JP2019079467A - Vehicle state determination device, vehicle state determination system, vehicle state determination method, and vehicle state determination program - Google Patents

Abstract

To exactly determine a state of a vehicle at low cost.SOLUTION: A vehicle state determination device 600 is provided with: an internal collection part 610 which collects internal collection information 611 representing a state of a vehicle 60 by using a sensor 670 loaded on the vehicle 60; an external collection part 620 which acquires external collection information 621 collected by an external device 70 located outside the vehicle 60, representing the state of the vehicle 60, which is impossible to be collected at least by the internal collection part 610 from the external device 70; and a determination part 630 which determines the state of the vehicle 60 on the basis of the internal collection information 611 and the external collection information 621.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 7

Description

  The present invention relates to technology for determining the state of a vehicle by using a sensor.

  In recent years, with the progress of technology such as artificial intelligence, technology for controlling vehicles such as automobiles, which is represented by technology of automatic driving, has been rapidly developed. Along with this, the expectation for technology to control the vehicle more accurately and safely is increasing.

  As a technique related to such a technique, Patent Document 1 receives a detection vehicle equipped with an on-vehicle device for detecting the condition of another vehicle and the condition of the other vehicle from the on-vehicle device and distributes it to the other vehicle Another vehicle state distribution system is disclosed, including: another vehicle state distribution server. The in-vehicle device detects the position of the detection vehicle. The in-vehicle device captures an image of another vehicle. The on-vehicle device detects the state of the other vehicle based on the image of the other vehicle. Then, the in-vehicle device transmits the position of the detected vehicle and the state of the other vehicle to the other-vehicle state distribution server. The other vehicle state distribution server receives the position of the detected vehicle and the state of the other vehicle. The said other vehicle state distribution server specifies the link or area to which the vehicle which should distribute the state of another vehicle belongs based on the position of a detection vehicle. The other vehicle state distribution server specifies a vehicle belonging to the link or area as a distribution vehicle. Then, the other vehicle state distribution server distributes the state of the other vehicle to the distribution vehicle.

  Further, Patent Document 2 discloses a lane change support device that determines the necessity of lane change support even before another vehicle moves to a destination lane. This device acquires the direction indication state of the direction indicator of the host vehicle while acquiring the direction indication state of the direction indicator of the other vehicle around the host vehicle. This device determines whether it is necessary to support the lane change in the direction indicated by the direction indication state related to the host vehicle by comparison with the direction indication state related to the other vehicle.

  Further, Patent Document 3 discloses a vehicle recognition notification system that enables the driver of the own vehicle to recognize that the driver of the other vehicle recognizes the own vehicle. In this system, when the vehicle B determines that the driver of the vehicle B recognizes the vehicle A, the vehicle B recognizes the cognitive information signal indicating that the driver of the vehicle B recognizes the vehicle A. Transmit to vehicle A. When the vehicle A receives a recognition information signal indicating that the driver of the vehicle B recognizes the vehicle A, the display device, the sound output device, etc. indicate that the driver of the vehicle B recognizes the vehicle A. To the driver of the vehicle A via

JP 2014-241102 A JP, 2008-168827, A Unexamined-Japanese-Patent No. 2015-191583

  In the technology for accurately and safely controlling a vehicle, it is required to accurately grasp the state of the vehicle including the occurrence of a defect in the vehicle. Since the state of the vehicle can be grasped by the sensor mounted on the vehicle, for example, by mounting a large number of high-performance sensors on the vehicle, the state of the vehicle can be grasped accurately. However, as the number of high-performance sensors is increased, the cost of the vehicle increases. Therefore, it is an issue to be able to determine the state of the vehicle more accurately and at lower cost. The techniques described in Patent Documents 1 to 3 can not be said to be sufficient to solve such a problem. The main object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle state determination device or the like that solves this problem.

  A vehicle state determination apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention includes an internal collection unit that collects internal collection information representing a state of a vehicle by using a sensor mounted on the vehicle, and an external located outside the vehicle External collection means for acquiring from the external device at least external collection information that can not be collected by the internal collection means, which represents the state of the vehicle, collected by the device, the internal collection information and the external collection information And determining means for determining the state of the vehicle based on the information.

