Source: http://www.google.com/patents/US20010025216?dq=6,108,703
Timestamp: 2017-08-21 23:54:55
Document Index: 665174046

Matched Legal Cases: ['art.\n2', 'art 63', 'art 64', 'art 63', 'art 64', 'art 63', 'art 64', 'art 63', 'art 64', 'art 30', 'art 64', 'art 63', 'art 64', 'art 64', 'art 67', 'art 64', 'art 64', 'art 67', 'art 64', 'art 67', 'art 67', 'art 63', 'art 66', 'art 63']

Patent US20010025216 - Vehicle control apparatus having multiple ECUs loaded with respective ... - Google Patents
A vehicle control apparatus has multiple electronic control units, A-ECU and B-ECU, connected via a communication line. Control programs of the apparatus is defined in an object-oriented type and loaded distributedly among multiple control units. The control programs of each control unit includes an...http://www.google.com/patents/US20010025216?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US20010025216 - Vehicle control apparatus having multiple ECUs loaded with respective control programs
Publication number US20010025216 A1
Also published as DE60116166D1, DE60116166T2, EP1136325A2, EP1136325A3, EP1136325B1, US6445989
Publication number 09814102, 814102, US 2001/0025216 A1, US 2001/025216 A1, US 20010025216 A1, US 20010025216A1, US 2001025216 A1, US 2001025216A1, US-A1-20010025216, US-A1-2001025216, US2001/0025216A1, US2001/025216A1, US20010025216 A1, US20010025216A1, US2001025216 A1, US2001025216A1
Original Assignee Tadaharu Nishimura, Akihito Iwai
US 20010025216 A1
A vehicle control apparatus has multiple electronic control units, A-ECU and B-ECU, connected via a communication line. Control programs of the apparatus is defined in an object-oriented type and loaded distributedly among multiple control units. The control programs of each control unit includes an application layer, an interface layer, a hardware-dependent virtual sensor part, a virtual actuator part, an input information converting part and output control part. The application layer is separated from hardware-dependent parts. When an application layer of a B-ECU specifies a virtual actuator part and outputs driving information, an interface layer sends the driving information via the communication line to an interface layer of an A-ECU. The output control part of the A-ECU outputs that driving information at suitable timing to the virtual actuator part.
2. The vehicle control apparatus as in
4. The vehicle control apparatus as in
5. The vehicle control apparatus as in
6. The vehicle control apparatus as in
7. The vehicle control apparatus as in
8. A computer-readable recording medium on which is recorded a vehicle control program loaded into the vehicle control apparatus as set forth in
9. The vehicle control apparatus as in
10. A computer-readable recording medium on which is recorded a vehicle control program loaded into the vehicle control apparatus as set forth in
[0015]FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a construction of a vehicle control apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;
[0016]FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a hardware construction of an ECU used in the embodiment;
[0017]FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a program construction of the ECU in the embodiment;
[0018]FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a condition of a driving information transfer between the ECUs in the embodiment;
[0019]FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a vehicle information transfer between the ECUs in the embodiment;
[0020]FIGS. 6A and 6B are schematic diagrams showing the driving information transfer between the ECUs in case of driving an injector and showing the vehicle information transfer between the ECUs in case of detecting an average intake pipe pressure, respectively;
[0021]FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a program construction of each ECU in a vehicle control apparatus according to a related art; and
[0022]FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a driving information transfer between ECUs in the related art.
For example, if the ECU 10 is for carrying out control of an engine, the sensors 30 are for detecting the running state of the engine. The sensors 30 include a rotation sensor for generating a pulse-shaped signal every time a crankshaft of the engine rotates a predetermined angle, a reference position sensor for generating a pulse-shaped signal every time the piston of a specified cylinder of the engine reaches a predetermined position (for example top dead center: TDC), a coolant temperature sensor for detecting the temperature of cooling water of the engine, an intake pipe pressure sensor for detecting the pressure of an intake pipe of the engine, and an oxygen concentration sensor for measuring an oxygen concentration in exhaust emissions. The actuators 40 include are injectors (fuel injection devices) and igniters (igniting devices) mounted on the engine.
