Patent ID: 8543280

Claim:
A control unit for a vehicle comprising: a processor configured to execute a first agent of a first subsystem of the vehicle, the first agent including a fault detection agent and a communication agent, the fault detection agent configured to monitor performance data of the first subsystem to identify a problem in the first subsystem, to store first candidate fault diagnosis processes corresponding to the first subsystem in a first memory, and to search for a fault diagnosis process which identifies a fault causing the problem in the first subsystem from among the first candidate fault diagnosis processes, and the communication agent configured to collaborate with a second agent when a search by the fault detection agent fails to find the fault diagnosis process which identifies the fault, the collaboration with the second agent including searching a second memory which stores second candidate fault diagnosis processes, sending the monitored performance data to the second agent, and exchanging search result data between the first and second agents, wherein the second agent is locally executed by the control unit or another control unit for the vehicle.