Method and System for Identifying Vehicles in a Vehicle Fleet

Abstract

The present application provides a method and system for identifying vehicles in a vehicle fleet. The method includes determining in real time whether there is at least one following vehicle with an initial identifier among multiple following vehicles. If so, the following operations are performed: for each of the at least one following vehicle: receiving vehicle information broadcast by all other vehicles in the vehicle fleet except the following vehicles, taking the vehicle corresponding to the largest identifier included in the vehicle information as the first target vehicle, and sending the vehicle information of the following vehicle to the first target vehicle; the first target vehicle determines a following vehicle that meets the first preset condition from the at least one following vehicle as the second target vehicle, and sends an identifier update instruction to the second target vehicle to update the initial identifier of the second target vehicle, solving the technical problem that there are limitations in setting identifiers for vehicles in the prior art vehicle fleet and achieving the purpose of flexibly setting identifiers for vehicles in the vehicle fleet.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This application relates to the field of communication technologies, and in particular, to a method and system for identifying vehicles in a convoy. Background Art

[0002] With the rapid development of modern science and technology, convoy formation driving has come into the public eye. Convoy formation driving means that during the convoy's travel, the vehicles in the convoy form a whole and drive at a unified speed. In the formation driving state, following vehicles can follow the instructions of the leading vehicle, reducing vehicle safety accidents.

[0003] In the prior art, there are limitations in identifying vehicles in a convoy. Exemplarily, the process of forming a formation network needs to rely on roadside facilities RSU (Road Side Unit ， road side unit) or a cloud system to be realized. For roads without deployed RSU or scenarios where there is no communication network to connect to the cloud, the vehicles in the convoy cannot communicate and are not applicable. In addition, there are conditional requirements for the vehicle's own situation, such as vehicle type and maximum driving speed, etc. Summary of the Invention

[0004] In view of this, the purpose of this application is to propose a method and system for identifying vehicles in a convoy to overcome all or part of the deficiencies in the prior art.

[0005] Based on the above purpose, this application provides a method for identifying vehicles in a convoy. The vehicles in the convoy communicate through self-organizing networks. The convoy includes a leading vehicle and multiple following vehicles. The method includes: determining in real time whether there is at least one following vehicle with an initial identifier among the multiple following vehicles. If so, perform the following operations: for each following vehicle among the at least one following vehicle: receiving the vehicle information broadcast by all other vehicles in the convoy except the following vehicle, taking the vehicle corresponding to the largest identifier included in the vehicle information as the first target vehicle, and sending the vehicle information of the following vehicle to the first target vehicle; based on the vehicle information of the at least one following vehicle, the first target vehicle determines a following vehicle that meets the first preset condition from the at least one following vehicle as the second target vehicle, and sends an identifier update instruction to the second target vehicle to update the initial identifier of the second target vehicle.

[0006] Optionally, the method further includes: in response to receiving the identifier update instruction, the second target vehicle updates the initial identifier of the second target vehicle based on the identifier update instruction and the identifier of the first target vehicle.

[0007] Optionally, based on the vehicle information of the at least one following vehicle, the first target vehicle determines, from the at least one following vehicle, a following vehicle that meets a first preset condition as the second target vehicle, including: based on the vehicle information, determining the signal quality corresponding to the vehicle information; and determining, as the second target vehicle, the following vehicle corresponding to the maximum value in the signal quality.

[0008] Optionally, after determining in real time whether there is at least one following vehicle with an initial identifier among the multiple following vehicles, the method further includes: if not, performing the following operations: for each following vehicle among the multiple following vehicles: in response to determining that no reporting information is received, within a preset time, receiving the vehicle information broadcast by other following vehicles in the convoy except the following vehicle, and based on the vehicle information, determining whether the identifier of the following vehicle corresponding to the vehicle information meets a second preset condition; in response to determining that the identifier of the following vehicle corresponding to the vehicle information does not meet the second preset condition, updating the identifier corresponding to the following vehicle to the initial identifier, and generating and broadcasting reporting information.

[0009] Optionally, the method further includes: in response to determining that reporting information is received, updating the identifier corresponding to the following vehicle to the initial identifier.

[0010] Optionally, the vehicle information includes an identifier, and the determining whether the identifier of the following vehicle corresponding to the vehicle information meets a second preset condition based on the vehicle information includes: based on the vehicle information, determining the signal quality corresponding to the vehicle information; screening the identifier in the vehicle information based on the identifier of the following vehicle to obtain a first type of identifier; and determining whether the identifier of the following vehicle corresponding to the vehicle information meets the second preset condition based on the first type of identifier and the signal quality.

[0011] Optionally, the screening the identifier in the vehicle information based on the identifier of the following vehicle to obtain a first type of identifier includes: in response to determining that the value of the identifier in the vehicle information is less than the value of the identifier of the following vehicle, determining the identifier in the vehicle information as the first type of identifier.

