Vehicle driving state determination device, program, and vehicle driving state determination method

Abstract

A vehicle driving state determination device, program, and vehicle driving state determination method are provided that can determine the state of the transmission mechanism without directly obtaining information from the vehicle. [Solution] The vehicle driving state determination device (10) includes an acquisition unit (131) that acquires vehicle driving data including data related to the driving of the vehicle (20) detected by a detection device (70) mounted on the vehicle (20), and a determination unit (132) that determines the state of the vehicle's (20) transmission mechanism based on the vehicle driving data.

Description

Technical Field

[0006] , ,

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a vehicle running state determination device, a program, and a vehicle running state determination method.

Background Art

[0002] Conventionally, technologies for estimating energy consumption such as fuel consumption of vehicles have been proposed. The energy consumption of a vehicle varies depending on various factors such as driving conditions and load. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses an apparatus capable of accurately estimating the energy consumption of a vehicle using a multiple regression model including vehicle driving information, vehicle load information, and vehicle tire information as explanatory variables.

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0003]

Patent Document 1

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0004] Here, since the fuel consumption of a vehicle is affected by the engine speed, if information on the engine speed is obtained, the estimation accuracy of the fuel consumption can be improved. However, information on the engine speed can be used inside the vehicle via a CAN (Controller Area Network), but generally is not output outside the vehicle. Also, although the engine speed is known to have a correlation with the state of the transmission mechanism (gear), the state of the transmission mechanism is generally not output outside the vehicle.

[0005] In view of such circumstances, an object of the present disclosure is to provide a vehicle running state determination device, a program, and a vehicle running state determination method that can determine the state of a transmission mechanism without directly acquiring it from a vehicle.

Means for Solving the Problems

[0006] (1) A vehicle driving state determination device according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, An acquisition unit that acquires vehicle driving data, including data related to the vehicle's movement detected by a detection device mounted on the vehicle, The system includes a determination unit that determines the state of the vehicle's transmission mechanism based on the aforementioned vehicle driving data. This configuration allows the status of the transmission mechanism to be determined without directly obtaining information from the vehicle.

[0007] (2) As one embodiment of the present disclosure, in (1), The determination unit determines the state of the vehicle's transmission mechanism using a pre-trained machine learning model that uses time-series data related to the vehicle's operation as explanatory variables. This configuration enables highly accurate judgments based on past performance data, experimental data, and other factors.

[0008] (3) In one embodiment of the present disclosure, in (1) or (2), The acquisition unit acquires vehicle specification data, including the weight of the vehicle. The determination unit determines the state of the vehicle's transmission mechanism based on the vehicle driving data and the vehicle specification data. This configuration allows for a more accurate determination of the transmission mechanism's condition based on vehicle weight, which is a factor that varies significantly depending on the transmission mechanism's state.

[0009] (4) In one embodiment of the present disclosure, in any of (1) to (3), The system includes an engine speed estimation unit that estimates the engine speed of the vehicle based on time-series data of the state of the vehicle's transmission mechanism and time-series data of the vehicle's speed. This configuration allows for accurate estimation of engine speed, which improves the accuracy of fuel consumption estimation.

[0010] (5) In one embodiment of the present disclosure, in any of (1) to (4), The system includes a fuel consumption estimation unit that estimates the fuel consumption of the vehicle based on time-series data of the vehicle's engine speed and time-series data of the vehicle's speed. This configuration can improve the accuracy of estimating the vehicle's fuel consumption.

[0011] (6) A program according to one embodiment of the present disclosure is In the vehicle driving status determination device, To acquire vehicle driving data, including data related to the vehicle's movement detected by a detection device mounted on the vehicle, Based on the aforementioned vehicle driving data, the system is configured to determine the state of the vehicle's transmission mechanism. This configuration allows the status of the transmission mechanism to be determined without directly obtaining information from the vehicle.

