Reporting methods within an intelligent transportation system

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for transmitting a Collective Perception Message (CPM), the method being directed to an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) having at least one originating ITS station ITS-S, comprising, in the at least one originating ITS-S, the following steps: transmit a CPM reporting information about at least one object detected in an area monitored by the originating ITS-S, where the reported information includes safety-critical classification information indicating whether the detected object is critical to the safety of the monitored area.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates generally to Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), and more specifically to Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS). [Background technology]

[0002] Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) is an emerging technology for future traffic management that aims to improve road safety, traffic efficiency and driver experience.

[0003] Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), as defined by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), include various types of communications such as: - Vehicle-to-vehicle (e.g. car-to-car) communications. - Communication between vehicles and fixed locations (e.g. car-to-infrastructure).

[0004] C-ITS is not limited to road traffic itself. More generally, C-ITS can be defined as the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) for rail, water, and air traffic, including navigation systems. Such various types of C-ITS generally rely on radio services for communication and use dedicated technologies.

[0005] Such C-ITS systems are subject to standards specified for each country and / or region in which the C-ITS system is implemented. Currently, in Europe, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is responsible for developing the specifications that form the standards to which C-ITS systems apply.

[0006] Coordination within the C-ITS is achieved by the exchange of messages, called ITS messages, between ITS Stations (denoted ITS-S), which may be vehicles, Road Side Units (RSUs), Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) carrying ITS devices (e.g., contained in smartphones, GPS, smart watches, or cyclist equipment), or any other entity or infrastructure equipped with ITS devices, as well as Central Subsystems (back-end systems and traffic management centers).

[0007] ITS may support various types of communication, for example communication between vehicles, which refers to any kind of road user, such as car-to-car (vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V)), or communication between vehicles and fixed locations, such as car-to-infrastructure (V2I) and infrastructure-to-vehicle (I2V).

[0008] Such message exchanges may be carried out over wireless networks known as V2X (vehicle to x) networks, examples of which may include 3GPP LTE-Advanced Pro, 3GPP 5G, or IEEE 802.11p technologies.

[0009] Currently, a new awareness service called Cooperative Awareness Service is described in ETSI TS 103 324. Such a service allows the transmission of descriptive information (e.g. location and / or kinematic information) about objects detected by on-board sensor systems integrated in ITS stations. This information is transmitted via ITS messages called Collective Perception Messages (CPM).

[0010] Such a CPM is well suited for RSUs embedded in fixed roadside entities that monitor a particular area using embedded sensors. In the current stage of the standard, CPM is used without any additional information to individually report the objects present in a particular area.

[0011] Nevertheless, if a particular area to be monitored is a security sensitive area, only descriptive information about the detected objects, e.g., their position and velocity relative to the RSU, is provided in the CPM. In case of an abnormal situation or if the detected objects constitute a security risk in the monitored area, each of the receiving neighboring stations individually analyzes the risk via the received CPM.

[0012] Indeed, as explained earlier, an RSU only reports objects detected using CPM to its neighbors, regardless of whether the object poses a risk to the safety of the area. Thus, upon receiving these messages, a potential critical safety analysis is performed by each receiving station, which determines its safety risk level individually.

[0013] Such analysis is therefore performed at the receiving station after processing of the received CPM is completed, and therefore takes time, shortening the time to initiate emergency procedures if a safety risk is identified at the receiving station.

[0014] Therefore, in order to keep the monitored area secure, a system must be implemented to reduce this processing time. Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0015] The present invention has been made to address one or more of the above-mentioned problems. [Means for solving the problem]

[0016] According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) including at least one originating ITS station (ITS-S) for transmitting a Collective Perception Message (CPM), comprising: transmitting CPM report information related to at least one object detected within a monitoring area of ​​the originating ITS-S; The report information includes safety-critical classification information indicating whether the detected object is critical to the safety of the monitored area.

[0017] Such a method thus enables an ITS-S to provide safety-critical classification information for a detected object to other ITS-S in the ITS.

[0018] Thus, thanks to this safety-critical classification information, the receiving station can quickly determine whether the safety of the monitored area is at risk (i.e., as described above, that an object within the monitored area constitutes a safety risk) and further determine which object detected by the fixed roadside entity 120 is the cause of this safety concern.

