Electronic control device and data collection system

Abstract

An electronic control device includes: a vehicle information acquisition unit that acquires information relating to a vehicle and stores the information as vehicle unit data; a vehicle unit data collection task management unit that manages a vehicle unit data collection task in which a collection condition indicating an opportunity of collection and a collection target indicating a target related to collection are specified for the vehicle unit data to be collected; a data collection task condition monitoring unit that generates a data collection event on the basis of a collection condition specified in the vehicle unit data collection task, and specifies the content of the collected data; and a collection target data extraction unit that receives the data collection event from the data collection task condition monitoring unit, extracts vehicle unit data to be a collection target, and stores the vehicle unit data as collection data. The content of the collected data stored by the collection target data extraction unit is changed on the basis of the collection performance of the collected data for the collection target specified in the vehicle unit data collection task.

Description

Imported by reference

[0001] This application claims the benefit of Japanese patent application No. 2023-105033, filed on June 27, 2023, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. Technical Field

[0002] The invention relates to an electronic control device and a data collection system. Background Art

[0003] In recent years, a data collection system has been introduced that collects data related to specific events that occur while a vehicle is traveling into a server device and utilizes the data to troubleshoot and improve the functionality of in-vehicle applications.

[0004] However, when all object data of each vehicle is to be collected, there is a problem that not only the memory, CPU, and storage resources of the vehicle-mounted device are excessively consumed, but also the communication cost for transmitting data to the server device and the resource consumption on the server side are excessively generated. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a method for changing the content and frequency of collected data according to the content of an abnormal state detected by a terminal device. Summary of the Invention Problems to be solved by the invention

[0005] In vehicle data collection systems, data from various events is collected, depending on the purpose of the data collection. For example, if the goal is to analyze dangerous vehicle events, data from impacts or large accelerations and decelerations will be collected. If the goal is to analyze failures in specific applications, data from unexpected behavior within the application will be collected.

[0006] In addition to handling such events under various conditions, it is difficult to predict how often these events will occur, as their occurrence is strongly dependent on the vehicle's driving environment and the driver's actions. Consequently, these events may occur more frequently than expected, resulting in a large amount of data being collected.

[0007] However, depending on the purpose of data collection, it's not necessary to exhaustively collect data related to every incident; it's sufficient to collect data of a certain quantity and quality. For example, when analyzing failures in a specific application, even if a large amount of data related to the same cause is collected, only a portion of it will actually be used for analysis. This means excessive data collection for the original purpose, resulting in excessive resource consumption and communication costs for both onboard devices and server equipment.

[0008] In the invention described in Patent Document 1, log information of the collection object is collected at a low frequency at a summary level under normal conditions, and is collected at a high frequency at a detailed level only when an abnormal state occurs in the operating conditions of the hardware or software, thereby suppressing excessive data collection.

[0009] However, when a corresponding event (abnormal state detection in Patent Document 1) exceeding expectations as described above occurs, there is a problem in that excessive data collection relative to the purpose cannot be suppressed.

[0010] Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to suppress excessive data collection relative to the purpose of collection. Technical means to solve the problem

[0011] The present invention is an electronic control device that collects vehicle information, including a processing unit for performing calculations and a storage unit for storing information, wherein the processing unit includes: a vehicle information acquisition unit that acquires information related to the vehicle and stores it as vehicle unit data; a vehicle unit data collection task management unit that manages the vehicle unit data collection task, which determines a collection condition representing an opportunity for collection and a collection target representing a target related to the collection for the vehicle unit data that becomes the collection object; a data collection task condition monitoring unit that generates a data collection event based on the collection condition determined in the vehicle unit data collection task and specifies the content of the collected data; and a collection object data extraction unit that receives a data collection event from the data collection task condition monitoring unit, and when the collection of vehicle unit data is specified, extracts the vehicle unit data that becomes the collection object and stores it as the collection data, wherein the vehicle unit data collection task management unit changes the content of the collection data stored by the collection object data extraction unit based on the collection performance of the collection data for the collection target specified in the vehicle unit data collection task. Effects of the Invention

[0012] According to the present invention, it is possible to suppress excessive data collection relative to the purpose of collection.

[0013] The details of at least one embodiment of the subject matter disclosed in this specification are described in the accompanying drawings and the following description. Other features, methods, and effects of the disclosed subject matter are made clear by the following disclosure, drawings, and technical solutions. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0014] Figure 1 This is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of a data collection system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 2 This is a diagram showing an example of a data collection task data group of a data collection server according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 3 This is a diagram showing an example of a collection task data group of a data collection server according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 4 This is a diagram showing an example of a data collection task data group of the electronic control device according to the embodiment of the present invention. Figure 5 This is a diagram showing an example of a data collection performance data group of an electronic control device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 6 This is an explanatory diagram of the functional relationship of the data collection system in this embodiment of the present invention. Figure 7 This is a diagram showing an example of an operation screen related to a data collection task by a terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 8 This is a flowchart illustrating the updating process of each vehicle data collection task according to the embodiment of the present invention. Figure 9 This is a flowchart illustrating the data collection event processing according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 10 This is a flowchart illustrating the collected data upload process according to the embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0015] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0016] <System Configuration> Figure 1 This is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the data collection system 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[0017] The data collection system 1 is a computer system that controls the collection of data from one or more vehicles 2, and is composed of the following: vehicles 2, a data collection server 4 that controls the collection of data from the vehicles 2, a terminal 5 that operates the data collection server 4, and a network 6 that can communicatively connect between the vehicles 2 and the data collection server 4, and between the data collection server 4 and the terminal 5.

[0018] The vehicle 2 includes an electronic control unit 3 and an on-vehicle network 60 communicably connected to other devices mounted on the vehicle 2. The electronic control unit 3 is an ECU (Electronic Control Unit) and includes a processing unit 10, a storage unit 30, and a communication unit 40.

[0019] The processing unit 10 may include, for example, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) as a central processing unit. However, in addition to the CPU, it may also include a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), an FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array), an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), or the like, and may be composed of any of these.

[0020] The processing unit 10 includes a vehicle-based data collection task management unit 11, a data collection task condition monitoring unit 12, a collection target data extraction unit 13, a collected data upload unit 14, a server communication control unit 15, and a vehicle information acquisition unit 16. The processing unit 10 implements the functional units that provide the specified functions by executing a specified program stored in the storage unit 30.

[0021] The vehicle-based data collection task management unit 11 acquires instruction information of the data collection task from the data collection server 4 via the server communication control unit 15 , and stores the instruction information in the storage unit 30 as a vehicle-based data collection task data group 31 .

[0022] The data collection task is information setting the collection conditions, collection targets, target values ​​(collection targets) of the vehicle-unit data collected by the vehicle 2, and the operation status of the data collection task (collecting, invalid, monitoring).

[0023] Furthermore, the vehicle-based data collection task management unit 11 changes the operating status of each data collection task as needed based on the data collection performance data group 32 stored in the storage unit 30 , and notifies the data collection server 4 via the server communication control unit 15 .

[0024] The data collection task condition monitoring unit 12 refers to the vehicle unit data of the vehicle information data group 34 to monitor whether the data collection conditions of each data collection task are met. When the data collection conditions are met, a collection event is generated (or occurs), and the collection object data extraction unit 13 is notified to reflect the information related to the collection event in the data collection performance data group 32.