[0012] Optionally, the determining whether the identifier of the following vehicle corresponding to the vehicle information meets a second preset condition based on the first type of identifier and the signal quality includes: sorting the identifiers in the first type of identifier from strong to weak according to the corresponding signal quality to obtain a first sequence, and sorting the identifiers in the first type of identifier from large to small according to the value of the identifier to obtain a second sequence, and in response to determining that the identifiers corresponding to the same serial number in the first sequence and the second sequence are different, determining that the identifier of the following vehicle corresponding to the vehicle information does not meet the second preset condition.

[0013] Optionally, after filtering the identifiers in the vehicle information, the method further includes: determining other identifiers in the vehicle information except the first type of identifiers as the second type of identifiers; storing the vehicle information corresponding to the second type of identifiers in the following vehicle.

[0014] Based on the same inventive concept, the present application further provides an identifier system for vehicles in a convoy. The vehicles in the convoy communicate through an ad hoc network. The convoy includes a leading vehicle and multiple following vehicles; the system includes controllers of each vehicle in the convoy. The controller is configured to determine in real time whether there is at least one following vehicle with an initial identifier among the multiple following vehicles. If so, the following operations are performed: for each of the at least one following vehicle: receiving vehicle information broadcast by all other vehicles in the convoy except the following vehicle, taking the vehicle corresponding to the largest identifier included in the vehicle information as the first target vehicle, and sending the vehicle information of the following vehicle to the first target vehicle; based on the vehicle information of the at least one following vehicle, the first target vehicle determines a following vehicle that meets the first preset condition from the at least one following vehicle as the second target vehicle, and sends an identifier update instruction to the second target vehicle to update the initial identifier of the second target vehicle.

[0015] As can be seen from the above, the present application provides an identifier method and system for vehicles in a convoy. The method includes determining in real time whether there is at least one following vehicle with an initial identifier among the multiple following vehicles. If so, the following operations are performed to ensure that each following vehicle participates in the sorting of vehicles in the convoy in the subsequent process, thereby facilitating the control of the following vehicles by the leading vehicle. For each of the at least one following vehicle: receiving vehicle information broadcast by all other vehicles in the convoy except the following vehicle, taking the vehicle corresponding to the largest identifier included in the vehicle information as the first target vehicle, and sending the vehicle information of the following vehicle to the first target vehicle so that the first target vehicle can identify the following vehicle based on the received vehicle information. Based on the vehicle information of the at least one following vehicle, the first target vehicle determines a following vehicle that meets the first preset condition from the at least one following vehicle as the second target vehicle, and sends an identifier update instruction to the second target vehicle to update the initial identifier of the second target vehicle. Only the vehicle with the maximum identifier is used to identify the following vehicles that meet the first preset condition, greatly reducing the interaction links, improving the identifier efficiency, and being beneficial to improving the networking efficiency and confidentiality. Description of the Drawings

[0016] To more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the present application or related technologies, the following will briefly introduce the drawings required for use in the embodiments or related technology descriptions. Obviously, the drawings in the following description are only embodiments of the present application. For those of ordinary skill in the art, without creative efforts, other drawings can also be obtained based on these drawings.

[0017] Figure 1 It is a schematic flowchart of a method for identifying vehicles in a vehicle fleet according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0018] Figure 2 It is a schematic system diagram of a device for identifying vehicles in a vehicle fleet according to an embodiment of the present application. Detailed implementation manners

[0019] To make the objectives, technical solutions and advantages of the present application clearer and more understandable, the following further elaborates on the present application in detail with reference to specific embodiments and the accompanying drawings.

[0020] It should be noted that unless otherwise defined, the technical terms or scientific terms used in the embodiments of the present application should have the ordinary meaning understood by those with ordinary skills in the field to which the present application belongs. The "first", "second" and similar terms used in the embodiments of the present application do not indicate any order, quantity or importance, but are only used to distinguish different components. "Including" or "comprising" and similar terms mean that the elements or objects appearing before this word cover the elements or objects listed after this word and their equivalents, without excluding other elements or objects. "Connection" or "coupling" and similar terms are not limited to physical or mechanical connections, but may include electrical connections, whether direct or indirect. "Upper", "lower", "left", "right", etc. are only used to represent relative positional relationships, and when the absolute position of the object being described changes, the relative positional relationship may also change accordingly.

[0021] As described in the background art section, with the rapid development of modern science and technology, vehicle fleet formation during travel has gradually overcome key technologies and entered the public eye. Vehicle fleet formation during travel means that during the process of a vehicle fleet traveling, the vehicles in the fleet form a whole and travel at a unified speed. In the formation driving state, following vehicles can follow the instructions of the leading vehicle, reducing vehicle safety accidents. In addition, formation driving can release more lanes for other vehicles to pass through, significantly improving traffic congestion and enhancing transportation efficiency, further alleviating traffic pressure.