[0019] Correspondingly, an ITS station (ITS-S) within the Intelligent Transport System (ITS) is further provided, and the originating ITS-S: one or more embedded sensors monitoring a given surveillance area to detect objects; an analysis module that processes the data provided by the sensors to provide a list of detected objects within the surveillance area; a safety-critical classification module that processes the list of detected objects to provide safety-critical classification information associated with each detected object; and a communication module configured to transmit a collective perception message (CPM) having information related to at least one of the detected objects within the monitored area, the information related to at least one of the detected objects comprising the associated safety-critical classification information provided by a safety-critical classification module.

[0020] Further provided is a method for an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) including at least one originating ITS station (ITS-S) and at least one receiving ITS station for processing a collective perception message (CPM), the method comprising, in the at least one receiving ITS-S: receiving CPM report information related to at least one object detected within a monitoring area monitored by said originating ITS-S; obtaining safety-critical classification information from the report information, the safety-critical classification information indicating whether the object is critical to the safety of the monitored area; It is determined whether the object is classified as critical to the security of the monitored area.

[0021] Optional features of embodiments of the first aspect of the invention are defined in the appended claims. Features formulated in the appended claims relating to a method may be replaced by system features specific to any device according to embodiments of the invention.

[0022] According to some embodiments, a detected object may be reported separately if said detected object is classified as critical to the safety of the monitored area.

[0023] According to some embodiments, the method further comprises the steps of: if the detected object is not classified as critical for the security of the monitored area, prior to the transmitting step: determining whether the detected object can be reported together with at least one other detected object that is not classified as critical for the security of the monitored area, thereby forming a group of the detected objects according to a predefined grouping rule; The CPM report information relating to the detected objects may be reported in groups according to the determining step.

[0024] According to some embodiments, the method further comprises, prior to the transmitting step: determining the safety-critical classification information of the detected object; determining at least one other detected object that may be reported together with the detected object according to predefined grouping rules; The at least one other detected object may be associated with the same safety-critical classification information as the determined safety-critical classification information of the detected object.

[0025] According to some embodiments, the method further comprises, prior to the transmitting step: determining safety-criticality classification information of the detected object, the safety-criticality classification information including a safety-criticality level; determining whether the safety-critical level of the detected object is higher than a corresponding safety-critical level threshold; The method may further comprise decreasing a minimum elapsed time between two successive CPM generating events if the safety-critical level of the detected object is higher than the corresponding safety-critical level threshold.

[0026] According to some embodiments, the method of transmitting includes, prior to the transmitting step, determining events that constitute a safety risk for the monitored area; The transmitting step may be triggered in response to detecting the event.

[0027] According to some embodiments, the safety-criticality classification information comprises a safety-criticality level, and the method further comprises: This may include disabling any mechanisms for preventing detected objects associated with a safety-criticality level higher than a corresponding safety-criticality level threshold from being reported in the CPM.

[0028] According to some embodiments, the CPM may include data elements (perceptual object containers) configured to contain information related to either an individually reported object or a group of detected objects that make up a reported object.

[0029] According to some embodiments, the perceptual object container may have a dedicated data field indicating safety-critical classification information of either an individually reported object or a group of detected objects that includes the reported object.

[0030] According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) including at least one originating ITS station (ITS-S) for transmitting a Collective Perception Message (CPM), the method comprising, in the at least one originating ITS-S: transmitting CPM report information relating to at least one object detected within a monitoring area monitored by said originating ITS-S and reported together with at least one other detected object, thereby forming a group of detected objects; All objects reported within the group of detected objects are classified as not safety-critical.

[0031] The advantage of using such group reports is that the transmitted CPM is more compact since features common to the detected objects of the group are filtered out. The CPM transmitted in this way is shorter since it contains, at the group level, descriptive information common to all detected objects of the group. Furthermore, processing at the receiving station is advantageous since such grouping reduces the number of objects to compare and / or process.