[0012] (7) A vehicle driving state determination method according to one embodiment of the present disclosure is A method for determining the vehicle driving state performed by a vehicle driving state determination device, The vehicle driving state determination device, To acquire vehicle driving data, including data related to the vehicle's movement detected by a detection device mounted on the vehicle, This includes determining the state of the vehicle's transmission mechanism based on the aforementioned vehicle driving data. This configuration allows the status of the transmission mechanism to be determined without directly obtaining information from the vehicle. [Effects of the Invention]

[0013] According to this disclosure, it is possible to provide a vehicle driving state determination device, a program, and a vehicle driving state determination method that can determine the state of the transmission mechanism without directly obtaining it from the vehicle. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0014] [Figure 1] Figure 1 shows an example of the configuration of a vehicle driving state determination system including a vehicle driving state determination device according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 is another view showing a configuration example of the vehicle running state determination system of FIG. 1. [Figure 3] FIG. 3 is a view for explaining the relationship among the state of the transmission mechanism, the speed, and the engine speed in the vehicle. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 is a view illustrating the time change of the value obtained by multiplying the acceleration by the weight of the vehicle according to the state of the transmission mechanism. [Figure 5] FIG. 5 is an example of a flowchart showing the processing of the vehicle running state determination method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

[0015] Hereinafter, a vehicle running state determination device 10 (see FIG. 1), a program, and a vehicle running state determination method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings. In each figure, the same or corresponding parts are denoted by the same reference numerals. In the description of the present embodiment, the description of the same or corresponding parts will be omitted or simplified as appropriate.

[0016] FIGS. 1 and 2 are views showing a configuration example of the vehicle running state determination system. The vehicle running state determination system includes the vehicle running state determination device 10. FIG. 1 is a block diagram including an internal configuration example of the vehicle running state determination device 10 and a configuration example of the devices mounted on the vehicle 20. FIG. 2 shows the overall configuration of the vehicle running state determination system.

[0017] The vehicle 20 may be, for example, a passenger car, a truck, a bus, or a construction vehicle, and is not limited to a specific type of moving body. In the present embodiment, the vehicle 20 will be described as being a truck or a bus. Also, in order to avoid redundant illustration in FIGS. 1 and 2, only one vehicle 20 is shown, but the vehicle running state determination system may be configured to include a plurality of vehicles 20.

[0018] The vehicle running state determination device 10 according to this embodiment determines the state of the transmission mechanism (gear) of the vehicle 20 based on vehicle running data including data related to the running of the vehicle 20. Specifically, the data related to the running of the vehicle 20 includes information on the speed of the vehicle 20. The speed of the vehicle 20 is obtained, for example, from the change in position information detected by a GPS (Global Positioning System) device provided in a general in-vehicle device. The state of the transmission mechanism is the gear setting of the vehicle 20 during running, and in this embodiment, it is any one of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th,..., Nth speeds. Here, the value of N may vary depending on the vehicle type (type of the vehicle 20), type of transmission (AT or MT), and manufacturer, but it can be obtained from the vehicle specification data described later.

[0019] Here, if the state of the transmission mechanism can be obtained from the vehicle 20, the engine speed can be calculated from the state of the transmission mechanism, and the estimation accuracy of the fuel consumption of the vehicle 20 can be improved based on the engine speed. FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the relationship between the state of the transmission mechanism, speed, and engine speed in the vehicle 20. The horizontal axis represents the speed, where 0 < v1 < v2 < v3 < v4 < v5 < v6. The vertical axis represents the engine speed, where r1 < r2 < r3 < r4 < r5 < r6. The relationship between the speed and the engine speed is shown for the cases where the state of the transmission mechanism is 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th respectively. Since the relationship in FIG. 3 can be obtained based on the past performance data or experimental data of the vehicle 20, if the state of the transmission mechanism is specified, the engine speed can be accurately calculated from the speed of the vehicle 20. However, the data on the state of the transmission mechanism is used only inside the vehicle and is generally not output outside the vehicle. The vehicle running state determination device 10 according to this embodiment can determine the state of the transmission mechanism without directly acquiring it from the vehicle 20, as described below.

