnormality is a temporary communication abnormality or a non-temporary communication abnormality, thereby enabling appropriate control to be performed according to the type of communication abnormality. Specifically, the control device 30 includes an input/output unit 31 and a control unit 32 as functional units realized by, for example, a processor executing a program stored in a storage device of the control device 30, or functional units realized by an input/output device of the control device 30.

The input/output unit 31 is an interface that inputs and outputs data between the inside and outside of the control device 30 according to the control of the control unit 32. The input/output unit 31 functions as an acquisition unit that acquires information about the vehicle 1. Here, the information about the vehicle 1 includes information representing an inertia parameter that is correlated with the inertia generated with the movement of the vehicle 1. Here, the inertia parameter is, for example, the acceleration or angular velocity generated in the vehicle 1. Information representing such inertia parameters can be acquired, for example, from the detection results of the inertial measurement unit 15.

In addition, the information regarding the vehicle 1 further includes, for example, position information of the vehicle 1. Here, the position information of the vehicle 1 is information indicating the current position of the vehicle 1. Such position information of the vehicle 1 can be acquired, for example, from a navigation device 20 that can detect the current position of the vehicle 1 using a GPS. Furthermore, the input/output unit 31 may acquire the aforementioned communication abnormality occurrence location information from the server device 2 by communication between the control device 30 and the server device 2 via the communication unit 50.

The control unit 32 controls the vehicle 1. Specifically, the control unit 32 includes an abnormality type determination unit 32a. When a communication abnormality occurs between the control device 30 and another device mounted on the vehicle 1, the abnormality type determination unit 32a determines whether the communication abnormality is a temporary communication abnormality or a non-temporary communication abnormality based on the inertia parameters at the time when the communication abnormality occurs. For example, if at least one of the acceleration and angular velocity occurring in the vehicle 1 at the time when the communication abnormality occurs is equal to or greater than a threshold value, the abnormality type determination unit 32a determines that the communication abnormality is a temporary communication abnormality. Note that the threshold value is, for example, set in advance in the control device 30.

In this way, the control device 30 can determine whether a communication abnormality is a temporary communication abnormality or a non-temporary communication abnormality based on at least one of the acceleration and angular velocity occurring in the vehicle 1 when the communication abnormality occurs, and can determine whether the communication abnormality is a temporary communication abnormality or a non-temporary communication abnormality while taking into account the vibrations occurring in the vehicle 1. Therefore, it is possible to accurately determine (i.e., distinguish) whether the communication abnormality that has occurred is a temporary communication abnormality or a non-temporary communication abnormality.

The control unit 32 then performs control according to the result of the determination by the anomaly type determination unit 32a. For example, if the control unit 32 determines that the communication anomaly is a temporary one by the anomaly type determination unit 32a, the control unit 32 sets the operation mode of the vehicle 1 to the standby operation mode. On the other hand, if the control unit 32 determines that the communication anomaly is a non-temporary one by the anomaly type determination unit 32a, the control unit 32 sets the operation mode of the vehicle 1 to the fail-safe operation mode.

The standby operation mode is an operation mode that maintains the functionality of vehicle 1 before a communication abnormality occurs. On the other hand, the fail-safe operation mode is an operation mode that does not maintain the functionality of vehicle 1 before a communication abnormality occurs.

For example, assume that the control device 30 was executing the lane keeping assist control described above before the communication abnormality occurred. In this case, if the control unit 32 goes into standby operation mode following the occurrence of the communication abnormality, it continues the lane keeping assist control even after the occurrence of the communication abnormality. At this time, the control unit 32 continues the lane keeping assist control using an alternative device that replaces the device with which communication has been lost. For example, if the device with which communication has been lost is the left side camera 11c, the control unit 32 continues the lane keeping assist control using the front camera 11a and the left side sonar group 12c as alternative devices for the left side camera 11c. Also, if the control unit 32 goes into fail-safe operation mode following the occurrence of the communication abnormality while the control device 30 is executing the lane keeping assist control, it ends the lane keeping assist control instead of continuing it after the occurrence of the communication abnormality.