[0032] Further, a method for processing a collective perception message (CPM) is provided, the method being directed to an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) having at least one originating ITS station (ITS-S) and at least one receiving ITS, the method comprising the steps of: receiving CPM report information relating to at least one object detected within an area monitored by the originating ITS-S, said at least one object being reported together with at least one other detected object, thereby forming a group of detected objects; classifying all detected objects belonging to said group as not critical to the security of said monitored area.

[0033] Optional features of the embodiments of the second aspect are defined in the appended claims. Features formulated in the appended claims relating to the method may be replaced by system features specific to any device according to embodiments of the invention.

[0034] According to some embodiments, the safety-critical classification information may be a one-bit flag that is set to 1 if the object is classified as critical to the safety of the monitored area, and is set to 0 otherwise.

[0035] According to some embodiments, prior to the transmitting step, the method further comprises: selecting, from among the objects detected by the originating ITS-S, the objects to be reported in the transmitted CPM, The CPM may report information associated with each selected object.

[0036] According to some embodiments, the selecting step comprises, for each detected object: obtaining current safety-critical classification information of the detected object; Obtaining previous safety-critical classification information of the detected object that was previously transmitted in a previous CPM; and and selecting the detected object if the current safety-critical classification information differs from the previous safety-critical classification information.

[0037] According to some embodiments, the previous safety-critical classification information and the current safety-critical classification information may be the same, and the method further comprises: obtaining a previous value of at least one reporting parameter of the detected object previously transmitted in a previous CPM; obtaining current values ​​of the reporting parameters of the detected object; selecting the detected object if a difference between the current value and the previous value of the reported parameter is greater than a predefined threshold.

[0038] According to some embodiments, the reporting parameter may be one of a position, a velocity, or an acceleration relative to the originating station.

[0039] According to some embodiments, the selected object may be one of a vulnerable road user (VRU) or a vehicle.

[0040] According to some embodiments, the CPM may include a data element that is a perceptual object container configured to contain information relating to either the individually reported object or the group of detected objects that includes the reported object.

[0041] According to some embodiments, the perceptual object container may have a data field dedicated to indicating safety-critical classification information of either the individually reported object or the group of detected objects that includes the reported object.

[0042] According to a third aspect, there is provided a method directed to an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) including at least one originating ITS station (ITS-S) and at least one receiving ITS-S for processing a collective perception message (CPM), the method comprising: receiving CPM report information relating to at least one object detected within an area monitored by said originating ITS-S, said at least one object being reported together with at least one other detected object, thereby forming a group of detected objects; and obtaining safety-critical classification information common to all the objects of the group of detected objects from the reported information, the safety-critical classification information indicating whether the group of detected objects is classified as safety-critical in the monitored area.

[0043] Optional features of the third aspect of the invention are defined in the accompanying claims. Features formulated in the accompanying claims with respect to a method may be replaced by features of a system specific to any device according to an embodiment of the invention.

[0044] According to a fourth aspect, there is provided a method directed to an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) including at least one originating ITS station (ITS-S) for transmitting a Collective Perception Message (CPM), the method comprising: transmitting CPM report information relating to at least one object detected within an area monitored by the originating ITS-S and reported together with at least one other detected object, thereby forming a group of detected objects, according to predefined grouping rules; The at least one object and the at least one further detected object are VRUs having different profiles according to ETSI 103 300-3.

[0045] Optional features of embodiments of the fourth aspect are defined in the appended claims. Features formulated in the appended claims relating to a method may be replaced by system features specific to any device according to embodiments of the invention.

[0046] According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a collective perception message (CPM) transmitted by an originating station of an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS), the collective perception message comprising at least one perceived object container comprising information related to a reported object, the perceived object container further comprising a dedicated data element for reporting safety-critical classification information of the reported object indicating whether the reported object is classified as critical to the safety of an area monitored by the originating station.

[0047] Optional features of embodiments of the fifth aspect are defined in the accompanying claims.

[0048] In some embodiments, the originating ITS-S may further have a certificate granted by a certification authority that includes authorization to provide safety-critical classification information.