[0022] In the prior art, the process of formation networking needs to be realized by means of roadside facilities RSU (Road Side Unit) or a cloud system. It is not applicable to roads without deployed RSU or scenarios where there is no communication network and thus cannot be connected to the cloud. Vehicles in the convoy cannot communicate, which further leads to the inability to set identifiers for the vehicles in the convoy, resulting in limitations in identifying the vehicles in the convoy. In addition, in formation networking, there are conditional requirements for the vehicle itself, such as vehicle type and maximum driving speed, etc., which also lead to limitations in identifying the vehicles in the convoy.

[0023] In view of this, an embodiment of the present application proposes a method for identifying vehicles in a convoy, referring to Figure 1 , the vehicles in the convoy communicate through ad hoc networking, and the convoy includes a leading vehicle and multiple following vehicles; the method includes the following steps:

[0024] Step 101, determine in real time whether there is at least one following vehicle with an initial identifier among the multiple following vehicles.

[0025] In this step, multiple vehicles with the same task can form a convoy, and the vehicles in the convoy drive in formation, which is convenient for better performing tasks. Exemplarily, fire brigades, police teams, etc. usually travel in convoys to perform corresponding tasks. The vehicles in the convoy communicate with other vehicles in the convoy through controllers deployed inside the vehicles to form an ad hoc network communication, without the need to rely on external systems to achieve communication, avoiding the problem that vehicles in the convoy cannot communicate when they cannot communicate with external systems. Exemplarily, when the vehicles in the convoy drive on roads without deployed external systems or on roads without a network, it will result in the inability to communicate with external systems. The vehicles in the convoy communicate through ad hoc networking. During the communication process, it is necessary to accurately obtain the identifiers of the vehicles in the convoy in order to control the following vehicles. Among them, the identifier is used to represent the position number of the vehicle. For example, the identifier can be a number. However, during the driving process of the vehicles in the convoy, the position may change due to different vehicle speeds, which further makes the original identifier inaccurate. Therefore, it is necessary to detect the identifier in real time to make the identifier of the following vehicles in the convoy accurate and convenient for controlling the following vehicles. Since the leading vehicle needs to always be in the first place in the convoy after networking, the identifier of the leading vehicle can be set as the first identifier. The leading vehicle broadcasts vehicle information at fixed intervals to maintain communication with the following vehicles. For example, the interval can be 30 seconds.

[0026] Determine whether there is at least one following vehicle with an initial identifier among multiple following vehicles. Exemplarily, to distinguish the leading vehicle from the following vehicles, the identifier of the leading vehicle can be set to 1, and the initial identifier of the following vehicles can be set to 0, where the initial identifier is used to represent the identifier of the following vehicle that has not participated in the sorting of the vehicles in the convoy. Therefore, each following vehicle needs to determine whether its corresponding identifier is 0, so that in the subsequent process, when there is at least one following vehicle with an identifier of 0, the following vehicle with an identifier of 0 needs to update its identifier to ensure that each following vehicle participates in the sorting of the vehicles in the convoy in the subsequent process, thereby facilitating the leading vehicle to control the following vehicles.

[0027] Step 102, if there is, then perform the following operations: For each of the at least one following vehicle: Receive the vehicle information broadcast by all other vehicles in the convoy except the following vehicle, use the vehicle corresponding to the largest identifier included in the vehicle information as the first target vehicle, and send the vehicle information of the following vehicle to the first target vehicle.

[0028] In this step, the vehicles in the convoy can communicate through an ad hoc network, and a vehicle can receive the vehicle information broadcast by all other vehicles except itself. Among them, the vehicle information can be information related to the vehicle itself such as vehicle ID and identifier. The vehicle ID is an ID that can distinguish different vehicles. For example, it can be a temporary vehicle number, a vehicle frame number, or a license plate number, etc. In the case of determining that there is at least one following vehicle with an initial identifier among multiple following vehicles, it is necessary to update the identifier for the following vehicle with the initial identifier. Each following vehicle with the initial identifier needs to receive the vehicle information broadcast by all other vehicles except itself. To ensure that the above-mentioned following vehicles can receive the vehicle information broadcast by all other vehicles except themselves, a reception time can be set. Exemplarily, the reception time can be 1 second. Based on the identifier in the received vehicle information, determine the vehicle corresponding to the largest identifier among all the identifiers included in the vehicles as the first target vehicle, and send the vehicle information of the above-mentioned following vehicle to the first target vehicle, so that the first target vehicle can identify the following vehicle based on the received vehicle information in the subsequent process. Exemplarily, when initially identifying the vehicles in the convoy, to distinguish the leading vehicle from the following vehicles, the identifier of the leading vehicle can be set to 1, and the initial identifier of the following vehicles can be set to 0. The identifier of the leading vehicle is the largest, that is, the first target vehicle. Each following vehicle in the convoy sends its vehicle information to the leading vehicle. In the case where some following vehicles have already updated their initial identifiers, assuming that the maximum value of the identifiers of the current following vehicles is 6, the following vehicle with the initial identifier needs to send its vehicle information to the following vehicle with an identifier of 6, and the following vehicle with an identifier of 6 is the first target vehicle.