The preliminary operation mode may be an operation mode that maintains the autonomous movement level of vehicle 1 before the communication abnormality occurs (e.g., the so-called "automated driving level"), and the fail-safe operation mode may be an operation mode that lowers the autonomous movement level of vehicle 1 below that before the communication abnormality occurs.

For example, assume that before a communication abnormality occurs, the control device 30 was driving the vehicle 1 autonomously at autonomous driving level "3" or higher using the autonomous movement control described above. In this case, if the control unit 32 switches to a standby operation mode following the occurrence of a communication abnormality, the control unit 32 continues the autonomous driving of the vehicle 1 even after the occurrence of the communication abnormality. Even in this case, the control unit 32 enables the autonomous driving to continue by using an alternative device to replace the device with which communication has been lost. On the other hand, if the control unit 32 switches to a fail-safe operation mode following the occurrence of a communication abnormality while the control device 30 is driving the vehicle 1 autonomously, the control unit 32 ends the autonomous driving of the vehicle 1 by setting the autonomous driving level to "0 (i.e., fully manual driving)" after the occurrence of the communication abnormality.

In addition, if temporary communication anomalies occur repeatedly between the control device 30 and another device, there is a high possibility that the temporary communication anomaly will subsequently change to a non-temporary communication anomaly. For example, it is conceivable that an other device connected to the control device 30 via a connector in a half-locked state will subsequently lose communication with the control device 30 if the connector falls off.

The control device 30 may measure the number of occurrences or frequency of communication anomalies determined to be temporary communication anomalies between the control device 30 and each other device. The anomaly type determination unit 32a may determine that a communication anomaly with a certain other device is a non-temporary communication anomaly when the number of occurrences or frequency of communication anomalies determined to be temporary communication anomalies between the control device 30 and the other device exceeds a predetermined value. This makes it possible to perform appropriate control that takes into account the possibility that a temporary communication anomaly will change to a non-temporary communication anomaly. The predetermined value is, for example, set in advance in the control device 30.

In addition, when the number of occurrences or frequency of the communication abnormality determined to be a temporary communication abnormality exceeds a predetermined value, the control unit 32 may cause a notification unit provided in the vehicle 1, such as the touch panel 21 or the speaker 22, to notify the user of predetermined warning information. This makes it possible to notify the user that there is a high possibility that the communication abnormality will change to a non-temporary communication abnormality. Therefore, it is possible to urge the user to have the vehicle 1 inspected before the temporary communication abnormality changes to a non-temporary communication abnormality. Note that the notification unit is not limited to the above example. For example, the notification unit may be a meter display or the like provided on the meter panel. In addition, the notification of the warning information by the notification unit may be turned on or off by operating a predetermined operation button arranged on the steering wheel 46 or the like. Furthermore, the notification unit may be capable of displaying various information including information other than the warning information, and the information displayed by the notification unit (i.e., the notification content) may be switched by operating a predetermined operation button arranged on the steering wheel 46 or the like.

In addition, considering that vibrations that can cause temporary communication anomalies are caused by poor road conditions such as bumps or unpaved roads, when vehicle 1 passes through a location where a temporary communication anomaly has previously occurred in any vehicle, including vehicle 1 (i.e., a communication anomaly occurrence location), there is a high possibility that a temporary communication anomaly will also occur in vehicle 1. This is because it is unlikely that road conditions will improve immediately.