[0049] According to some embodiments, a method for transmitting a collective perception message (CPM) is provided, the method being directed to an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) having at least one originating ITS station (ITS-S), the method comprising: Determining safety-critical classification information of at least one detected object in an area monitored by the originating ITS-S, the safety-critical classification information indicating whether the detected object is critical to the safety of the monitored area, the safety-critical classification information including a safety-critical level; determining safety-criticality classification information of the detected object, the safety-criticality classification information including a safety-criticality level; Determining whether a safety-critical level of the detected object is higher than a corresponding safety-critical level threshold; decreasing a minimum time that elapses between two successive CPM generating events when a safety-critical level of the detected object is higher than a corresponding safety-critical level threshold; selecting a time greater than the minimum time value and setting a timer to the selected time; When the timer expires, transmitting CPM report information related to detected objects within an area monitored by the originating ITS-S, the reported information including the safety-critical classification information of the detected objects.

[0050] According to some embodiments, a method for transmitting a collective perception message (CPM) is provided, the method being directed to an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) having at least one originating ITS station (ITS-S), the method comprising: - detecting events constituting a safety risk in the monitored area using data from the sensors of the originating ITS-S; and in response to the detection of an event constituting a safety risk to the monitored area, transmitting CPM report information relating to what was detected within the area monitored by the originating ITS-S, including safety-critical classification information of the detected object; The reporting information includes the safety-critical classification information of the detected object.

[0051] At least some of the methods according to the invention may be computer-implemented. Thus, the invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, microcode, etc.), or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects, all of which may be referred to generally herein as a "circuit," "module," or "system." Furthermore, the invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied in any tangible medium of expression having computer usable program code embodied in the medium.

[0052] Since the present invention can be implemented in software, the present invention can be implemented as computer readable code for provision to a programmable device on any suitable carrier medium. The tangible non-transitory carrier medium may comprise a storage medium such as a floppy disk, a CD-ROM, a hard disk drive, a magnetic tape device, or a solid-state memory device. The transient carrier medium may include an electric signal, an electronic signal, an optical signal, an acoustic signal, a magnetic signal, or an electromagnetic signal, such as a microwave or RE signal. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0053] Further advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from a study of the drawings and detailed description, and embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the following drawings, in which: [Figure 1]FIG. 1 illustrates a typical Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) in which the present invention may be implemented. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 shows an example of a list of predefined safety rules according to the present invention. [Diagram 3] FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a structure of a collective perception message according to the present invention. [Figure 4] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a Service Specific Permission (SSP) item that can be specified in a certificate of a CPM according to the present invention. [Diagram 5] FIG. 2 illustrates, by means of a flow chart, the steps of a communication method for transmitting a CPM including safety-critical classification information according to a first embodiment of the invention. [Figure 6] FIG. 2 shows the same exemplary ITS as in FIG. 1, where the in-group reporting object according to the second aspect of the invention is implemented and detected VRUs are grouped into groups. [Figure 7] FIG. 2 illustrates, by means of a flow chart, the steps of a method for indicating reporting rules applied to allocation objects that are systematically marked to be reported by the next CPM sent. [Figure 8] FIG. 1 illustrates, using a flow chart, method steps for indicating reporting rules that apply to previously individually tracked assigned objects. [Figure 9] FIG. 2 illustrates, by means of a flow chart, the steps of a method for indicating reporting rules to be applied to assigned objects previously tracked within a group of reported detected objects. [Figure 10] A diagram illustrating, using a flowchart, the steps of a communication method for generating a perceptual object container to be included in a transmitted CPM corresponding to an object selected to be reported by a collective perceptual service that includes a group of objects. [Figure 11]FIG. 5 illustrates, by means of a flow chart, the steps of a communication method for transmitting CPMs including safety-critical classification information according to a second embodiment of the invention. [Figure 12] A diagram illustrating, using a flowchart, the steps of a method for indicating reporting rules to be applied to assigned objects that are systematically marked to be reported by the next CPM to be transmitted, taking into account safety-critical classification information related to the assigned objects. [Figure 13] FIG. 2 illustrates, in a flow chart, schematic steps of a method for indicating reporting rules to be applied to pre-tracked individually assigned objects taking into account safety-critical classification information associated with the assigned objects. [Figure 14] FIG. 1 illustrates, using a flowchart, method steps for indicating reporting rules to be applied to assigned objects previously tracked within a reporting group, taking into account safety-critical classification information associated with the assigned objects. [Figure 15] FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating, by means of a flowchart, steps of a communication method for transmitting a CPM including safety-critical classification information according to a second embodiment of the present invention, which is capable of grouping detected VRUs into groups while taking safety-criticality into account. [Figure 16] FIG. 2 illustrates the same exemplary ITS as in FIG. 1 for reporting objects in groups according to a second embodiment, where detected VRUs are grouped into groups while taking into account safety-critical classification information associated with each VRU. [Figure 17] 1 illustrates generally an example of a communications device configured to implement an embodiment of the present invention; [Figure 18] FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram illustrating, using a flowchart, an example of steps of a communication method for transmitting a CPM including safety-critical classification information according to another embodiment of the present invention, which allows grouping detected VRUs into groups while taking safety into consideration. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0054] Lists and names of elements (e.g., data elements) provided in the following description are merely examples, and embodiments are not limited thereto and other names may be used.