  In another aspect for achieving the above object, a vehicle state determination method according to one aspect of the present invention uses an information collection device that uses internally collected information representing the state of the vehicle by using a sensor mounted on the vehicle. The external device acquires information collected from the external device which can not be collected by at least a sensor mounted on the vehicle, which represents the state of the vehicle which is collected and collected by an external device located outside the vehicle. The state of the vehicle is determined based on the internally collected information and the externally collected information.

  Further, in a further aspect of achieving the above object, a vehicle state determination program according to an aspect of the present invention collects internal collected information indicating the state of a vehicle by using a sensor mounted on the vehicle. Collection processing, and external collection processing for acquiring, from the external device, external collection information that can not be collected by at least the internal collection means, which represents the state of the vehicle, collected by an external device located outside the vehicle A program for causing a computer to execute a determination process of determining the state of the vehicle based on the internal collection information and the external collection information.

  Furthermore, the present invention can also be realized by a computer readable non-volatile storage medium storing such a vehicle state determination program (computer program).

  The present invention makes it possible to determine the state of a vehicle accurately and at low cost.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS It is a block diagram which shows notionally the structure of the vehicle state determination system 1 which concerns on the 1st Embodiment of this invention. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS It is a block diagram which shows notionally the structure of the vehicle state determination apparatuses 100 thru | or 300 which concern on the 1st Embodiment of this invention, and the sensor mounted in the vehicles 10 thru | or 30. FIG. It is a figure which illustrates notionally the composition (the 1st example of composition) of judgment standard information 131 concerning a 1st embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which illustrates notionally the composition (the 2nd example of composition) of judgment standard information 131 concerning a 1st embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which illustrates notionally the composition (the 3rd example of composition) of judgment standard information 131 concerning a 1st embodiment of the present invention. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the vehicle state determination apparatus 100 which concerns on the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows notionally the structure of the vehicle state determination apparatus 600 which concerns on the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the information processing apparatus 900 which can perform the vehicle state determination apparatus which concerns on each embodiment of this invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

First Embodiment
FIG. 1 is a block diagram conceptually showing the configuration of a vehicle state determination system 1 according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The vehicle state determination system 1 roughly includes a vehicle 10, a vehicle 20, a vehicle 30, a roadside information collection device 40, a base station 50, a communication network 51, and a vehicle state management server 52.

  The vehicles 10, 20, and 30 carry vehicle state determination devices 100, 200, and 300, which will be described later, in order. The vehicle state determination devices 100, 200, and 300 are devices for determining the state of the own vehicle, and their functions are equivalent as described later. In the example illustrated in FIG. 1, the vehicle 10 and the vehicle 20 travel in the same lane in the same direction (toward the right in FIG. 1), and the vehicle 20 is a vehicle (nearby vehicle) following the vehicle 10 . The vehicle 30 travels in the vicinity of the vehicle 10 (in the vicinity of the vehicle 10 and in the direction opposite to the vehicle 10 and the vehicle 20 (toward the left in FIG. 1). ). Although three vehicles are shown in FIG. 1 for convenience of explanation, the number of vehicles included in the vehicle state determination system 1 is arbitrary.

  The road side information collection device (external device) 40 is installed in the vicinity (for example, a roadside zone, a road sign, a telephone pole, a traffic light, etc.) on which the vehicles 10 to 30 travel. The road-side information collection device 40 includes a camera 401, a microphone 402, and a gas sensor 403. In the present application, the camera 401, the microphone 402, and the gas sensor 403 may be collectively referred to as a sensor 400 hereinafter. The sensors included in the road-side information collection device 40 are not limited to the camera 401, the microphone 402, and the gas sensor 403.

  The road-side information collection device 40 collects information representing the state of the vehicles 10 to 30 traveling in the vicinity of the road-side information collection device 40 by using the sensor 400. The road-side information collection device 40 transmits the collected information indicating the states of the vehicles 10 to 30 to the vehicles 10 to 30. However, it is assumed that the road side information collection device 40 and the vehicles 10 to 30 can communicate, for example, by road-to-vehicle communication (wireless communication).

