Communication module, data acquisition system and vehicle
Patent Information
- Authority / Receiving Office
- CN · China
- Patent Type
- Utility models(China)
- Current Assignee / Owner
- Filing Date
- 2025-06-05
- Publication Date
- 2026-08-14
AI Technical Summary
[0004]可见，现有数据采集系统的通讯模块中，接入车辆(例如车载装置、ECU)的电路部分(总线连接部、视频线连接部等)都被设计为能够接入到ECU与车载装置的信号链路中，数据采集过分依赖于信号链路
[0018]本申请提供的通讯模块、数据采集系统与车辆中，通讯模块依旧具备可与数据采集记录装置通讯的第一以太网连接部，与此同时，通讯模块还设有内部总线接入部(例如PCIe接入部)，其可接入ECU的内部总线(例如PCIe总线)，构成了通讯模块与ECU之间点对点的连接途径，摆脱了车辆中数据采集对信号链路(ECU与车载装置之间的信号链路)的依赖，为基于该全新连接路径而实现的数据采集提供了硬件基础。
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Figure CN224638075U_ABST
Abstract
Description
Technical Field
[0001] This application relates to the field of data acquisition, and more particularly to a communication module, a data acquisition system, and a vehicle. Background Technology
[0002] In vehicles, the Electronic Control Unit (ECU) is typically used to control the corresponding functions of the vehicle. During the development of the ECU, it is often necessary to use data from the actual operation of the vehicle. Therefore, it is often necessary to set up a data acquisition system in the test vehicle or mass production vehicle to collect this data and provide a basis for the subsequent development of the ECU. Since data acquisition can also be understood as a kind of testing, it can also be understood as a testing system.
[0003] In this type of data acquisition system (or testing system), a communication module is often required. This communication module needs to meet two communication requirements: firstly, it must meet the following communication requirements... Figure 1 For example, a communication module typically needs an Ethernet or PCIe connection to establish communication between the module and the data acquisition and recording device (i.e., the industrial computer), feeding back the acquired data to the data acquisition and recording device. If a PCIe connection is used, it usually refers to PCIe gold fingers, which can be plugged into the PCIe slot of the data acquisition and recording device. Secondly, the communication module needs to be connected to the vehicle. Since the ECU and other vehicle devices typically communicate via various communication links (such as vehicle bus, video cable, etc.), in existing technologies, the communication module needs to be connected to the signal link to acquire the signals transmitted between the ECU and the vehicle devices. Correspondingly, the communication module often has a connection for connecting to the communication link, such as a vehicle bus connection or a video cable connection. For example, Figure 1 In this system, a communication module with a vehicle bus connection needs to be connected to the vehicle bus through which the ECU communicates with the vehicle device. This module can capture data transmitted on the vehicle bus. The video cable for communication between the ECU and the vehicle device needs to be split into two video cables, into which the video cable connection is connected. Thus, the video signal transmitted by the video cable can be transmitted between the ECU and the vehicle device via the video connection and the video cable, and can also be bypassed and collected to the data acquisition and recording device.
[0004] It is evident that in the communication modules of existing data acquisition systems, the circuit parts (bus connection parts, video cable connection parts, etc.) that connect to the vehicle (such as on-board devices, ECUs) are designed to connect to the signal link between the ECU and the on-board device, making data acquisition overly dependent on the signal link. Utility Model Content
[0005] Therefore, it is necessary to provide a communication module, a data acquisition system, and a vehicle to address the aforementioned technical problems.
[0006] According to a first aspect of the present invention, a communication module for a data acquisition system is provided, comprising:
[0007] An internal bus access unit is adapted to connect to the internal bus in the vehicle's ECU, wherein the internal bus is connected to memory;
[0008] The first Ethernet connection unit is used to connect to the data acquisition and recording device via the first Ethernet.
[0009] Optionally, the internal bus is a PCIe bus, and the internal bus access unit is a PCIe bus access unit;
[0010] Optionally, the PCIe access unit includes a MiniSAS HD connector that supports PCIe.
[0011] Optionally, the communication medium of the first Ethernet is optical fiber, and the first Ethernet connection includes an optical module.
[0012] Optionally, the communication module further includes a second Ethernet connection unit for connecting to a second Ethernet network, wherein the communication medium of the second Ethernet network is a non-fiber optic network cable.
[0013] Optionally, the communication module further includes an in-vehicle Ethernet connection unit, which is used to connect to the Ethernet interface of the electronic control unit, and the communication medium of the in-vehicle Ethernet is a non-fiber optic network cable.
[0014] Optionally, both the PCIe access unit and the first Ethernet connection unit are connected to the core processing unit.
[0015] According to a second aspect of this application, a data acquisition system is provided, located in the vehicle, comprising: a communication module as described in the first aspect and its alternatives, and the data acquisition and recording device.