[0055] Embodiments of the present invention are intended to be implemented in an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS), an example of such a system 100 is shown in FIG.

[0056] In this example, the ITS 100 is implemented at an intersection and comprises a fixed roadside entity 120 and several entities, all of which may carry or comprise an ITS station (ITS-S) for transmitting and / or receiving ITS messages within the ITS. The several entities may be, for example, vehicles 141 and 149, a motorcycle 154, four moving bicycles 156, 157, 158 and 161, as well as pedestrians 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 150, 151, 152, 153, 155, 160, and animals 159.

[0057] The fixed roadside entity 120 comprises a set of sensors, such as an imager, here a digital video camera 110, and an analysis module for analyzing the data provided by the sensors, such as a Video Content Analysis (VCA) module 121. The digital video camera 110 is configured to scan a surveillance area, i.e. an intersection, and thus reproduce an image of the surveillance area.

[0058] Different types of sensors may be embedded in the ITS-S and can be used by the ITS stations to analyze the surrounding situation. For example, the sensors may be cameras, infrared cameras, lidars, radars. The ITS radio elements that allow receiving ITS messages are also considered as sensors, since they allow receiving any type of message, such as Cooperative Awareness Messages (CAM), VRU Awareness Messages (VAM) or Decentralized Environmental Notification Messages (DENM), such as messages indicating the location of an object (CAM indicates the location of the vehicle and VAM indicates the location of the VRU) or messages of warnings (in DENM) related to the location of an object.

[0059] The sensor and analysis module, i.e., digital video camera 110 and VCA module 121, are connected such that VCA module 121 processes the stream captured by sensor / digital video camera 110. According to some embodiments, the analysis module and sensor may be separate from roadside entity 120 or may be embedded therein. For example, the analysis module may be wired to digital video camera 110, which may be remote (i.e., not embedded in roadside entity 120).

[0060] The processing by an analysis module, for example the VCA module 121, aims to detect objects potentially present in the monitored area, hereinafter called "perceived objects" or "detected objects". A confidence level is associated with each object detected by the VCA module. If multiple sensors are available by the ITS station, the analysis module can also fuse the various detections so that the same object detected by multiple sensors is identified at once.

[0061] The analysis module, e.g., the VCA module 121, is also configured to output a list of objects detected with a sufficiently high confidence level, each associated with corresponding descriptive information called a state vector, which may include parameters such as location, kinematic, temporal, behavioral, or classification information.

[0062] Thus, the analysis module can identify, among the detected objects, pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists, as well as Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs), such as people with disabilities or people with reduced mobility or orientation. Such VRUs carry ITS devices, for example included in smartphones, GPS, smart watches or cyclist equipment.

[0063] For example, in the illustrated example, the VCA module 121 captures the following detected objects by scanning the area: - objects 170 and 163 corresponding to vehicles 141 and 149 on the road, respectively; - objects 181, 182, 184 and 186 corresponding to pedestrians 146, 147, 155 and 160 on the road and on the cycle path, respectively; - an object 183 corresponding to a dog being led by a pedestrian 160 on the sidewalk (i.e. a detected object 184); - objects 185 and 176 corresponding to the motorcycle 154 and bicycle 161 on the sidewalk and road, respectively; - objects 171a, 171b, 171c, 171d, 174a, 174b, 174c, 174d corresponding to pedestrians 142, 143, 144, 145, 150, 151, 152, 153 respectively; - objects 187a, 187b, and 187c corresponding to cyclists traveling on bicycles 156, 157, and 158, respectively;

[0064] According to some embodiments, each entity is detected individually.

