System for performing vehicle diagnostic and prognostic analysis

• US 9,780,967 B2
• Filed: 10/23/2015
• Issued: 10/03/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Telogis Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Sargent, Mark, Jelinek, Howard
• Primary Examiner(s): Jagannathan, Melanie
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ansari, Najeebuddin
• Application Number:
  US14/921,486
• Publication Number:
  US 20160112216A1
• Time in Patent Office: 711 Days
• Field of Search: 340933, 701 1, 701 2, 701 31- 36
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0808 Diagnosing performance data testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0825 using optical means
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• 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: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/18 Multiprotocol handlers, e.g. single devices capable of handling multiple protocols

Abstract

A black-box gateway device implemented in a vehicle and configured to interface with an engine computer and a plurality of wireless sensors installed in the vehicle, the gateway device can include a transceiver including input ports in communication with conductors that interface with the engine computer installed in an engine of the vehicle, radio frequency communications components comprising dual wireless functionality, including a first functionality for communicating wirelessly within the vehicle and a second functionality for communicating wirelessly over a cellular network disposed outside the vehicle, and one or more antennae that receive wireless signals from the radio frequency components. The transceiver can be configured to wirelessly receive sensor data from the wireless sensors disposed within the vehicle, the sensor data providing information associated with functionality of components of the vehicle.

Claims

1. A black-box gateway device implemented in a vehicle and configured to interface with an engine computer, a plurality of cameras, and a plurality of wireless sensors installed in the vehicle, the gateway device comprising:

a transceiver comprising;

input ports in communication with conductors that interface with the engine computer installed in an engine of the vehicle;

radio frequency communications components comprising dual wireless functionality, including a first functionality for communicating wirelessly within the vehicle and a second functionality for communicating wirelessly over a cellular network disposed outside the vehicle; and

one or more antennae that receive wireless signals from the radio frequency components;

the transceiver configured to wirelessly receive sensor data from the plurality of wireless sensors and receive audio-video data from the plurality of cameras disposed within the vehicle, the sensor data and the audio-video data providing information associated with functionality of components of the vehicle;

digital logic circuitry programmed with executable instructions that configure the digital logic circuitry to;

identify one of the wireless sensors associated with the received sensor data;

determine whether to transfer the sensor data over the cellular network to a remote vehicle management system based, at least in part, on a comparison of the sensor data to a threshold associated with the identified sensor;

based on a determination that the sensor data satisfies the threshold, transmit at least a portion of the sensor data to the remote vehicle management system;

modify the threshold associated with the identified sensor in order to increase the frequency at which the digital logic circuitry provides the sensor data associated with the identified sensor to the remote vehicle management system;

determine a severity level of a failure event associated with the sensor data that satisfied the threshold;

determine whether to transmit the audio-video data over the cellular network to the remote vehicle management system based on a type of the failure event;

based on a determination to transmit the audio-video data, transmit at least a portion of the audio-video data at first intervals to the remote vehicle management system;

modify the first intervals based, at least in part on the severity level of the failure event;

analyze the sensor data and audio-video data to calculate driver profile related data based on factors comprising acceleration, braking, lane crossings and speed;

identify driving behaviors from the driver profile related data;

determine an output action based, at least in part, on the severity level of the failure event and the audio-video data; and

generate instructions based on the output action to output information associated with the failure event and the driving behaviors to a computing device associated with a vehicle operator.

2. The gateway device of claim 1 wherein identification of the sensor is based, at least in part, on header information received with the sensor data.

3. The gateway device of claim 1, wherein the sensor data comprises at least one of a sensor identity, a location of the sensor, or a type of sensor data.

4. The gateway device of claim 1, wherein the digital logic circuitry is further configured to determine whether to transfer the sensor data by comparing the received sensor data to previous sensor data.

5. The gateway device of claim 4, wherein the digital logic circuitry is further configured to determine whether to transfer the sensor data to the remote vehicle management system based, at least in part, on a determination that a difference between between the received sensor data and the previous sensor data satisfies a change threshold.

6. The gateway device of claim 1, wherein the threshold is a time-based threshold, wherein the time-based threshold is satisfied based, at least in part, on when a defined period of time has elapsed since transmission of previous sensor data.

7. The gateway device of claim 1, wherein the transceiver is configured to receive the sensor data at periodic second intervals.