[0016] Optionally, the data acquisition system further includes a computer, which is connected to the second Ethernet connection unit of the communication module via a second Ethernet.
[0017] According to a third aspect of this application, a vehicle is provided, including a data acquisition system as described in the second aspect and its alternatives, an electronic control unit (ECU), and an on-board unit, the on-board unit including: an actuator and / or a sensing device, the ECU being configured to communicate with the on-board unit; the ECU further includes a processor connected to the PCIe bus.
[0018] In the communication module, data acquisition system, and vehicle provided in this application, the communication module still has a first Ethernet connection unit that can communicate with the data acquisition and recording device. At the same time, the communication module also has an internal bus access unit (e.g., a PCIe access unit), which can be connected to the internal bus of the ECU (e.g., the PCIe bus), forming a point-to-point connection path between the communication module and the ECU. This eliminates the dependence of data acquisition in the vehicle on the signal link (the signal link between the ECU and the vehicle-mounted device), and provides a hardware foundation for data acquisition based on this new connection path. Attached Figure Description
[0019] To more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of this application or related technologies, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments of this application or related technologies will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of this application. For those skilled in the art, other related drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative effort.
[0020] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of a data acquisition system in the prior art;
[0021] Figure 2 These are schematic diagrams illustrating the structure of the data acquisition system, ECU, and vehicle-mounted equipment in some embodiments of this application;
[0022] Figure 3 These are schematic diagrams of the data acquisition system and ECU in some embodiments of this application. Figure 1 ;
[0023] Figure 4 These are schematic diagrams of the data acquisition system and ECU in some embodiments of this application. Figure 2 . Detailed Implementation
[0024] To facilitate understanding of this application, a more complete description will be provided below with reference to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate embodiments of the present application. However, the present application can be implemented in many different forms and is not limited to the embodiments described herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that the disclosure of this application will be thorough and complete.
[0025] Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this application belongs. The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the application.
[0026] It is understood that the terms “first,” “second,” etc., used in this application may be used herein to describe various elements, but these elements are not limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another.
[0027] It should be noted that when one element is considered to be "connected" to another element, it can be directly connected to the other element or connected to the other element through an intermediary element. Furthermore, in the following embodiments, "connection" should be understood as "electrical connection," "communication connection," etc., if there is transmission of electrical signals or data between the connected objects.
[0028] When used herein, the singular forms of “a,” “an,” and “the” may also include the plural forms unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It should also be understood that the terms “comprising,” “including,” or “having,” etc., specify the presence of the stated feature, whole, step, operation, component, part, or combination thereof, but do not preclude the possibility of the presence or addition of one or more other features, wholes, steps, operations, components, parts, or combinations thereof.
[0029] The embodiments of this application provide a communication module, a data acquisition system, and a vehicle.
[0030] The ECU (Electronic Control Unit) plays a crucial role in a car. During its operation, the ECU calculates and generates various types of data, including data that needs to be interacted with onboard devices (such as sensors and actuators) as well as data that does not require interaction.
[0031] The data acquisition system of this application embodiment typically includes a communication module and a data acquisition and recording device. The communication module is used to connect the ECU to be acquired and the data acquisition and recording device.
[0032] The data collected by the data acquisition system can be used for analysis and processing to provide a basis for subsequent research and development work (such as the development of other ECUs or their algorithms under development). It can also be used to back-inject other ECUs under development, thereby training, testing or functional verification of those other ECUs.
[0033] by Figure 1In existing technologies, the concept of data acquisition is to bypass the data stream from the signal link between the ECU and the vehicle device. For example, a communication module with a bus connection can act as one or more nodes of the vehicle bus, extracting the data stream from the vehicle bus and feeding it back to the data acquisition and recording device. Another example is a communication module with a video cable connection, which can bypass the video signal transmitted between the ECU and the vehicle device to the data acquisition and recording device, while ensuring that the video signal is still transmitted between the ECU and the vehicle device.
[0034] Combination Figure 4 As can be seen, the ECU is equipped with a PCIe bus, as well as a processor and memory connected to the PCIe bus. The processor can access the memory via the PCIe bus. During the operation of the ECU, the processor and / or other devices in the ECU can cache and read data by accessing the memory.
[0035] The ECU is capable of communicating with in-vehicle devices, which include: sensing devices, and / or: execution devices controlled by the ECU; thus, an in-vehicle device can be understood as a device that needs to interact with the ECU via signals during its operation. In practical applications, the ECU and in-vehicle devices may be partially or entirely pre-installed, or partially or entirely retrofitted.
[0036] The vehicle-mounted device may include sensing devices and / or actuation devices.
[0037] The sensing devices mentioned above may include, for example, cameras, lidar, millimeter-wave radar, wheel speed sensors, pressure sensors, position sensors, collision sensors, angle sensors, etc.; the actuators mentioned above may include, for example, brakes, steering devices, air conditioners, transmission actuators, motors, touch screens, etc.