[0025] The collection target data extraction unit 13 receives notification from the data collection task condition monitoring unit 12 , extracts vehicle unit data to be collected in the corresponding data collection task from the vehicle information data group 34 , and stores the data in the collected data group 33 as collected data.

[0026] The collected data upload unit 14 uploads the collected data stored in the collected data group 33 to the data collection server 4 via the server communication control unit 15. Furthermore, the collected data upload unit 14 can accumulate unsent collected data stored in the collected data group 33 until a predetermined period or predetermined amount has elapsed, and then transmit the accumulated data to the data collection server 4. This can reduce the frequency of communications from the vehicle 2 to the data collection server 4.

[0027] The server communication control unit 15 controls data communications between the vehicle 2 and the data collection server 4 according to a prescribed data communications protocol. While the communication unit 40 controls lower-level data communications with physically connected devices via the communication medium of the in-vehicle network 60, the server communication control unit 15 controls higher-level data communications with the data collection server 4 via multiple networks (the in-vehicle network 60 and the network 6).

[0028] The vehicle information acquisition unit 16 acquires various information of the vehicle 2 as vehicle-unit data via the in-vehicle network 60 connected to the electronic control unit 3 , and stores the acquired information as a vehicle information data group 34 in the storage unit 30 .

[0029] The vehicle unit data stored in the vehicle information data group 34 is information related to the vehicle 2 obtained by the electronic control device 3 during the driving of the vehicle, such as environmental information around the vehicle 2 detected by external sensors mounted on the vehicle 2, information related to the movement and driving status of the vehicle 2 detected by the vehicle sensors (driving status information), road information related to the road on which the vehicle 2 is driving, etc.

[0030] Furthermore, information related to software running in the electronic control unit 3 is also acquired from the vehicle unit data and stored as part of the vehicle information data group 34. For example, log output information of application programs running in the electronic control unit 3 is included.

[0031] Examples of external sensors include image sensors, LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), radar, and ultrasonic ranging sensors. Vehicle sensors include acceleration sensors, speed sensors, and steering angle sensors. Road information includes, for example, longitude and latitude from a navigation system and information from road information services such as VICS (registered trademark).

[0032] The storage unit 30 includes, for example, a storage device such as an HDD (Hard Disk Drive), a flash memory, or a ROM (Read Only Memory), and a memory such as a RAM.

[0033] The storage unit 30 stores programs processed by the processing unit 10, data groups required for the processing, etc. It also serves as a main memory when the processing unit 10 executes the program and can be used to temporarily store data required for the program's calculations.

[0034] In the present embodiment, a vehicle-based data collection task data group 31 , a data collection performance data group 32 , a collection data group 33 , a vehicle information data group 34 , and the like are stored as information for realizing the functions of the electronic control device 3 .

[0035] The vehicle-based data collection task data group 31 is a collection of data related to a data collection task instructed by the vehicle 2 from the data collection server 4. The data collection task includes, for example, information on the data sets to be collected, the collection conditions that trigger the collection of these data sets, and a collection target indicating a target (or threshold) for the collection amount and frequency.

[0036] The data collection performance data group 32 is a collection of data related to data collection performance, which indicates how often or how many times the vehicle 2 has satisfied the collection conditions and collected vehicle-unit data in each data collection task.

[0037] The collected data group 33 is a collection event generated by the collection object data extraction unit 13 when the collection conditions of the data collection task are met. The collection object data extraction unit 13 extracts the vehicle unit data of the collection object from the vehicle information data group 34 and stores it in the storage unit 30 as a partial set of vehicle unit data.

[0038] The vehicle information data group 34 is a data group (vehicle-specific data) related to information about the vehicle 2 acquired by the vehicle information acquisition unit 16. The information about the vehicle 2 includes information from devices such as sensors and equipment that can be acquired via the in-vehicle network 60, and information (such as application logs and output results) that can be acquired via software running in other electronic control devices.

[0039] The communication unit 40 includes, for example, a network device conforming to a communication standard such as IEEE 802.3 or CAN (Controller Area Network). The communication unit 40 transmits and receives data to and from other devices mounted on the vehicle 2 via the in-vehicle network 60 according to various protocols.

[0040] In addition, in this embodiment, the communication unit 40 and the processing unit 10 are described separately, but part of the processing of the communication unit 40 may be executed in the processing unit 10. For example, the communication processing corresponding to the hardware device may be located in the communication unit 40, while the other device driver group and communication protocol processing may be located in the processing unit 10.

[0041] The in-vehicle network 60 is a network configured using a communication medium such as IEEE 802.3 or CAN (Controller Area Network) for data communication between devices mounted on the vehicle 2. A device (not shown) configured to communicate with the outside of the vehicle 2 via the network 6 is connected to the in-vehicle network 60, and the electronic control unit 3 is configured to communicate with the data collection server 4 via the in-vehicle network 60.

[0042] The data collection server 4 includes a processing unit 110, a storage unit 130, and a communication unit 140. The processing unit 110 includes, for example, a CPU as a central processing unit. However, in addition to the CPU, it may also include a GPU, FPGA, ASIC, etc., or may be composed of any of them.

[0043] The processing unit 110 includes a data collection task management unit 111, a vehicle-specific data collection task management unit 112, a task status monitoring unit 113, a collected data management unit 114, and a vehicle communication control unit 115. The processing unit 110 implements these functional units by executing a predetermined program stored in the storage unit 130.

[0044] The vehicle-specific data collection task management unit 11 manages data collection tasks that are pre-set by an operator (user) using a terminal 5 in the data collection server 4. As will be described later, a data collection task specifies which vehicle-specific data, from among the vehicle-specific data collected by the electronic control unit 3 of the vehicle 2, should be uploaded to the data collection server 4.

[0045] The vehicle-specific data collection task management unit 112 communicates with the terminal 5 via the network 6 to provide information on the currently managed data collection task data group 131 or to obtain information input by the operator to the terminal 5 and reflect it in the data collection task data group 131 .

[0046] The vehicle-specific data collection task management unit 112 manages the data collection tasks (vehicle-specific tasks) set for each vehicle 2 in the data collection server 4. The vehicle-specific data collection task management unit 112 determines the content of the data collection task set for each vehicle 2 based on the data collection tasks and the status of each task included in the data collection task data group 131, or the status of the data collection tasks for each vehicle 2 included in the vehicle-specific data collection task data group 132.

[0047] When the content of the data collection task of the vehicle 2 is changed, the vehicle-specific data collection task management unit 112 updates the vehicle-specific data collection task data group 132 and transmits instruction information reflecting the new data collection task to the corresponding vehicle 2 via the vehicle communication control unit 115 .

[0048] The task status monitoring unit 113 calculates the collection status of the data collection tasks of each vehicle 2 and the overall collection status (progress rate, operation rate) of the data collection tasks of each vehicle 2 based on the vehicle unit data, namely the collection data group 133, collected from the vehicle 2 by the collection data management unit 114, and stores them as performance information of the data collection task data group 132 and the data collection task data group 131 divided by vehicle respectively.

[0049] The collected data management unit 114 acquires the collected data uploaded from the electronic control unit 3 of each vehicle 2 via the vehicle communication control unit 115 , and stores the collected data in the collected data group 133 . The vehicle communication control unit 115 controls data communication between the vehicle 2 and the data collection server 4 in accordance with a predetermined protocol.

