Vehicle networking method and system

Abstract

This invention relates to the field of multi-vehicle control technology and discloses a vehicle networking method and system. The method involves: a server acquiring fleet information of a convoy to be linked, selecting one or more transit vehicles from the fleet based on the fleet information, and then issuing a networking command to the transit vehicles; the transit vehicles activating a network hotspot according to the networking command to establish a wireless local area network (WLAN) with other vehicles in the fleet to be linked; the transit vehicles sending WLAN networking information to the server; the server determining whether the networking information includes all vehicles in the fleet to be linked; if it does not include all vehicles, the networking is re-established based on the fleet information until the networking information includes all vehicles in the fleet to be linked. This invention solves the problem of missing individual vehicles during networking, significantly improves networking accuracy, and enhances the reliability of subsequent fleet linkage control.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to the field of multi-vehicle control technology, specifically to a vehicle networking method and system. Background Technology

[0002] Intelligent control is the core of intelligent vehicles. While single-vehicle intelligence is maturing, multi-vehicle intelligence has become a hot research topic in the industry. A key aspect of achieving multi-vehicle intelligence is enabling interconnectivity among multiple vehicles. Based on inter-vehicle communication, functions such as multi-vehicle coordinated light and sound shows and convoy formations can be realized. Currently, a common method is to treat each vehicle as an independent network node, acting as both a signal receiver and transmitter. The cloud sends control signals to each vehicle, thus achieving multi-vehicle coordination. This method results in high network organization costs and a heavy load on the cloud processor. Some improved methods involve the cloud first sending control commands to one vehicle, which then transmits the signal via Wi-Fi to another vehicle within Wi-Fi range, and so on, until the control signal reaches all vehicles requiring coordination. However, due to the limited communication range of Wi-Fi, this sequential signal transmission method cannot guarantee accurate delivery of signals to every vehicle requiring coordination. Other improvement methods include first networking the devices that need to be controlled to ensure that all devices are on the network, and then sending control signals. For example, a common networking method is for the user to command one of the target vehicles to establish a Wi-Fi hotspot through a client. The client then receives the hotspot information from the target vehicle and shares the hotspot information with other vehicles, allowing the other vehicles to connect to the target vehicle's Wi-Fi hotspot based on the shared information. The target vehicle then controls the other vehicles. However, this approach still cannot solve the problem that some vehicles that need to be linked are not on the network. Summary of the Invention

[0003] In view of this, the present invention provides a vehicle networking method and system to solve the problem that vehicles that need to be linked are not in the linkage network.

[0004] In a first aspect, the present invention provides a vehicle networking method applied to a server. The method includes: acquiring fleet information of a fleet to be linked; selecting one or more transit vehicles from the fleet to be linked based on the fleet information; issuing a networking command to the transit vehicles to enable the transit vehicles to act as networking hotspots and establish a wireless local area network with other vehicles in the fleet to be linked; receiving networking information fed back by the transit vehicles and determining whether the networking information includes all vehicles in the fleet to be linked, wherein the networking information is wireless local area network information; if it does not include all vehicles in the fleet to be linked, returning to the step of selecting one or more transit vehicles from the fleet to be linked based on a vehicle distribution map, and re-establishing the network until the networking information includes all vehicles in the fleet to be linked.

[0005] Based on the aforementioned technical means, this invention uses a server as the primary network node, transit vehicles as secondary nodes, and other vehicles as tertiary nodes, forming a network from primary to tertiary levels. The transit vehicles are selected by the server from the fleet to be linked, and the number of selected vehicles is not limited. In this embodiment, the selected transit vehicles are used to remotely receive control commands sent by the server. Other vehicles communicate with the transit vehicles via a short-range wireless local area network (WLAN) for command transmission and reception. When a transit vehicle and other nearby vehicles complete their WLAN connection, each transit vehicle uploads its network information to the server. The server then determines whether the WLAN range of each transit vehicle covers all other vehicles. If all vehicles are covered, the network is complete; otherwise, a new transit vehicle is selected for networking. For other vehicles that cannot be covered by the short-range network of a transit vehicle, the server can use these uncovered vehicles as transit vehicles to communicate directly with the server. This solves the problem of missing individual vehicles during network formation, significantly improving network accuracy and the reliability of subsequent fleet linkage control.

[0006] In some optional implementations, obtaining the fleet information of the fleet to be linked includes: receiving a fleet request sent by a target client, the fleet request including target vehicle configuration information; responding to the fleet request, sending an invitation message to the target client so that the target client shares the invitation message with other clients, and causing other clients to send a request to join the fleet to the server based on the invitation message, the request to join the fleet including other vehicle configuration information; receiving a request to join the fleet sent by other clients; and integrating the target vehicle configuration information and other vehicle configuration information into fleet information.

[0007] Based on the above technical means, the present invention provides a method for forming a fleet. When a target client sends a fleet request to the server, it indicates that the vehicle corresponding to the client wants to create a joint fleet. The server sends an invitation message to the target client so that the target client can share the invitation message with other clients. Other clients can send a request to join the fleet to the server by scanning or accessing the invitation message. The server then adds the vehicle that sent the request to join the fleet to the fleet created by the target client, thus obtaining complete fleet information.

[0008] In some optional implementations, the target vehicle configuration information and other vehicle configuration information are integrated into fleet information, including: obtaining the execution conditions of each vehicle linkage task; merging the target vehicle configuration information and other vehicle configuration information into total fleet information; and dividing the total fleet information into sub-fleet information for performing different linkage tasks according to the matching relationship between the total fleet information and the execution conditions.

[0009] Based on the aforementioned technical means, considering that different vehicles have different configurations and therefore support different functions, the vehicle linkage tasks supported by different vehicles will also differ. This invention matches the total fleet information with the task execution conditions according to the configuration of each vehicle and the functional requirements of the task execution conditions, thereby dividing the total fleet information into sub-fleet information for performing different linkage tasks, completing the screening and grouping of fleets, and further improving the accuracy of subsequent vehicle linkage task deployment.

