DIAGNOSIS APPARATUS FOR ASSISTING A TROUBLE REPRODUCTION AND A METHOD FOR PRESENTING DATA FOR REPRODUCING TROUBLE

• US 20120065833A1
• Filed: 03/09/2010
• Published: 03/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/06/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Tsuchikiri, Hideyuki, Sato, Yasushi, Aihara, Jiro
• Granted Patent: US 9,087,421 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/29.3
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/0205 Diagnosing or detecting failures; Failure detection models
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 17/00 Testing of vehicles testing fluid tightness G01M3/00; testing elastic properties of bodies or chassis, e.g. torsion-testing, G01M5/00; testing alignment of vehicle headlight devices G01M11/06; testing of engines G01M15/00
• 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 5/0816 Indicating performance data, e.g. occurrence of a malfunction
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0825 using optical means

Abstract

A trouble diagnosis apparatus which supports reproduction of trouble according to a trouble code provided from an electronic control unit of the vehicle. The apparatus comprises means for extracting, for at least one of the trouble codes, characteristics unique to the trouble code with respect to respective driving parameters, means for extracting, from said driving data associated with a plurality of trouble codes, global characteristics associated with a plurality of said trouble codes with respect to each one of said driving parameters, and for said at least one of the trouble codes, means, based on similarity between the characteristics unique to the trouble code and said global characteristics, for setting the portion of the characteristics unique to the trouble code that have low similarity as the driving data for reproducing the trouble corresponding to the trouble code.

Claims

1. A trouble diagnosis apparatus for supporting reproduction of trouble based on a trouble code provided by an electronic control unit provided onboard a vehicle, the trouble code representing a trouble, comprising:

from driving data associated with a plurality of driving parameters, the driving data provided by electronic control units of a plurality of failed vehicles, means for extracting, for at least one of the trouble codes, characteristics unique to the trouble code with respect to respective driving parameters;

means for extracting, from said driving data associated with a plurality of trouble codes, global characteristics associated with a plurality of said trouble codes with respect to each one of said driving parameters; and

for said at least one of the trouble codes, means, based on similarity between the characteristics unique to the trouble code and said global characteristics, for setting the portion of the characteristics unique to the trouble code that have low similarity as the driving data for reproducing the trouble corresponding to the trouble code.

2. A trouble diagnosis apparatus of claim 1, wherein the characteristics unique to said trouble code are extracted from histograms of driving data for respective driving parameters, and said global characteristics are extracted from histograms for respective driving parameters that are formed of the driving data for a plurality of the trouble codes.

3. A trouble diagnosis apparatus of claim 2, wherein said characteristics unique to the trouble code and said global characteristics are represented by step functions.

4. A trouble diagnosis apparatus of claim 1, wherein said driving data are data in a predetermined period when a trouble took place, and wherein said trouble diagnosis apparatus further comprising:

means for detecting variation of the driving data based on data during said predetermined period that is from the last of the driving data to the time that is a predetermined time before last, and providing the variation as information for reproducing the trouble.

5. A trouble diagnosis apparatus of claim 1, where said driving parameters include driving environment parameter that varies depending on operations by a user, device environment parameter that varies by automatic control of the vehicle, and vehicle environment parameter that varies by the environment where the vehicle is place.

6. A trouble diagnosis apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

means, responsive to entry of a trouble code, for presenting, as driving data for reproducing the trouble corresponding to the trouble code, the driving data that are set by said means for setting.

7. In diagnosis of troubles of vehicles, a computer implemented method of presenting trouble diagnosis data for supporting reproduction of trouble based on a trouble code provided by an electronic control unit provided onboard a vehicle, the trouble code representing a trouble, the method comprising the steps of:

extracting from driving data associated with a plurality of driving parameters, the driving data provided by electronic control units of a plurality of failed vehicles, for at least one of the trouble codes, characteristics unique to the trouble code with respect to respective driving parameters;

extracting, from said driving data associated with a plurality of trouble codes, global characteristics associated with a plurality of said trouble codes with respect to each one of said driving parameters;

determining, for said at least one of the trouble codes, similarity between the characteristics unique to the trouble code and said global characteristics; and

presenting the portion of the characteristics unique to the trouble code that have low similarity as the driving data for reproducing the trouble corresponding to the trouble code.

8. A method of claim 7, wherein the characteristics unique to said trouble code are extracted from histograms of driving data for respective driving parameters, and said global characteristics are extracted from histograms for respective driving parameters that are formed of the driving data for a plurality of the trouble codes.

9. A method of claim 8, wherein said characteristics unique to the trouble code and said global characteristics are represented by step functions.

10. A method of claim 7, wherein said driving data are data in a predetermined period when a trouble took place, and wherein said method further comprising the step of:

detecting variation of the driving data based on data during said predetermined period that is from the last of the driving data to the time that is a predetermined time before last, and providing the variation as information for reproducing the trouble.

11. A method of claim 7, where said driving parameters include driving environment parameter that varies depending on operations by a user, device environment parameter that varies by automatic control of the vehicle, and vehicle environment parameter that varies by the environment where the vehicle is place.

12. A method of claim 7, further comprising the step of:

responsive to entry of a trouble code, presenting driving data for reproducing the trouble corresponding to the trouble code.