[0050] The storage unit 130 is composed of, for example, a storage device such as an HDD, a flash memory, or a ROM, and a memory such as a RAM. The storage unit 130 stores programs processed by the processing unit 110 and data groups required for processing. Furthermore, the storage unit 130 serves as main memory when the processing unit 110 executes programs, and can also be used to temporarily store data required for program operations.

[0051] In the present embodiment, the data collection task data group 131 , the vehicle-specific data collection task data group 132 , the collected data group 133 , and the like are stored in the storage unit 130 as information for realizing the functions of the data collection server 4 .

[0052] The data collection task data group 131 is a collection of data related to data collection tasks set by the operator in the data collection server 4. In addition to data collection specifications such as collection conditions, information on the data set to be collected, and collection targets, a data collection task also includes information related to the status of data collection from the vehicle 2 (reasons for changing task information).

[0053] The vehicle-specific data collection task data group 132 is a collection of data related to the data collection tasks set for each vehicle 2 . It includes not only specifications related to data collection for each data collection task but also information related to the data collection status of each data collection task in each vehicle 2 .

[0054] The collected data group 133 is a collection of vehicle-unit data extracted from each vehicle 2 into the collected data group 33 and uploaded to the data collection server 4 .

[0055] The communication unit 140 is configured to include, for example, a network card conforming to a communication standard such as IEEE 802.3, etc. The communication unit 140 transmits and receives data to and from the electronic control device 3 and the terminal 5 connected via the network 6 according to various protocols.

[0056] The terminal 5 is a processing device used by the operator to operate the data collection server 4. For example, it corresponds to a smartphone, tablet terminal, notebook terminal, or desktop terminal. The operator uses predetermined software (such as a web browser) to browse information related to data collection tasks on the data collection server 4 and perform settings.

[0057] The network 6 is, for example, a mobile communication network or a wide area network such as the Internet.

[0058] Figure 2 This is a diagram showing an example of the structure of data stored in the data collection task data group 131 .

[0059] The data collection task data group 131 stores information related to the specifications and collection performance of data collection tasks set by the operator via the terminal 5. The data collection task data group 131 includes task ID 201, operating status 202, collection conditions 203, collection targets 204, overall collection target 205, vehicle collection target 206, overall collection performance 207, vehicle operating status 208, and reason for task information change 209.

[0060] The task ID 201 is information related to the identifier of the data collection task. When it is expressed as "task XXX" below, it means that the identifier of the task ID 201 is "XXX".

[0061] The operation status 202 is information related to the operation status of the data collection task. Types of the operation status of the data collection task include "collecting", "monitoring", and "invalid".

[0062] “Collecting” means that the collection of vehicle-based data is valid for the data collection task, and the corresponding vehicle information data group 34 is extracted from each vehicle 2 and stored in the collected data group 33 .

[0063] "Monitoring" indicates that, when the collection conditions 203 associated with the data collection task are met, vehicle-specific data for the collection target 204 is not collected, and only information related to the collection events that meet the collection conditions 203 is collected. In other words, this indicates the operating state of the data collection task in which the extraction of vehicle-specific data is excluded (or prohibited).

[0064] "Invalid" means that the data collection related to the data collection task is invalidated for some reason. In this case, it also means the running state of the data collection task in which the extraction of vehicle-unit data is excluded (or prohibited).

[0065] Information related to collection events is information generated when the electronic control device 3 of the vehicle 2 satisfies the collection condition 203 , and in this embodiment includes collection events (or data collection events) and collection invalidation events.

[0066] Collection conditions 203 are information related to the conditions that trigger the collection of vehicle-specific data for collection target 204 in this data collection task. The collection conditions are expressed, for example, as conditional statements that make judgments based on the vehicle-specific data included in vehicle information data group 34 of vehicle 2. For example, "absolute value of acceleration > 0.4 G" means that information related to the vehicle's acceleration is included in vehicle information data group 34, and the judgment is made based on whether the absolute value is greater than 0.4 G.

[0067] Alternatively, multiple conditional statements may be combined, such as "error in application A && region I." "Region I" in the figure indicates whether the location where the error in application A occurs is within the range of region I.

[0068] The judgment of these conditional statements can also be realized by software or scripts that describe the judgment logic. In this case, when the data collection task is instructed to the vehicle 2, the corresponding software and script are sent to the vehicle 2 to deal with it.

[0069] The collection object 204 is information indicating the data set to be collected in the data collection task. Figure 2 In the example, "own vehicle information" and "sensor information" are expressed by the name of the data set, but they may also be expressed using an ID that identifies the data set.

[0070] The overall collection target 205 is a target value for the total amount of collected data acquired from each vehicle 2 , and is information indicating the target amount of data to be collected, the number of data collection times, the frequency of collection, etc. for the data collection task.

[0071] For example, "20 times / month" and "3 times / day" of Task 2 mean that the target values ​​are 3 data collection times per day and 20 cumulative times per month.

[0072] When a target is set only for the collection frequency within a predetermined period, even if the target value is temporarily achieved, the actual performance of the collection frequency within the predetermined period decreases over time, and therefore the data collection task is not invalidated.

[0073] On the other hand, when the number of times of data collection is set as in "10 times" of task 10 in the figure, once the target value is reached, there is no need to continue data collection, and thus the data collection task is invalidated.

[0074] The vehicle collection target 206 is information indicating the target value for collecting data related to the data collection task in each vehicle 2, such as the collection amount, the number of times of data collection, and the collection frequency.

[0075] The vehicle collection target 206 may be expressed as a combination of multiple target values. Even if an event related to data collection occurs, if a certain target value is reached at that moment, data collection for the data collection task is suppressed (invalidated or monitored).

[0076] The overall collection performance 207 is information indicating the status of data collection for the overall collection target 205. For example, it includes the progress rate for the overall collection target 205, the cumulative number of data collected, the number of monitoring (the number of events occurring in the data collection task), and the frequency of data collection or monitoring.

[0077] The vehicle operating status 208 is information related to the ratio of the operating status 202 of the data collection task among all vehicles 2. In the example of task ID 10, the operating status 202 is "collecting," which means that each vehicle 2 is allowed to extract collected data. This means that 80% of all vehicles 2 are extracting collected data, while 20% of vehicles 2 are disabled from extracting collected data.

[0078] The task information change reason 209 is information related to the content and reason of the change when the data collection system 1 changes task information such as the operating status 202 and the collection condition 203 based on data collection performance or the like.

[0079] For example, in the figure, the value "excessive occurrence (invalidation)" is set in the task information change reason 209 of task 2. This means that the data collection system 1 invalidates the operation status 202 because an excessive occurrence of the data collection event of task 2 is detected. Figure 3 1 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a portion of data stored in the vehicle-classified data collection task data group 132 .

[0080] The vehicle-specific data collection task data group 132 stores responses related to data collection tasks instructed by the data collection server 4 to each vehicle 2. The vehicle-specific data collection task data group 132 includes a vehicle ID 301, a task ID 302, an operating status 303, a collection target 304, collection performance 305, and a reason for changing task information 306.

[0081] The vehicle ID 301 is information related to the identifier of the vehicle 2 to which the data collection task is instructed.

[0082] The task ID 302 is information related to the identifier of the data collection task, and corresponds to the task ID 201 of the data collection task data group 131 .

[0083] The operating status 303 is information related to the operating status of the data collection task in the vehicle 2 , and corresponds to the operating status 202 of the data collection task data group 131 .

