Onboard apparatus, cloud server, intervehicle communication system and intervehicle communication method

• US 9,749,811 B2
• Filed: 11/21/2013
• Issued: 08/29/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2013
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Inventors: Tosa, Takatoshi, Hamada, Yuji, Akatsu, Shinji
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Ajit
• Application Number:
  US15/023,751
• Publication Number:
  US 20160234654A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,377 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096791 where the origin of the information is another vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/48 for in-vehicle communication

Abstract

An apparatus includes: a vehicle information acquiring unit 10 to obtain the vehicle information about a vehicle state of its own vehicle; a cloud communication unit 11 to transmit the vehicle information obtained by the vehicle information acquiring unit 10 to a cloud server 2, and to receive the communication establishment information transmitted from the cloud server 2; an intervehicle communication unit 13 to carry out intervehicle communication; and a controller 12 to instruct the intervehicle communication unit 13 to perform the intervehicle communication and to establish communication in accordance with the communication establishment information the cloud communication unit 11 receives.

Claims

1. An onboard apparatus which estimates a position and traveling direction of a vehicle from a vehicle state and map information, and determines a vehicle to exchange intervehicle communication, and which carries out communication with a cloud server that creates and transmits communication establishment information necessary for establishing intervehicle communication between vehicles so as to exchange the intervehicle communication, the onboard apparatus comprising:

a vehicle information acquirer to obtain vehicle information about the vehicle state of its own vehicle;

a cloud communicator to transmit the vehicle information obtained by the vehicle information acquirer to the cloud server, and to receive the communication establishment information transmitted from the cloud server;

an intervehicle communicator to carry out intervehicle communication; and

a controller to instruct the intervehicle communicator to perform the intervehicle communication and to establish communication in accordance with the communication establishment information the cloud communicator receives,

wherein the cloud communicator receives, from the cloud server, estimate information indicating that an area that enables intervehicle communication of the intervehicle communicator and an area that enables the intervehicle communication of an onboard apparatus of another vehicle are getting closer to each other, in order to enable the intervehicle communication to become possible.

2. The onboard apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the cloud communicator receives from the cloud server the communication establishment information necessary for establishing intervehicle communication between the intervehicle communicator and the onboard apparatus of the other vehicle before the area that enables the intervehicle communication of the intervehicle communicator comes into contact with the area that enables the intervehicle communication of the onboard apparatus of the other vehicle.

3. The onboard apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

the cloud communicator receives, from the cloud server, the estimate time until the area that enables the intervehicle communication of the intervehicle communicator comes into contact with the area that enables the intervehicle communication of the onboard apparatus of the other vehicle.

4. The onboard apparatus according to claim 3, wherein

the controller executes informing processing using an external apparatus when estimating that its own vehicle may collide with the other vehicle from the vehicle information obtained by the vehicle information acquirer and from the vehicle information the intervehicle communicator receives from the onboard apparatus of the other vehicle.

5. The onboard apparatus according to claim 3, wherein

the controller executes informing processing using an external apparatus when the cloud communicator receives an estimate of the cloud server that its own vehicle may collide with the other vehicle.

8. The onboard apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the controller establishes, when communication between the cloud communicator and the cloud server is cut off, the intervehicle communication in accordance with the communication establishment information the intervehicle communicator exchanges, and establishes, when the communication between the cloud communicator and the cloud server is restarted, the intervehicle communication in accordance with the communication establishment information the cloud communicator receives from the cloud server.

6. An onboard apparatus which estimates a position and traveling direction of a vehicle from a vehicle state and map information, and determines a vehicle to exchange intervehicle communication, and which carries out communication with a cloud server that creates and transmits communication establishment information necessary for establishing intervehicle communication between vehicles so as to exchange the intervehicle communication, the onboard apparatus comprising:

a vehicle information acquirer to obtain vehicle information about the vehicle state of its own vehicle;

a cloud communicator to transmit the vehicle information obtained by the vehicle information acquirer to the cloud server, and to receive the communication establishment information transmitted from the cloud server;

an intervehicle communicator to carry out intervehicle communication; and

a controller to instruct the intervehicle communicator to perform the intervehicle communication and to establish communication in accordance with the communication establishment information the cloud communicator receives,

wherein the cloud communicator receives, from the cloud server, estimate information indicating that an area that enables the intervehicle communication of the intervehicle communicator and an area that enables the intervehicle communication of the onboard apparatus of the other vehicle are about to separate from each other.

7. The onboard apparatus according to claim 6, wherein

the cloud communicator receives, from the cloud server, the estimate time until the area that enables the intervehicle communication of the intervehicle communicator separates from the area that enables the intervehicle communication of the onboard apparatus of the other vehicle;

and

the controller instructs, when the estimate time is not greater than a prescribed time, the intervehicle communicator to increase intervehicle communication traffic with the onboard apparatus of the other vehicle.