[0029] Step 103: Based on the vehicle information of the at least one following vehicle, the first target vehicle determines, from the at least one following vehicle, a following vehicle that meets the first preset condition as the second target vehicle, and sends an identification update instruction to the second target vehicle to update the initial identification of the second target vehicle.

[0030] In this step, the first target vehicle receives the vehicle information of all following vehicles with initial identifications. Based on the received vehicle information, it screens all vehicles with initial identifications to determine the following vehicles that meet the first preset condition. The following vehicles that meet the first preset condition are used as the second target vehicles, and an identification update instruction is sent to the second target vehicles with initial identifications to update the initial identifications of the second target vehicles. In this embodiment, it is not necessary to use a leading vehicle to identify all vehicles. Only the vehicle with the maximum identification is used to identify the following vehicles that meet the first preset condition, greatly reducing the interaction links, improving the identification efficiency, and being conducive to improving the efficiency and confidentiality of networking.

[0031] Through the above solution, it is determined in real time whether there is at least one following vehicle with an initial identification among the multiple following vehicles. If so, the following operations are performed to ensure that each following vehicle participates in the sorting of the vehicles in the convoy in the subsequent process, thereby facilitating the control of the following vehicles by the leading vehicle. For each following vehicle among the at least one following vehicle: Receive the vehicle information broadcast by all other vehicles in the convoy except the following vehicle, use the vehicle corresponding to the maximum identification included in the vehicle information as the first target vehicle, and send the vehicle information of the following vehicle to the first target vehicle, so that the first target vehicle can identify the following vehicle based on the received vehicle information in the subsequent process. Based on the vehicle information of the at least one following vehicle, the first target vehicle determines, from the at least one following vehicle, a following vehicle that meets the first preset condition as the second target vehicle, and sends an identification update instruction to the second target vehicle to update the initial identification of the second target vehicle. Only the vehicle with the maximum identification is used to identify the following vehicles that meet the first preset condition, greatly reducing the interaction links, improving the identification efficiency, and being conducive to improving the efficiency and confidentiality of networking.

[0032] In some embodiments, the method further includes: In response to receiving the identification update instruction, the second target vehicle updates the initial identification of the second target vehicle based on the identification update instruction and the identification of the first target vehicle.

[0033] In this embodiment, when the second target vehicle receives an identification update instruction, the initial identification of the second target vehicle needs to be updated to determine the position number of the second target vehicle in the vehicle fleet, thereby achieving the purpose of updating the identification of the following vehicles in the vehicle fleet. The second target vehicle updates its identification based on the identification update instruction and the identification of the first target vehicle, where the identification update instruction carries the identification of the first target vehicle. Exemplarily, when the identification of the first target vehicle carried in the identification update instruction is 6, the identification of the second target vehicle is updated from 0 to 7, completing the numbering of the second target vehicle.

[0034] In some embodiments, based on the vehicle information of the at least one following vehicle, the first target vehicle determines a following vehicle that meets a first preset condition from the at least one following vehicle as the second target vehicle, including: based on the vehicle information, determining the signal quality corresponding to the vehicle information; and determining the following vehicle corresponding to the maximum value in the signal quality as the second target vehicle.

[0035] In this embodiment, the signal quality can be determined in multiple ways. Exemplarily, the signal quality can be determined by the signal strength. The signal strength can be determined in the following two ways. Method 1: Determine the signal strength based on the vehicle information received by the first target vehicle. Method 2: Based on the signal strength corresponding to the vehicle information received by the first target vehicle, which can be regarded as the first signal strength, and the signal strength corresponding to the vehicle information of the first target vehicle received by the following vehicle, which can be regarded as the second signal strength, calculate the signal strength. For example, the calculation method can be to perform a weighted average calculation on the first signal strength and the second signal strength. It should be noted that when determining the signal strength by Method 2, when a following vehicle with an initial identification sends vehicle information to the first target vehicle, the vehicle information needs to include the above-mentioned second signal strength. The signal quality can also be determined by the signal error rate. Based on the received vehicle information, the signal quality of the following vehicle corresponding to the initial identification received by the first target vehicle can be determined, and then the following vehicle with the strongest signal quality can be determined. The following vehicle with the strongest signal quality can be regarded as the following vehicle closest to the first target vehicle. Therefore, the identification of the following vehicle with the strongest signal quality can be set to the identification adjacent to the identification of the first target vehicle. By numericalizing the signal quality and screening out the maximum value of the signal quality, the purpose of accurately determining the second target vehicle is achieved.

