METHOD FOR COLLECTING DATA FROM A MOTOR-DRIVEN VEHICLE

• US 20050083599A1
• Filed: 12/22/2004
• Published: 04/21/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Volvo Lastvagnar AB (AB Volvo)
• Original Assignee: Volvo Lastvagnar AB (AB Volvo)
• Inventors: HAMMERLID, Bo, LARSSON, Johan, JOHANSSON, Daniel
• Granted Patent: US 7,555,377 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 360/70
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/08 Registering or indicating performance data other than driving, working, idle, or waiting time, with or without registering driving, working, idle or waiting time

Abstract

Method for collecting data from a motor-driven vehicle that is provided with a microprocessor having memory for storing a particular quantity of data. The data is provided by a number of sensors connected to the vehicle and its motor and is recorded and compiled into a specific data file upon each recording occasion when it its ascertained that conditions are fulfilled for recording a data file. This is recorded as a non-erasable reference data file. Upon subsequent occasions when the conditions are fulfilled, a number of successively erasable data files are successively recorded and stored within the predetermined quantity of data.

Claims

1. A method for collecting data from a motor-driven vehicle including a microprocessor with memory having a capacity for storing a particular quantity of data, said method comprising:

ascertaining that prescribed conditions are fulfilled for recording data of interest;

collecting data from a plurality of sensors connected to the vehicle or motor of the vehicle when the prescribed conditions are fulfilled;

recording prescribed data sets of collected data in the memory as data files, at least one of the data files being stored as a non-erasable reference data file and a plurality of data files recorded thereafter being stored as erasable data files; and

analyzing one of said plurality of erasable data files by comparison to said stored, non-erasable reference data file and thereafter recording over said analyzed erasable data file with a new data file to be compared with said reference data file and thereby enabling the utilization of a microprocessor having memory capacity for storing a plurality of historical data files, as well as analyze data in quantities greater than said memory capacity.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the step of recording the reference data file is performed when the vehicle is substantially newly manufactured.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising recording an additional non-erasable reference data file is performed during a break-in period of the vehicle.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising recording an additional non-erasable reference data file is performed immediately subsequent to completion of a break-in period of the vehicle.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the step of recording the reference data file is performed immediately subsequent to the vehicle undergoing replacement of a vital motor component.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein an erasable data file is recorded at least when the vehicle undergoes replacement of a motor component after the replacement of the vital motor component.

7. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein an additional erasable data file is recorded after the vehicle undergoes each of a plurality of replacements of motor components after the replacement of the vital motor component.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the data set of each data file comprises calculated and estimated data.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising instigating recordation of a data file using a diagnostic tool when fault-finding on the vehicle.