Control apparatus having object-oriented self-diagnosis program

• US 6,553,289 B2
• Filed: 04/25/2001
• Issued: 04/22/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Maki, Yoshiyuki, Oi, Masaya
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tan Q.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tran, Dalena
• Application Number:
  US09/840,877
• Publication Number:
  US 20010041954A1
• Time in Patent Office: 727 Days
• Field of Search: 701/29, 701/31, 701/34, 702/183, 702/185, 709/201, 709/223, 709/224, 714/26, 714/38, 714/46, 700/17, 700/79, 700/18, 700/86, 700/87, 706/53, 706/45, 706/46, 706/54
• US Class Current: 701/29
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0264 Control of logging system, e.g. decision on which data to store; time-stamping measurements

Abstract

A self-diagnosis program for a vehicle is object-oriented designed. The self-diagnosis program is provided with a malfunction detection object for detecting a malfunction provided for each malfunction detection processing, and a malfunction information storage object for storing the malfunction information provided for each malfunction item. A malfunction information management object has the correlative relation between the malfunction detection object and the malfunction information storage object. Upon receiving a normality/abnormality message from the malfunction detection object, the malfunction information management object determines the corresponding malfunction information storage object and stores the malfunction information.

Claims

1. A vehicle control apparatus comprising:

a processor unit for executing a self-diagnosis to generate malfunction information corresponding to a plurality of preset malfunction items based on malfunction detection results of a plurality of diagnosis targets; and

a memory storing a self-diagnosis program executed by the processor unit and the malfunction information, the self-diagnosis program being object-oriented designed and including re-usable object units,

wherein the self-diagnosis program has;

a plurality of malfunction detection objects that are allocated corresponding to predetermined malfunction detection processings for malfunction detection;

a plurality of malfunction information storage objects that are respectively allocated corresponding to the malfunction items for storing the malfunction information; and

a malfunction information management object that receives the malfunction detection results from the malfunction detection objects, determines the malfunction information storage objects based on the malfunction detection results, and stores the malfunction information based on the malfunction detection results in the malfunction information storage objects,

wherein each of the malfunction information storage objects issues a storage completion message to the malfunction information management object after storing the malfunction information therein.

2. The vehicle control apparatus as in claim 1, wherein:

the malfunction information management object executes malfunction level determination processings corresponding to the malfunction detection objects used for determining a level of the malfunction when the malfunction detection results are received from the malfunction detection objects, and stores the malfunction information according to the results obtained in the malfunction level determination processings.

3. The vehicle control apparatus as in claim 2, wherein:

the self-diagnosis program further has a malfunction condition storage object for storing freeze information including a vehicle condition in malfunction based on the results obtained in the malfunction level determination processings executed by the malfunction information management object.

4. The vehicle control apparatus as in claim 3, wherein:

the self-diagnosis program further has a malfunction condition management object for obtaining the vehicle condition that is a part of the freeze information and for storing the freeze information in the malfunction condition storage object when a request for storing the freeze information is received from the malfunction information management object.

5. The vehicle control apparatus as in claim 1, wherein each of the malfunction information storage objects is provided separately from each of the malfunction detection objects, and each of the malfunction information storage objects is independently replaceable from each of the malfunction detection objects.

6. The vehicle control apparatus as in claim 5, wherein the malfunction information management object is provided separately from each of the malfunction information storage objects and the malfunction detection objects, and the malfunction information management object is independently replaceable from the malfunction information storage objects and the malfunction detection objects.

7. A self-diagnosis program stored in a object of a vehicle control apparatus, the program comprising:

a plurality of malfunction detection objects that are allocated corresponding to malfunction detection processings depending on a plurality of diagnosis targets for executing predetermined malfunction detection processings for malfunction detection;

a plurality of malfunction information storage objects that are allocated corresponding to malfunction items for storing the malfunction information; and

a malfunction information management object that receives malfunction detection results from the malfunction detection objects, determines the malfunction information storage objects based on the malfunction detection results, and stores the malfunction information based on the malfunction detection results in the malfunction information storage objects,

wherein the malfunction information storage objects are provided separately from the malfunction detection objects, and the malfunction information storage objects are independently replaceable from the malfunction detection objects.

8. The self-diagnosis program as in claim 7,

wherein the malfunction information management object is provided separately from both the malfunction information storage objects and the malfunction detection objects, and the malfunction information management object is independently replaceable from both the malfunction information storage objects and the malfunction detection objects.

9. The vehicle control apparatus as in claim 8, further comprising:

a malfunction condition storage object for storing freeze information including a vehicle condition in malfunction based on the results obtained in the malfunction level determination processings executed by the malfunction information management object;

wherein the malfunction condition storage object is provided separately from each of the malfunction information storage objects, the malfunction detection objects and the malfunction information management object, and the malfunction condition storage object is independently replaceable from each of the malfunction information storage objects, the malfunction detection objects and the malfunction information management object.

10. The vehicle control apparatus as in claim 9, further comprising:

a malfunction condition management object for obtaining the vehicle condition that is a part of the freeze information and for storing the freeze information in the malfunction condition storage object when a request for storing the freeze information is received from the malfunction information management object;

wherein the malfunction condition management object is provided separately from each of the malfunction information storage objects, the malfunction detection objects, the malfunction information management object and the malfunction condition storage object, and the malfunction condition management object is independently replaceable from each of the malfunction information storage objects, the malfunction detection objects, the malfunction information management object and the malfunction condition storage object.