The control unit 32 may set the operation mode of the vehicle 1 to the standby operation mode when the vehicle 1 approaches the communication abnormality occurrence point based on the communication abnormality occurrence point information acquired from the server device 2 and the position information of the vehicle 1. This makes it possible to set the operation mode of the vehicle 1 to the standby operation mode in advance in preparation for the occurrence of a temporary communication abnormality when it is assumed that there is a high possibility of a temporary communication abnormality occurring in the vehicle 1. This makes it possible to stabilize the behavior of the vehicle 1. In addition, this makes it possible to set the standby operation mode using the past history of any vehicle, including the vehicle 1, when a situation arises in which the vehicle 1 must pass through a point with poor road surface conditions again, and also makes it possible, for example, to have the navigation device 20 search for and guide a route that avoids such areas with poor road surface conditions.

[Processing in the control device]
Next, an example of the process executed by the control device 30 will be described with reference to Fig. 3 and Fig. 4. For example, when the vehicle 1 is started (for example, when the ignition power of the vehicle 1 is on), the control device 30 executes the process shown in Fig. 3 at a predetermined cycle.

As shown in FIG. 3, the control device 30 acquires information from each other device (step S1). In step S1, the control device 30 acquires information indicating detection values, etc. from each camera, sonar group, and sensor included in the sensor group 10. Also in step S1, the control device 30 acquires position information of the vehicle 1 from the navigation device 20, and acquires predetermined information from each ECU other than the control device 30 installed in the vehicle 1.

The control device 30 then determines whether a communication anomaly has occurred with any of the other devices (step S2). More specifically, if there is any other device from which information could not be acquired by the processing in step S1, the control device 30 determines in step S2 that a communication anomaly has occurred with that other device. On the other hand, if there is no other device from which information could not be acquired by the processing in step S1, that is, if information was acquired from all other devices, the control device 30 determines in step S2 that no communication anomaly has occurred.

When it is determined that a communication abnormality has occurred (step S2: Yes), the control device 30 determines whether or not vibration has occurred in the vehicle 1 (step S3). More specifically, the control device 30 determines that vibration has occurred if the inertial parameter (at least one of acceleration and angular velocity) detected by the inertial measurement device 15 is equal to or greater than a threshold value, and determines that no vibration has occurred if the inertial parameter is not equal to or greater than a threshold value.

If it is determined that no vibration has occurred (step S3: No), the control device 30 determines that the communication anomaly that has occurred is a non-temporary communication anomaly (step S4), sets the operation mode of the vehicle 1 to a fail-safe operation mode (step S5), and ends the series of processes shown in FIG. 3.

On the other hand, if it is determined that vibration has occurred (step S3: Yes), the control device 30 determines that the communication abnormality is a temporary communication abnormality (step S6). The control device 30 then transmits to the server device 2 the position information of the vehicle 1 at that time, the identification information of the vehicle 1, and information indicating the device that has lost communication due to the communication abnormality, in association with each other (step S7).

Next, the control device 30 adds "1" to the value of the number of occurrences of temporary communication anomalies corresponding to the other device in which the communication anomaly determined to be a temporary communication anomaly occurred (step S8). The control device 30 then determines whether the number of occurrences after the increment exceeds a predetermined value (step S9). If the number of occurrences after the increment does not exceed the predetermined value (step S9: No), the control device 30 proceeds directly to the processing of step S11.

On the other hand, if the number of occurrences after the addition exceeds the predetermined value (step S9: Yes), the control device 30 notifies the user of warning information by a notification unit provided in the vehicle 1, such as the touch panel 21 or the speaker 22 (step S10). The warning information is notified, for example, by displaying a message on the touch panel 21 or outputting from the speaker 22, urging the user to have the vehicle 1 inspected at a maintenance shop (e.g., a so-called "dealer") or informing the user of another device in which the number of occurrences of temporary communication anomalies has exceeded a predetermined value.

Then, the control device 30 sets the operation mode of the vehicle 1 to the standby operation mode (step S11), and ends the series of processes shown in FIG. 3. In this way, if the communication abnormality that has occurred is a temporary communication abnormality, by setting the operation mode of the vehicle 1 to the standby operation mode rather than the fail-safe operation mode, it is possible to reduce the chances of the vehicle 1 function failing or the level of autonomous driving being reduced, thereby improving usability.