[0036] In some embodiments, after determining in real time whether there is at least one following vehicle with an initial identifier among the multiple following vehicles, the method further includes: if not, perform the following operations: for each following vehicle among the multiple following vehicles: in response to determining that no report information is received, within a preset time, receive vehicle information broadcast by other following vehicles in the vehicle fleet except the following vehicle, and based on the vehicle information, determine whether the identifier of the following vehicle corresponding to the vehicle information meets a second preset condition; in response to determining that the identifier of the following vehicle corresponding to the vehicle information does not meet the second preset condition, update the identifier corresponding to the following vehicle to the initial identifier, and generate and broadcast report information.

[0037] In this embodiment, after the vehicles in the vehicle fleet have completed sorting, it is necessary to determine in real time whether the vehicles in the vehicle fleet have an initial identifier. Once a following vehicle with an initial identifier is detected, it means that the following vehicles need to be re-sorted to ensure the accuracy of the identifiers of the following vehicles. First, determine whether the following vehicle whose identifier has been updated has received a report message. The report message can reflect that there is an error in the identifier of the following vehicle. Therefore, in the case where no report message is received, it is necessary to determine whether there is an error in the identifier of the following vehicle. At a preset time, receive vehicle messages sent by other vehicles in the vehicle fleet. For example, the preset time can be 20 ms, and the vehicle message can be a vehicle ID, an identifier. Based on the vehicle information, determine whether the identifier of the following vehicle corresponding to the vehicle information meets a second preset condition to implement screening of the following vehicles. In the case where there is a non-compliance with the second preset condition, it means that there is an error in the identifier of the following vehicle, and it is necessary to re-set the identifier of the following vehicle. Among them, the second preset condition is used to represent that the position of the following vehicle in the vehicle fleet has not changed. Therefore, the following vehicle updates its own identifier to the initial identifier, generates and broadcasts report information, so that the identifier of the following vehicle that receives the report information is updated to the initial identifier, and thus the purpose of re-identifying the following vehicle can be achieved.

[0038] In some embodiments, the method further includes: in response to determining that report information is received, updating the identifier corresponding to the following vehicle to the initial identifier.

[0039] In this embodiment, the identifier of the following vehicle that receives the report message is directly updated to the initial identifier, indicating that the identifier of the following vehicle is incorrect at this time and needs to be updated. In the case where the identifier error is known, there is no need to perform the operation of determining whether the identifier is incorrect, saving computing resources. It should be noted that when receiving the report message, the following vehicle can update the identifier to the initial identifier after a period of time. For example, the above time interval can be a random time interval within 0 - 10 ms, so that the following vehicle can forward the report message within the above time interval, enabling other following vehicles to receive the report message in a timely manner, and then complete the identifier update operation to update the identifier of the following vehicle.

[0040] In some embodiments, the vehicle information includes an identifier. Based on the vehicle information, determining whether the identifier of the following vehicle corresponding to the vehicle information meets a second preset condition includes: based on the vehicle information, determining the signal quality corresponding to the vehicle information; based on the identifier of the following vehicle, screening the identifier in the vehicle information to obtain a first type of identifier; based on the first type of identifier and the signal quality, determining whether the identifier of the following vehicle corresponding to the vehicle information meets the second preset condition.

[0041] In this embodiment, based on its own identifier, the identifier in the received vehicle information is screened. This is because the following vehicle can receive the vehicle information sent by the following vehicles in front of and behind itself, but the signal quality is determined through the vehicle information of the following vehicle in front of itself. If the following vehicles in front of and behind itself are not distinguished, the signal quality cannot be accurately determined via the vehicle information. Therefore, it is necessary to screen the identifier in the vehicle information to distinguish the following vehicle in front of itself from the following vehicle behind itself. As described above for the determination of the signal quality in this embodiment, the signal quality can reflect the degree of the distance between the following vehicles. Therefore, based on the first type of identifier and the signal quality associated with the first type of identifier, it can be accurately determined whether the identifier of the following vehicle corresponding to the vehicle information meets the second preset condition, and then it can be more accurately determined whether the following vehicle needs to update the identifier.

[0042] In some embodiments, the screening the identifier in the vehicle information based on the identifier of the following vehicle to obtain a first type of identifier includes: in response to determining that the value of the identifier in the vehicle information is less than the value of the identifier of the following vehicle, determining the identifier in the vehicle information as the first type of identifier.