  The vehicle state management server (external device) 52 is, for example, an information processing device installed in a data center or the like, and has a function of managing the states and the like of a large number of vehicles. The vehicle state management server 52 and the base station 50 are communicably connected via the communication network 51. The vehicles 10 to 30 and the base station 50 can communicate by wireless communication. Therefore, the vehicles 10 to 30 and the vehicle state management server 52 can communicate via the base station 50 and the communication network 51.

  The vehicle state management server 52 receives, from the vehicles 10 to 30, information indicating the state of the host vehicle collected by the vehicle state determination devices 100 to 300 mounted on the vehicles 10 to 30. Then, based on the received information, the vehicle state management server 52 generates information necessary for the vehicle state determination devices 100 to 300 to determine the state of the host vehicle, and generates the generated information as a vehicle. Send to 10 to 30.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram conceptually showing the configuration of the vehicle state determination devices 100 to 300 according to the present embodiment and sensors mounted on the vehicles 10 to 30. As shown in FIG.

  The vehicle 10 includes a vehicle state determination device 100, a camera 171, a microphone 172, a gas sensor 173, a radar 174, and a GPS (Global Positioning System) sensor 175. In the present application, the camera 171, the microphone 172, the gas sensor 173, the radar 174, and the GPS sensor 175 may be collectively referred to as a sensor 170 hereinafter. The sensors provided in the vehicle 10 are not limited to the camera 171, the microphone 172, the gas sensor 173, the radar 174, and the GPS sensor 175.

  Similar to the vehicle 10, the vehicle 20 includes a vehicle state determination device 200, a camera 271, a microphone 272, a gas sensor 273, a radar 274, and a GPS sensor 275. In the present application, the camera 271, the microphone 272, the gas sensor 273, the radar 274, and the GPS sensor 275 may be collectively referred to as a sensor 270 hereinafter. The sensors included in the vehicle 20 are not limited to the camera 271, the microphone 272, the gas sensor 273, the radar 274, and the GPS sensor 275.

  Similar to the vehicles 10 and 20, the vehicle 30 includes a vehicle state determination device 300, a camera 371, a microphone 372, a gas sensor 373, a radar 374 and a GPS sensor 375. In the present application, the camera 371, the microphone 372, the gas sensor 373, the radar 374, and the GPS sensor 375 may be collectively referred to as a sensor 370 hereinafter. The sensors included in the vehicle 30 are not limited to the camera 371, the microphone 372, the gas sensor 373, the radar 374, and the GPS sensor 375.

  The vehicle state determination device 100 includes an internal collection unit 110, an external collection unit 120, a determination unit 130, a control unit 140, a communication unit 150, and an other-vehicle state collection unit 160. Similar to the vehicle state determination device 100, the vehicle state determination device 200 includes an internal collection unit 210, an external collection unit 220, a determination unit 230, a control unit 240, a communication unit 250, and another vehicle state collection unit 260. . Similar to the vehicle state determination devices 100 and 200, the vehicle state determination device 300 includes an internal collection unit 310, an external collection unit 320, a determination unit 330, a control unit 340, a communication unit 350, and another vehicle state collection unit 360. ing.

  As described above, since the configurations and functions of the vehicles 10 to 30 according to the present embodiment are equivalent to each other, in the present application, the vehicle state determination device 100 and the sensor 170 mounted on the vehicle 10 will be described in detail. I assume.

  The internal collection unit 110 collects internal collection information 111 representing the state of the vehicle 10 by using the sensor 170. The internal collection information 111 includes, for example, information representing the image quality of a video captured by the camera 171 that captures the front of the vehicle 10. The internally collected information 111 includes, for example, information representing the magnitude of noise around the vehicle 10, which is collected by the microphone 172. The internally collected information 111 also includes, for example, information extracted by the gas sensor 173 and indicating whether or not abnormal gas is generated in the vicinity of the vehicle 10.

  In the external collection unit 120, the communication unit 150 communicates information representing the state of the vehicle 10, which is collected by an external device (for example, the vehicle state determination devices 200 and 300, the road side information collection device 40, etc.) The external collection information 121 is acquired by doing this. The external collection information 121 is information that can not be collected at least by the internal collection unit 110. The communication unit 150 can perform inter-vehicle communication with the communication units 250 and 350 provided in the vehicles 20 and 30, and can perform road-to-vehicle communication with the road-side information collection device 40. The communication unit 150 can also communicate with the vehicle state management server 52 via the base station 50. That is, the communication unit 150 has a function of communicating with at least one of the communication units 250 and 350, the roadside information collection device 40, and the vehicle state management server 52.