In addition, if the control device 30 determines in step S2 that no communication abnormality has occurred (step S2: No), it executes the prediction process shown in FIG. 4 (step S20).

As shown in FIG. 4, in the prediction process, the control device 30 acquires communication anomaly occurrence location information from the server device 2 (step S21). At this time, in order to reduce the amount of communication with the server device 2, the control device 30 may, for example, transmit a distribution request including the position information of the vehicle 1 to the server device 2, thereby acquiring from the server device 2 only communication anomaly occurrence location information related to locations around the current position of the vehicle 1.

Next, the control device 30 judges whether or not there is a communication abnormality occurring point around the current position of the vehicle 1, i.e., whether or not the vehicle 1 has approached the communication abnormality occurring point, based on the position information of the vehicle 1 and the communication abnormality occurrence point information acquired from the server device 2 (step S22). In step S22, the control device 30 judges that there is a communication abnormality occurring point around the current position of the vehicle 1 if there is a communication abnormality occurring point within a predetermined range centered on the current position of the vehicle 1, for example, and judges that there is no communication abnormality occurring point around the current position of the vehicle 1 if there is no communication abnormality occurring point around the current position of the vehicle 1. The control device 30 may also judge that there is a communication abnormality occurring point around the current position of the vehicle 1 if there is a communication abnormality occurring point on the planned driving route of the vehicle 1 and within a predetermined distance from the current position of the vehicle 1, and judges that there is no communication abnormality occurring point around the current position of the vehicle 1 if there is no communication abnormality occurring point around the current position of the vehicle 1.

Then, if it is determined that a communication abnormality has occurred near the current location, i.e., that the vehicle 1 has approached the communication abnormality location (step S22: Yes), the control device 30 sets the operation mode of the vehicle 1 to the standby operation mode (step S23) and ends the series of processes shown in FIG. 4.

On the other hand, if it is determined that there is no communication abnormality occurring point around the current location, i.e., that the vehicle 1 is away from the communication abnormality occurring point (step S22: No), the control device 30 sets the operation mode of the vehicle 1 to the normal operation mode (step S24), and ends the series of processes shown in FIG. 4.

As described above, according to the control device 30 of this embodiment, when a communication abnormality occurs with another device mounted on the vehicle 1, it is possible to determine whether the communication abnormality is a temporary communication abnormality or a non-temporary communication abnormality based on the inertia parameters at the time the communication abnormality occurs, and to perform control according to the determination result. This makes it possible to perform appropriate control according to the type of communication abnormality that has occurred.

In addition, according to the control device 30, when it is determined that the communication abnormality that has occurred is a temporary communication abnormality, the operation mode of the vehicle 1 can be set to a standby operation mode that maintains the functions of the vehicle 1 before the communication abnormality occurred. This reduces the number of times the functions of the vehicle 1 fail, and improves usability, compared to a case in which the fail-safe operation mode is set even when a temporary communication abnormality occurs.

In addition, according to the control device 30, when it is determined that the communication abnormality is a temporary communication abnormality, the operation mode of the vehicle 1 can be set to a preliminary operation mode that maintains the autonomous movement level of the vehicle 1 before the communication abnormality occurred (e.g., the so-called "automated driving level"). This reduces the number of times the autonomous movement level of the vehicle 1 is lowered, and improves usability, compared to a case in which the fail-safe operation mode is set even when a temporary communication abnormality occurs.

In addition, according to the control device 30, when the number of occurrences or frequency of a communication anomaly determined to be a temporary communication anomaly between the control device 30 and a certain other device exceeds a predetermined value, the communication anomaly with the other device may be determined to be a non-temporary communication anomaly. This makes it possible to perform appropriate control taking into account the possibility that a temporary communication anomaly may change to a non-temporary communication anomaly.