[0038] Any device capable of sensing the outside or inside of the vehicle can be understood as a sensing device in the vehicle; it can be pre-installed or aftermarket. Any device that can be controlled by the ECU and change accordingly can be understood as an actuator in the vehicle.
[0039] Please refer to Figures 2 to 4 The communication module includes:
[0040] An internal bus access unit is adapted to connect to the internal bus in the vehicle's ECU, wherein the internal bus is connected to memory;
[0041] The first Ethernet connection unit is used to connect to the data acquisition and recording device via the first Ethernet.
[0042] The internal bus can be, for example, a PCIe bus. Correspondingly, the internal bus access unit is a PCIe access unit, that is, a PCIe access unit, which is suitable for accessing the PCIe bus in the vehicle's ECU. The internal bus (e.g., PCIe bus) is connected to memory. Figures 2 to 4 In this example, the PCIe bus is mainly used as an internal bus. In other examples not shown, the internal bus can also be the PCIX bus, AGP bus, CXL bus, or other newly developed buses. As long as it is a bus that communicates inside the ECU and is connected to memory (especially a bus that can read and write memory), it will not deviate from the above description of the internal bus.
[0043] The PCIe bus mentioned here refers to the PCIe bus inside the ECU, not the communication bus used for communication between the ECU and the vehicle's onboard devices. This constitutes a completely new point-to-point connection between the communication module and the ECU, eliminating the vehicle's reliance on signal links (signal links between the ECU and onboard devices) for data acquisition, and providing the hardware foundation for data acquisition based on this new connection path.
[0044] For example, during ECU operation, data can be cached and retrieved from memory. Due to the existence of this novel connection pathway, a data retrieval path is formed in hardware: memory → PCIe bus → PCIe access unit. This path is absent in the communication modules of existing data acquisition systems. In a specific example, the PCIe access unit, or a combination of the PCIe access unit and the core processing unit, can be a device capable of accessing the PCIe bus's memory via the PCIe bus.
[0045] In one example, the PCIe access unit includes a MiniSAS HD connector that supports PCIe. In other examples, the PCIe access unit may also use a PCIe connector; any connector that supports the PCIe protocol can be used as an example.
[0046] pass Figure 2 , Figure 3 , Figure 4 Compared to Figure 1 As can be seen from the comparison, the communication modules in the prior art are all located between the vehicle device and the ECU, so they only have a connection part for connecting to the corresponding signal link. However, the communication module of this application realizes point-to-point communication between the communication module and the ECU, and this communication makes full use of the ECU's internal communication bus, namely the PCIe bus, which helps to achieve efficient data acquisition and transmission.
[0047] Furthermore, since point-to-point communication with the ECU is achieved, different communication modules can be designed and / or used less often for different signal links between different vehicle devices and the ECU, which helps to simplify the system architecture and reduce the design difficulty of the hardware architecture.
[0048] In some embodiments, such as Figure 3 As shown, the communication medium of the first Ethernet is optical fiber, and the first Ethernet connection includes an optical module. Furthermore, the communication module is connected to the data acquisition and recording device via optical fiber, which meets the high-speed communication requirements. Therefore, the acquired data can be transmitted to the data acquisition and recording device for storage in a timely manner, avoiding adverse consequences caused by insufficient transmission speed between the communication module and the data acquisition and recording device. For example, it can prevent data inflow from exceeding data outflow, thus avoiding data accumulation in the communication module and increasing its burden. This facilitates high-speed data stream acquisition and storage. In contrast, traditional approaches balance data inflow and outflow by discarding some data. The optical fiber solution helps maintain a balance between data inflow and outflow while ensuring data integrity as much as possible through high-speed data stream acquisition and storage.
[0049] Please refer to Figure 3 The communication module also includes a second Ethernet connection for connecting to a second Ethernet network. In some examples, the communication module is also connected to a computer via the second Ethernet network. The computer may be part of an electronic system, i.e., the electronic system also includes a computer. In other examples, it may also be connected to other devices via the second Ethernet network.
[0050] In some examples, the communication module can obtain information from the computer via a second Ethernet connection for defining data acquisition, such as at least one of the following: target location information, acquisition requirements information, modification requirements information, etc.
[0051] Through the second Ethernet connection, the communication module has a non-fiber optic means of external communication, and the communication module can be configured accordingly.
[0052] In other examples, the second Ethernet connection can also be replaced with a USB connection.
[0053] In some embodiments, please refer to Figure 3 The communication module also includes an in-vehicle Ethernet connection unit, which is used to connect to the Ethernet interface of the electronic control unit. The communication medium of the in-vehicle Ethernet is a non-fiber optic network cable. Furthermore, the communication module is also connected to the ECU via the in-vehicle Ethernet. In some examples, time synchronization with the ECU can be performed via the in-vehicle Ethernet, and time synchronization can be achieved according to a standardized protocol (such as the PTP protocol).