[0084] The collection target 304 is information indicating a target value for data collection related to the data collection task in the vehicle 2 , and corresponds to the vehicle collection target 206 of the data collection task data group 131 .

[0085] The collection performance 305 is information indicating the status of data collection for the collection target 304. It includes information such as the cumulative number of collections, the number of collection events (occurrence frequency) that occurred during the most recent predetermined period of collection or monitoring, and the like.

[0086] Task information change reason 306 indicates the details and reason of the change, as reported by vehicle 2 when the vehicle 2 changes information related to the data collection task. For example, "Excessive occurrence (invalidation)" in the figure indicates that vehicle 2 has invalidated operating status 303 due to detection of an excessive data collection event.

[0087] Furthermore, “reached target (invalidated)” for vehicle ID 301 = 1001 and task ID 10 means that the vehicle 2 invalidated its operating state 303 because it was detected that the collection performance 305 related to the data collection task in the vehicle 2 reached the collection target 304 .

[0088] Figure 4 1 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a portion of data stored in the vehicle-unit data collection task data group 31 of the electronic control device 3 .

[0089] The vehicle-specific data collection task data group 31 stores information related to the data collection task instructed by the data collection server 4 for the vehicle 2. The vehicle-specific data collection task data group 31 includes a task ID 401, an operating state 402, collection conditions 403, a collection target 404, and a collection destination 405.

[0090] The task ID 401 is information related to the identifier of the data collection task, and corresponds to the task ID 201 of the data collection task data group 131 and the task ID 302 of the vehicle-specific data collection task data group 132 .

[0091] The operating status 402 is information on the operating status of the data collection task in the vehicle 2 , and corresponds to the operating status 202 of the data collection task data group 131 and the operating status 303 of the vehicle-specific data collection task data group 132 .

[0092] The collection condition 403 is information related to the conditions that trigger the collection of data of the collection target 404 in the data collection task, and corresponds to the collection condition 203 of the data collection task data group 131 .

[0093] The collection target 404 is information indicating a data set of the vehicle information data group 34 to be collected in the data collection task, and corresponds to the collection target 204 of the data collection task data group 131 .

[0094] The collection target 405 is information indicating a target value for data collection related to the data collection task in the vehicle 2. It corresponds to the vehicle collection target 206 of the data collection task data group 131 and the collection target 304 of the vehicle-specific data collection task data group 132.

[0095] Figure 5 This is a diagram showing a configuration example of a portion of data stored in the data collection performance data group 32 .

[0096] The data collection performance data group 32 stores, for example, information on occurrence history of events related to the collection or monitoring of data related to the data collection task specified in the vehicle-unit data collection task data group 31 in the vehicle 2 .

[0097] The data collection performance data group 32 includes a task ID 501 , an event time 502 , an event type 503 , whether data collection is executed 504 , position information 505 , and the like.

[0098] The task ID 501 is information related to the identifier of the data collection task, and corresponds to the task ID 401 of the vehicle-based data collection task data group 31 .

[0099] The event time 502 is information about the time at which an event related to the data collection task occurs.

[0100] The event type 503 is information related to the type of the event that occurred. Examples of event types include "collection event occurred" indicating that the collection conditions in the data collection task are satisfied, and "collection invalidation" indicating invalidation of the operation status of the data collection task.

[0101] Data collection execution status 504 indicates whether the data to be collected (vehicle information data group 34) is extracted and stored in the collected data group 33 when the event category 503 is "collection event occurs." In the case of "yes," the data to be collected is extracted and stored. In the case of "no," the data to be collected is not extracted and stored, and only the event information (e.g., the event category or identifier) ​​is stored. This is equivalent to the operating status 402 of the vehicle unit data collection task data group 31 being "collecting" or "monitoring," respectively. Alternatively, in the case of "no," event information may not be stored. This reduces the amount of stored data.

[0102] Position information 505 is information related to the location of vehicle 2 at the time the event occurred. For example, it can be represented by location information on the Earth represented by latitude and longitude, or by a road position on a road map. Alternatively, position information 505 can be information from a navigation system (not shown) mounted on vehicle 2.

[0103] use Figures 6 to 10 The processing of the data collection system 1 will be described.

[0104] Figure 6 This diagram shows the interrelationship of functions implemented by the data collection system 1. The data collection system 1 is implemented by, for example, data collection task operation processing S700, vehicle-specific data collection task update processing S800, data collection event processing S900, and collected data upload processing S1000.

[0105] In the data collection task operation processing S700, the operator uses the terminal 5 to communicate with the data collection task management unit 111 of the data collection server 4 via the network 6 to view the status of the data collection task data group 131 set in the data collection server 4, or manually add, modify, delete, etc. data collection tasks.

[0106] In the vehicle-based data collection task update process S800 , the vehicle-based data collection task management unit 112 detects a change in the data collection task data group 131 and updates the vehicle-based data collection task data group 132 instructed to the vehicle 2 .

[0107] Furthermore, the vehicle-based data collection task management unit 112 notifies the vehicle-based data collection task management unit 11 of the electronic control unit 3 of the vehicle 2 of the content of the change in the data collection task.

[0108] Furthermore, the vehicle-specific data collection task management unit 112 distributes the vehicle-specific data collection tasks of the vehicle-specific data collection task data group 132 managed by the vehicle-specific data collection task management unit 112 to each vehicle 2 in advance, and manages the distributed data collection tasks for each vehicle 2 .

[0109] The vehicle-based data collection task management unit 11 of the electronic control device 3 reflects the changed content received from the data collection server 4 in the vehicle-based data collection task data group 31 .

[0110] In the data collection event process S900 , the data collection task condition monitoring unit 12 refers to the vehicle information data group 34 to periodically monitor whether the collection conditions of the data collection task specified in the vehicle-based data collection task data group 31 are satisfied.

[0111] When detecting a data collection task that satisfies the collection conditions, the data collection task condition monitoring unit 12 notifies the collection target data extraction unit 13 of the occurrence of a data collection event and records information related to the data collection event in the data collection performance data group 32 .

[0112] The collection target data extraction unit 13 extracts collection target data by referring to the vehicle unit data in the vehicle information data group 34 based on the notified data collection event, and stores the extracted data in the collected data group 33 .

[0113] Furthermore, the vehicle-based data collection task management unit 11 determines whether the operation status of the data collection task specified in the vehicle-based data collection task data group 31 needs to be changed based on the updated data collection performance data group 32 , and modifies the vehicle-based data collection task data group 31 if change is necessary.

[0114] Then, the vehicle-based data collection task management unit 11 notifies the vehicle-based data collection task management unit 112 of the data collection server 4 of the changed content of the data collection task, and records event information indicating the changed operation status in the data collection performance data group 32 .

[0115] The vehicle-specific data collection task management unit 112 of the data collection server 4 , which receives the notification of the data collection task operation status change from the vehicle 2 , reflects the change in the vehicle-specific data collection task data group 132 and updates the vehicle operation status 208 in the data collection task data group 131 .

[0116] In the collected data upload process S1000 , the collected data upload unit 14 of the vehicle 2 uploads the collected data stored in the collected data group 33 to the collected data management unit 114 of the data collection server 4 .