Furthermore, according to the control device 30, when the number of occurrences or frequency of a communication abnormality determined to be a temporary communication abnormality between the control device 30 and another device exceeds a predetermined value, a notification unit (e.g., the touch panel 21 or the speaker 22) provided in the vehicle 1 can notify the user that there is a high possibility that the communication abnormality will change to a non-temporary communication abnormality. Therefore, it is possible to urge the user to have the vehicle 1 inspected before the temporary communication abnormality changes to a non-temporary communication abnormality.

In addition, the control device 30 can determine whether the communication anomaly that has occurred is a temporary communication anomaly or a non-temporary communication anomaly based on an inertia parameter that is the acceleration or angular velocity that has occurred in the vehicle 1. This makes it possible to determine whether the communication anomaly that has occurred is a temporary communication anomaly or a non-temporary communication anomaly, taking into account the vibrations that have occurred in the vehicle 1. Therefore, it becomes possible to accurately determine (distinguish) whether the communication anomaly that has occurred is a temporary communication anomaly or a non-temporary communication anomaly.

Furthermore, according to the control device 30, when the vehicle 1 approaches a location (communication abnormality occurrence location) where a temporary communication abnormality has previously occurred in any vehicle including the vehicle 1 (i.e., including vehicles other than the vehicle 1), based on the abnormality occurrence information acquired from the server device 2 external to the vehicle 1 and the position information of the vehicle 1, the operation mode of the vehicle 1 can be set to the preliminary operation mode. As a result, when it is assumed that there is a high possibility of a temporary communication abnormality occurring in the vehicle 1, it is possible to set the operation mode of the vehicle 1 to the preliminary operation mode in advance in preparation for the occurrence of the temporary communication abnormality. Therefore, the behavior of the vehicle 1 can be stabilized.

Furthermore, when a communication anomaly that is determined to be a temporary communication anomaly occurs, the control device 30 can transmit information including the position information of the vehicle 1 at that time to the server device 2, thereby causing the server device 2 to store the location where the communication anomaly occurred. Then, the control device 30 can subsequently, as necessary, obtain from the server device 2 only communication anomaly occurrence location information relating to locations around the current location of the vehicle 1 at that time. This makes it possible to reduce the required storage area of the control device 30 compared to a case in which the control device 30 stores all communication anomaly occurrence locations.

Although the embodiment of the present invention has been described above with reference to the attached drawings, it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to such an embodiment. It is clear that a person skilled in the art can come up with various modified or revised examples within the scope of the claims, and it is understood that these also naturally fall within the technical scope of the present invention. Furthermore, the components in the above-mentioned embodiment may be combined in any manner as long as it does not deviate from the spirit of the invention.

In the embodiment described above, in the process of step S9 shown in FIG. 3, it is determined whether the number of occurrences of temporary communication anomalies exceeds a predetermined value. However, instead of the number of occurrences, it may be determined whether the occurrence frequency (i.e., the number of occurrences per unit time) exceeds a predetermined value. Then, if the control device 30 determines that the occurrence frequency of temporary communication anomalies exceeds the predetermined value, it may issue warning information.

In addition, in the above-described embodiment, when the control device 30 determines that the number of occurrences of a temporary communication anomaly exceeds a predetermined value, it issues warning information (step S10) and sets the operation mode of the vehicle 1 to the standby operation mode (step S11); however, this is not limited to the above. For example, when the control device 30 determines that the number of occurrences or frequency of occurrences of a temporary communication anomaly exceeds a predetermined value, it may issue warning information and set the operation mode of the vehicle 1 to the fail-safe operation mode. This is because, as described above, when a temporary communication anomaly occurs repeatedly, there is a high possibility that the temporary communication anomaly will subsequently change to a non-temporary communication anomaly. In this way, it is possible to perform appropriate control that takes into account the possibility of the temporary communication anomaly changing to a non-temporary communication anomaly.