[0010] In some optional implementations, the method further includes: when a team-up request or a request to join a fleet is received, sending the candidate execution order of the vehicle linkage task to the corresponding current client; receiving a custom execution order sent by the current client, wherein the custom execution order is selected from the candidate execution order and represents the order in which the current vehicle performs the vehicle linkage task; detecting whether the custom execution order conflicts; and if a conflict occurs, sending a notification message to the current client to notify the current client to re-determine the custom execution order.

[0011] Based on the aforementioned technical means, for linked tasks with execution positions and sequences, when a vehicle joins the fleet, the server also feeds back the candidate execution order of the current linked task to the corresponding client of the newly joined vehicle, thereby notifying the user that they can choose the execution order of the vehicle when executing the linked task according to their preferences. At the same time, the server can also perform conflict detection on the user's selection, and remind the current user to reselect the order when multiple users' selections conflict, so as to improve the accuracy of subsequent vehicle linked tasks.

[0012] In some optional implementations, the method further includes: receiving a freeze request sent by a target client; stopping receiving requests to join the fleet in response to the freeze request; integrating the received custom execution sequence into sequence information and sending the sequence information to the target client so that the target client can adjust the sequence information; and receiving the adjusted sequence information sent by the target client.

[0013] Based on the aforementioned technical means, the target client that creates the fleet can choose to freeze the room and stop receiving other requests to join the fleet. When the fleet is frozen, the server can send the custom execution order selected by each client for each vehicle to the target client. As the creator of the fleet, the target client can further adjust the custom execution order of each vehicle, thereby further improving the accuracy of subsequent vehicle linkage tasks.

[0014] In some optional implementations, selecting one or more transit vehicles from the fleet to be linked based on fleet information includes: generating a vehicle distribution map based on fleet information; determining whether the previous networking attempt failed; if the previous networking attempt did not fail, selecting one or more transit vehicles from the fleet to be linked based on the vehicle distribution map, with the constraint that the total distance between transit vehicles and other vehicles is minimized and / or the number of transit vehicles is minimized; if the previous networking attempt failed, selecting one or more transit vehicles from the fleet to be linked based on the vehicle distribution map, with the constraint that the total distance between transit vehicles and other vehicles is minimized and / or the number of transit vehicles is minimized, excluding the previous networking scheme.

[0015] Based on the aforementioned technical means, this invention obtains the location of each vehicle from the configuration information of each vehicle in the fleet information, thereby generating a vehicle distribution map. Based on the spatial distribution of vehicles, transit vehicles are selected with the constraints of minimizing the number of transit vehicles and minimizing the total distance between transit vehicles and other vehicles, thus maximizing the communication efficiency of the network. If it is the first time the network is established, transit vehicles can be selected from all vehicles according to the above constraints. If it is a second or subsequent network establishment attempt following a previous failure, the old network scheme needs to be discarded, and transit vehicles need to be selected from the remaining vehicles according to the above constraints, thereby ensuring the reliability of the network.

[0016] In some optional implementations, the method further includes: receiving network status information periodically fed back by transit vehicles; determining whether a vehicle disconnection problem or overload problem has occurred based on the network status information; if a vehicle disconnection problem or overload problem occurs, returning to the step of selecting one or more transit vehicles from the fleet to be linked according to the vehicle distribution map, and re-networking until the network information includes all vehicles in the fleet to be linked.

[0017] Based on the above technical means, the transit vehicle provided by the present invention also periodically feeds back network status information. The server monitors whether there are vehicle disconnection problems or overload problems in the network based on the network status information. If any of the problems occur, the network is readjusted, which further improves the reliability of the network.

[0018] In some optional implementations, the method further includes: sending a task execution instruction to each transit vehicle, so that the transit vehicles forward the task execution instruction to other vehicles, and determining whether each vehicle experiences a delay when receiving the task execution instruction based on feedback messages from other vehicles; receiving signal delay feedback sent by the target transit vehicle, the signal delay feedback being used to indicate the delay time that a vehicle experiences when receiving the task execution instruction; and in response to the signal delay feedback, issuing a task delay execution command to each transit vehicle.

[0019] Based on the aforementioned technical means, the server also monitors whether a vehicle experiences a delay in receiving instructions. If such a delay occurs, all vehicles are notified to execute tasks with a delay in accordance with the time delay of the vehicle experiencing the delay. This improves the coordination of the various vehicles in executing the coordinated tasks and avoids problems such as inconsistent coordination and loose cooperation in the coordinated tasks.

[0020] Secondly, the present invention provides a vehicle networking method for transit vehicles. The method includes: receiving a networking instruction, wherein the networking instruction is issued by the server after obtaining the fleet information of the fleet to be linked, and selecting the current vehicle as a transit vehicle from the fleet to be linked according to the fleet information; responding to the networking instruction to activate a networking hotspot, and establishing a wireless local area network with other vehicles in the fleet to be linked through the networking hotspot; and sending networking information to the server so that the server can determine whether the networking information includes all vehicles in the fleet to be linked.

[0021] In some alternative implementations, the method further includes: periodically feeding back network status information to the server so that the server can determine whether a vehicle disconnection problem or a load overload problem has occurred based on the network status information.

[0022] In some optional implementations, the method further includes: receiving a task execution instruction issued by the server; forwarding the task execution instruction to other vehicles and receiving feedback messages sent by other vehicles in response to the task execution instruction; determining, based on the feedback messages, whether other vehicles experience a delay in receiving the task execution instruction; if a delay occurs, sending a signal delay feedback to the server so that the server responds to the signal delay feedback and issues a task delay execution command to each transit vehicle.

[0023] In some optional implementations, the method further includes: if no feedback message is received from other vehicles within a preset time, then the task execution instruction is re-forwarded to other vehicles.

[0024] Based on the above technical means, when a transit vehicle forwards a task execution instruction to other vehicles, and the other vehicles do not respond that they have received the message, the present invention can resend the instruction through the transit vehicle, thereby reducing the problems of high load and inefficiency of long links caused by a large hub.