8. The gateway device of claim 7, wherein the digital logic circuitry is further configured to filter the sensor data received from the sensor to remove entries where a designated portion of the sensor data is the same.

9. The gateway device of claim 1, further comprising a gateway module that is configured to receive vehicle data from a vehicle bus and transmit at least a portion of the vehicle data to the remote vehicle management system.

10. The gateway device of claim 9, wherein the vehicle bus is a Controller Area Network (CAN) bus.

11. A computer system implemented in a vehicle and configured to interface with an engine computer, a plurality of cameras, and a plurality of wireless sensors installed in the vehicle, the computer system comprising:

digital logic circuitry programmed with executable instructions that configure the digital logic circuitry to;

receive a plurality of transmissions comprising sensor data from the plurality of wireless sensors and audio-video data from the plurality of cameras disposed within a vehicle;

filter the plurality of transmissions of sensor data to remove transmissions where at least a portion of the sensor data received from the plurality of transmissions is the same;

compare the filtered sensor data to previous sensor data received from the sensor;

based on a determination that a difference between the filtered sensor data and the previous sensor data exceeds a determined threshold associated with the sensor data,

transmit at least a portion of the sensor data to a remote vehicle management system;

modify the threshold associated with an identified sensor in order to increase the frequency at which the digital logic circuitry provides the sensor data associated with the identified sensor to the remote vehicle management system;

determine a severity level of a failure event associated with the filtered sensor data that satisfied the threshold;

determine whether to transmit the audio-video data over a cellular network to the remote vehicle management system based on a type of the failure event;

based on a determination to transmit the audio-video data, transmit at least a portion of the audio-video data at first intervals to the remote vehicle management system;

modify the first intervals based, at least in part on the severity level of the failure event;

analyze the sensor data and audio-video data to calculate driver profile related data based on factors comprising acceleration, braking, lane crossings and speed;

identify driving behaviors from the driver profile related data;

determine an output action based, at least in part, on the severity level of the failure event and the audio-video data; and

generate instructions based on the output action to output information associated with the failure event and the driving behaviors to a computing device associated with a vehicle operator.

12. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the digital logic circuitry is further configured to receive the plurality of transmissions from the sensor comprising the same sensor data.

13. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the sensor data comprises identification information identifying the sensor within the vehicle.

14. The computer system of claim 11 wherein the digital logic circuitry is further configured to receive sensor data from the plurality of wireless sensors disposed within the vehicle.

15. A method for interfacing with an engine computer, a plurality of cameras, and a plurality of wireless sensors installed in a vehicle, the method comprising:

receiving wirelessly, by a hub device, sensor data from a plurality of wireless sensors and audio-video data from the plurality of cameras disposed within a vehicle, wherein the sensor data and the audio-video data provide information associated with a component of the vehicle;

filtering a plurality of transmissions of sensor data to remove transmissions where at least a portion of the sensor data received from the plurality of transmissions is the same;

processing, by the hub device, the sensor data to determine whether to transfer the sensor data to a remote vehicle management system; and

based on a determination to transfer the sensor data to the remote vehicle management system,

transmitting at least a portion of the sensor data to the remote vehicle management system;

modifying a threshold associated with an identified sensor in order to increase the frequency at which the hub device provides the sensor data associated with the identified sensor to the remote vehicle management system;

determining a severity level of a failure event associated with the sensor data that satisfied the threshold;

determining whether to transmit the audio-video data over the cellular network to the remote vehicle management system based on a type of the failure event;

based on a determination to transmit the audio-video data, transmitting at least a portion of the audio-video data at first intervals to the remote vehicle management system;

modifying the first intervals based, at least in part on the severity level of the failure event;

analyzing the sensor data and audio-video data to calculate driver profile related data based on factors comprising acceleration, braking, lane crossings and speed;

identifying driving behaviors from the driver profile relate data;

determining an output action based, at least in part, on the severity level of the failure event and the audio-video data; and

generating instructions based on the output action to output information associated with the failure event and the driving behaviors to a computing device associated with a vehicle operator.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the processing includes comparing the sensor data to previous sensor data to determine whether the previous sensor data is different from the sensor data.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein receiving the sensor data includes receiving the plurality of transmissions from the sensor comprising the same sensor data.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein processing includes filtering the plurality of transmissions from the sensor to remove entries where a designated portion of the sensor data is the same.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the sensor data comprises identification information identifying the sensor within the vehicle.