In the above-described embodiment, in the process of step S21 shown in FIG. 4, the control device 30 acquires the abnormality occurrence information related to the points around the current position of the vehicle 1 from the server device 2, but this is not limited to this. For example, the control device 30 may transmit a distribution request including the identification information of the vehicle 1 in addition to the position information of the vehicle 1 to the server device 2, so as to acquire only the communication abnormality occurrence point information related to the points around the current position of the vehicle 1 and related to the vehicle 1 from the server device 2. In this way, the amount of communication with the server device 2 can be further reduced, and the storage area of the control device 30 required for storing the communication abnormality occurrence point information can be further reduced. In addition, the control device 30 may acquire only the communication abnormality occurrence point information related to the points around the current position of the vehicle 1 and related to the same vehicle model as the vehicle 1 from the server device 2. In this way, the amount of communication with the server device 2 can be further reduced, and the storage area of the control device 30 required for storing the communication abnormality occurrence point information can be further reduced.

In addition, the fail-safe operation mode in the above-mentioned embodiment has been described as stopping the functions of the vehicle 1 or lowering the autonomous driving level, but is not limited to this. For example, the fail-safe operation mode may be an operation mode that safely stops the vehicle 1 by a minimum risk maneuver (MRM).

In the above embodiment, the moving body in the present invention is described as a four-wheeled automobile, namely, vehicle 1, but is not limited to this. The moving body in the present invention may be a two-wheeled automobile (a so-called motorcycle), a Segway (registered trademark), a ship, an aircraft, or the like.

This specification describes at least the following items. Note that the items in parentheses indicate corresponding components in the above-mentioned embodiment, but are not limited to these.

(1) A control device (control device 30) mounted on a moving body (vehicle 1) and communicably connected to other devices (sensor group 10) mounted on the moving body,
The control device includes:
An acquisition unit (input/output unit 31) that acquires information about the moving object;
A control unit (control unit 32) that controls the moving body;
Equipped with
the information about the moving body includes information representing an inertia parameter correlated with inertia generated with the movement of the moving body,
The control unit is
an anomaly type determination unit (anomaly type determination unit 32 a) that, when a communication anomaly occurs between the control device and the other device, determines whether the communication anomaly is a temporary communication anomaly or a non-temporary communication anomaly based on the inertia parameter at the time when the communication anomaly occurs;
Control is performed according to the determination result of the abnormality type determination unit.
Control device.

According to (1), when a communication abnormality occurs between a control device mounted on a moving body and another device, it is possible to determine whether the communication abnormality is a temporary communication abnormality or a non-temporary communication abnormality based on the inertia parameters at the time when the communication abnormality occurred, and to perform control according to the determination result. This enables the control device to perform appropriate control according to the type of communication abnormality that has occurred.

(2) The control device according to (1),
The control unit is
When it is determined that the communication abnormality is temporary, the operation mode of the mobile unit is set to a standby operation mode;
If it is determined that the communication abnormality is non-temporary, the operation mode of the mobile unit is set to a fail-safe operation mode;
the standby operation mode is an operation mode that maintains the function of the moving object before the communication abnormality occurs,
The fail-safe operation mode is an operation mode in which the function is not maintained.
Control device.

According to (2), when it is determined that the communication abnormality that has occurred is a temporary communication abnormality, the operation mode of the mobile body can be set to a standby operation mode that maintains the functionality of the mobile body before the communication abnormality occurred. This reduces the number of times the mobile body's functionality fails, and improves usability, compared to a case in which the fail-safe operation mode is set even when a temporary communication abnormality occurs.

(3) The control device according to (2),
The moving body is a moving body capable of autonomous movement,
the preliminary operation mode is an operation mode that maintains an autonomous movement level of the moving object before the communication abnormality occurs,
The fail-safe operation mode is an operation mode in which an autonomous movement level of the moving object is lowered to a level lower than that before the communication abnormality occurred.
Control device.