[0020] The vehicle driving state determination device 10 comprises a communication unit 11, a storage unit 12, and a control unit 13. The control unit 13 comprises an acquisition unit 131, a determination unit 132, an engine speed estimation unit 133, a fuel consumption estimation unit 134, and an output unit 135. The vehicle driving state determination device 10 may be a computer as a hardware configuration. The computer may be a server computer or a portable computer such as a laptop or tablet. Details of the components of the vehicle driving state determination device 10 will be described later. In this embodiment, the vehicle driving state determination device 10 is a computer used by an organization (service provider) that provides data related to vehicle driving, including the fuel consumption of the vehicle 20, to a business operator or other entity that manages the vehicle 20, and makes suggestions for improving vehicle driving. Here, the vehicle driving state determination device 10 is not a single device, but may consist of multiple devices arranged in multiple locations that can send and receive data from each other via a network 40. In other words, multiple devices connected by the network 40 may function as a single vehicle driving state determination device 10 as shown in Figure 1. Therefore, for example, the vehicle driving state determination device 10 may consist of a single computer as its hardware configuration, or it may consist of multiple computers connected by the network 40. When it consists of multiple computers, the storage unit 12 may be a shared memory accessible by each computer.

[0021] The vehicle driving state determination device 10 may constitute a vehicle driving state determination system together with devices mounted on the vehicle 20 connected via a network 40 (detection device 70 and in-vehicle communication device 80). The network 40 is, for example, the Internet. The network 40 may also be configured to include, for example, a LAN (Local Area Network) in part. Here, the vehicle driving state determination system may further include a terminal device 50 used by the user. The user may be, for example, a service provider, or the manager or driver of the vehicle 20. The terminal device 50 is, for example, a general-purpose mobile terminal such as a smartphone or tablet terminal, but is not limited to these. The terminal device 50 may function as a display unit that displays the estimation results output by the output unit 135, which will be described later. The vehicle driving state determination system may also include a storage device 90 (a cloud-based storage device 90) located on the network 40 as seen from the perspective of the vehicle driving state determination device 10 and the devices mounted on the vehicle 20. In this embodiment, the storage device 90 includes a database that stores vehicle driving data, including data related to the driving of the vehicle 20 detected by the detection device 70 mounted on the vehicle 20, as time-series data linked to the vehicle 20 being detected. The vehicle driving data may include, for example, the speed, acceleration, and location information of the vehicle 20. The database also stores vehicle specification data for the vehicle 20. The vehicle specification data includes the weight of the vehicle 20. The vehicle specification data may also include the vehicle model, transmission type, manufacturer, etc. The vehicle specification data may be acquired via the network 40 and stored in the database.

[0022] In this embodiment, the vehicle 20 is equipped with a detection device 70 and an in-vehicle communication device 80. The detection device 70 is a device or in-vehicle system equipped with sensors that generates data related to the driving of the vehicle 20. The detection device 70 includes a GPS device. For example, a car navigation system mounted on the vehicle 20 may be used as the GPS device. The detection device 70 may include a speed sensor. The detection device 70 may also include an acceleration sensor.

[0023] The in-vehicle communication device 80 is a device that outputs data detected by the detection device 70. The in-vehicle communication device 80 may be, for example, a dedicated communication device, but it may also be implemented by the communication function of a digital tachograph mounted on the vehicle 20. The information output from the in-vehicle communication device 80 is stored in the database of the storage device 90 on the cloud. Here, the speed of the vehicle 20 may be directly detected by the speed sensor if the detection device 70 includes a speed sensor, but it may also be calculated from the position information of the vehicle 20 obtained by the GPS device. Similarly, the acceleration of the vehicle 20 may be directly detected by the acceleration sensor, but it may also be calculated from the position or speed information of the vehicle 20.

[0024] The components of the vehicle driving state determination device 10 are described below in detail. The communication unit 11 is composed of one or more communication modules connected to the network 40. The communication unit 11 may include communication modules that support mobile communication standards such as 4G (4th Generation) and 5G (5th Generation). The communication unit 11 may also include communication modules that support wired or wireless LAN standards.