9. A cloud server which carries out communication with an onboard apparatus that transmits vehicle information about a vehicle state, the cloud server comprising:

a map information manager to manage map information;

a vehicle state estimator to estimate a position and traveling direction of the vehicle from the vehicle information and from the map information the map information manager manages;

a vehicle network constructing unit to determine a vehicle to exchange intervehicle communication from the position and traveling direction of the vehicle the vehicle state estimator estimates, and to create communication establishment information necessary for vehicles so as to exchange the intervehicle communication to establish the intervehicle communication; and

a communicator to receive the vehicle information transmitted from the onboard apparatuses of the vehicles, and to transmit the communication establishment information created by the vehicle network constructing unit to the onboard apparatuses of vehicles so as to exchange the intervehicle communication,

wherein the communicator transmits estimate information indicating that an area that enables intervehicle communication of an onboard apparatus of the vehicle and an area that enables the intervehicle communication of an onboard apparatus of another vehicle are getting closer to each other, in order to enable the intervehicle communication to become possible.

10. An intervehicle communication system having a cloud server and an onboard apparatus, wherein the cloud server comprises:

a map information manager to manage map information;

a vehicle state estimator to estimate a position and traveling direction of a vehicle from vehicle information about a vehicle state of a vehicle and from the map information the map information manager manages;

a vehicle network constructing unit to determine a vehicle to exchange intervehicle communication from the position and traveling direction of the vehicle the vehicle state estimator estimates, and to create communication establishment information necessary for vehicles so as to exchange the intervehicle communication to establish the intervehicle communication; and

a communicator to receive the vehicle information transmitted from the onboard apparatuses of the vehicles, and to transmit the communication establishment information created by the vehicle network constructing unit to the onboard apparatuses of vehicles so as to exchange the intervehicle communication, and wherein the onboard apparatus comprises;

a vehicle information acquirer to obtain the vehicle information about the vehicle state of its own vehicle;

a cloud communicator to transmit the vehicle information obtained by the vehicle information acquirer to the cloud server, and to receive the communication establishment information transmitted from the cloud server;

an intervehicle communicator to carry out intervehicle communication; and

a controller to instruct the intervehicle communicator to perform the intervehicle communication and to establish communication in accordance with the communication establishment information the cloud communicator receives,

wherein the cloud communicator receives, from the cloud server, estimate information indicating that an area that enables intervehicle communication of the intervehicle communicator and an area that enables the intervehicle communication of an onboard apparatus of another vehicle are getting closer to each other, in order to enable the intervehicle communication to become possible.

11. An intervehicle communication method of an onboard apparatus, which estimates a position and traveling direction of a vehicle from a vehicle state and map information, and determines a vehicle to exchange intervehicle communication, and which carries out communication with a cloud server that creates and transmits communication establishment information necessary for establishing the intervehicle communication between vehicles so as to exchange the intervehicle communication, the intervehicle communication method comprising:

obtaining, by a vehicle information acquirer, vehicle information about a vehicle state of its own vehicle;

transmitting, by a cloud communicator, the vehicle information obtained by the vehicle information acquirer to the cloud server, and receiving the communication establishment information transmitted from the cloud server;

instructing, by a controller, an intervehicle communicator to perform intervehicle communication in accordance with the communication establishment information the cloud communicator receives;

establishing, by an intervehicle communicator, the intervehicle communication and carrying out communication in accordance with the instruction from the controller; and

receiving, by the cloud communicator, from the cloud server, estimate information indicating that an area that enables intervehicle communication of the intervehicle communicator and an area that enables the intervehicle communication of an onboard apparatus of another vehicle are getting closer to each other, in order to enable the intervehicle communication to become possible.

12. An intervehicle communication method in a system including a cloud server and an onboard apparatus, the intervehicle communication method comprising:

obtaining, by a vehicle information acquirer, vehicle information about a vehicle state of its own vehicle;

transmitting, by a cloud communicator of the onboard apparatus, the vehicle information obtained by the vehicle information acquirer to the cloud server;

estimating, by a vehicle state estimator, a position and traveling direction of the vehicle from the vehicle information and map information;

determining, by a vehicle network constructing unit, a vehicle to exchange intervehicle communication from the position and traveling direction of the vehicle the vehicle state estimator estimates, and creating communication establishment information necessary for vehicles so as to exchange the intervehicle communication to establish the intervehicle communication;

transmitting, by a communicator, the communication establishment information created by the vehicle network constructing unit to vehicles so as to exchange the intervehicle communication;

receiving, by a cloud communicator of the onboard apparatus of vehicles so as to exchange the intervehicle communication, the communication establishment information transmitted from the cloud server;

instructing, by a controller, an intervehicle communicator to perform the intervehicle communication in accordance with the communication establishment information the cloud communicator receives;

establishing, by the intervehicle communicator, intervehicle communication and carrying out communication in accordance with the instruction from the controller; and

transmitting, by the communicator, from the cloud server, estimate information indicating that an area that enables intervehicle communication of the intervehicle communicator and an area that enables the intervehicle communication of an onboard apparatus of another vehicle are getting closer to each other, in order to enable the intervehicle communication to become possible.