  The external collected information 121 is obtained, for example, by the camera 371 included in the vehicle 30 or the camera 401 included in the road-side information collecting apparatus 40 capturing the camera 171 included in the vehicle 10 from the front of the vehicle 10 It contains information that indicates the possibility of soiling. The external collected information 121 also includes, for example, information representing the noise level around the vehicles 20 and 30 and the roadside information collection device 40 collected by the microphone 272, the microphone 372, and the microphone 402.

  The external collected information 121 is, for example, information indicating whether the exhaust gas by the vehicle 10 is colored or not obtained by the camera 271 included in the vehicle 20 photographing the exhaust gas by the vehicle 10 from the rear of the vehicle 10 including. The external collected information 121 may be, for example, whether or not an abnormal gas is generated around the vehicles 20 and 30 and the roadside information collection device 40 collected by the gas sensor 273, the gas sensor 373 and the gas sensor 403. Contains information representing

  The external collected information 121 includes, alternatively, information indicating the weather of the traveling place of the vehicle 10, information indicating the pavement state of the road on which the vehicle 10 is traveling, and the like. These pieces of information are information obtained by the internal collecting unit 110 transmitting the position information of the vehicle 10 obtained by the GPS sensor 175 included in the vehicle 10 to the vehicle state management server 52 via the communication unit 150. . That is, based on the received position information of the vehicle 10, the vehicle state management server 52 communicates information representing the weather of the traveling place of the vehicle 10, information representing the pavement state of the road on which the vehicle 10 is traveling, etc. The information acquired from other servers connected to 51 and the acquired information is transmitted to the vehicle state determination device 100.

  The determination unit 130 determines the state of the vehicle 10 based on the internal collection information 111 collected by the internal collection unit 110, the external collection information 121 collected by the external collection unit 120, and the determination reference information 131. However, the determination reference information 131 is created by, for example, the manager of the vehicle 10, and stored in a storage device such as an electronic memory included in the determination unit 130.

  FIG. 3: is a figure which shows notionally the 1st structural example of the determination criteria information 131 which concerns on this embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the determination criterion information 131 is information that associates the content of the internal collection information 111, the content of the external collection information 121, and the determination result by the determination unit 130. FIG. 3 shows a determination criterion regarding the state of the vehicle 10 in the case where the internally collected information 111 indicates that “the image quality of the image captured by the camera 171 is less than the standard”.

  As illustrated in FIG. 3, for example, when the externally collected information 121 indicates that “the camera 171 may be contaminated” and “the weather at the traveling place of the vehicle 10 is clear”. The determining unit 130 determines that “the camera 171 is dirty”. Alternatively, when the externally collected information 121 indicates that "the camera 171 can not see dirt" and that "the weather at the traveling place of the vehicle 10 is clear", the determination unit 130 determines that the camera 171 has an obstacle. Is determined to occur. Alternatively, when the externally collected information 121 indicates that "the weather at the traveling place of the vehicle 10 is rain or fog", the determination unit 130 determines that the camera 171 is normal. The reason is that in this case, the factor for which the image quality is less than the standard is considered to be poor weather.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram conceptually showing a second configuration example of the determination criterion information 131 according to the present embodiment. FIG. 4 shows a determination criterion regarding the state of the vehicle 10 in the case where the internally collected information 111 indicates that “the magnitude of the noise around the vehicle 10 is equal to or greater than the reference”.

  As illustrated in FIG. 4, for example, when the externally collected information 121 indicates that “the noise level around at least one of the vehicle 20, the vehicle 30, and the roadside information collection device 40 is equal to or higher than the standard”. The determination unit 130 determines that “the vehicle body of the vehicle 10 is normal”. The reason is that in this case noise other than the vehicle 10 is also detected above the reference level, and the noise is considered to be due, for example, to the surrounding environment (for example, road construction). Alternatively, if the external collected information 121 indicates that “the magnitude of noise around the vehicle 20, the vehicle 30, and the road-side information collection device 40 is all less than the reference”, the determination unit 130 , “It is determined that the vehicle body of the vehicle 10 is abnormal”.

