VEHICLE DATA ANALYSIS APPARATUS, VEHICLE DATA ANALYSIS METHOD, AND DEFECT DIAGNOSIS APPARATUS

• US 20140095016A1
• Filed: 03/19/2012
• Published: 04/03/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Suganuma, Hideaki, Matsumura, Takeshi, Hikita, Toshiro
• Granted Patent: US 9,177,425 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/32.1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0221 Preprocessing measurements, e.g. data collection rate adjustment; Standardization of measurements; Time series or signal analysis, e.g. frequency analysis or wavelets; Trustworthiness of measurements; Indexes therefor; Measurements using easily measured parameters to estimate parameters difficult to measure; Virtual sensor creation; De-noising; Sensor fusion; Unconventional preprocessing inherently present in specific fault detection methods like PCA-based methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/00 Digital computers in general details G06F1/00 – G06F13/00; Data processing equipment in general
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/00 Registering or indicating the working of vehicles

Abstract

A vehicle data analysis apparatus analyzes vehicle data that indicates chronological change of a vehicle state. The vehicle data analysis apparatus is provided with a computing unit and a recognition unit. The computing unit is configured to make obvious data fluctuation accompanying the development, in the vehicle data, of mechanical or control-related fault in a vehicle control system. The recognition unit is configured to recognize the vehicle data to be considered during vehicle fault diagnosis on the basis of a result of computation by the computing unit.

Claims

1-16. -16. (canceled)

17. A vehicle data analysis apparatus for analyzing vehicle data indicating time-series changes of a state of a vehicle, the apparatus comprising:

a computing section configured to perform computation for uncovering a data fluctuation in the vehicle data that results from a mechanical or control-related abnormality in a vehicle control system; and

a recognizing section configured to recognize, based on a computation result obtained by the computing section, vehicle data to be subject to a diagnosis of the abnormality in the vehicle as a diagnosis target, wherein

as the computation, the computing section obtains the amount of change in the vehicle data per unit time,

the computing section identifies vehicle data that indicates that the calculated amount of change is equal to or greater than a threshold value that indicates an amount of change caused by data fluctuation resulting from mechanical or control-related abnormality in the vehicle control system, and

the recognizing section is configured to exclude vehicle data that indicates an amount of change caused by data fluctuation resulting from a human factor.

19. The vehicle data analysis apparatus according to claim 17, wherein

the vehicle data includes, as data reflecting a characteristic of a driver'"'"'s operation of the vehicle, a sensor dataset and a control dataset, the sensor dataset indicating changes of a value detected by a sensor that detects the state of the vehicle, and the control dataset being an output of a vehicle control device that reflects changes of the sensor dataset, and

the recognizing section is configured to, based on the computation result obtained by the computing section, identify, as the diagnosis target, vehicle data that includes a data fluctuation based on a factor different from the driver'"'"'s vehicle operation of the vehicle.

22. The vehicle data analysis apparatus according to claim 17, wherein

the vehicle data includes the sensor dataset that indicates changes of the value detected by the sensor, which detects the state of the vehicle, and the control dataset reflecting, as data corresponding to the sensor dataset, changes of the corresponding sensor dataset, and

the sensor dataset and the control dataset are associated with each other as a result of determination that they are highly correlated with each other on condition that:

a. time-series changes correlate with each other; and

b. delay time of the control dataset with respect to the sensor dataset is within the response time of a vehicle'"'"'s behavior with respect to the driver'"'"'s operation of the vehicle, the response time being indicated by the sensor dataset.

23. The vehicle data analysis apparatus according to claim 17, further comprising a correspondence table representing a correspondence between vehicle data of a plurality of types,

wherein, in the correspondence table, the sensor dataset indicating changes of the value detected by the sensor that detects the state of the vehicle and the control dataset highly correlated with the sensor dataset are related to each other.

24. The vehicle data analysis apparatus according to claim 23, wherein

in the correspondence table, as a sensor dataset and a control dataset highly correlated with each other, a dataset indicating changes of a value detected from an accelerator pedal of the vehicle and a dataset indicating changes of the amount of control of an engine control device for controlling an engine installed in the vehicle are registered in relation to each other, and

a dataset indicating changes of the amount of operation of a steering wheel of the vehicle and a dataset indicating changes of the amount of control of a VSC control device for exerting stability control for the vehicle are also registered in relation to each other.

25. A fault diagnosis apparatus that comprises the vehicle data analysis apparatus according to claim 17 as a vehicle data analysis apparatus for analyzing vehicle data indicating time-series changes of a state of a vehicle,

wherein the fault diagnosis apparatus diagnoses the presence or absence of any fault in the vehicle based on the vehicle data analyzed by the vehicle data analysis apparatus.

18. A vehicle data analysis apparatus for analyzing vehicle data indicating time-series changes of a state of a vehicle, the apparatus comprising:

a computing section configured to perform computation for uncovering a data fluctuation in the vehicle data that results from a mechanical or control-related abnormality in a vehicle control system; and

a recognizing section configured to recognize, based on a computation result obtained by the computing section, vehicle data to be subject to a diagnosis of the abnormality in the vehicle as a diagnosis target, wherein

the vehicle data analysis apparatus further comprises a storage device in which the vehicle data is accumulated,

as the computation, the computing section performs a computation for obtaining statistical distribution of the vehicle data stored in the storage device, and

the recognizing section is configured to perform a process in which the recognizing section recognizes vehicle data located around a median in the obtained statistical distribution, excludes vehicle data that deviates from the median, and extracts vehicle data that has a relatively large deviation in the recognized vehicle data from the storage device as the diagnosis target vehicle data.

