Communication system for a vehicle and method for communicating

• US 10,650,682 B2
• Filed: 10/12/2015
• Issued: 05/12/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Continental Automotive GmbH (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Continental Automotive GmbH (Continental AG)
• Inventors: Grewe, Ralph
• Primary Examiner(s): Balseca, Franklin D
• Application Number:
  US15/518,715
• Publication Number:
  US 20170236419A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,674 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3811 Point data, e.g. Point of Interest [POI]
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3822 Road feature data, e.g. slope data
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3848 Data obtained from both position sensors and additional sensors
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3859 Differential updating map data
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3896 Transmission of map data from central databases
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/86 Combinations of radar systems with non-radar systems, e.g. sonar, direction finder
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/862 Combination of radar systems with sonar systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/865 Combination of radar systems with lidar systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/867 Combination of radar systems with cameras
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/876 Combination of several spaced transponders or reflectors of known location for determining the position of a receiver G01S13/874 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/931 of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/89 for mapping or imaging
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/931 of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/931 of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/9316 combined with communication equipment with other vehicles or with base stations
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/9323 Alternative operation using light waves
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/9324 Alternative operation using ultrasonic waves
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/003 Transmission of data between radar, sonar or lidar systems and remote stations
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/412 based on a comparison between measured values and known or stored values
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/582 of traffic signs
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0112 : from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0968 : Systems involving transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/161 : Decentralised systems, e.g. inter-vehicle communication
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/163 : involving continuous checking
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/164 : Centralised systems, e.g. external to vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/40 : Bus networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/40215 : Controller Area Network CAN
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/40273 : the transportation system being a vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/00 : Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/10 : using a centralized architecture
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/40 : using a wireless architecture
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 : Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 : for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]

Abstract

The invention relates to a communication system for a vehicle, which device includes a sensor device, wherein the sensor device is arranged to capture sensor data when the sensor device moves. A receiving device receives reference data from an external management system and a processing device determines a difference between the captured sensor data and the corresponding reference data, wherein the determined difference between the captured sensor and the corresponding reference data is transmitted to the external management system.

Claims

1. A communication apparatus for a vehicle, having:

a sensor device;

a receiving device;

a processing device;

a transmission device;

the sensor device being set up to acquire sensor data during a movement of the sensor device;

the receiving device being set up to receive reference data from an external management apparatus;

the management apparatus being arranged outside the sensor device;

the processing device being set up to determine a difference between the acquired sensor data and a corresponding reference data;

the transmission device being set up to transmit the determined difference between the acquired sensor data and the corresponding reference data to the external management apparatus, the transmission device having a quantization device, the quantization device being set up, based, at least in part, upon currently prevailing data traffic, to transmit the determined difference above a predefinable quantization step height, a quantization step profile, a predefinable change rate and/or a predefinable quantization characteristic curve, and the transmission device comprising a coding device, the coding device being set up to code the determined difference between the acquired sensor data and the corresponding reference data using a predefinable coding method selected from a group consisting of;

an entropy coding method, a phrase coding method, and a block sorting method;

the acquired sensor data being managed in a vehicle environmental model that is organized in at least one of a grid-based, time-based, and coordinate-based manner in order to be able to compare the acquired sensor data, which are stored in the vehicle environmental model, with the corresponding reference data;

wherein, when quantization data output by the quantization device results in lossy compression, a degree of quality is calculated from the quantization data output and from data relating to the vehicle environmental model, wherein the degree of quality indicates an extent to which quality of the quantization data output by the quantization device is actually influenced by lossy compression, and wherein the degree of quality is transmitted to the management apparatus so that the management apparatus can react accordingly to a reduced quality.

2. The communication apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein acquired sensor data when a detected object leaves a field of view during the movement of the sensor device being used to determine the difference between the acquired sensor data and the corresponding reference data.

3. The communication apparatus as claimed in claim 2, the field of view of the sensor device being determined by a cycle length of sampled sensor data, a geometrical capture area, a change in vehicle position and vehicle orientation and/or a probability of the sensor data changing.

4. The communication apparatus as claimed in claim 3, the sensor device being at least one sensor device selected from a group of sensor devices consisting of:

a camera;

a radar sensor;

an ADAS sensor;

an ultrasonic sensor;

a light detection and ranging sensor; and

a laser detection and ranging sensor.

5. The communication apparatus as claimed in claim 4, the sensor device, the receiving device, the processing device and/or the transmission device being connected to one another using a CAN bus, via Flexray and/or Ethernet.

6. The communication apparatus as claimed in claim 5, the receiving device and/or the transmission device having an interface selected from a group of interfaces consisting of:

a radio interface;

a car-to-X interface;

a WiFi interface;

a GSM interface;

a UMTS interface, and/or

an LTE interface.

7. The communication apparatus as claimed in claim 6, the predefinable quantization characteristic curve and/or the predefinable coding method being able to be predefined by the external management apparatus.

8. The communication apparatus as claimed in claim 7, the transmission device having at least two buffers which can be changed over.

9. The communication apparatus as claimed in claim 1, the sensor device being at least one sensor device selected from a group of sensor devices consisting of:

a camera;

a radar sensor;

an ADAS sensor;

an ultrasonic sensor;

a light detection and ranging sensor; and

a laser detection and ranging sensor.

10. The communication apparatus as claimed in claim 1, the sensor device, the receiving device, the processing device and/or the transmission device being connected to one another using a CAN bus, via Flexray and/or Ethernet.

11. The communication apparatus as claimed in claim 1, the receiving device and/or the transmission device having an interface selected from a group of interfaces consisting of:

a radio interface;

a car-to-X interface;

a WiFi interface;

a GSM interface;

a UMTS interface, and/or

an LTE interface.

12. The communication apparatus as claimed in claim 1, the predefinable quantization characteristic curve and/or the predefinable coding method being able to be predefined by the external management apparatus.

13. The communication apparatus as claimed in claim 1, the transmission device having at least two buffers which can be changed over.

14. A management apparatus having:

a map device;

a transmitting and receiving device;

the map device being set up to manage map data;

the transmitting and receiving device being set up to transmit map data as reference data to a communication apparatus for a vehicle;

the transmitting and receiving device also being set up to process a determined difference between sensor data acquired by the communication apparatus and a corresponding reference data; and

the transmitting and receiving device also being set up to transmit, based, at least in part, upon currently prevailing data traffic, a quantization characteristic curve of differences to be transmitted and a coding method to the communication apparatus for predefinition, wherein a transmitting and receiving device of the communication apparatus comprises a coding device, the coding device being set up to code the determined difference between the sensor data acquired by the communication apparatus and the corresponding reference data using a predefinable coding method selected from a group consisting of;

an entropy coding method, a phrase coding method, and a block sorting method;

the acquired sensor data being managed in a vehicle environmental model that is organized in at least one of a grid-based, time-based, and coordinate-based manner in order to be able to compare the acquired sensor data, which are stored in the vehicle environmental model, with the corresponding reference data;

wherein, when the quantization characteristic curve of differences to be transmitted results in lossy compression, a degree of quality is calculated from the quantization characteristic curve of differences to be transmitted and from data relating to the vehicle environmental model, wherein the degree of quality indicates an extent to which quality of the quantization characteristic curve of differences to be transmitted is actually influenced by lossy compression, and wherein the degree of quality is transmitted to the management apparatus so that the management apparatus can react accordingly to a reduced quality.