  In addition, as illustrated in FIG. 4, for example, when the externally collected information 121 indicates that “the pavement state of the road on which the vehicle 10 is traveling is not good (less than the standard)”, the determination unit 130 It is determined that the vehicle body of the vehicle 10 is normal. The reason is that, in this case, it is considered that the cause of the noise is due to traveling on a road with poor pavement condition. Alternatively, if the external collected information 121 indicates that “the pavement state of the road on which the vehicle 10 is traveling is good (the standard or more)”, the determination unit 130 “in the vehicle 10 It is determined that the vehicle body is abnormal.

  FIG. 5: is a figure which shows notionally the 3rd structural example of the determination criteria information 131 which concerns on this embodiment. FIG. 5 shows a determination criterion regarding the state of the vehicle 10 in the case where the internal collection information 111 indicates that “an abnormal gas is generated around the vehicle 10”.

  As illustrated in FIG. 5, for example, when the externally collected information 121 indicates that “the exhaust gas from the vehicle 10 is colored”, the determination unit 130 states that “an abnormality occurs in the engine of the vehicle 10”. judge. Alternatively, the externally collected information 121 indicates that "the exhaust gas from the vehicle 10 is colorless", and "an abnormal gas is generated around the vehicle 20, or the vehicle 30, or the roadside information collection device 40". When indicating that, the determination unit 130 determines that “the vehicle body of the vehicle 10 is normal”. The reason is that, in this case, since the abnormal gas is sensed also in the area other than the vehicle 10, the factor that the abnormal gas is generated is considered to be in, for example, the surrounding environment.

  The control unit 140 shown in FIG. 2 controls the vehicle 10 so that the state of the vehicle 10 changes based on the above-described determination result by the determination unit 130. That is, when the determination unit 130 determines that the vehicle 10 is abnormal (the vehicle 10 has a defect), the control unit 140 controls the vehicle 10 so as to eliminate the abnormality (failure).

  For example, when the determination unit 130 determines that the camera 171 is dirty, the control unit 140 operates the cleaning function for the camera 171 provided in the vehicle 10. Alternatively, the control unit 140 may notify the driver of the vehicle 10 that the camera 171 is dirty by an image or a sound. Alternatively, if the determination unit 130 determines that the vehicle body or engine of the vehicle 10 is abnormal, the control unit 140 notifies the driver of the vehicle 10 to that effect, thereby responding to the driver etc. May be prompted.

  The other-vehicle state collection unit 160 illustrated in FIG. 2 collects other-vehicle state information 161 representing the states of the vehicle 20 and the vehicle 30 by using the sensor 170. That is, the other-vehicle state information 161 is, for example, information indicating the possibility that the camera 371 is contaminated, which is obtained by photographing the camera 371 included in the vehicle 30 from the front of the vehicle 30 illustrated in FIG. Including.

  The other vehicle state collection unit 160 transmits the collected other vehicle state information 161 to the vehicle state determination devices 200 and 300 in the vehicles 20 and 30 via the communication unit 150. The other-vehicle-state collecting unit 160 may perform this transmission, for example, each time the other-vehicle state information 161 is collected, or may perform this transmission only when the other-vehicle state information 161 changes. The vehicle state determination devices 200 and 300 use the received other vehicle state information 161 as the external collected information 221 and 321 in order to determine the states of the vehicles 20 and 30, respectively.

  Next, the operation (process) of the vehicle state determination apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  The internal collection unit 110 collects internal collection information 111 representing the state of the vehicle 10 by using the sensor 170 (step S101). The internal collection unit 110 transmits at least a part of the internal collection information 111 to the vehicle state management server 52 via the communication unit 150 (step S102).

  The other vehicle state collecting unit 160 collects the other vehicle state information 161 representing the state of the vehicles 20 and 30 by using the sensor 170 (step S103). The other vehicle state collecting unit 160 transmits the other vehicle state information 161 to the vehicles 20 and 30 via the communication unit 150 (step S104).

