Efficient Telematics Data Upload

• US 20170092018A1
• Filed: 09/24/2015
• Published: 03/30/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Yalavarty, Praveen Kumar, Thornburg, Douglas B., Throop, Medville Jay, Schmotzer, John William, Tillman, Brian David
• Granted Patent: US 10,706,642 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0816 Indicating performance data, e.g. occurrence of a malfunction
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks

Abstract

A system includes at least one processor configured to, in response to receiving a VIN from a remote vehicle, transmit to the vehicle a parameter definition selected based on fields of the VIN to configure an ECU of the vehicle to enter a logging mode to capture, aggregate, and send operational data of the vehicle, and a bandwidth configuration file for a modem of the vehicle based on historical throughput requirements associated with operational data. The parameter definition may include a reporting application configured to be executed by a processor of the ECU to generate a processed parameter from a raw parameter associated with vehicle operation. Also, the parameter definition may include updated firmware for the ECU, and the reporting application is configured to be executed by the ECU after the updated firmware is installed in the ECU.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

at least one processor configured to, in response to receiving a VIN from a remote vehicle, transmit to the vehicle a parameter definition selected based on fields of the VIN to configure an ECU of the vehicle to enter a logging mode to capture, aggregate, and send operational data of the vehicle, and a bandwidth configuration file for a modem of the vehicle based on historical throughput requirements associated with operational data.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the parameter definition includes a reporting application configured to be executed by a processor of the ECU to generate a processed parameter from a raw parameter associated with vehicle operation.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the parameter definition includes updated firmware for the ECU, and the reporting application is configured to be executed by the ECU after the updated firmware is installed in the ECU.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the parameter definition includes a configuration file for a network router in the vehicle to parse and compress specific data from at least one bus of the vehicle, and the at least one processor is further configured to decompress the specific data.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the modem is a telematics control unit (TCU) and the bandwidth configuration file includes firmware to configure an operating channel of the TCU and to compress data to be sent by the TCU, and the at least one processor is further configured to decompress data received from the TCU.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the parameter definition includes messages directed at a plurality of other ECUs in the vehicle over a first vehicle network, and a protocol that the ECU is configured to send the processed parameters to the TCU over a second vehicle network.

7. The system of claim 2, wherein the parameter definition includes a unique identifier of the processed parameter.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to, in response to receiving the operational data from the vehicle, transmit to the vehicle an updated parameter definition selected based on the fields and operational data to reconfigure the ECU to exit the logging mode.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to receive from the vehicle after a delay after transmission of the parameter definition, a data stream from the vehicle indicative of operation of the vehicle configured with the parameter definition, and transmit to the vehicle a new parameter file for a different ECU based on the data stream.

10. A system comprising:

at least one processor configured to, in response to receiving a VIN from a vehicle, transmit to the vehicle a parameter definition selected based on the VIN and a connection bandwidth with an ECU in the vehicle, wherein the parameter definition configures the ECU to enter a logging mode to capture, aggregate, and send operational data of the vehicle.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the connection bandwidth includes a vehicle bandwidth of an area network in the vehicle and an infrastructure bandwidth of a modem in the vehicle, and a cloud network between the at least one processor and the ECU.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to modify the parameter definition to selectively limit data to be sent from the vehicle based on the connection bandwidth.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to modify the parameter definition to enable a wireless modem to carry a data stream, monitor a bandwidth of the data stream, and in response to the bandwidth being less than an anticipated transfer rate, update the parameter definition for the modem to increase the bandwidth.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to, in response to a processed parameter received from the vehicle matching a reference value, transmit a 2^nd parameter definition to configure a 2^nd ECU to aggregate an other vehicle parameter.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the processed parameter is a vehicle speed and the other vehicle parameter is a brake pad wear level.

16. A computer-implemented method comprising:

by a remote server,

generating a parameter definition based on available bandwidth between the remote server and an electronic control unit (ECU) in a vehicle;

sending to the vehicle the parameter definition of a processed parameter to be computed by the ECU; and

receiving the processed parameter from a vehicle data buffer associated with the ECU.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the parameter definition includes a reporting application configured to be executed by a processor of the ECU to generate a processed parameter from a raw parameter associated with vehicle operation.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the parameter definition includes updated firmware for the ECU, and the reporting application is configured to be executed by the ECU after the updated firmware is installed in the ECU.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the generating a parameter definition is further based on custom data operators, algorithmic data operators, or diagnostic data operators.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the generating a parameter definition is further based on a priority manager.