[0025] The storage unit 12 is one or more memories. The memories are, for example, semiconductor memories, magnetic memories, or optical memories, but are not limited to these and can be any type of memory. The storage unit 12 is, for example, built into the vehicle driving state determination device 10, but it is also possible to configure it to be accessed externally by the vehicle driving state determination device 10 via any interface.

[0026] The storage unit 12 stores various data used in various calculations performed by the control unit 13. The storage unit 12 may also store the results and intermediate data of various calculations performed by the control unit 13.

[0027] In this embodiment, the memory unit 12 temporarily stores various information from the database of the cloud storage device 90, which is acquired via the communication unit 11. In addition, in this embodiment, the memory unit 12 stores a learned model that is used to determine the state of the transmission mechanism, which will be described later.

[0028] The control unit 13 is one or more processors. The processors are, for example, general-purpose processors or dedicated processors specialized for specific processing, but are not limited to these and can be any processor. The control unit 13 controls the overall operation of the vehicle driving state determination device 10.

[0029] Here, the vehicle driving state determination device 10 may have the following software configuration. One or more programs used to control the operation of the vehicle driving state determination device 10 are stored in the storage unit 12. When the programs stored in the storage unit 12 are read by the processor of the control unit 13, the control unit 13 is made to function as an acquisition unit 131, a determination unit 132, an engine speed estimation unit 133, a fuel consumption estimation unit 134, and an output unit 135.

[0030] The acquisition unit 131 acquires vehicle driving data. In this embodiment, the acquisition unit 131 also acquires vehicle specification data.

[0031] The determination unit 132 determines the state of the transmission mechanism of the vehicle 20 based on at least the vehicle driving data. The determination unit 132 may use a clustering method. For example, based on the relationship between speed and the state of the transmission mechanism in Figure 3, the determination unit 132 may establish N intervals in the speed and correspond them to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, ..., Nth states of the transmission mechanism. In the example in Figure 3, if the speed is 0 or greater and less than v1, the determination unit 132 may determine that the transmission mechanism is in 1st state. If the speed is v1 or greater and less than v2, the determination unit 132 may determine that the transmission mechanism is in 2nd state. If the speed is v2 or greater and less than v3, the determination unit 132 may determine that the transmission mechanism is in 3rd state. Similarly, intervals of speed may be associated with the states of other transmission mechanisms.

[0032] The determination unit 132 can determine the state of the transmission mechanism without directly acquiring data from the vehicle 20 using the method described above. However, if the determination is made only in the speed range, one range may correspond to multiple transmission mechanism states, resulting in a slight decrease in determination accuracy in such ranges. To improve the determination accuracy, the inventors conducted further investigations and found that the change in time-series data of the vehicle 20 weight multiplied by acceleration differs for each transmission mechanism state. Figure 4 is an example of the time change of the vehicle 20 weight multiplied by acceleration (Ma) according to the transmission mechanism state. In the example in Figure 4, the 4th and 7th examples are shown, but the change in time-series data of the vehicle 20 weight multiplied by acceleration also differs for the other transmission mechanism states.

[0033] Therefore, the determination unit 132 may determine the state of the transmission mechanism of the vehicle 20 based on vehicle driving data (acceleration) and vehicle specification data (weight of the vehicle 20). The state of the transmission mechanism can be determined more accurately based on the value related to the weight of the vehicle 20 (specifically, the value obtained by multiplying the weight of the vehicle 20 by the acceleration), which has a large difference depending on the state of the transmission mechanism. Here, the weight of the vehicle 20 may be distinguished between when the vehicle 20 is loaded and when it is unloaded. Whether or not the vehicle 20 is loaded may be determined based on pressure data from a tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS), for example. In this case, the pressure data from the TPMS may be included in the vehicle driving data, for example.