  The external collection unit 120 acquires the external collection information 121 representing the state of the vehicle 10 via the communication unit 150 from at least one of the vehicles 20 and 30, the road side information collection device 40, and the vehicle state management server 52. (Step S105). The determination unit 130 determines the state of the vehicle 10 based on the internal collection information 111, the external collection information 121, and the determination reference information 131 (step S106).

  When the determination result by the determination unit 130 indicates that the state of the vehicle 10 is not abnormal (is normal) (No in step S107), the process returns to step S101. When the determination result by the determination unit 130 indicates that the state of the vehicle 10 is abnormal (Yes in step S107), the control unit 140 controls the vehicle 10 so that the state of the vehicle 10 changes (step S108). ), The process returns to step S101.

  The vehicle state determination device 100 according to the present embodiment can determine the state of the vehicle accurately (with high accuracy) at low cost. The reason is that the vehicle state determination device 100 uses at least the sensor 170 collected by the internal collected information 111 collected by using the sensor 170 mounted on the vehicle 10 and an external device located outside the vehicle 10 This is because the state of the vehicle 10 is determined based on the external collected information 121 that can not be acquired.

  Below, the effect implement | achieved by the vehicle state determination apparatus 100 which concerns on this embodiment is demonstrated in detail.

  In the technology for accurately and safely controlling a vehicle, it is required to accurately grasp the state of the vehicle including the occurrence of a defect in the vehicle. Since the state of the vehicle can be grasped by the sensor mounted on the vehicle, for example, by mounting a large number of high-performance sensors on the vehicle, the state of the vehicle can be grasped accurately. However, as the number of high-performance sensors is increased, the cost of the vehicle increases. Therefore, it is an issue to be able to determine the state of the vehicle more accurately and at lower cost.

  In order to solve such problems, the vehicle state determination device 100 according to the present embodiment includes an internal collection unit 110, an external collection unit 120, and a determination unit 130. For example, referring to FIGS. It operates as described above. That is, the internal collection unit 110 collects internal collection 111 information representing the state of the vehicle 10 by using the sensor 170 mounted on the vehicle 10. The external collection unit 120 represents the state of the vehicle 10 collected by an external device (the vehicle state determination devices 200 and 300, the road side information collection device 40, the vehicle state management server 52, etc.) located outside the vehicle 10. The external collected information 121 which can not be collected at least by the internal collecting unit 110 is acquired from the external device. Then, the determination unit 130 determines the state of the vehicle 10 based on the internally collected information 111 and the externally collected information 121.

  That is, when determining the state of the vehicle 10, the vehicle state determination device 100 according to the present embodiment uses the internally collected information 111 collected by using the simple sensor 170 mounted on the vehicle 10. However, a simple sensor is a sensor which can not collect information which external collection information 121 shows, for example. Then, the vehicle state determination device 100 acquires information on the state of the vehicle 10 that can not be acquired by the sensor 170 from the external device as the external collected information 121 and uses it. That is, even if the function of the sensor 170 mounted on the vehicle 10 is relatively simple, the vehicle state determination device 100 determines the state of the vehicle 10 based on much information related to the state of the vehicle 10. Therefore, the vehicle state determination device 100 according to the present embodiment can accurately determine the state of the vehicle 10 at low cost.

  In addition, the external device as the acquisition source when the vehicle state determination device 100 according to the present embodiment obtains the external collection information 121 travels the opposite lane, the vehicle state determination device 200 mounted on the following vehicle 20 The vehicle state determination device 300 mounted on the vehicle 30, the road side information collection device 40 installed in the vicinity of the road (route) on which the vehicle 10 travels, and the like are various. Therefore, the vehicle state determination device 100 according to the present embodiment can more accurately determine the state of the vehicle 10 based on much information on the state of the vehicle 10 obtained from these various external devices. .

  In addition, the vehicle state determination device 100 according to the present embodiment transmits the internally collected information 111 (for example, position information of the vehicle 10 obtained by the GPS sensor 175, etc.) to the vehicle state management server 52. The vehicle state management server 52 acquires information representing the weather about the traveling place of the vehicle 10 and the pavement state of the road based on the received position information, and transmits the acquired information to the vehicle state determination device 100. Then, by using the information received from the vehicle state management server 52 as the external collection information 121, the vehicle state determination device 100 can perform more advanced determination regarding the state of the vehicle 10.