[0025] Thirdly, the present invention provides a vehicle networking system, including a server, transit vehicles, and other vehicles, wherein: the server obtains fleet information of a fleet to be linked; the server selects one or more transit vehicles from the fleet to be linked based on the fleet information; the server issues a networking command to the transit vehicles; the transit vehicles receive the networking command and, in response, activate a networking hotspot to establish a wireless local area network with other vehicles in the fleet to be linked; the transit vehicles send the wireless local area network networking information to the server; the server receives the networking information fed back by the transit vehicles and determines whether the networking information includes all vehicles in the fleet to be linked; if it does not include all vehicles in the fleet to be linked, the server reselects one or more transit vehicles from the fleet to be linked based on the fleet information to re-establish the network until the networking information includes all vehicles in the fleet to be linked.

[0026] The technical solution provided by this invention has the following advantages:

[0027] (1) Based on the above technical means, the present invention uses the server as the first-level node of the network, the transit vehicle as the second-level node, and other vehicles as the third-level nodes, forming a network step by step from the first level to the third level. The transit vehicle is selected by the server from the fleet to be linked, and the number of selected vehicles is not limited. In this embodiment, the selected transit vehicle is used to remotely receive control commands sent by the server. Other vehicles and transit vehicles use short-range wireless local area network communication to send and receive commands. When the transit vehicle and other nearby vehicles complete the wireless local area network, each transit vehicle uploads the network information to the server. The server then determines whether the wireless local area network range of each transit vehicle covers all other vehicles. If all are covered, the network is completed. If not, a new transit vehicle is selected for network formation. For other vehicles that cannot be covered by the short-range network of the transit vehicle under any circumstances, the server can use the uncovered vehicle as a transit vehicle to communicate directly with the server, thereby solving the problem of missing individual vehicles in the network formation, significantly improving the accuracy of the network formation, and improving the reliability of subsequent fleet linkage control.

[0028] (2) Based on the above technical means, the present invention provides a method for forming a fleet. When a target client sends a fleet request to the server, it indicates that the vehicle corresponding to the client wants to create a joint fleet. The server sends an invitation message to the target client so that the target client can share the invitation message with other clients. Other clients send a request to join the fleet to the server by scanning or accessing the invitation message. The server adds the vehicle that sent the request to join the fleet to the fleet created by the target client and obtains complete fleet information.

[0029] (3) Based on the above technical means, considering that different vehicles have different configurations and therefore support different functions, the vehicle linkage tasks supported by different vehicles will also be different. This invention matches the total fleet information with the task execution conditions according to the configuration of each vehicle and the functional requirements of the task execution conditions, thereby dividing the total fleet information into sub-fleet information for executing different linkage tasks, completing the screening and grouping of the fleet, and further improving the accuracy of subsequent vehicle linkage task arrangement.

[0030] (4) Based on the above technical means, for linked tasks with execution order and sequence, when a vehicle joins a fleet, the server also feeds back the candidate execution order of the current linked task to the corresponding client of the newly joined vehicle, thereby notifying the user that they can choose the execution order of the vehicle when executing the linked task according to their preferences. At the same time, the server can also perform conflict detection on the user's selection, and remind the current user to reselect the order when multiple users' selections conflict, so as to improve the accuracy of subsequent vehicle linked tasks. In addition, the target client that creates the fleet can choose to freeze the room and stop receiving other requests to join the fleet. When the fleet is frozen, the server can send the custom execution order selected by each client for each vehicle to the target client. The target client, as the creator of the fleet, can further adjust the custom execution order of each vehicle, thereby further improving the accuracy of subsequent vehicle linked tasks.

[0031] (5) Based on the above technical means, this invention obtains the location of each vehicle according to the configuration information of each vehicle in the fleet information, thereby generating a vehicle distribution map. Based on the spatial distribution of vehicles, transfer vehicles are selected with the constraints of minimizing the number of transfer vehicles and minimizing the total distance between transfer vehicles and other vehicles, so as to maximize the communication efficiency of the network. If it is the first network setup, transfer vehicles can be selected from all vehicles according to the above constraints. If it is a second or subsequent network setup due to the failure of the previous network setup, the old network setup scheme needs to be discarded, and transfer vehicles need to be selected from the remaining vehicles according to the above constraints, so as to ensure the reliability of the network setup.

[0032] (6) According to the above technical means, the transit vehicle provided by the present invention also periodically feeds back network status information. The server monitors whether there is a vehicle disconnection problem or overload problem in the network based on the network status information. If any of the problems occurs, the network is readjusted, which further improves the reliability of the network.

[0033] (7) Based on the above technical means, the server also monitors whether a vehicle has a delay in receiving instructions. If such a phenomenon occurs, all vehicles are notified to perform task delays according to the time delay of the vehicle with the delay, so as to improve the coordination of each vehicle in performing the linkage task and avoid problems such as inconsistent linkage tasks and loose coordination.

[0034] (8) According to the above technical means, when a transit vehicle forwards the task execution instruction to other vehicles and the other vehicles do not respond that they have received the message, the present invention can resend the instruction through the transit vehicle to reduce the problem of high load and long link inefficiency caused by a large hub. Attached Figure Description

[0035] To more clearly illustrate the specific embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings used in the description of the specific embodiments or the prior art will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are some embodiments of the present invention. For those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained from these drawings without creative effort.