[0117] The collected data management unit 114 stores the collected data acquired from the vehicle 2 in the collected data group 133. The task status monitoring unit 113 updates the overall collection performance 207 of the data collection task data group 131 and the collection performance 305 of the vehicle-specific data collection task data group 132 based on the updated collected data group 133.

[0118] <Data Collection Task Operation Process S700>

[0119] The terminal 5 is configured to be able to browse and set information related to the data collection task of the data collection server 4 via predetermined software (web browser, etc.). Figure 7 An example of the operation screen of the terminal 5 in the data collection task operation process S700 is shown.

[0120] The area 701 on the operation screen displays information on the data collection task data group 131 of the data collection server 4. The information on the data collection task data group 131 is acquired from the data collection task management unit 111 of the data collection server 4 by the software of the terminal 5.

[0121] Area 701 also allows for manipulation of data collection task item information. Pressing the edit button 711 shifts the screen to a mode where, for example, the corresponding item's operating status, collection conditions, collection targets, overall collection targets, and vehicle collection targets can be edited, allowing the data collection task's specifications to be modified.

[0122] Furthermore, the corresponding data collection task entry can be deleted by pressing the delete button 712. By using these task operation functions, the operator can delete a data collection task registered in the data collection server 4 that has excessively collected data, or change the specifications to reduce the frequency of data collection.

[0123] Area 702 on the operation screen is an operation area for adding a new data collection task. The specification information of the data collection task is reflected in area 722 in the figure. By pressing the Add New button 721, the new data collection task is reflected in the data collection task data group 131 of the data collection server 4.

[0124] <Data Collection Task Update Processing by Vehicle S800> use Figure 8 The flowchart of FIG. 8 illustrates the vehicle-based data collection task update process S800. This process is executed in a predetermined cycle.

[0125] First, in step S801 , the vehicle-specific data collection task management unit 112 refers to the data collection task data group 131 and extracts the changed data collection task entries.

[0126] Changes to data collection task entries include not only the addition, modification, and deletion of data collection tasks by the operator in the data collection task operation process S700 , but also changes to the operation status or collection conditions of data collection tasks based on the data collection performance of the data collection task management unit 111 , as described later.

[0127] Next, in step S802 , the vehicle-based data collection task management unit 112 reflects the changes in the data collection task entry extracted in step S801 on the corresponding vehicle-based data collection task entry in the vehicle-based data collection task data group 132 .

[0128] By comparing the task ID 401 of the vehicle-based data collection task data group 31 with the task ID 201 of the data collection task data entry, the corresponding vehicle-based data collection task entry can be determined.

[0129] Then, in step S803, the vehicle-based data collection task management unit 112 sends the information of the task entry as an update indication of the vehicle unit data collection task to the vehicle unit data collection task management unit 11 of the electronic control device 3 via the vehicle communication control unit 115 for the vehicle 2 that meets the vehicle ID 301 that has changed the vehicle-based data collection task entry.

[0130] In step S804 , when the vehicle-unit data collection task management unit 11 of the electronic control device 3 receives the update instruction of the vehicle-unit data collection task via the server communication control unit 15 , in step S805 , the same content is reflected (updated) in the vehicle-unit data collection task data group 31 .

[0131] <Data Collection Event Processing S900> use Figure 9 The flowchart of FIG. 1 illustrates the data collection event processing S900. This processing is executed in a predetermined cycle.

[0132] First, in step S901, the data collection task condition monitoring unit 12 obtains unprocessed vehicle unit data from the vehicle information data group 34 via the software running on the vehicle network 60 and the electronic control unit 3, from the various information (vehicle unit data) related to the vehicle 2 that is regularly obtained or updated by the vehicle information acquisition unit 16.

[0133] Furthermore, in step S902 , the data collection task condition monitoring unit 12 acquires a task entry (collecting or monitoring) whose operating status 402 is not “invalid” from the vehicle-unit data collection task data group 31 .

[0134] In step S903 , the data collection task condition monitoring unit 12 determines whether the collection condition 403 of the enabled vehicle-unit data collection task entry is satisfied based on the vehicle-unit data acquired from the vehicle information data group 34 .

[0135] If there is a task entry that satisfies the collection condition 403 ("Yes" in step S903), the process proceeds to step S904. If there is no task entry that satisfies the collection condition 403 ("No" in step S903), the process ends.

[0136] In step S904, the data collection task condition monitoring unit 12 confirms the operating status 402 in the task entry that meets the collection condition 403. If it is "collecting" ("yes" in step S904), it enters step S905. Otherwise ("no" in step S904), it enters step S907.

[0137] In step S905 , the data collection task condition monitoring unit 12 refers to the past data collection performance recorded in the data collection performance data group 32 to check whether the collection target 405 of the corresponding task entry has been reached.

[0138] The data collection task condition monitoring unit 12 proceeds to step S906 if any condition has not been met (YES in step S905 ), and proceeds to step S907 if any condition has been met (NO in step S905 ).

[0139] For example, Figure 4 The collection target 405 of Task 3 is a combination of "20 times / month", "3 times / day", and "1 time / place". Figure 5 In the example, there are three data entries of task 3, but the occurrence frequency of the first and second data entries is very low, and no collection events occur at the same location, so data collection is executed (data collection execution 504 is "yes").

[0140] On the other hand, regarding the third data entry, since the location information 505 of the third data entry is very close to the location information 505 of the second data entry (within a predetermined range), the data collection task condition monitoring unit 12 determines that this is a collection event for the same location and suppresses data collection (data collection execution status 504 is "No"). Furthermore, if the distance between the location information 505 of two data items is within a predetermined threshold, the data collection task condition monitoring unit 12 determines that the two data items are data for the same location.

[0141] In step S906 , the collection target data extraction unit 13 refers to the vehicle information data group 34 and extracts data corresponding to the collection target 404 of the corresponding task entry from the vehicle unit data.

[0142] In step S907, the collection target data extraction unit 13 associates the extracted collection data with the collection event and stores it in the collection data group 33. The extracted collection data includes vehicle unit data corresponding to the collection target 404 extracted in step S906, and data related to the collection event that meets the collection condition 403 of the task item (data collection event information).

[0143] In the case of not going through step S906, the vehicle unit data is removed and only the collected events are stored as the extracted data in the collected data group 33. The information of the collected events is, for example, equivalent to Figure 5 That is, the occurrence of an event is stored as data collection event information, but there is no vehicle unit data in the vehicle information data group 34 corresponding to the event.

[0144] When step S906 is not performed, the vehicle-based data is removed and only the collection events are used as the collection data. This reduces the vehicle-based data included in the extracted data, thereby preventing the amount of collected data stored in the data collection server 4 from becoming excessively large.

[0145] In step S908, the data collection task condition monitoring unit 12 adds the data collection event information to the data collection performance data group 32. If only the data collection event information is stored in the collected data group 133, the data collection execution status 504 is "no". If the data corresponding to the collection target 404 is also stored, the data collection execution status 504 is "yes".

[0146] In step S909, the vehicle-based data collection task management unit 11 refers to the updated data collection performance data group 32, calculates the occurrence frequency of data collection events for each vehicle-based data collection task entry, and checks whether the occurrence frequency is greater than a predetermined value. If the frequency is less than the predetermined value in step S909 ("No" in step S909), the process ends without performing any further operations.

[0147] On the other hand, when the frequency is above the specified value (step S909 is "Yes"), the vehicle unit data collection task management unit 11 sets the operating status 402 of the corresponding task item to "invalid" or "under monitoring" in step S910, and sends the change content and reason for the change of the operating status 402 to the data collection server 4 in step S911.