  Further, the contents of the internal collection information 111 and the external collection information 121 used by the vehicle state determination apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment are not limited to the contents shown in FIGS. 3 to 5, for example. For example, the external collected information 121 may include dirt on the radar 174, depth of grooves of the tire of the vehicle 10, wheel alignment (direction of the tire), malfunction of the exterior of the vehicle 10, and fixation of articles loaded on the vehicle 10. It may be various information which can not be acquired by sensor 170, such as information to represent, but can be acquired by photographing vehicle 10 from the exterior of vehicle 10.

  In addition, the control unit 140 according to the present embodiment controls the vehicle 10 so that the state of the vehicle 10 changes based on the determination result by the determination unit 130. As a result, the vehicle state determination device 100 according to the present embodiment can promptly respond to a defect in the vehicle 10, and therefore the safety of the vehicle 10 in traveling can be enhanced.

  The vehicles 10 to 30 according to the present embodiment are not limited to, for example, automobiles. The vehicles 10 to 30 may be, for example, a train or a robot having a traveling function.

Second Embodiment
FIG. 7 is a block diagram conceptually showing the structure of a vehicle state determination apparatus 600 according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

  The vehicle state determination device 600 according to the present embodiment includes an internal collection unit 610, an external collection unit 620, and a determination unit 630.

  The internal collection unit 610 collects internal collection information 611 representing the state of the vehicle 60 by using the sensor 670 mounted on the vehicle 60.

  The external collection unit 620 acquires, from the external device 70, external collected information 621 collected by the external device 70 located outside the vehicle 60, which represents the state of the vehicle 60 and can not be collected by at least the internal collection unit 610. .

  Determination unit 630 determines the state of vehicle 60 based on internal collection information 611 and external collection information 621.

  The vehicle state determination device 600 according to the present embodiment can accurately determine the state of the vehicle at low cost. The reason is that the vehicle state determination device 600 includes at least the sensor 670 collected by the internal collected information 611 collected by using the sensor 670 mounted on the vehicle 60 and the external device 70 located outside the vehicle 60. This is because the state of the vehicle 60 is determined based on the external collected information 621 which can not be acquired by the above.

<Hardware configuration example>
Each part in the vehicle state determination device shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 7 in each embodiment described above can be realized by a dedicated HW (HardWare) (electronic circuit). Further, in FIG. 2 and FIG. 7, at least the following configuration can be understood as a function (processing) unit (software module) of the software program.
Internal collection units 110 and 610,
· External collection unit 120 and 620,
The determination units 130 and 630,
The control unit 140.

  However, the division of each part shown in these drawings is a configuration for convenience of explanation, and various configurations can be assumed at the time of mounting. An example of the hardware environment in this case will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 8 exemplarily illustrates the configuration of an information processing apparatus 900 (computer) capable of executing the vehicle state determination apparatus according to each embodiment of the present invention. That is, FIG. 8 is a configuration of a computer (information processing apparatus) capable of realizing the vehicle state determination device shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 7, and a hardware environment capable of realizing each function in the embodiment described above. Represents

The information processing apparatus 900 illustrated in FIG. 8 includes the following as constituent elements.
CPU (Central_Processing_Unit) 901,
ROM (Read_Only_Memory) 902,
RAM (Random_Access_Memory) 903,
Communication interface 904 with an external device
Bus 905 (communication line),
An input / output interface 906 that controls the input and output of signals with the sensor 910.

  That is, the information processing apparatus 900 including the above-described components is a general computer in which these configurations are connected via the bus 905. The information processing apparatus 900 may include a plurality of CPUs 901 or may include a CPU 901 configured by a multi-core.

  The present invention described by taking the above-described embodiment as an example supplies a computer program capable of realizing the following functions to the information processing apparatus 900 shown in FIG. The function is the function of the above-described configuration or the flowchart (FIG. 6) in the block diagram (FIGS. 2 and 7) referred to in the description of the embodiment. The present invention is achieved by reading, interpreting, and executing the computer program on the CPU 901 of the hardware. The computer program supplied to the apparatus may be stored in a readable / writable volatile memory (RAM 903) or a non-volatile storage device such as the ROM 902.