[0043] In this embodiment, based on the identifier of the following vehicle itself, the identifiers in the received vehicle information are screened, and a size comparison is made with the identifier of the following vehicle itself. The identifiers smaller than its own identifier are screened out, and the above identifiers smaller than its own identifier are the first type of identifiers. Exemplarily, when the identifier of the following vehicle itself is 5 and the identifiers of the received vehicle information include 3, 4, 6, and 7, the identifiers 3 and 4 smaller than 5 are screened out, and 3 and 4 are the first type of identifiers. The identifiers of the following vehicles in front of and behind itself are distinguished, so that the purpose of accurately distinguishing the signal quality can be achieved subsequently.

[0044] In some embodiments, based on the first type of identifiers and the signal quality, determining whether the identifier of the following vehicle corresponding to the vehicle information meets a second preset condition includes: sorting the identifiers in the first type of identifiers in descending order of the corresponding signal quality to obtain a first sequence, and sorting the identifiers in the first type of identifiers in descending order of the numerical value of the identifier to obtain a second sequence. In response to determining that the identifiers corresponding to the same serial number in the first sequence and the second sequence are different, it is determined that the identifier of the following vehicle corresponding to the vehicle information does not meet the second preset condition.

[0045] In this embodiment, once it is detected that the identifiers in the screened vehicle information are not sorted according to the strength of the signal quality, it indicates that there is an error in the identifier of the following vehicle, and the identifier of the following vehicle needs to be updated. Sort the signal quality in the first type of identifiers in descending order to obtain a first sequence, and sort the identifiers in descending order of the numerical value of the identifier to obtain a second sequence. If the identifiers corresponding to the same serial number in the first sequence and the second sequence are different, it indicates that the identifiers in the vehicle information are not sorted based on the strength of the signal quality, that is, it is determined that the second preset condition is not met. Exemplarily, when the identifier of the following vehicle itself is 5, after sorting the signal quality in the first type of identifiers in descending order, the corresponding identifiers are 3, 4, 2, and sorting the identifiers in descending order of the numerical value gives 4, 3, 2. The identifiers ranked 1 in the two sequences are 3 and 4 respectively, which are not the same, indicating that the identifier of the following vehicle does not meet the second preset condition. Through the precise connection in the numerical values, it is then possible to more accurately determine whether the following vehicle needs to be re-identified.

[0046] In some embodiments, after screening the identifiers in the vehicle information, the method further includes: determining the other identifiers in the vehicle information except the first type of identifiers as the second type of identifiers; storing the vehicle information corresponding to the second type of identifiers in the following vehicle.

[0047] In this embodiment, after screening out the first type of identifiers from the vehicle information, the remaining identifiers in the vehicle information are identifiers greater than their own identifiers, and the above-mentioned identifiers greater than their own identifiers are determined as the second type of identifiers. Exemplarily, when the identifier of the vehicle itself is 5 and the identifiers of the received vehicle information include 3, 4, 6, and 7, 6 and 7 are the second type of identifiers. When the vehicle in the convoy receives the vehicle information sent by the following vehicle with an identifier greater than its own, it saves the identifier and vehicle ID in the vehicle information. At the same time, the above vehicle information also includes the vehicle information of the following vehicle that the above following vehicle has saved and that is greater than the identifier of the above following vehicle, so that the leading vehicle stores the identifiers and vehicle IDs of all following vehicles. It should be noted that when the vehicle receives the vehicle information with the same vehicle ID as the stored vehicle ID, it detects whether the corresponding identifiers are the same. If the above identifiers are different, the vehicle information stored by the above vehicle needs to be updated; if the above identifiers are the same, the vehicle information stored in the following vehicle can be regarded as the vehicle information corresponding to the second type of identifiers and does not need to be stored again.

[0048] It should be noted that the method of the embodiment of the present application can be executed by a single device, such as a computer or a server. The method of this embodiment can also be applied to a distributed scenario and completed by multiple devices cooperating with each other. In this case of a distributed scenario, one of the multiple devices can only execute one or more steps of the method of the embodiment of the present application, and these multiple devices will interact with each other to complete the described method.

[0049] It should be noted that some embodiments of the present application have been described above. Other embodiments are within the scope of the appended claims. In some cases, the actions or steps recited in the claims can be performed in a different order than in the above embodiments and still achieve the desired result. Additionally, the processes depicted in the figures do not necessarily require the particular order or sequential order shown to achieve the desired result. In certain embodiments, multitasking and parallel processing are also possible or may be advantageous.

[0050] Based on the same inventive concept, corresponding to the method of any of the above embodiments, the present application further provides an identifier device for a vehicle in a convoy.