[0148] The reason for the change in operating status 402 indicates the reason for the change in operating status, and here illustrates an example of an "excessive occurrence" of a data collection event. Upon receiving this notification in step S921, the vehicle-specific data collection task management unit 112 of the data collection server 4 updates the operating status 303 of the vehicle-specific data collection task data group 132, the vehicle operating status 208 of the data collection task data group 131, and the task information change reason 209 in step S922.

[0149] The occurrence frequency of the data collection event for each task item calculated in step S909 can be calculated by determining how many task IDs 501 matching the event time 502 are included in the data collection performance data group 32 within the most recent predetermined period (such as one hour, one day, or one month).

[0150] Alternatively, it can be calculated based on the ratio of the number of events per unit time. Figure 5 In the example, three data collection events for Task 2 occur consecutively on the same day. The collection target 405 for Task 2 can be calculated as 90 events per month based on the rate of 3 events per day.

[0151] The predetermined value used in step S909 may not be fixedly set according to the content of the task, but may be calculated based on the value of the collection target 405 of the vehicle-unit data collection task data group 31 .

[0152] For example, when a value three times the collection target 405 is set as the prescribed value (threshold of occurrence frequency), the collection target 405 of task 2 is 20 times / month and 3 times / day, and the prescribed value is equivalent to 60 times / month and 9 times / day.

[0153] When the above-mentioned occurrence frequency converted on a monthly basis is 90 times / month, since the threshold value of 60 times / month is exceeded, the execution status of the task entry is changed to "invalid" or "monitoring" in step S910.

[0154] When the running status 402 of the task entry is changed to "invalid" or "monitoring", even if a data collection event with the same task ID 401 occurs next time, the data storage of the collected data group 33 can be completely suppressed (in the case of invalid) in step S907 through the processing of steps S902 to S904, or suppressed (in the case of monitoring) to only data collection event information with a small amount of data.

[0155] Whether to set "disabled" or "monitoring" in step S910 can be fixed in advance, or the threshold (prescribed value) in step S909 can be set to two levels for determination. For example, a value of 1 times the collection target 405 can be set as the prescribed value in the first stage, and if it exceeds this value, the setting is "monitoring". Furthermore, a value of 3 times the collection target 405 can be set as the prescribed value in the second stage, and if it exceeds this value, the setting is "disabled".

[0156] In addition, in steps S909 to S910, in addition to the frequency of occurrence of data collection events, the operation status may be changed according to the achievement of the collection target 405. For example, Figure 4 The collection target 405 of task 10 includes content related to the cumulative number of times the event occurs, such as "10 times".

[0157] Unlike the target value related to the frequency of occurrence, once the target value is achieved, it is always met. Therefore, there is no need to continue to enable the data collection task, so the operation status can be changed to "invalid" or "monitoring".

[0158] Through the above processing, for the data collection task whose operating status 402 is "collecting", the electronic control unit 3 extracts vehicle unit data from the vehicle information data group 34. If the quantity or frequency of the extracted vehicle unit data does not reach the collection target 405, the extracted data is stored as collected data in the collection data group 33.

[0159] On the other hand, if the amount or frequency of extracted vehicle-specific data reaches the collection target 405, the electronic control unit 3 changes the operating status 402 of the data collection task to "monitoring" or "invalid," prohibiting further extraction of collected data. This prevents the data collection server 4 receiving the collected data from excessively acquiring collected data.

[0160] Furthermore, the electronic control unit 3 notifies the data collection server 4 of the data collection task having the changed operating state 402 , whereby the data collection server 4 can update the vehicle-specific data collection task data group 132 in synchronization with the data collection task of the electronic control unit 3 of the vehicle 2 .

[0161] <Collected data upload process S1000> use Figure 10 The flowchart of FIG. 1 illustrates the collected data upload process S1000. This process is executed in a predetermined cycle.

[0162] First, the collected data upload unit 14 acquires the collected data stored in the collected data group 33 in step S1001 , and transmits the collected data to the data collection server 4 via the server communication control unit 15 in step S1002 .

[0163] On the data collection server 4 side, in step S1011 , the collected data management unit 114 receives the collected data via the vehicle communication control unit 115 , and in step S1012 , stores the collected data in the collected data group 133 .

[0164] Upon receiving the information that the collected data has been stored, the task status monitoring unit 113 updates the collection performance 305 of the corresponding task item in the vehicle-based data collection task data group 132 based on the updated collected data group 133 in step S1013 .

[0165] Then, in step S1014 , the task status monitoring unit 113 updates the overall collection performance 207 and the vehicle operating status 208 of the corresponding task item of the data collection task data group 131 .

[0166] When updating the collection results, the task status monitoring unit 113 calculates the number of collections by, for example, counting the number of data items of the corresponding task entry stored in the collection data group 133 .

[0167] In addition, regarding the occurrence frequency, for example, the task status monitoring unit 113 uses Figure 5 The data collection event information included in the collected data is managed in a format such as the data collection performance data group 32. The frequency of occurrence is calculated by counting the number of data collection event information items for the corresponding task items within the most recent specified period (such as one day or one month). The task status monitoring unit 113 can calculate the vehicle operating status 208 by using the vehicle-by-vehicle aggregate operating status 303 in the vehicle-by-vehicle data collection task data group 132.

[0168] Next, the data collection task management unit 111 checks the total collection performance 207 of the task item of the updated data collection task data group 131 and checks whether the collection count has reached the total collection target 205 (step S1015) and whether the occurrence frequency is greater than a predetermined value (step S1017).

[0169] If a certain condition is satisfied ("Yes" in step S1015 or "Yes" in step S1017), the data collection task management unit 111 sets the execution status 202 of the corresponding task entry to "invalid" (step S1016 or step S1018), and then moves to step S1019.

[0170] If any of the conditions are not satisfied (No in step S1015 and No in step S1017 ), the data collection task management unit 111 does not perform any operation and moves to step S1019 .

[0171] In step S1019 , the data collection task management unit 111 further checks the vehicle operating status 208 of the data collection task data group 131 and checks whether the ratio of “invalid” vehicles 2 is equal to or greater than a predetermined value.

[0172] If the ratio of "invalid" vehicles 2 exceeds a predetermined value ("Yes" in step S1019), the data collection task management unit 111 sets the corresponding task entry's operating status 202 to "invalid" and terminates the process. If the ratio is less than the predetermined value ("No" in step S1019), the process terminates without performing any operation.

[0173] Through the above processing, the data collection server 4 obtains the collected data extracted by the electronic control device 3, updates the corresponding collection performance 305 of the data collection task data group 132 divided by vehicle, and also updates the task information change reason 306 of the task entry based on the change notification of the data collection task received from the vehicle 2.

[0174] The data collection server 4 calculates the overall collection performance based on the collection performance 305 of all vehicles 2, updates the overall collection performance 207, and changes the operating status 202 to "invalid" for the data collection task whose overall collection performance 207 reaches the overall collection target 205 as the target value, stopping the extraction of subsequent collected data.

[0175] In addition, the data collection server 4 calculates the overall collection performance based on the collection performance 305 of all vehicles 2, updates the overall collection performance 207, and changes the operating status 202 to "invalid" for the data collection task whose occurrence frequency of the overall collection performance 207 reaches the overall collection target 205 as the target value, and stops the extraction of subsequent collected data.