  Also, in the above case, the method of supplying the computer program into the hardware can adopt a general procedure at present. As the procedure, for example, there are a method of installing in the apparatus through various recording media, a method of downloading from the outside through a communication line such as the Internet, and the like. And, in such a case, the present invention can be understood as being constituted by a code that constitutes the computer program or a recording medium in which the code is stored.

  The present invention has been described above by taking the above-described embodiment as an exemplary example. However, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above. That is, the present invention can apply various aspects that can be understood by those skilled in the art within the scope of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 vehicle state determination system 10 vehicle 100 vehicle state determination apparatus 110 internal collection part 111 internal collection information 120 external collection part 121 external collection information 130 determination part 131 determination reference information 140 control part 150 communication part 160 other vehicle state collection part 161 other vehicle State information 170 sensor 171 camera 172 microphone 173 gas sensor 174 radar 175 GPS sensor 20 vehicle 200 vehicle state determination device 210 internal collection unit 220 external collection unit 230 determination unit 240 control unit 250 communication unit 260 other vehicle condition collection unit 270 sensor 271 camera 272 Microphone 273 Gas sensor 274 Radar 275 GPS sensor 30 Vehicle 300 Vehicle condition determination device 310 Internal collection unit 320 External collection unit 330 Determination unit 340 Control unit 350 Communication unit 360 Other vehicle shapes Collection unit 370 sensor 371 camera 372 microphone 373 gas sensor 374 radar 375 GPS sensor 40 road side information collection device 400 sensor 401 camera 402 microphone 403 gas sensor 50 base station 51 communication network 52 vehicle condition management server 60 vehicle 600 vehicle condition determination device 610 internal collection Part 611 internal collection information 620 external collection part 621 external collection information 630 determination part 670 sensor 70 external device 900 information processor 901 CPU
902 ROM
903 RAM
904 communication interface 905 bus 906 input / output interface 910 sensor

Claims (10)

Internal collection means for collecting internally collected information representing the state of the vehicle by using a sensor mounted on the vehicle;
External collection means for acquiring, from the external device, external collection information that can not be collected by at least the internal collection means, which represents the state of the vehicle, collected by the external device located outside the vehicle;
A determination unit that determines the state of the vehicle based on the internally collected information and the externally collected information;
A vehicle state determination device comprising: The apparatus further comprises control means for controlling the vehicle such that the state of the vehicle changes based on the determination result by the determination means.
The vehicle state determination device according to claim 1. The sensor mounted on the vehicle is at least one of a camera, a microphone, a gas sensor, a radar, and a GPS (Global Positioning System) sensor.
The vehicle state determination apparatus according to claim 1 or 2. A vehicle state determination device according to any one of claims 1 to 3.
A sensor mounted on the vehicle;
The external device;
Vehicle condition determination system having: The external device is installed in the vicinity of a route on which the vehicle travels so as to collect the externally collected information by using a sensor mounted on the external device.
The vehicle state determination system according to claim 4. The external device is installed in a nearby vehicle traveling in the vicinity of the vehicle so as to be able to collect the externally collected information by using a sensor mounted on the external device.
The vehicle state determination system according to claim 4 or 5. The internal collection means transmits the internal collection information to the external device;
The external device generates the externally collected information based on the internally collected information received from the internally collecting unit.
The vehicle state determination system according to any one of claims 4 to 6. The external device collects information representing the state of a sensor mounted on the vehicle.
The vehicle state determination system according to any one of claims 4 to 7. Depending on the information processing device
Collecting internally collected information representative of the condition of the vehicle by using sensors mounted on the vehicle;
Obtaining, from the external device, external collected information that can not be collected by at least a sensor mounted on the vehicle, which represents the state of the vehicle, which is collected by an external device located outside the vehicle;
Determining the state of the vehicle based on the internally collected information and the externally collected information;
Vehicle state determination method. An internal collection process for collecting internally collected information representing a state of a vehicle by using a sensor mounted on the vehicle;
An external collecting process for acquiring, from the external device, external collected information which is collected by an external device located outside the vehicle and which represents the state of the vehicle and which can not be collected at least by the internal collecting process;
A determination process of determining the state of the vehicle based on the internally collected information and the externally collected information;
Vehicle condition determination program for making a computer execute.

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