[0036] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of a vehicle networking system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0037] Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of a vehicle-mounted information transmission device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0038] Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of the vehicle-end actuator according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0039] Figure 4 This is a flowchart illustrating a vehicle networking method according to an embodiment of the present invention. Detailed Implementation

[0040] To make the objectives, technical solutions, and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention clearer, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only some embodiments of the present invention, not all embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without creative effort are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0041] Currently, in order to ensure that all devices to be controlled are on the network, it is necessary to network multiple devices and then send control signals. For example, a common networking method is that the user sends a command to one of the target vehicles through the client, instructs the target vehicle to establish a WIFI hotspot, and then the client receives the hotspot information fed back by the target vehicle. The client then sends the hotspot information to other vehicles, and other vehicles connect to the WIFI hotspot of the target vehicle according to the shared hotspot information, so that other vehicles and the target vehicle are in the same network. After the networking is completed, other vehicles are controlled through the target vehicle. However, if one of the other vehicles is far away from the target vehicle, even if the other vehicle receives the hotspot information, it cannot connect to the WIFI hotspot of the target vehicle, resulting in the inability to ensure that all vehicles that need to be linked are in the same network.

[0042] According to an embodiment of the present invention, an embodiment of a vehicle networking system is provided. As Figure 1 shown, the system includes two main devices: a server and vehicles. The server is a device for issuing vehicle linkage tasks, such as controlling each vehicle to perform a linkage light show, a sound show, an action performance, etc. Among them, the vehicles include two types, namely relay vehicles and other vehicles. Both relay vehicles and other vehicles need to participate in vehicle linkage tasks. The difference is that the relay vehicle is the vehicle selected by the server from all vehicles and serves as the message forwarding end. Specifically, the relay vehicle receives the instructions directly issued by the server, and then forwards the instructions to other vehicles respectively. It is also used to receive the messages fed back by other vehicles, summarize the feedback messages and upload them to the server. Other vehicles, as the bottom layer of network control, only execute the issued task instructions. Thus, the vehicle networking system provided by the embodiment of the present invention includes three levels of nodes. Among them, the server is the first-level node for overall vehicle linkage control, the relay vehicle is the second-level node for instruction message transmission and task execution, and other vehicles are the third-level nodes for task execution.

[0043] In the embodiment of the present invention, the vehicle includes two modules: a vehicle-end information transmission device and a vehicle-end execution device. As Figure 2 shown, the vehicle-end information transmission device includes a vehicle-end network communication module, a vehicle-end wireless communication module, and a vehicle-end processing center module. Among them, the vehicle-end network communication module is used to receive instructions such as lighting and vehicle body control instructions from the server and server room status feedback instructions, etc., and is also used to send relevant information such as networking requests, vehicle-end execution status feedback, signal strength of the wireless network transmission channel, and positioning information feedback to the server. The vehicle-end wireless communication module, that is, the information transmission module between vehicles, is used to forward the execution instructions issued by the cloud. The vehicle-end processing center module, that is, the policy calculation center, is used to process the status information and execution feedback uploaded by each vehicle-end through the wireless network, and is the problem processing center.

[0044] As Figure 3As shown, the vehicle-side execution device includes a vehicle-side timer, used to verify the execution time of vehicle-side commands and keep it the same as the time in the cloud; a vehicle-side control center, used to receive vehicle-side execution commands and distribute them to lights and body components, perform execution forwarding, and thus execute the corresponding control; and a vehicle-side storage device, used to store the programmed vehicle linkage tasks.

[0045] Based on the above vehicle networking system, this invention provides a vehicle networking method, such as... Figure 4 As shown, steps S101 to S105 apply to the server, and steps S201 to S203 apply to the transfer vehicle. The specific steps are as follows. It should be noted that the steps shown in the flowchart in the attached figure can be executed in a computer system such as a set of computer-executable instructions, and although a logical order is shown in the flowchart, in some cases, the steps shown or described may be executed in a different order than that shown here.

[0046] Step S101: Obtain the fleet information of the fleet to be linked;

[0047] Step S102: Select one or more transfer vehicles from the fleet to be linked based on the fleet information;

[0048] Step S103: Send network configuration instructions to the transit vehicle;

[0049] Specifically, the server first needs to obtain the fleet information of the vehicles to be linked. In this embodiment, the fleet information includes various attributes of the vehicles, such as unique identifiers, hardware configurations, software configurations, and owner information. Based on the obtained fleet information, the server performs certain analysis and processing, and can select one or more transit vehicles from the fleet to be linked. The selected transit vehicles are used to communicate directly with the server. The server sends a network formation command to the transit vehicles, informing them that they have been selected as transit vehicles and instructing them to begin the network formation process.

[0050] Step S201: Receive network configuration command;

[0051] Step S202: In response to the networking command, the networking hotspot is turned on, and a wireless local area network is established with other vehicles in the fleet to be linked through the networking hotspot;

[0052] Step S203: Send network information to the server. The network information is the wireless local area network information.

[0053] Specifically, after receiving the networking command from the server, the transit vehicle responds by activating a network hotspot. In this embodiment of the invention, the methods for activating the network hotspot include, but are not limited to, Wi-Fi hotspots, Bluetooth hotspots, and satellite hotspots. The transit vehicle can communicate with other vehicles using a short-range wireless local area network (WLAN), and there are no special limitations on the technical method for activating the hotspot. Thus, other vehicles can establish a wireless local area network with the transit vehicle through Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, satellite, etc. After the transit vehicle activates its network hotspot, the hotspot information can be fed back to the server. The server then performs a hotspot information distribution, that is, the server distributes the hotspot name, hotspot password, etc., set by each transit vehicle to all other vehicles in the convoy. Other vehicles connect to the wireless local area network of the transit vehicle using the received hotspot information. Once other vehicles have established a wireless local area network with the transit vehicle, they will no longer communicate directly with the server during subsequent joint tasks.

[0054] Step S104: Receive network information from the transit vehicle and determine whether the network information includes all vehicles in the fleet to be linked.

[0055] If step S105 does not include all vehicles in the convoy to be linked, return to step S102 and re-form the network until the network information includes all vehicles in the convoy to be linked.

