Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Vehicle diagnosis or maintenance indication
Reexamination Certificate
2001-06-26
2003-06-10
Black, Thomas G. (Department: 3663)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Vehicle diagnosis or maintenance indication
C702S183000, C702S188000, C714S025000, C714S030000, C714S034000, C714S046000, C340S870030, C340S870030, C340S438000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06577934
ABSTRACT:
This application is based on Application No. 2001-047264, filed in Japan on Feb. 22, 2001, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a failure diagnosis apparatus for a vehicle which performs a failure diagnosis on the vehicle having a variety of electronic controllers based on information about two or more of the electronic controllers.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the past, such a failure diagnosis apparatus was proposed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-161037. In this failure diagnosis apparatus, a plurality of electronic controllers are connected with one another through a common network bus in a typical vehicle in the form of a motor car. Operating conditions in the respective electronic controllers are collected by a failure diagnosis apparatus through the network bus, so that the failure diagnosis apparatus carries out a failure diagnosis based on the mutual relations between the electronic controllers.
On the other hand, it is conceived that failure diagnosis information is transmitted to an external information center (i.e., an information center outside a vehicle) for failure diagnosis service by using a radio communications device installed on a vehicle, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-94442. However, this system involves a problem in that it is necessary to install the radio communications device on the vehicle, thus increasing the cost of the vehicle. To cope with this problem, there has been proposed a method of providing failure diagnosis service by connecting an information communications terminal such as a portable telephone with electronic controllers installed on a vehicle, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-182188.
As referred to above, in the case of a vehicle equipped with a failure diagnosis apparatus, however, it is the current state of the art that a plurality of network buses corresponding to respective electronic controllers mounted on a vehicle are required to be installed on the vehicle owing to restrictions such as performance, cost, etc., of the electronic controllers. Therefore, there is a problem that it is difficult to connect all the electronic controllers with a common network bus.
Besides, in the method of providing failure diagnosis service by connecting an information communications terminal such as a portable telephone with electronic controllers installed on a vehicle in order to enable communications between the vehicle and an external information center, wiring arrangements, connecting operations and the like are required for the purpose of making portable telephones available to this end. Thus, there are the following problems; the assembly cost increases, and the user feels troublesomeness, etc.
In addition, in respect of connection with information communications terminals, there is a difference between the life cycle of the information communications terminals, such as portable phones, and the life cycle of vehicles, such as motor cars. Consequently, there arises the problem that when the service user has changed his or her portable telephone, the user might become unable to use the current service.
Further, in cases where an information communications terminal is connected with a navigation unit, etc., there is also a problem that it is impossible to diagnose a device for controlling a door lock under the condition of the navigation unit being unable to operate, such as when the engine is being started, when an ignition key is in an “OFF” state, etc.
Furthermore, in the conventional failure diagnosis service using communications with an external information center, the diagnosis service using external communications (i.e., communications between a vehicle and the external information center) is not provided except when there takes place a failure in the vehicle or when the external information center makes a request to the target vehicle to be serviced. Therefore, as long as failure does not occur in the vehicle, the driver cannot utilize the diagnosis service to any satisfactory extent. Moreover, when the information center makes a request to vehicles, it is necessary for the information center to keep track of the operating situations of all the vehicles to be serviced. For these reasons, it is difficult to increase profits on the side of service providers.
On the other hand, the vehicle information such as operating condition information, failure diagnosis information and the like includes position information on the driver's own vehicle, time and speed informtion at passing locations, etc. Therefore, when the vehicle information is leaked outside the vehicle, there might be the occurrence of damage to privacy, money and the like. However, since information protection processing means for preventing this are scattered in respective electronic controllers, there are problems such as high cost, a long period of development or the like in achieving the effective protection of such information.
Moreover, there is a further problem in that in case of diagnosing a failure by means of a diagnosis device installed in the place of a dealer, it takes a long time for the dealer specify the cause for the failure if the details of the failure are accurately communicated to the dealer. Or, there is a problem in that when diagnosing a failure, it is necessary for a dealer to sufficiently understand a diagnosis manual and perform a failure diagnosis in accordance with a suitable diagnosis procedure, thus resulting in an inefficient operation.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is made in view of the above situations, and has for its object to provide a failure diagnosis apparatus for a vehicle which is capable of collecting the information on the condition of a vehicle having a plurality of network buses in an automatic and effective manner thereby to carry out a failure diagnosis on the vehicle,
Another object of the present invention is to provide a failure diagnosis apparatus for a vehicle which is capable of communicating automatically and efficiently with an information center outside the vehicle.
Bearing the above objects in mind, according to the present invention, there is provided a failure diagnosis apparatus for a vehicle in which a plurality of electronic controllers mounted on the vehicle are connected with one another by means of a plurality of network buses for transmitting data between the electronic controllers through the network buses, the apparatus including a gateway with a protocol conversion section for enabling the plurality of electronic controllers to mutually communicate with one another through the plurality of network buses. The gateway comprises: an information acquisition section for acquiring control information or diagnosis information about diagnoses respectively performed by the plurality of electronic controllers; and a failure diagnosis section for diagnosing failure of the vehicle by using the control information or diagnosis information acquired by the information acquisition section.
In a preferred form of the present invention, the failure diagnosis apparatus for a vehicle further comprises an information communications terminal connecting section adapted to be connected to an information communications terminal through wireless communications to enable communications with a device outside the vehicle.
In another preferred form of the present invention, the information communications terminal connecting section is replaceable with another one according to a change of the information communications terminal.
In a further preferred form of the present invention, the gateway further comprises an intrinsic information storage section which acquires intrinsic information possessed by the information communications terminal and stores the acquired intrinsic information of the information communications terminal.
In a yet further preferred form of the present invention, the gateway starts a diagn
Fujioka Hiroshi
Maeda Takashi
Matsui Toshinori
Matsunaga Takanori
Black Thomas G.
Mitsubishi Denki & Kabushiki Kaisha
To Tuan
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