Vehicle trouble diagnosis method, vehicle trouble diagnosis apparatus and computer-readable record medium recording trouble diagnosis program

• US 6,542,799 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2000
• Issued: 04/01/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Jidosha Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Jidosha Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Inventors: Hara, Yusuke, Yasuda, Akira, Mizutani, Yuji, Abe, Toshiyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Cuchlinski, Jr., William A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Marc-Coleman, Marthe Y.
• Application Number:
  US09/725,858
• Publication Number:
  US 20010002450A1
• Time in Patent Office: 852 Days
• Field of Search: 701/29, 701/30, 701/36, 701/33, 701/34, 701/35, 340/439, 340/870.01, 340/870.16
• US Class Current: 701/33
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/0234 related to maintenance or repairing of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• 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

Abstract

To connect a computer to an electronic control unit of a vehicle and diagnose the trouble state of the vehicle, the computer is connected to a server storing trouble diagnosis data required for trouble diagnosis, and the trouble diagnosis data is read from the server, trouble diagnosis is proceeded with in an interactive mode with the computer using the read trouble diagnosis data, and vehicle data is automatically acquired from the electronic control unit using the read trouble diagnosis data.

Claims

1. A vehicle trouble diagnosis method comprising:

connecting a computer to an electronic control unit of a vehicle;

connecting the computer to a server storing trouble diagnosis data required for trouble diagnosis;

reading the trouble diagnosis data from the server;

proceeding with trouble diagnosis in an interactive mode according to information on a display and instructions from an input section to give an instruction of a trouble diagnosis sequence; and

automatically obtaining vehicle data from the electronic control unit using the trouble diagnosis data.

2. The vehicle trouble diagnosis method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising:

adding new trouble diagnosis data from the server to the computer in accordance with acquisition results of the vehicle data at the automatic vehicle data acquisition step; and

then proceeding with the trouble diagnosis through interaction by a user with the computer using the new read trouble diagnosis data.

3. The vehicle trouble diagnosis method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the trouble diagnosis data written in an open format is stored in the server as a part of vehicle maintenance description data, and at the trouble diagnosis step, the trouble diagnosis data is extracted from the vehicle maintenance description data, and the trouble diagnosis data is converted into data to be displayed on a display section, whereby the trouble diagnosis is proceeded through interaction by a user with the computer.

4. The vehicle trouble diagnosis method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said trouble diagnosis data includes the converted contents of one or more maintenance handbooks.

5. The vehicle trouble diagnosis method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

displaying the vehicle data on a display Connected to the computer.

6. The vehicle trouble diagnosis method as claimed in claimed 1, wherein said step of proceeding with trouble diagnosis, further comprises:

displaying a trouble symptom selection screen on a display connected to the computer;

receiving input from the user indicating one or more trouble symptoms; and

extracting relevant data from the trouble diagnosis data corresponding to the indicated one or more trouble symptoms.

7. The vehicle trouble diagnosis method as claimed in claimed 6, further comprising:

detecting whether the trouble diagnosis data contains a predetermined keyword indicating the need for the vehicle data.

8. A vehicle trouble diagnosis apparatus comprising;

a display section for displaying information;

an input section for inputting instructions from an user;

a server connection interface for connecting to a server storing trouble diagnosis data required for trouble diagnosis;

a vehicle connection interface for connecting to an electronic control unit of a vehicle;

a data read section for reading the trouble diagnosis data from the server via the server connection interface;

a diagnostic sequence instruction section for processing the trouble diagnosis data in an interactive mode according to the information on the display section and the instructions from the input section to give an instruction of a trouble diagnosis sequence; and

an automatic vehicle data acquisition section for automatically acquiring vehicle data from the electronic control unit via the vehicle connection interface in accordance with the instruction of the diagnostic sequence instruction section, the automatic vehicle data acquisition section for displaying the acquired vehicle data on the display section.

9. The vehicle trouble diagnosis apparatus as claimed in claim 8 wherein the trouble diagnosis data is formed as a part of vehicle maintenance description data having a data structure in an open format,

the vehicle trouble diagnosis apparatus further comprising:

an extraction section for extracting the trouble diagnosis data from the vehicle maintenance description data; and

a conversion processing section for converting the extracted trouble diagnosis data into data displayed in the interactive mode,

wherein the diagnostic routine instruction section displays the trouble diagnosis data after the conversion, thereby giving the trouble diagnosis routine instruction in the interactive mode.

10. A computer-readable record medium recording a trouble diagnosis program to be executed in a computer, the trouble diagnosis program comprising:

connecting the computer to an electronic control unit of a vehicle;

connecting the computer to a server storing trouble diagnosis data required for trouble diagnosis;

reading the trouble diagnosis data from the server;

proceeding with trouble diagnosis in an interactive mode according to information on a display and instructions from an input section to give an instruction of a trouble diagnosis sequence; and

automatically obtaining vehicle data from the electronic control unit using the trouble diagnosis data.

11. The computer-readable record medium as claimed in claim 10, the trouble diagnosis program further comprising:

adding new trouble diagnosis data from the server to the computer in accordance with acquisition results of the vehicle data at the automatic vehicle data acquisition step; and

then, proceeding with the trouble diagnosis through interaction by a user with the computer using the new read trouble diagnosis data.

12. The computer-readable record medium as claimed in claim 10, wherein the trouble diagnosis data written in an open format is stored in the server as a part of vehicle maintenance description data, and

wherein at the trouble diagnosis step, the trouble diagnosis data is extracted from the vehicle maintenance description data, and the trouble diagnosis data is converted into data to be displayed on a display section, whereby the trouble diagnosis is proceeded with through interaction by a user with the computer.

13. A vehicle trouble diagnosis method comprising:

connecting a computer to an electronic control unit of a vehicle;

connecting the computer to a server storing trouble diagnosis data required for trouble diagnosis;

reading the trouble diagnosis data from the sewer;

displaying a trouble symptom selection screen on a display connected to the computer;

receiving input from the user indicating one or more trouble symptoms;

extracting relevant data from the trouble diagnosis data corresponding to the indicated one or more trouble symptoms;

detecting whether the trouble diagnosis data contains a predetermined keyword indicating the need for the vehicle data; and

when said predetermined keyword is detected, automatically obtaining vehicle data from the electronic control unit using the trouble diagnosis data.