[0056] Specifically, when a transit vehicle receives hotspot access requests from other vehicles, it responds by allowing the other vehicles to access the hotspot, thereby establishing a wireless local area network (WLAN) with other vehicles. The transit vehicle stores network information recording which other vehicles have connected to its WLAN. After a period of time, the WLANs of each transit vehicle stabilize, and no new devices are added. At this point, each transit vehicle uploads its network information to the server. After receiving the network information from each transit vehicle, the server matches the vehicle names in the network information with the vehicle list in the fleet information to determine whether the network information includes all vehicles in the fleet to be linked. If the network information includes all vehicles in the fleet to be linked, the network is considered successfully established, and subsequent multi-vehicle linkage tasks can be executed. If the network information does not include all vehicles in the fleet to be linked, the network is considered to have failed, as not all vehicles to be linked have been added to the network. Therefore, the process returns to step S102, reselects transit vehicles, and re-establishes the network until the network information includes all vehicles.

[0057] The technical solution provided by this invention uses a server as a primary network node, transit vehicles as secondary nodes, and other vehicles as tertiary nodes, forming a network from primary to tertiary. The transit vehicles are selected by the server from the fleet of vehicles to be linked, and the number selected is not limited. In this embodiment, the selected transit vehicles are used to remotely receive control commands sent by the server. Other vehicles and transit vehicles communicate via short-range wireless local area network (WLAN) for command transmission and reception. When a transit vehicle and other nearby vehicles complete their WLAN connection, each transit vehicle uploads its network information to the server. The server then determines whether the WLAN range of each transit vehicle covers all other vehicles. If the wireless LAN range of each transit vehicle completely covers all other vehicles, the network is complete. If there is no coverage, a new transit vehicle is selected for network formation. In particular, for other vehicles that cannot be covered by the nearby network of the transit vehicle under any circumstances, the server can select the other vehicles that cannot be covered as transit vehicles and communicate directly with the server. By utilizing the server's remote communication capabilities, these vehicles can be added to the network, thus solving the problem of missing individual vehicles in the local area network, significantly improving the accuracy of network formation, and enhancing the reliability of subsequent fleet linkage control.

[0058] In this embodiment of the invention, the server and N transit vehicle wireless network hubs are configured to form a multi-level judgment and processing hub, which can also effectively solve problems such as data loss and data transmission delay caused by various reasons in the transmission channel.

[0059] In some optional embodiments, step S101 above includes steps a1 to a4. The vehicle networking system provided by the present invention also includes a client. The client is used to execute steps b1 to b3. The client can be control software or vehicle computer installed in the vehicle, that is, the above-mentioned transfer vehicle and other vehicles themselves. The client can also be an independent peripheral device, such as a mobile phone, tablet computer, etc. This embodiment does not impose any special restrictions.

[0060] Step b1: The target client sends a team-up request to the server. The team-up request includes the target vehicle configuration information.

[0061] Step a1: Receive a team request sent by the target client;

[0062] Step a2: In response to the team-up request, send an invitation message to the target client;

[0063] In step b2, the target client shares the invitation information with other clients;

[0064] Step b3: Other clients send a request to join the fleet to the server based on the invitation information. The request to join the fleet includes other vehicle configuration information.

[0065] Step a3: Receive requests from other clients to join the fleet;

[0066] Step a4: Integrate the target vehicle configuration information with other vehicle configuration information into fleet information.

[0067] Specifically, this invention provides a method for vehicle platooning. In this embodiment, the device initiating the platooning request is a target client, which can be a mobile phone, tablet, or target vehicle. If the target client is a separate device such as a mobile phone or tablet that is not a target vehicle, the platooning request sent by the target client includes the configuration information of the target vehicle. After receiving the platooning request from the target client, the server creates a virtual room that allows other vehicles to join. The server sends invitation information to the target client, including but not limited to QR codes and invitation links. If the invitation information is a QR code, the target client can share the QR code with other clients, allowing them to scan the code and generate a platooning request. If the invitation information is an invitation link, the target client can share the invitation link with other clients, allowing users of other clients to click the invitation link to generate a platooning request. The generated platooning request includes the configuration information of other vehicles corresponding to the other clients.

[0068] After other clients generate a request to join the fleet, they send the request to the server. Once the server receives the request, it extracts the configuration information of other vehicles from the request and adds them to the virtual room created by the target vehicle, thus completing the creation of the fleet. The vehicle information contained in this room can then be output as fleet information.

[0069] Based on the above technical means, the present invention provides a method for forming a fleet. When a target client sends a fleet request to the server, it indicates that the vehicle corresponding to the client wants to create a joint fleet. The server sends an invitation message to the target client so that the target client can share the invitation message with other clients. Other clients send a request to join the fleet to the server by scanning or accessing the invitation message. The server then adds the vehicles that have sent the request to join the fleet to the fleet created by the target client, thus obtaining complete fleet information and improving the reliability and completeness of fleet information collection.

[0070] In some alternative implementations, step a4 above includes:

[0071] a41, obtain the execution conditions for the joint tasks of each vehicle;

[0072] a42, merges the target vehicle configuration information with other vehicle configuration information into the total fleet information;

[0073] a43, based on the matching relationship between the total fleet information and the execution conditions, divide the total fleet information into sub-fleet information for executing different joint tasks.

[0074] Specifically, after receiving the configuration information of each vehicle, the server in this embodiment of the invention can analyze the functions supported by each vehicle, hardware conditions, software conditions, and the user's desired task. Simultaneously, for the vehicle linkage task to be executed, the corresponding execution conditions are obtained; for example, for a light show task, the execution conditions include system version requirements and light model requirements for the vehicles. Then, the server matches the execution conditions of each vehicle linkage task with the aforementioned function support content recorded in the vehicle configuration information to determine which vehicles support the execution conditions and which do not. This divides the aforementioned total fleet information into sub-fleet information for executing different linkage tasks. The filtering mechanism includes filtering, identifying, and classifying relevant information such as vehicle configuration information, owner identity information, and vehicle information, forming several sub-rooms for executing different linkage tasks. Each sub-room includes different fleet information. Different sub-rooms are obtained by binding vehicle information and owner information.