[0051] Referring to Figure 2 , the identifier system for a vehicle in a convoy, characterized in that the vehicles in the convoy communicate through an ad hoc network, and the convoy includes a leading vehicle and multiple following vehicles; the system includes the controllers of each vehicle in the convoy;

[0052] The controller is configured to determine in real time whether there is at least one following vehicle with an initial identifier among the multiple following vehicles. If there is, the following operations are performed: For each of the at least one following vehicle: Receive the vehicle information broadcast by all other vehicles in the vehicle fleet except the following vehicle, use the vehicle with the largest identifier included in the vehicle information as the first target vehicle, and send the vehicle information of the following vehicle to the first target vehicle; Based on the vehicle information of the at least one following vehicle, the first target vehicle determines a following vehicle that meets the first preset condition from the at least one following vehicle as the second target vehicle, and sends an identifier update instruction to the second target vehicle to update the initial identifier of the second target vehicle.

[0053] The controller is configured to, in response to receiving the identifier update instruction, the second target vehicle updates its initial identifier based on the identifier update instruction and the identifier of the first target vehicle.

[0054] The controller is configured to determine the signal quality corresponding to the vehicle information based on the vehicle information; use the following vehicle corresponding to the maximum value in the signal quality as the second target vehicle.

[0055] After the controller determines in real time whether there is at least one following vehicle with an initial identifier among the multiple following vehicles, if not, the following operations are performed: For each of the multiple following vehicles: In response to determining that no reporting information is received, within a preset time, receive the vehicle information broadcast by other following vehicles in the vehicle fleet except the following vehicle, and based on the vehicle information, determine whether the identifier of the following vehicle corresponding to the vehicle information meets the second preset condition; In response to determining that the identifier of the following vehicle corresponding to the vehicle information does not meet the second preset condition, update the identifier corresponding to the following vehicle to the initial identifier, generate and broadcast reporting information.

[0056] The controller is configured to, in response to determining that reporting information is received, update the identifier corresponding to the following vehicle to the initial identifier.

[0057] The vehicle information includes an identifier. The controller is configured to determine the signal quality corresponding to the vehicle information based on the vehicle information; screen the identifier in the vehicle information based on the identifier of the following vehicle to obtain a first type of identifier; and determine whether the identifier of the following vehicle corresponding to the vehicle information meets the second preset condition based on the first type of identifier and the signal quality.

[0058] The controller is configured to, in response to determining that the value of the identifier in the vehicle information is less than the value of the identifier of the following vehicle, determine the identifier in the vehicle information as a first type of identifier.

[0059] The controller is configured to sort the identifiers in the first type of identifier in descending order according to the corresponding signal quality to obtain a first sequence, and sort the identifiers in the first type of identifier in descending order according to the value of the identifier to obtain a second sequence. In response to determining that the identifiers corresponding to the same serial number in the first sequence and the second sequence are different, it is determined that the identifier of the following vehicle corresponding to the vehicle information does not meet the second preset condition.

[0060] The controller is configured to, after screening the identifiers in the vehicle information, determine the other identifiers in the vehicle information except the first type of identifier as a second type of identifier; store the vehicle information corresponding to the second type of identifier into the following vehicle.

[0061] Those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that the discussion of any of the above embodiments is exemplary only, and is not intended to imply that the scope of the present application (including the claims) is limited to these examples; under the concept of the present application, the technical features in the above embodiments or different embodiments can also be combined, the steps can be implemented in any order, and there are many other variations in different aspects of the embodiments of the present application as described above, and they are not provided in detail for the sake of brevity.

[0062] In addition, for simplicity of explanation and discussion, and so as not to make the embodiments of the present application difficult to understand, the well-known power / ground connections to integrated circuit (IC) chips and other components may or may not be shown in the provided drawings. Further, the devices may be shown in block diagram form in order to avoid making the embodiments of the present application difficult to understand, and this also takes into account the fact that the details of the implementation of these block diagram devices are highly dependent on the platform on which the embodiments of the present application are to be implemented (i.e., these details should be fully within the understanding of those skilled in the art). In the case where specific details (such as circuits) are set forth to describe the exemplary embodiments of the present application, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the embodiments of the present application may be implemented without these specific details or with variations of these specific details. Therefore, these descriptions should be considered illustrative rather than restrictive.

[0063] Although the present application has been described in connection with specific embodiments of the present application, many alternatives, modifications, and variations of these embodiments will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art based on the foregoing description. For example, other memory architectures (such as dynamic RAM (DRAM)) may be used with the embodiments discussed.

[0064] Embodiments of the present application are intended to cover all such substitutions, modifications, and variations that fall within the broad scope of the appended claims. Therefore, any omissions, modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc., made within the spirit and principles of the embodiments of the present application shall be included within the protection scope of the present application.