[0176] In addition, for data collection tasks in which the proportion (ratio) of the operating status 202 of the data collection tasks being "invalid" in the data collection task data group 132 divided by vehicle is greater than the specified value, the data collection server 4 sets the operating status 202 of the data collection task data group 131 to "invalid", thereby reducing the processing load of the electronic control device 3 of each vehicle 2.

[0177] According to the above embodiment, the data collection task condition monitoring unit 12 is included, which monitors the data collection-related information ( Figure 4The vehicle 2 is provided with an operating state 402, a collection condition 403, and a collection object 404), and a vehicle information data group 34 related to the state of the vehicle 2 is used to detect the occurrence of an event consistent with the collection condition 403; and a collection object data extraction unit 13, which judges the collection object data related to the detected event according to the operating state 402 and uploads it to the data collection server 4 and saves it in the collection data group 133. The vehicle unit data collection task management unit 11 changes the operating state 402 according to the collection performance of each data collection task calculated based on the data collection event information contained in the collection object data.

[0178] For example, in Figure 9 In steps S908-S910, if the frequency of events occurring in a data collection task exceeds a threshold, the task's operating status 402 is set to "Invalid" or "Monitoring." This allows the corresponding data collection task to be invalidated or limited to data collection event information with minimal data volume if data collection events occur at a higher frequency than expected, thereby preventing excessive data collection.

[0179] According to the above embodiment, by further setting a target value for the number of data collections related to the same location in collection target 405, if the number of data entries with the occurrence location near the same location exceeds the target value in the data collection performance data group 32, the data of collection target 404 is excluded from the collection target. This can prevent redundant data collection caused by multiple data collection events occurring at the same location.

[0180] The above-described embodiments are merely examples, and the present invention is not limited thereto. In other words, various applications are possible, and all embodiments are encompassed within the scope of the present invention.

[0181] For example, in the above embodiment, each process is described as being executed by the same processing unit and storage unit in the electronic control unit 3 and the data collection server 4. However, it is also possible to execute the processes using multiple different processing units and storage units. In this case, for example, processing software having the same configuration can be installed in each storage unit, with each processing unit sharing the execution of the process.

[0182] Furthermore, each process of the electronic control device 3 and the data collection server 4 is realized by executing a predetermined program using a processor and RAM, but may be realized by independent hardware as needed.

[0183] Conclusion As described above, the above embodiment may have the following configurations.

[0184] (1) An electronic control device (3) comprising a processing unit (10) for performing calculations and a storage unit (30) for storing information to collect information about a vehicle (2), wherein the electronic control device (3) is characterized in that the processing unit (10) comprises: a vehicle information acquisition unit (16) for acquiring information related to the vehicle (2) and storing the information as vehicle unit data; a vehicle unit data collection task management unit (11) for managing vehicle unit data collection tasks, wherein the vehicle unit data collection task determines a collection condition indicating an opportunity for collection and a collection target indicating a target related to the collection for the vehicle unit data to be collected; and a data collection task condition indicating a collection condition indicating an opportunity for collection and a collection target indicating a target related to the collection. A monitoring unit (12) generates a data collection event based on the collection conditions determined in the vehicle unit data collection task and specifies the content of the collected data; and a collection object data extraction unit (13) receives the data collection event from the data collection task condition monitoring unit (12), extracts the vehicle unit data that becomes the collection object when the collection of vehicle unit data is specified, and stores it as the collection data, and the vehicle unit data collection task management unit (11) changes the content of the collection data stored by the collection object data extraction unit (13) based on the collection performance of the collection data for the collection target specified in the vehicle unit data collection task.

[0185] With the above configuration, it is possible to suppress excessive data collection relative to the purpose of collection.

[0186] (2) The electronic control device as described in (1) above is characterized in that the data collection task condition monitoring unit (12) designates the vehicle unit data and information related to the data collection event as the collection data when the collection conditions determined in the vehicle unit data collection task are met and the collection performance of the collection data does not reach the collection target.

[0187] With the above configuration, it is possible to suppress excessive data collection relative to the purpose of collection.

[0188] (3) The electronic control device as described in (1) above is characterized in that the data collection task condition monitoring unit (12) designates information related to the data collection event as the collection data when the collection conditions determined in the vehicle unit data collection task are satisfied and the collection performance of the collection data reaches the collection target, and does not designate the vehicle unit data as the collection data.

[0189] With the above configuration, it is possible to suppress excessive data collection for the purpose of collection and to store a history of collection events.

[0190] (4) The electronic control device as described in (1) above is characterized in that the data collection task condition monitoring unit (12) does not designate any of the vehicle unit data and the information related to the data collection event as the collection data when the collection conditions determined in the vehicle unit data collection task are satisfied and the collection performance of the collection data reaches the collection target.

[0191] With the above configuration, it is possible to suppress excessive data collection relative to the purpose of collection.

[0192] (5) The electronic control device as described in (1) above is characterized in that, when the data collection event is generated, the data collection task condition monitoring unit (12) stores information related to the data collection event and information related to the content specified in the collection data as data collection performance data, and the vehicle unit data collection task management unit (11) determines the collection performance of the collection data for the collection target specified in the vehicle unit data collection task based on the data collection performance data.

[0193] According to the above configuration, by judging the collection performance of the collection data for the collection target, it is possible to suppress excessive data collection for the collection purpose.

[0194] (6) The electronic control device as described in (5) above is characterized in that the data collection task condition monitoring unit (12) refers to the data collection performance data and does not designate the vehicle unit data as the collection data when the occurrence amount or frequency of data collection events related to the vehicle unit data collection task exceeds a threshold value determined by the collection target.

[0195] According to the above configuration, by determining the amount or frequency of occurrence of data collection events for a collection target, it is possible to suppress excessive data collection for the collection purpose.

[0196] (7) The electronic control device as described in (5) above is characterized in that the data collection task condition monitoring unit (12) obtains the position information of the vehicle (2), corresponds the position information to the data collection event and stores it in the data collection performance data, and when the occurrence amount or frequency of data collection events in which the position information is within a prescribed range in the data collection events related to the vehicle unit data collection task exceeds a threshold value determined by the collection target, the vehicle unit data is not designated as the collection data. With the above configuration, it is possible to suppress redundant data collection caused by multiple data collection events occurring at the same location.

[0197] (8) A data collection system (1) comprising the electronic control device (3) described in (1), a processing unit (10) for performing calculations, a storage unit (130) for storing information, and a server (4) comprising a communication unit (140) for communicating with the electronic control device (3) and collecting data from a vehicle (2), wherein the data collection system (1) is characterized in that the electronic control device (3) comprises a communication unit (40), the communication unit (40) receives the vehicle unit data collection task from the server (4), sends the collected data stored by the collection object data extraction unit (13) to the server (4), the vehicle unit data collection task management unit (11) manages the vehicle unit data collection task received from the server (4), and the server (4) comprises: a data collection task management unit (111) which manages A data collection task, wherein the data collection task determines a collection condition indicating an opportunity for collection and an overall collection target indicating a collection target related to the collected data collected from a plurality of vehicles for vehicle unit data to be collected; a vehicle-based data collection task management unit (112), which manages the vehicle unit data collection task set for each vehicle (2) according to the data collection task; and a collection data management unit (114), which receives the collected data from the vehicle (2) and stores it in a collection data group (133), wherein the data collection task management unit (111) updates the vehicle unit data collection task based on the storage performance of the collected data in the collection data group (133) for the overall collection target specified in the data collection task, thereby changing the content of the collected data stored by the collection object data extraction unit (13).