[0065] Further, the detected object may be classified, for example, according to whether the ITS station is a vehicle, a VRU, an RSU, or another type. Such classification may be based on predefined rules, for example, provided by the roadside entity 120 or, more generally, during the setup of the ITS-S.

[0066] According to some embodiments, detected VRUs may be classified according to their "vulnerability", i.e. according to the VRU profiles described in ETSI 103 300-3 related to VRU-aware basic services. Herein, VRU profile 1 corresponds to pedestrians, VRU profile 2 corresponds to bicyclists, VRU profile 3 corresponds to motorcyclists, and VRU profile 4 corresponds to animals. Thus, in the illustrated example, motorcycle 154 is classified in VRU profile 3, bicycles 156, 157, 158 and 161 in VRU profile 2, and 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 150, 151, 152, 153, 155, 160 in VRU profile 1.

[0067] The invention proposes to implement within the ITS-S an additional module called safety-critical classification module 122. This module can be embedded within the ITS and can be associated with any entity of the ITS, for example a roadside entity 120, or a vehicle, or a VRU, such as a motorcyclist. In this example, such a safety-critical classification module 122 is embedded within the roadside entity 120. Such a safety-critical classification module 122 aims to analyze each detected object and can determine for each object its safety-criticality.

[0068] The safety-critical classification module 122 may be separate from or embedded within an associated entity, such as the roadside entity 120. Such a safety-critical classification module 122 may be connected (wired or wirelessly) to both the analysis module VCA 121 and to the communication module, allowing the roadside entity 120 to share information within the ITS system.

[0069] By definition, a safety-critical object is a detected object whose presence in a monitored area poses a safety risk to other objects in the area. Such safety-critical classification information is intended to warn about dangerous situations in the monitored area. For example, as seen in Fig. 1, pedestrians 146, 147 and dog 159 are considered safety-critical objects (according to predefined safety-critical classification rules, e.g., collision risk) because their presence on the road poses a danger to car 170 and bicycle 161. And so are bicycles 156, 157, 158 relative to pedestrian 155, and car 149 relative to both of them.

[0070] The safety-critical classification of the detected objects by the safety-critical classification module 122 can be based on predefined safety-critical classification rules for the monitored area. These safety-critical classification rules are applied to the detected objects using the relevant descriptive information of the detected objects provided by the VCA module 121. This makes it possible to identify potential risks or abnormal situations and, consequently, to determine a safety-critical classification for each detected object.

[0071] The safety-critical classification of the detected objects may be developed such that the safety-critical classification information for the detected objects in the monitored area may be evaluated several times, for example periodically, and a data history of the safety-critical classification information for the detected objects in the monitored area may be registered.

[0072] According to some embodiments, such predefined safety-critical classification rules may be specified during initialization of the safety-critical classification module 122, for example, at installation of the roadside entity 120.

[0073] For example, a safety-critical classification rule may correspond to a list of criteria that an object must fulfill in whole or in part in order to be classified as either safety-critical or non-safety-critical. For example, such criteria may include (but are not limited to): a sub-area of ​​the monitored area corresponding to the area to which the safety-critical classification rule applies, a class of the sub-area corresponding to the sub-area to which the safety-critical classification rule applies (a class of sub-area may be, for example, a cycle path, a footpath, a crosswalk, a roadside, etc.), and descriptive information values ​​(position, kinematics, classification, etc.) of the detected object for which the safety-critical classification rule is specified.

[0074] An example of a list of predefined safety-critical classification rules specified for the monitoring area of ​​Fig. 1 is shown in Fig. 2. Naturally, the list of predefined safety-critical classification rules can be adapted according to the particularities of the monitoring area and the local laws regarding the traffic of road users.