Claims

1. A method for identifying vehicles in a vehicle fleet, characterized in that, the vehicles in the vehicle fleet communicate through an ad-hoc network, and the vehicle fleet includes a leading vehicle and multiple following vehicles; the method includes: constantly determining whether there is at least one following vehicle with an initial identifier among the multiple following vehicles, wherein the identifier of the leading vehicle is set to 1, and the initial identifier of each following vehicle is set to 0, and the initial identifier is used to represent the identifier of the following vehicle that has not participated in the sorting of the vehicles in the vehicle fleet. If there is, perform the following operations: For each of the at least one following vehicle: receive the vehicle information broadcast by all other vehicles in the vehicle fleet except the following vehicle, take the vehicle corresponding to the largest identifier included in the vehicle information as the first target vehicle, and send the vehicle information of the following vehicle to the first target vehicle; Based on the vehicle information of the at least one following vehicle, the first target vehicle determines a following vehicle that meets the first preset condition from the at least one following vehicle as the second target vehicle, including: based on the vehicle information, determining the signal quality corresponding to the vehicle information; taking the following vehicle corresponding to the maximum value in the signal quality as the second target vehicle, and sending an identifier update instruction to the second target vehicle to update the initial identifier of the second target vehicle; The method further includes: In response to receiving the identifier update instruction, the second target vehicle updates the initial identifier of the second target vehicle based on the identifier update instruction and the identifier of the first target vehicle. The identifier update instruction carries the identifier of the first target vehicle, and updates the identifier of the second target vehicle from the initial identifier to the identifier of the first target vehicle plus 1.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, after constantly determining whether there is at least one following vehicle with an initial identifier among the multiple following vehicles, the method further includes: if not, perform the following operations: For each of the multiple following vehicles: In response to determining that no reporting information is received, within a preset time, receive the vehicle information broadcast by other following vehicles in the vehicle fleet except the following vehicle, and based on the vehicle information, determine whether the identifier of the following vehicle corresponding to the vehicle information meets the second preset condition; In response to determining that the identifier of the following vehicle corresponding to the vehicle information does not meet the second preset condition, update the identifier corresponding to the following vehicle to the initial identifier, generate and broadcast reporting information; The vehicle information includes an identifier. Based on the vehicle information, determining whether the identifier of the following vehicle corresponding to the vehicle information meets the second preset condition includes: based on the vehicle information, determining the signal quality corresponding to the vehicle information; screening the identifiers in the vehicle information based on the identifier of the following vehicle to obtain a first type of identifier; based on the first type of identifier and the signal quality, determining whether the identifier of the following vehicle corresponding to the vehicle information meets the second preset condition; Screening the identifiers in the vehicle information based on the identifier of the following vehicle to obtain a first type of identifier, including: in response to determining that the value of the identifier in the vehicle information is less than the value of the identifier of the following vehicle, determining the identifier in the vehicle information as the first type of identifier; Determining whether the identifier of the following vehicle corresponding to the vehicle information meets a second preset condition based on the first type of identifier and the signal quality, including: sorting the identifiers in the first type of identifier in descending order according to the corresponding signal quality to obtain a first sequence, and sorting the identifiers in the first type of identifier in descending order according to the value of the identifier to obtain a second sequence, and in response to determining that the identifiers corresponding to the same serial number in the first sequence and the second sequence are different, determining that the identifier of the following vehicle corresponding to the vehicle information does not meet the second preset condition.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein, the method further includes: In response to determining that a report information is received, updating the identifier corresponding to the following vehicle to the initial identifier.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein, after screening the identifiers in the vehicle information, the method further includes: Determining the other identifiers in the vehicle information except the first type of identifier as the second type of identifier; Storing the vehicle information corresponding to the second type of identifier to the following vehicle.

5. An identifier system for vehicles in a fleet, wherein, The vehicles in the fleet communicate through an ad hoc network, and the fleet includes a leading vehicle and multiple following vehicles; the system includes controllers of each vehicle in the fleet; The controller is configured to determine in real time whether there is at least one following vehicle with an initial identifier among the multiple following vehicles, wherein the identifier of the leading vehicle is set to 1, and the initial identifier of each following vehicle is set to 0, and the initial identifier is used to represent the identifier of the following vehicle that has not participated in the sorting of the vehicles in the fleet. If there is, perform the following operations: For each of the at least one following vehicle: receiving the vehicle information broadcast by all other vehicles in the fleet except the following vehicle, taking the vehicle corresponding to the largest identifier included in the vehicle information as the first target vehicle, and sending the vehicle information of the following vehicle to the first target vehicle; Based on the vehicle information of the at least one following vehicle, the first target vehicle determines a following vehicle that meets a first preset condition from the at least one following vehicle as the second target vehicle, including: determining the signal quality corresponding to the vehicle information based on the vehicle information; taking the following vehicle corresponding to the maximum value in the signal quality as the second target vehicle, and sending an identifier update instruction to the second target vehicle to update the initial identifier of the second target vehicle; The controller is further configured to: in response to receiving the identification update instruction, the second target vehicle updates its initial identification based on the identification update instruction and the identification of the first target vehicle, where the identification update instruction carries the identification of the first target vehicle, and updates the identification of the second target vehicle from the initial identification to the identification of the first target vehicle plus 1.

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