[0075] Based on this, the embodiments of the present invention take into account that different vehicles have different configurations and support different functions, and therefore the vehicle linkage tasks supported by different vehicles will also be different. The present invention matches the total fleet information with the task execution conditions according to the configuration of each vehicle and the functional requirements of the task execution conditions, thereby dividing the total fleet information into sub-fleet information for executing different linkage tasks, completing the screening and grouping of fleets, and further improving the accuracy of subsequent vehicle linkage task arrangement.

[0076] In some alternative implementations, the method further includes:

[0077] Step I1: When a team formation request or a request to join a fleet is received, the candidate execution order of the vehicle linkage task is sent to the corresponding current client.

[0078] Step I2: Receive the custom execution order sent by the current client. The custom execution order is selected from the candidate execution order and represents the order in which the current vehicle performs the vehicle linkage task.

[0079] Step I3: Check if there is a conflict in the custom execution order;

[0080] Step I4: If a conflict occurs, a notification message is sent to the current client to notify it to re-determine the custom execution order. Specifically, the server often does not know the actual spatial distribution of the vehicles performing the vehicle linkage task. Therefore, it is not easy for the server to formulate a strategy for determining the order of execution when vehicles perform the linkage task. Thus, for linkage tasks with specific execution positions and sequences, when a vehicle joins the convoy, the server also provides the corresponding client with the candidate execution order of the current linkage task. For example, in the case of a light show, the server might provide a parking space distribution map of the light show to the client, thus informing the user that they can choose the vehicle execution order according to their preference when performing the linkage task. When a user selects a position, the user can send the selected custom position to the server. At the same time, the server can also perform conflict detection on the user's selection, checking if other users have already selected the current position. In the event of a conflict between multiple user selections, the server will remind the current user to reselect the position. In this way, the server can accurately inform the server of the order in which vehicles are controlled during subsequent vehicle linkage, ensuring the accuracy of the linkage task commands issued by the server to each vehicle and improving the reliability of subsequent vehicle linkage tasks.

[0081] In some alternative implementations, the method further includes:

[0082] Step j1: Receive the freeze request sent by the target client;

[0083] Step j2, in response to the freeze request, stop receiving requests to join the fleet;

[0084] Step j3: Integrate the received custom execution bit order into bit order information and send the bit order information to the target client so that the target client can adjust the bit order information; receive the adjusted bit order information sent by the target client.

[0085] Specifically, this invention provides management permissions to the target client that creates the fleet. The target client can choose to freeze the virtual room of the fleet and stop receiving requests from other clients to join the fleet. When the fleet is frozen, the server can send the custom execution order selected by each client for each vehicle to the target client. As the creator of the fleet, the target client can further adjust the custom execution order of each vehicle, thereby further improving the accuracy of subsequent vehicle linkage tasks.

[0086] In some alternative implementations, step S102 includes:

[0087] Step c1: Generate a vehicle distribution map based on the fleet information;

[0088] Step c2: Determine if the previous network setup failed;

[0089] Step c3: If the previous networking attempt did not fail, then select one or more transit vehicles from the fleet to be linked based on the vehicle distribution map, with the constraints being the minimum total distance between transit vehicles and other vehicles, and / or the minimum number of transit vehicles.

[0090] Step c4: If the previous networking attempt failed, then, excluding the previous networking scheme, select one or more transit vehicles from the fleet to be linked based on the vehicle distribution map, taking the minimum total distance between transit vehicles and other vehicles and / or the minimum number of transit vehicles as constraints.

[0091] Specifically, this invention provides a method for a server to formulate a network strategy. The network is formed by taking the vehicles contained in any sub-fleet information in the aforementioned embodiments as the smallest unit. This invention extracts the unique identifier of each vehicle based on the configuration information of each vehicle in the fleet, and then sends a location request to each vehicle based on the vehicle identifier to obtain the location of each vehicle.

[0092] After each vehicle uploads its location information to the server, the server generates a vehicle distribution map based on the vehicle locations. By analyzing the spatial distribution of vehicles, the straight-line distance between two vehicles can be calculated. Therefore, this embodiment of the invention can perform optimization analysis from a spatial perspective to select the optimal transfer vehicle. Specifically, this embodiment uses the successful networking of all vehicles as the standard, and selects transfer vehicles based on the constraints of minimizing the number of transfer vehicles and the total distance between transfer vehicles and other vehicles. This scheme ensures that transfer vehicles have the shortest signal links and the fewest control links when performing subsequent tasks, maximizing the communication efficiency of the network. It should be noted that if this is the first network setup, the previous network setup is assumed to have been successful, and the server can select transfer vehicles from all vehicles according to the above constraints. If this network setup is a second or subsequent setup following a previous network failure, the old network setup scheme needs to be discarded, and transfer vehicles need to be selected from the remaining vehicles according to the above constraints. This ensures the reliability of the network setup, guarantees that the selected transfer vehicles are not those selected in previous schemes, avoids using duplicate schemes and network failures, and further improves the reliability of the network setup.

[0093] In some optional implementations, the server also performs steps d1 to d3, and the transit vehicle performs step e1.

[0094] Step e1: Periodically send network status information to the server so that the server can determine whether there is a vehicle disconnection problem or overload problem based on the network status information;

[0095] Step d1: Receive network status information periodically fed back by the transit vehicle;

[0096] Step d2: Determine whether there is a vehicle disconnection problem or overload problem based on the network status information;

[0097] If a vehicle disconnection or overload issue occurs in step d3, return to the step of selecting one or more transit vehicles from the fleet to be linked based on the vehicle distribution map, and re-network until the network information includes all vehicles in the fleet to be linked.

[0098] Specifically, in this embodiment of the invention, after the first successful network formation, the transit vehicle continuously monitors the connection status of other vehicles with itself and detects the load of its own sending and receiving commands. This information is summarized by the transit vehicle into network status information and fed back to the server. After receiving the network status information fed back by each transit vehicle at regular intervals, the server determines whether there is a vehicle disconnection problem or a load overload problem. If a vehicle disconnection problem occurs (including weak signal strength of each node leading to disconnection) or a transit vehicle load overload problem occurs, it indicates that the current network formation is not suitable. Therefore, the server returns to the aforementioned step S102 to re-form the network, ensuring real-time updates of the network and further improving the reliability of the network formation.