The application layer 61 is made up of multiple objects provided in function units. The application layer 61 executes computation processing based on vehicle information acquired by the sensors 30 and outputs driving information to the actuators 40 in accordance with results of the computation processing.
This application layer 61 is an application program The virtual sensor part 63, the virtual actuator part 64 and the communication driver 65 are programs corresponding to hardware of the vehicle control apparatus 1, and respectively correspond to the sensors 30, the actuators 40 and the network construction connected by way of the communication line 50. The virtual sensor part 63 and the virtual actuator part 64 are constructed with objects provided in component units in correspondence with the sensors 30 and the actuators 40. For example, the virtual sensor part 63 is made up of a coolant temperature sensor object acquiring a signal from the coolant temperature sensor, an intake pipe pressure sensor object acquiring a signal from the intake pipe pressure sensor, and an oxygen concentration sensor object acquiring a signal from the oxygen concentration sensor. The virtual actuator part 64 is made up of an igniter object for outputting a signal to an igniter and an injector object for outputting a signal to an injector. The virtual sensor part 63 and the virtual actuator part 64 are thus defined to function as a sensor/actuator layer.
More particularly, an object of the application layer 61 specifies an object of a virtual sensor part 30 or a virtual actuator part 64 and carries out a message output to the object of the interface layer 62, but to make the explanation simple hereinafter the description will be made like ‘the application layer 61 specifies a virtual sensor part 63 or a virtual actuator part 64 and outputs a message to the interface layer 62’, omitting the word object.
X: Driving Information Transfer
This process is shown in FIG. 4 which shows programs loaded into two ECUs (A-ECU and B-ECU)10 a and 10 b. It is assumed that the application layer 61 b of the B-ECU 10 b has specified the virtual actuator part 64 a of the A-ECU 10 a as the transfer destination and outputted driving information to the interface layer 62 b. Programs which do not function in this instance are shown with broken lines.
For example in FIG. 4, it is assumed that a fuel injection amount is calculated by the B-ECU 10 b and an injector constituting the actuator 40 connected to the A-ECU 10 a is controlled. In this case, as shown in FIG. 6A, fuel injection amount calculation is carried out by the application layer 61 b of the B-ECU 10 b, and the calculated injection amount constituting driving information is transferred to the interface layer 62 a of the A-ECU 10 a via the communication line 50. Then, the output control part 67 a of the A-ECU 10 a extracts the injection amount transferred to the interface layer 62 a and outputs an injection command to the virtual actuator part 64 a at output timing for each cylinder. On the basis of this the virtual actuator part 64 a outputs an injection pulse to the injector.
Accordingly, if the injection amount is transferred in advance at appropriate timing from the application layer 61 b of the B-ECU 10 b to the interface layer 62 a of the A-ECU 10 a, after that, by the output control part 67 a, injection commands to the virtual actuator part 64 a are carried out at suitable timing.
That is, even if a delay occurs in the transfer of the calculated injection amount from the B-ECU 10 b to the A-ECU 10 a, the output timing is optimized by the output control part 67 a of the AECU 10 a. For example, in a system in which injection pulses should be outputted at times t1, t2, t3, . . . , if it is made so that the injection amount from the application layer 61 b of the B-ECU 10 b is acquired by the interface layer 62 a of the A-ECU 10 a before the respective time t1, t2, t3, . . . , after that the output control part 67 a outputs the injection command at the time t1, t2, t3, . . . , at which it should be outputted.
In the A-ECU 10 a, the virtual sensor part 63 a converts a voltage value from the intake pipe pressure sensor into a physical value and calculates an intake pipe pressure. The input information converting part 66 a acquires (samples) this intake pipe pressure from the virtual sensor part 63 a at timing of every 1 ms, and outputs an averaged intake pipe pressure as vehicle information every time the crank shaft rotates through 180°. Thus, the application layer 61 b of the B-ECU 10 b need only request the acquisition of the intake pipe pressure at relatively long time intervals of 180° of crankshaft of the engine rotation and acquire an averaged intake pipe pressure outputted to the interface layer 62 a.
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U.S. Classification 701/48, 701/1
International Classification B60R16/023, B60R16/02, F02D41/26, H04L29/08, G06F13/10