[0034] Here, the determination unit 132 may determine the state of the vehicle 20's transmission mechanism using a pre-trained machine learning model with time-series data related to the vehicle 20's driving as explanatory variables. In this case, highly accurate determination based on past performance data, experimental data, etc., becomes possible. For example, the acceleration and weight of the vehicle 20 may be extracted from the vehicle 20's past performance data (driving history) or experimental data and multiplied to obtain values ​​that serve as explanatory variables for the training data, and the state of the transmission mechanism corresponding to the explanatory variables may be used as the target variable. Using such training data, a pre-trained model may be generated by machine learning before the determination unit 132 determines the state of the vehicle 20's transmission mechanism. Known machine learning methods can be used and are not limited to any particular method. The pre-generated pre-trained model may be stored in the memory unit 12 and read out when the determination unit 132 determines the state of the vehicle 20's transmission mechanism. The pre-trained model may be generated by the vehicle driving state determination device 10 or by another computer.

[0035] The engine speed estimation unit 133 estimates the engine speed of the vehicle 20 based on time-series data of the vehicle 20's transmission mechanism and time-series data of the vehicle 20's speed. The engine speed estimation unit 133 may estimate the engine speed of the vehicle 20 using a relationship between speed and engine speed (see Figure 3) obtained in advance based on past performance data or experimental data of the vehicle 20. The relationship between speed and engine speed may be stored in the storage unit 12 in advance, for example, in graph (function) or table format, before the engine speed estimation unit 133 estimates the engine speed. The relationship between speed and engine speed may be created by the vehicle driving state determination device 10 or by another computer. With this configuration, the engine speed, which can improve the accuracy of fuel consumption estimation, can be accurately estimated from the time-series data of the transmission mechanism's state.

[0036] The fuel consumption estimation unit 134 estimates the fuel consumption of the vehicle 20 based on time-series data of the engine speed of the vehicle 20 and time-series data of the vehicle speed of the vehicle 20. Here, the fuel consumption may be converted to a value per unit distance and estimated as fuel efficiency. The formula for calculating the fuel efficiency [L / km] of the vehicle 20 is obtained by adding the fuel efficiency related to the tires 30, the fuel efficiency related to the dynamic load radius, and the fuel efficiency related to the engine speed. The fuel efficiency related to the tires 30 is calculated using a known formula based on values ​​such as the air resistance, gradient resistance, and rolling resistance of the tires 30. The fuel efficiency related to the dynamic load radius is calculated using a known formula based on the acceleration and the value obtained by squaring the dynamic load radius. The fuel efficiency related to the engine speed is calculated by multiplying the value obtained by squaring the engine speed by a coefficient and acceleration, and then dividing by the value obtained by squaring the distance traveled. The fuel consumption estimation unit 134 can estimate fuel consumption with high accuracy based on engine speed, using the engine speed estimated by the engine speed estimation unit 133 and the acceleration and distance traveled calculated based on the vehicle speed 20. As a result, the accuracy of estimating the fuel consumption of the vehicle 20 can be improved.

[0037] The output unit 135 outputs the estimation results to a terminal device 50 or the like. For example, the estimated fuel efficiency of the vehicle 20 with respect to its engine speed may be displayed on a terminal device 50 used by the service provider. At this time, the service provider may make suggestions for improving driving to the manager or driver of the vehicle 20 based on the fuel efficiency with respect to its engine speed displayed on the terminal device 50. In addition, the estimated fuel efficiency of the vehicle 20 may be displayed periodically on a terminal device 50 used by the manager or driver of the vehicle 20. At this time, the manager or driver of the vehicle 20 can grasp the degree of improvement in fuel efficiency and plan for even more fuel-efficient driving. As a result, environmentally conscious driving that reduces carbon dioxide emissions from driving will be carried out. The output unit 135 may output not only fuel efficiency but also engine speed information as an estimation result. Furthermore, the output unit 135 may also output the result of determining the state of the transmission mechanism.