[0099] In some optional implementations, the server also performs steps f1 to f3, and the transit vehicle performs steps g1 to g4, as detailed below.

[0100] Step f1: Send task execution instructions to each transfer vehicle;

[0101] Step g1: Receive the task execution instruction sent by the server;

[0102] Step g2: Forward the task execution command to other vehicles and receive feedback messages from other vehicles in response to the task execution command;

[0103] Step g3: Determine whether other vehicles experience delays in receiving and executing task instructions based on the feedback messages;

[0104] Step g4: If a delay occurs, the signal sent to the server will be delayed.

[0105] Step f2: Receive signal delay feedback sent by the target transfer vehicle. The signal delay feedback is used to indicate the delay time that occurs when a vehicle receives the task execution instruction.

[0106] Step f3, in response to signal delay feedback, sends a task delay execution command to each transfer vehicle.

[0107] Specifically, after receiving the task execution instruction, other vehicles notify the vehicle controller to prepare for execution and send the controller's preparation status information back to the transfer vehicle. The status feedback from other vehicles includes the following situations: first, the execution signal has been received and the vehicle is ready to execute; second, the execution signal has not been received and no feedback has been given; third, the execution signal is received with a delay and feedback has been given.

[0108] In this embodiment of the invention, the server also monitors whether a vehicle experiences a delay in receiving instructions. For example, most vehicles can respond to the execution instructions issued by the server within a preset time, but some vehicles cannot respond within the preset time. Due to the delayed execution of the instructions, the feedback message to the relay vehicle is delayed. The relay vehicle records the delay time and sends the signal delay feedback to the server. If the server detects a signal delay, it notifies all vehicles to execute tasks with the delayed vehicle's time delay, avoiding the situation where other vehicles execute a coordinated task and then the delayed vehicle executes, thus affecting the effectiveness of vehicle coordination. Through the technical solution provided by this embodiment of the invention, vehicles without delay use the signal response time of the delayed vehicle as the standard to cooperate with the delayed vehicle in executing coordinated tasks, thereby significantly improving the coordination of various vehicles in executing coordinated tasks and avoiding problems such as inconsistent and loose coordination in coordinated tasks.

[0109] In some alternative implementations, the transfer vehicle also performs the following steps:

[0110] Step h1: If no feedback message is received from other vehicles within a preset time, the task execution instruction is re-forwarded to other vehicles.

[0111] Specifically, when a relay vehicle forwards a task execution instruction to other vehicles, and the other vehicles do not respond that they have received the message, this invention can resend the instruction through the relay vehicle, thereby reducing the high load and inefficiency of long links caused by a large hub.

[0112] This invention also provides a computer-readable storage medium. The methods described above according to embodiments of the invention can be implemented in hardware or firmware, or implemented as computer code that can be recorded on a storage medium, or implemented as computer code downloaded via a network and originally stored on a remote storage medium or a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium and then stored on a local storage medium. Thus, the methods described herein can be processed by software stored on a storage medium using a general-purpose computer, a dedicated processor, or programmable or dedicated hardware. The storage medium can be a magnetic disk, optical disk, read-only memory, random access memory, flash memory, hard disk, or solid-state drive, etc.; further, the storage medium can also include combinations of the above types of memory. It is understood that computers, processors, microprocessor controllers, or programmable hardware include storage components capable of storing or receiving software or computer code, which, when accessed and executed by the computer, processor, or hardware, implements the methods shown in the above embodiments.

[0113] A portion of this invention can be applied as a computer program product, such as computer program instructions, which, when executed by a computer, can invoke or provide the methods and / or technical solutions according to the invention through the operation of the computer. Those skilled in the art will understand that the forms in which computer program instructions exist in a computer-readable medium include, but are not limited to, source files, executable files, installation package files, etc. Correspondingly, the ways in which computer program instructions are executed by a computer include, but are not limited to: the computer directly executing the instructions, or the computer compiling the instructions and then executing the corresponding compiled program, or the computer reading and executing the instructions, or the computer reading and installing the instructions and then executing the corresponding installed program. Here, the computer-readable medium can be any available computer-readable storage medium or communication medium accessible to a computer.

[0114] Although embodiments of the invention have been described in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, those skilled in the art can make various modifications and variations without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, and such modifications and variations all fall within the scope defined by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A vehicle networking method, characterized in that, Applied to a server, the method includes: Obtain the fleet information of the fleet to be linked; obtaining the fleet information of the fleet to be linked includes: receiving a team-up request sent by the target client; receiving a team-joining request sent by other clients; Select one or more transit vehicles from the fleet to be linked based on the fleet information; A network setup command is sent to the transfer vehicle so that the transfer vehicle can act as a network hotspot to establish a wireless local area network with other vehicles in the convoy to be linked. Receive the network information fed back by the transfer vehicle, and determine whether the network information includes all vehicles in the fleet to be linked, wherein the network information is the information of the wireless local area network; If the network does not include all vehicles in the fleet to be linked, return to the step of selecting one or more transit vehicles from the fleet to be linked based on the vehicle distribution map, and re-network until the network information includes all vehicles in the fleet to be linked. The method further includes: when receiving the team formation request or the request to join a fleet, sending the candidate execution order of the vehicle linkage task to the corresponding current client; receiving a custom execution order sent by the current client, wherein the custom execution order is selected from the candidate execution order and represents the order in which the current vehicle performs the vehicle linkage task; detecting whether the custom execution order conflicts; if a conflict occurs, sending a notification message to the current client to notify the current client to re-determine the custom execution order; receiving a freeze request sent by the target client; stopping receiving the request to join a fleet in response to the freeze request; integrating the received custom execution order into order information and sending the order information to the target client so that the target client can adjust the order information; and receiving the adjusted order information sent by the target client.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The process of obtaining the fleet information of the fleet to be linked also includes: In response to the team-up request, an invitation message is sent to the target client so that the target client can share the invitation message with other clients and cause the other clients to send a request to join the team to the server based on the invitation message. The request to join the team includes other vehicle configuration information and the team-up request includes the target vehicle configuration information. The target vehicle configuration information and the other vehicle configuration information are integrated to form the fleet information.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that, The integration of the target vehicle configuration information and the other vehicle configuration information into the fleet information includes: Obtain the execution conditions for the coordinated tasks of each vehicle; The target vehicle configuration information and the other vehicle configuration information are merged into the total fleet information; Based on the matching relationship between the total fleet information and the execution conditions, the total fleet information is divided into sub-fleet information for performing different joint tasks.

4. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The step of selecting one or more transfer vehicles from the fleet to be linked based on the fleet information includes: A vehicle distribution map is generated based on the fleet information; Determine if the previous network setup failed; If the previous networking attempt did not fail, then one or more transit vehicles are selected from the fleet to be linked based on the vehicle distribution map, with the constraint that the total distance between the transit vehicle and other vehicles is the smallest and / or the number of transit vehicles is the smallest. If the previous networking attempt failed, then, excluding the previous networking scheme, one or more transfer vehicles will be selected from the fleet to be linked based on the vehicle distribution map, with the constraints being the minimum total distance between the transfer vehicle and other vehicles, and / or the minimum number of transfer vehicles.

5. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, Also includes: Receive network status information periodically fed back by the transfer vehicle; Based on the network status information, determine whether there is a vehicle disconnection problem or a load overload problem; If the vehicle disconnection problem or the overload problem occurs, return to the step of selecting one or more transit vehicles from the fleet to be linked according to the vehicle distribution map, and re-network until the network information includes all vehicles in the fleet to be linked.

6. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The method further includes: Send the task execution instruction to each of the transit vehicles so that the transit vehicles forward the task execution instruction to other vehicles, and determine whether there is a delay in each vehicle receiving the task execution instruction based on the feedback messages from the other vehicles; Receive signal delay feedback sent by the target transit vehicle, wherein the signal delay feedback is used to indicate the delay time that occurs when a vehicle receives the task execution instruction; In response to the signal delay feedback, a task delay execution command is issued to each transfer vehicle.

7. A vehicle networking method, characterized in that, Applied to transit vehicles, the method includes: The server receives a network configuration command, which is issued after obtaining the fleet information of the fleet to be linked and selecting the current vehicle as the transfer vehicle from the fleet to be linked. The steps of the server obtaining the fleet information of the fleet to be linked include: receiving a team-up request sent by a target client; receiving a join-the-fleet request sent by other clients; and the server further performs the following steps: when receiving the team-up request or the join-the-fleet request, sending the candidate execution order contained in the vehicle linkage task to the corresponding current client; receiving a custom execution order sent by the current client, the custom execution order being selected from the... The process involves selecting the candidate execution order, representing the order in which the current vehicle performs the vehicle linkage task; detecting whether the custom execution order conflicts; if a conflict occurs, sending a notification message to the current client to notify the current client to re-determine the custom execution order; receiving a freeze request from the target client; responding to the freeze request by stopping the reception of the request to join the fleet; integrating the received custom execution order into order information and sending the order information to the target client so that the target client can adjust the order information; and receiving the adjusted order information from the target client. In response to the networking command, a networking hotspot is activated, and a wireless local area network is established with other vehicles in the convoy to be linked through the networking hotspot; The network information is sent to the server so that the server can determine whether the network information includes all vehicles in the fleet to be linked.

8. The method according to claim 7, characterized in that, The method further includes: The network status information is periodically fed back to the server so that the server can determine whether there is a vehicle disconnection problem or a load overload problem based on the network status information.

9. The method according to claim 7, characterized in that, The method further includes: Receive the task execution instruction issued by the server; The task execution instruction is forwarded to other vehicles, and feedback messages sent by the other vehicles in response to the task execution instruction are received. Based on the feedback message, determine whether other vehicles experience delays when receiving the task execution command; If a delay occurs, a delayed signal feedback is sent to the server so that the server responds to the delayed signal feedback and issues a delayed task execution command to each transit vehicle.

10. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that, The method further includes: If no feedback message is received from the other vehicles within a preset time, the task execution instruction is forwarded to the other vehicles again.

11. A vehicle networking system, characterized in that, This includes servers, transit vehicles, and other vehicles, among which: The server obtains the fleet information of the fleet to be linked; obtaining the fleet information of the fleet to be linked includes: receiving a team-up request sent by the target client; receiving a team-joining request sent by other clients; The server selects one or more transfer vehicles from the fleet to be linked based on the fleet information; The server sends a network configuration command to the transit vehicle; The transfer vehicle receives the networking command and responds to the networking command by activating a networking hotspot to establish a wireless local area network with other vehicles in the convoy to be linked. The transfer vehicle sends the wireless local area network (WLAN) networking information to the server; The server receives the network information fed back by the transit vehicle and determines whether the network information includes all vehicles in the fleet to be linked. If the network does not include all vehicles in the fleet to be linked, the server will select one or more transit vehicles from the fleet to be linked based on the fleet information to re-network until the network information includes all vehicles in the fleet to be linked. When the server receives the team-up request or the request to join a vehicle fleet, it sends the candidate execution order of the vehicle linkage task to the corresponding current client. The server receives a custom execution order sent by the current client, which is selected from the candidate execution order and represents the order in which the current vehicle performs the vehicle linkage task. The server detects whether the custom execution order conflicts. If a conflict occurs, the server sends a notification message to the current client to notify the current client to re-determine the custom execution order. The server receives a freeze request sent by the target client. In response to the freeze request, the server stops receiving requests to join a vehicle fleet. The server integrates the received custom execution orders into order information and sends the order information to the target client so that the target client can adjust the order information. The server receives the adjusted order information sent by the target client.

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