20. A vehicle data analysis apparatus for analyzing vehicle data indicating time-series changes of a state of a vehicle, the apparatus comprising:

a computing section configured to uncover a data fluctuation in the vehicle data that results from a mechanical or control-related abnormality in a vehicle control system; and

a recognizing section configured to recognize, based on a computation result obtained by the computing section, vehicle data to be subject to a diagnosis of the abnormality in the vehicle as a diagnosis target, wherein

the vehicle data includes, as data reflecting a characteristic of a driver'"'"'s operation of the vehicle, a sensor dataset and a control dataset, the sensor dataset indicating changes of a value detected by a sensor that detects the state of the vehicle, and the control dataset being an output of a vehicle control device that reflects changes of the sensor dataset,

the computing section obtains, in the computation, a difference between the sensor dataset and a control dataset correlated with the sensor dataset in the control dataset reflecting changes of the sensor dataset, and

the recognizing section is configured to, based on the computation result obtained by the computing section, identify, as the diagnosis target, vehicle data that includes a data fluctuation based on a factor different from the driver'"'"'s vehicle operation of the vehicle and to exclude data fluctuation resulting from a human factor contained in the control dataset.

21. The vehicle data analysis apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the computing section calculates the difference between the sensor dataset and the control dataset corresponding to the sensor dataset based on the sensor dataset and the control dataset that have been subjected to frequency analysis.

26. A vehicle data analysis method for analyzing vehicle data indicating time-series changes of a state of a vehicle, the method comprising:

uncovering a data fluctuation in the vehicle data that results from a mechanical or control-related abnormality in a vehicle control system; and

identifying the vehicle data that has the uncovered data fluctuation to be subject to diagnosis of the abnormality in the vehicle as a diagnosis target, wherein

the uncovering is to obtain the amount of change in the vehicle data per unit time, and

the identification is to select vehicle data that indicates that the calculated amount of change per unit time in the vehicle data is equal to or greater than a threshold value that indicates an amount of change caused by data fluctuation resulting from the mechanical or control-related abnormality in the vehicle control system and to exclude vehicle data that indicates an amount of change caused by data fluctuation resulting from a human factor.

28. The vehicle data analysis method according to claim 26, wherein

the vehicle data includes, as data reflecting a characteristic of a driver'"'"'s operation of the vehicle, a sensor dataset and a control dataset, the sensor dataset indicating changes of a value detected by a sensor that detects the state of the vehicle, and the control dataset reflecting changes of the sensor dataset, and

the identification is to identify, as the diagnosis target, vehicle data that includes a data fluctuation based on a factor different from the driver'"'"'s vehicle operation of the vehicle.

27. A vehicle data analysis method for analyzing vehicle data indicating time-series changes of a state of a vehicle, the method comprising:

uncovering a data fluctuation in the vehicle data that results from a mechanical or control-related abnormality in a vehicle control system; and

identifying the vehicle data that has the uncovered data fluctuation to be subject to diagnosis of the abnormality in the vehicle as a diagnosis target, wherein

the vehicle data analysis method further comprises accumulation of the vehicle data,

the uncovering is to obtain statistical distribution of the stored vehicle data, and

the identification is to recognize vehicle data located around a median in the vehicle data represented as a statistical distribution, to exclude vehicle data that deviates from the median, and to identify vehicle data that has a relatively large deviation among the recognized vehicle data as the diagnosis target vehicle data.

29. A vehicle data analysis method for analyzing vehicle data indicating time-series changes of a state of a vehicle, the method comprising:

uncovering a data fluctuation in the vehicle data that results from a mechanical or control-related abnormality in a vehicle control system; and

identifying the vehicle data that has the uncovered data fluctuation to be subject to diagnosis of the abnormality in the vehicle as a diagnosis target, wherein

the vehicle data includes, as data reflecting a characteristic of a driver'"'"'s operation of the vehicle, a sensor dataset and a control dataset, the sensor dataset indicating changes of a value detected by a sensor that detects the state of the vehicle, and the control dataset being an output of a vehicle control device that reflects changes of the sensor dataset,

the uncovering is to obtain a difference between the sensor dataset and a control dataset correlated with the sensor dataset in the control dataset reflecting changes of the sensor dataset, and

the identification is to identify, as the diagnosis target, vehicle data that includes a data fluctuation based on a factor different from the driver'"'"'s vehicle operation of the vehicle and to exclude data fluctuation resulting from a human factor contained in the control dataset.

30. The vehicle data analysis method according to claim 29, wherein the uncovering is to subject the sensor dataset and the control dataset corresponding to the sensor dataset to frequency analysis and to calculate the difference between the sensor dataset and the control dataset based on the sensor dataset and the control dataset that have been subjected to the frequency analysis.