According to (3), when it is determined that the communication abnormality is a temporary communication abnormality, the operation mode of the mobile body can be set to a preliminary operation mode that maintains the autonomous movement level of the mobile body before the communication abnormality occurred. This reduces the number of times the autonomous movement level of the mobile body decreases compared to a case in which a fail-safe operation mode is set even when a temporary communication abnormality occurs, thereby improving usability.

(4) The control device according to any one of (1) to (3),
The anomaly type determination unit determines the communication anomaly as the non-temporary communication anomaly when the number of occurrences or the frequency of occurrence of the communication anomaly determined to be the temporary communication anomaly exceeds a predetermined value.
Control device.

According to (4), if the number of occurrences or frequency of communication anomalies determined to be temporary communication anomalies exceeds a predetermined value, the communication anomalies with other devices can be determined to be non-temporary communication anomalies. This makes it possible to perform appropriate control taking into account the possibility that a temporary communication anomaly may change to a non-temporary communication anomaly.

(5) The control device according to any one of (1) to (4),
The control unit causes a notification unit of the mobile object to notify predetermined warning information when the number of occurrences or frequency of the communication abnormality determined to be the temporary communication abnormality exceeds a predetermined value.
Control device.

According to (5), when the number of occurrences or frequency of a communication anomaly determined to be a temporary communication anomaly exceeds a predetermined value, a notification unit provided in the mobile body can notify the user of predetermined warning information. This makes it possible to notify the user that there is a high possibility that the communication anomaly will change to a non-temporary communication anomaly. Therefore, it is possible to urge the user to have the mobile body inspected before the temporary communication anomaly changes to a non-temporary communication anomaly.

(6) The control device according to any one of (1) to (5),
The inertial parameter is an acceleration or an angular velocity generated in the moving body.
Control device.

According to (6), it is possible to determine whether the communication anomaly that has occurred is a temporary communication anomaly or a non-temporary communication anomaly based on an inertia parameter that is the acceleration or angular velocity that has occurred in the moving body. This makes it possible to determine whether the communication anomaly that has occurred is a temporary communication anomaly or a non-temporary communication anomaly, taking into account the vibrations that have occurred in the moving body. Therefore, it is possible to accurately determine (distinguish) whether the communication anomaly that has occurred is a temporary communication anomaly or a non-temporary communication anomaly.

(7) The control device according to any one of (1) to (6),
The control device is further configured to be able to communicate with a server device (server device 2) provided outside the mobile object,
the server device is configured to be able to distribute, to the mobile object, communication anomaly occurrence location information including information indicating a location where the communication anomaly determined to be a temporary communication anomaly occurred in at least the mobile object;
The information about the moving object further includes location information indicating a current location of the moving object,
the control unit sets an operation mode of the mobile body to a standby operation mode when the mobile body approaches a location indicated by the communication abnormality occurrence location information acquired from the server device and location information indicating a current location of the mobile body.
Control device.

When a mobile object passes again a point where a temporary communication anomaly occurred in the past, there is a high possibility that the temporary communication anomaly will occur again. According to (7), when the mobile object approaches a point where at least a temporary communication anomaly occurred in the past (communication anomaly occurrence point), the operation mode of the mobile object can be set to the standby operation mode. As a result, when it is assumed that there is a high possibility that a temporary communication anomaly will occur in the mobile object, it is possible to set the operation mode of the mobile object to the standby operation mode in advance in preparation for the occurrence of a temporary communication anomaly. Therefore, the behavior of the mobile object can be stabilized.

(8) The control device according to (7),
The communication anomaly occurrence location information distributed by the server device also includes information indicating a location where the communication anomaly determined as the temporary communication anomaly occurred in another mobile unit different from the mobile unit.
Control device.

When a mobile body passes a point where a temporary communication anomaly has occurred in another mobile body, there is a high possibility that a temporary communication anomaly will also occur in the mobile body. According to (8), when a mobile body approaches a point where a temporary communication anomaly has previously occurred in another mobile body (communication anomaly occurrence point), the operation mode of the mobile body can be set to the standby operation mode. As a result, when it is assumed that there is a high possibility that a temporary communication anomaly will occur in the mobile body, it is possible to set the operation mode of the mobile body to the standby operation mode in advance in preparation for the occurrence of a temporary communication anomaly. Therefore, the behavior of the mobile body can be stabilized.