[0054] Through in-vehicle Ethernet, an alternative communication path can be established between the ECU and the communication module, in addition to PCIe, providing a reliable means for other communications besides data acquisition, such as time synchronization.
[0055] In some embodiments, the data acquisition and recording device may be an industrial control computer equipped with an embedded operating system and a memory for storing data. In addition, the data acquisition and recording device may be connected to a display device to display the acquired target data and / or the data obtained after further processing.
[0056] Please refer to Figure 3 The PCIe access unit and the first Ethernet connection unit are both connected to the core processing unit, which may include a chip and its peripheral circuitry. The core processing unit may have a data transmission path from the PCIe access unit to the first Ethernet connection unit. Along this data transmission path, data may be converted according to the protocol requirements of PCIe and Ethernet. Since protocols and protocol-based conversion methods are common knowledge in the art, any chip or circuit capable of performing this conversion can be used. Furthermore, this application does not exclude the possibility of specifically designing and configuring chips or circuits for this conversion to form superior chips or circuits, all of which fall within the scope of this application. The core processing unit may, for example, be an FPGA chip.
[0057] The data acquisition system provided in this application embodiment, in addition to having Figure 2 , Figure 3 In addition to the communication module shown (i.e., the communication module configured with a PCIe access unit), it may also include an additional communication module connected between the ECU and the vehicle device;
[0058] The additional communication module may, for example, include a first connection part and a second connection part. The first connection part is used to connect to the data acquisition and recording device, and the second connection part is used to connect to the signal link between the ECU and the vehicle-mounted device. Figure 1 As shown in the example, the first connection part can be, for example, a PCIe connection part or an Ethernet connection part, and the second connection part can be, for example, a bus communication connection part or a video cable connection part.
[0059] Furthermore, by combining point-to-point acquisition with acquisition via access signal links, it is possible to take advantage of both approaches and collect a wide range of data comprehensively.
[0060] This application also provides a vehicle, that is, a vehicle as described in this specification. The vehicle includes the communication module mentioned in this specification, the data acquisition and recording device, and the ECU. The vehicle-mounted device is a vehicle-mounted device installed in the vehicle, and the ECU is the ECU in the vehicle.
[0061] The technical features of the above embodiments can be combined in any way. For the sake of brevity, not all possible combinations of the technical features in the above embodiments are described. However, as long as there is no contradiction in the combination of these technical features, they should be considered to be within the scope of this application.
[0062] The embodiments described above are merely illustrative of several implementation methods of this application, and while the descriptions are specific and detailed, they should not be construed as limiting the scope of this patent application. It should be noted that those skilled in the art can make various modifications and improvements without departing from the concept of this application, and these all fall within the protection scope of this application. Therefore, the protection scope of this application should be determined by the appended claims.
Claims
1. A communication module for a data acquisition system, characterized in that, include: An internal bus access unit is adapted to connect to the internal bus in the vehicle's ECU, wherein the internal bus is connected to memory; The first Ethernet connection unit is used to connect to the data acquisition and recording device via the first Ethernet.
2. The communication module according to claim 1, characterized in that, The internal bus is a PCIe bus, and the internal bus access unit is a PCIe bus access unit.
3. The communication module according to claim 2, characterized in that, The PCIe bus access unit includes a MiniSAS HD connector that supports PCIe.
4. The communication module according to claim 1, characterized in that, The communication medium of the first Ethernet is optical fiber, and the first Ethernet connection includes an optical module.
5. The communication module according to claim 1, characterized in that, It also includes a second Ethernet connection unit for connecting a second Ethernet network, wherein the communication medium of the second Ethernet network is a non-fiber optic cable.
6. The communication module according to claim 1, characterized in that, It also includes an in-vehicle Ethernet connection unit, which is used to connect to the Ethernet interface of the electronic control unit, and the communication medium of the in-vehicle Ethernet is a non-fiber optic network cable.
7. The communication module according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that, Both the internal bus access unit and the first Ethernet connection unit are connected to the core processing unit.
8. A data acquisition system, installed in the vehicle, characterized in that, include: The communication module according to any one of claims 1 to 7, and the data acquisition and recording device.
9. The data acquisition system according to claim 8, characterized in that, It also includes a computer, which is connected to the second Ethernet connection unit of the communication module via a second Ethernet.
10. A vehicle, characterized in that, The system includes the data acquisition system of claim 8 or 9, the electronic control unit, and the vehicle-mounted device, wherein the vehicle-mounted device includes: an actuator and / or a sensing device, and the electronic control unit is configured to communicate with the vehicle-mounted device; the ECU further includes a processor connected to the PCIe bus.