[0198] With the above configuration, it is possible to suppress excessive data collection for the purpose of collection based on the collection performance of the data collected by a plurality of vehicles.

[0199] (9) The data collection system (1) as described in (8) above is characterized in that the vehicle unit data collection task management unit (11) notifies the server (4) of the task information change reason indicating the reason for the change when the content of the collection data stored by the collection object data extraction unit (13) is changed, and the vehicle-based data collection task management unit (112) records the content of the changed collection data and the task information change reason in the data collection task when the task information change reason is notified from the vehicle (2).

[0200] With the above configuration, the server administrator can understand the reason why excessive data collection occurs and set a data collection task for suppressing excessive data collection relative to the collection purpose.

[0201] (10) The data collection system (1) as described in (8) above is characterized in that the vehicle unit data collection task management unit (11) notifies the server (4) of the changed content when the content of the collection data stored by the collection object data extraction unit (13) is changed, and in the case of a vehicle unit data collection task in which the proportion of vehicles (2) whose vehicle unit data are not designated as the collection data exceeds a threshold relative to the total number of vehicles (2) communicating with the server (4), the vehicle-based data collection task management unit (112) stops all vehicles (2) from extracting the collection data related to the vehicle unit data collection task.

[0202] With the above configuration, it is possible to reduce the processing load on the electronic control device of each vehicle.

[0203] Furthermore, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments and encompasses various variations. For example, the above-described embodiments are examples described in detail to facilitate understanding of the present invention and are not necessarily limited to examples that include all of the described configurations. Furthermore, a portion of the configuration of one embodiment may be replaced with a configuration of another embodiment, and a configuration of another embodiment may be added to a configuration of a particular embodiment. Furthermore, the addition, deletion, or replacement of a portion of the configuration of each embodiment with other configurations may be employed individually or in combination.

[0204] Furthermore, each of the aforementioned components, functions, processing units, and processing means may be implemented in hardware, for example, by designing a portion or all of them using an integrated circuit. Furthermore, each of the aforementioned components and functions may be implemented in software by having a processor interpret and execute programs that implement the respective functions. Information such as programs, tables, and files that implement the various functions may be stored in a storage device such as a memory, a hard disk, or an SSD (Solid State Drive), or a recording medium such as an IC card, SD card, or DVD.

[0205] In addition, the control lines and information lines are those considered necessary for the purpose of explanation, and do not necessarily represent all control lines and information lines in the product. In reality, it can be assumed that almost all components are connected to each other.

Claims

1. An electronic control device comprising a processing unit for performing calculations and a storage unit for storing information to collect vehicle information, wherein the electronic control device is characterized in that: The processing unit includes: a vehicle information acquisition unit that acquires information related to the vehicle and stores the information as vehicle unit data; a vehicle-unit data collection task management unit that manages a vehicle-unit data collection task that defines, for vehicle-unit data to be collected, a collection condition indicating a trigger for collection and a collection target indicating a target related to the collection; a data collection task condition monitoring unit that generates a data collection event based on the collection conditions determined in the vehicle-based data collection task and specifies the content of the collected data; as well as a collection target data extraction unit that receives a data collection event from the data collection task condition monitoring unit, extracts the vehicle unit data to be collected when the collection of vehicle unit data is specified, and stores the vehicle unit data as the collection data; The vehicle-unit data collection task management unit changes the content of the collected data stored by the collection target data extraction unit based on the collection performance of the collected data for the collection target specified in the vehicle-unit data collection task.

2. The electronic control device according to claim 1, characterized in that The data collection task condition monitoring unit designates the vehicle-unit data and information related to the data collection event as the collected data when the collection condition determined in the vehicle-unit data collection task is satisfied and the collection performance of the collected data does not reach the collection target.

3. The electronic control device according to claim 1, characterized in that When the collection conditions determined in the vehicle unit data collection task are met and the collection performance of the collected data reaches the collection target, the data collection task condition monitoring unit designates information related to the data collection event as the collected data, and does not designate the vehicle unit data as the collected data.

4. The electronic control device according to claim 1, characterized in that The data collection task condition monitoring unit does not designate either the vehicle unit data or the information related to the data collection event as the collected data when the collection conditions determined in the vehicle unit data collection task are satisfied and the collection performance of the collected data reaches the collection target.

5. The electronic control device according to claim 1, characterized in that When the data collection event is generated, the data collection task condition monitoring unit stores information related to the data collection event and information related to the content specified in the collected data as data collection performance data. The vehicle-based data collection task management unit determines the collection performance of the collected data for a collection target specified in the vehicle-based data collection task based on the data collection performance data.

6. The electronic control device according to claim 5, characterized in that The data collection task condition monitoring unit refers to the data collection performance data and does not designate the vehicle-based data as the collected data if the occurrence amount or frequency of data collection events related to the vehicle-based data collection task exceeds a threshold value defined in a collection target.

7. The electronic control device according to claim 5, characterized in that The data collection task condition monitoring unit acquires the position information of the vehicle, associates the position information with the data collection event, and stores the associated information in the data collection performance data. If the occurrence amount or frequency of data collection events with the position information within a specified range in data collection events related to the vehicle-based data collection task exceeds a threshold value defined in the collection target, the vehicle-based data is not designated as the collected data.

8. A data collection system, characterized in that: Include: The electronic control device according to claim 1, and A server comprising a processing unit for performing calculations, a storage unit for storing information, and a communication unit for communicating with the electronic control unit and collecting data from the vehicle, The electronic control device includes a communication unit that receives the vehicle unit data collection task from the server and transmits the collected data stored by the collection target data extraction unit to the server. The vehicle unit data collection task management unit manages the vehicle unit data collection task received from the server, The server comprises: a data collection task management unit that manages a data collection task that defines, for vehicle-unit data to be collected, a collection condition indicating a trigger for collection and an overall collection target indicating a collection target associated with the collected data collected from a plurality of vehicles; a vehicle-based data collection task management unit for managing the vehicle-based data collection task set for each vehicle based on the data collection task; as well as a collected data management unit that receives the collected data from the vehicle and stores the collected data in a collected data group; The data collection task management unit updates the vehicle-based data collection task based on the storage performance of the collected data in the collected data group for the overall collection target specified in the data collection task, thereby changing the content of the collected data stored by the collection target data extraction unit.

9. The data collection system according to claim 8, wherein: When the content of the collected data stored by the collection target data extraction unit is changed, the vehicle unit data collection task management unit notifies the server of task change reason information indicating the reason for the change. The vehicle-specific data collection task management unit records the content of the changed collected data and the task information change reason in the data collection task when the task information change reason is notified from the vehicle.

10. The data collection system according to claim 8, wherein: When the content of the collected data stored by the collection target data extraction unit is changed, the vehicle unit data collection task management unit notifies the server of the changed content. In the event that there is a vehicle unit data collection task in which the proportion of vehicles whose vehicle unit data is not designated as the collected data exceeds a threshold relative to the total number of vehicles communicating with the server, the vehicle-based data collection task management unit stops all vehicles from extracting the collected data related to the vehicle unit data collection task.

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