(9) A control device (control device 30) according to any one of (1) to (8),
A moving body (vehicle 1) equipped with the other device (sensor group 10).

According to (9), when a communication abnormality occurs between a control device mounted on a moving body and another device, it is possible to determine whether the communication abnormality is a temporary communication abnormality or a non-temporary communication abnormality based on the inertia parameters at the time when the communication abnormality occurred, and to perform control according to the determination result. This makes it possible for the control device to perform appropriate control according to the type of communication abnormality that has occurred, thereby allowing the moving body to operate appropriately.

1. Vehicle (moving object)
2 Server device 10 Sensor group (other devices)
30 Control device 31 Input/output unit (acquisition unit)
32 Control unit 32a Abnormality type determination unit

Claims (8)

A control device mounted on a moving body and communicably connected to other devices mounted on the moving body,
The control device includes:
An acquisition unit that acquires information about the moving object;
A control unit that controls the moving object;
Equipped with
the information about the moving body includes information representing an inertia parameter correlated with inertia generated with the movement of the moving body,
The control unit is
an anomaly type determination unit that, when a communication anomaly occurs between the control device and the other device, determines whether the communication anomaly is a temporary communication anomaly or a non-temporary communication anomaly based on the inertia parameter at the time when the communication anomaly occurs;
When the abnormality type determination unit determines that the communication abnormality is a temporary abnormality, the operation mode of the moving body is set to a standby operation mode;
When the anomaly type determination unit determines that the communication anomaly has occurred due to a non-temporary communication anomaly, the operation mode of the mobile unit is set to a fail-safe operation mode;
the standby operation mode is an operation mode that maintains the function of the moving object before the communication abnormality occurs,
The fail-safe operation mode is an operation mode in which the function is not maintained .
Control device. The control device according to claim 1 ,
The moving body is a moving body capable of autonomous movement,
the preliminary operation mode is an operation mode that maintains an autonomous movement level of the moving object before the communication abnormality occurs,
The fail-safe operation mode is an operation mode in which an autonomous movement level of the moving object is lowered to a level lower than that before the communication abnormality occurred.
Control device. The control device according to claim 1 or 2 ,
The anomaly type determination unit determines the communication anomaly as the non-temporary communication anomaly when the number of occurrences or the frequency of occurrence of the communication anomaly determined to be the temporary communication anomaly exceeds a predetermined value.
Control device. The control device according to any one of claims 1 to 3 ,
The control unit causes a notification unit of the mobile object to notify predetermined warning information when the number of occurrences or frequency of the communication abnormality determined to be the temporary communication abnormality exceeds a predetermined value.
Control device. The control device according to any one of claims 1 to 4 ,
The inertial parameter is an acceleration or an angular velocity generated in the moving body.
Control device. The control device according to any one of claims 1 to 5 ,
The control device is further configured to be able to communicate with a server device provided outside the mobile object,
the server device is configured to be able to distribute, to the mobile object, communication anomaly occurrence location information including information indicating a location where the communication anomaly determined to be a temporary communication anomaly occurred in at least the mobile object;
The information about the moving object further includes location information indicating a current location of the moving object,
the control unit, based on communication abnormality occurrence location information acquired from the server device and location information indicating a current location of the mobile body, when the mobile body approaches a location indicated by the communication abnormality occurrence location information, sets the operation mode of the mobile body to the standby operation mode.
Control device. The control device according to claim 6 ,
The communication anomaly occurrence location information distributed by the server device also includes information indicating a location where the communication anomaly determined as the temporary communication anomaly occurred in another mobile unit different from the mobile unit.
Control device. A control device according to any one of claims 1 to 7 ;
The other device.

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