[0038] The vehicle driving state determination device 10 according to this embodiment may perform the following vehicle driving state determination method processing. Figure 5 is an example flowchart showing the processing of the vehicle driving state determination method according to this embodiment. First, the acquisition unit 131 acquires vehicle driving data and vehicle specification data (step S1). Next, the determination unit 132 determines the state of the transmission mechanism of the vehicle 20 based on the vehicle driving data and vehicle specification data (step S2). The engine speed estimation unit 133 estimates the engine speed of the vehicle 20 based on the time-series data of the transmission mechanism of the vehicle 20 and the time-series data of the speed of the vehicle 20 (step S3). The fuel consumption estimation unit 134 estimates the fuel consumption of the vehicle 20 based on the time-series data of the engine speed of the vehicle 20 and the time-series data of the speed of the vehicle 20 (step S4). The output unit 135 outputs the estimated fuel consumption and other results to a terminal device 50 or the like (step S5).

[0039] As described above, the vehicle driving state determination device 10, program, and vehicle driving state determination method according to this embodiment can determine the state of the transmission mechanism without directly acquiring information from the vehicle 20, thanks to the above configuration. Based on the determined state of the transmission mechanism, the vehicle driving state determination device 10, program, and vehicle driving state determination method according to this embodiment can estimate a correlated engine speed. Since engine speed information is obtained, it becomes possible to improve the accuracy of fuel consumption estimation.

[0040] While embodiments of this disclosure have been described based on the drawings and examples, it should be noted that those skilled in the art will find it easy to make various modifications or alterations based on this disclosure. Therefore, it should be noted that these modifications or alterations are included within the scope of this disclosure. For example, the functions included in each component or step can be rearranged in a logically consistent manner, and multiple components or steps can be combined into one or separated. Embodiments relating to this disclosure can also be realized as storage media recording programs executed by a processor in the device. These are also understood to be included within the scope of this disclosure. Contribution to the United Nations-led Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

[0041] The SDGs have been proposed to realize a sustainable society. One embodiment of this disclosure is considered to be a technology that can contribute to "No. 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure" and other goals. [Explanation of Symbols]

[0042] 10. Vehicle Driving State Determination Device 11 Communications Department 12 Storage section 13 Control Unit 20 vehicles 30 tires 40 Networks 50 Terminal devices 70 Detection device 80 In-vehicle communication device 90 Storage device 131 Acquisition Department 132 Judgment section 133 Engine speed estimation unit 134 Fuel consumption estimation section 135 Output section

Claims

1. An acquisition unit that acquires vehicle driving data, including data related to the vehicle's movement detected by a detection device mounted on the vehicle, A vehicle driving state determination device comprising: a determination unit that determines the state of the vehicle's transmission mechanism based on the aforementioned vehicle driving data.

2. The vehicle driving state determination device according to claim 1, wherein the determination unit determines the state of the vehicle's transmission mechanism using a pre-trained machine learning model with time-series data relating to the vehicle's driving as explanatory variables.

3. The acquisition unit acquires vehicle specification data, including the weight of the vehicle. The vehicle driving state determination device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the determination unit determines the state of the vehicle's transmission mechanism based on the vehicle driving data and the vehicle specification data.

4. The vehicle driving state determination device according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising an engine speed estimation unit that estimates the engine speed of the vehicle based on time-series data of the state of the vehicle's transmission mechanism and time-series data of the vehicle's speed.

5. The vehicle driving state determination device according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising a fuel consumption estimation unit that estimates the fuel consumption of the vehicle based on time-series data of the engine speed of the vehicle and time-series data of the vehicle's speed.

6. In the vehicle driving status determination device, To acquire vehicle driving data, including data related to the vehicle's movement detected by a detection device mounted on the vehicle, A program that determines the state of the vehicle's transmission mechanism based on the aforementioned vehicle driving data.

7. A method for determining the vehicle driving state performed by a vehicle driving state determination device, The vehicle driving state determination device, To acquire vehicle driving data, including data related to the vehicle's movement detected by a detection device mounted on the vehicle, A method for determining the state of a vehicle's driving condition, comprising determining the state of the vehicle's transmission mechanism based on the aforementioned vehicle driving data.

Images