[0075] In this example, the predefined safety-critical classification rules are applied to VRUs in the monitored area. Nevertheless, in some embodiments, predefined safety-critical classification rules may be assigned to any vehicle and VRU, or more generally to any class of entity that may move within the observed area. For example, the predefined safety-critical classification rules used by the safety-critical classification module 122 may pertain to a particular object, such as a VRU.

[0076] Thus, by applying the exemplary list of predefined safety-critical classification rules set forth in FIG. 2 on ITS 100, the following detected objects are classified as safety-critical: VRU pedestrians 146 and 147 crossing the road at a non-pedestrian crossing, VRU animals 159 on the roadside, motorcycles 154 riding on the sidewalk at speeds above 5 km / h, pedestrians 155 on the cycle path, and bicycles 161 going the wrong way.

[0077] The roadside entity 120 further comprises a Roadside Unit (RSU) 123 which includes a roadside ITS-S as specified in the reference architecture for ITS stations defined in version V1.1.1 of the ETSI EN 302 665 specification. By means of the RSU 123 the roadside entity 120 is able to share information about the detected objects and, according to the invention, about the safety-critical classification of each of the detected objects with other ITS-S of the ITS system.

[0078] Such sharing is performed using ITS messages, in particular the so-called Collective Perception Messages 130 defined in documents ETSI TR 103 562 and ETSI TS 103 324. CPMs are used by the roadside entity 120 to share its perceptual environment, i.e. detected objects, with the receiving ITS stations. In this document, the expressions "originating ITS-S" and "receiving ITS-S" are used to designate the ITS-S that transmits an ITS message and the ITS-S that receives an ITS message, respectively. According to some embodiments, such CPMs are transmitted periodically by the originating ITS-S.

[0079] An example of the format of a CPM according to the present invention is shown in FIG. 3, which is based on the CPM format defined in version 0.0.20 of the ETSI TS 103 324 specification.

[0080] The CPM 300 reports descriptive information associated with each object detected by the VCA module 121 with a sufficiently high confidence level.

[0081] To that end, the CPM 300 includes an ITS PDU Header 310 , a “CPM Parameters” field 320 , and a Certificate 330 .

[0082] The ITS PDU header 310 contains information related to the protocol used and the type of message, ie, the CPM message type.

[0083] The “CPM Parameters” field 320 can include a Management Container 325, a Station Data Container 340, one or more optional Sensor Information Containers (SIC) 350, one or more optional Perceived Object Containers (POC) 360, and one or more optional Free Space Containers (FSC) 480.

[0084] The management container 325 contains information about the type of station from which the CPM originates. There may be at least two types of ITS-S, namely those embedded in / carried by the entities presented with reference to Fig. 1 and those embedded in fixed roadside entities. For example, it may be indicated in this field that the CPM originates from an ITS-S embedded in the RSU 123. Furthermore, the management container 325 contains information related to the reference point of the originating ITS station, which corresponds to the reference position of the originating ITS station defined in the ETSI 102 894 standard.

[0085] The station data container 340 is an optional field and its content varies whether the originating ITS station is fixed or mobile. In a mobile ITS-S, e.g., a CPM generated by a vehicle 120, 130, the station data container 340 is mandatory and contains dynamic information of the originating ITS-S (e.g., speed, heading, and optionally other information such as longitudinal and / or lateral and / or vertical acceleration, yaw rate, pitch / roll angle, etc.). In a CPM generated by a fixed ITS station, e.g., an RSU 123, the station data container 340 is optional and provides a reference to an identification number provided by the MAP (Road Topology) message defined in CEN ISO / TS 19091:2017, transmitted by the RSU 123.

[0086] Each sensor information container 350 contains information related to the sensor capabilities of a given sensor of the originating ITS-S. For example, the sensor information container 350 may contain the type of sensor (e.g., camera, infrared camera, radar, radio, etc.), the coverage area (e.g., a polygon on a map representing the area observable through the given sensor). Depending on the station type of the originating ITS station, different container specifications may be used to encode the sensor characteristics. The sensor information container may be included less frequently in the CPM than other containers, as defined in the above-mentioned ETSI TR 103 562 specification.

[0087] A perceptual object container 360 is provided for each detected object, corresponding to each entity detected individually via the embedded sensor of the originating ITS-S. Referring to Fig. 1, objects detected by the roadside entity 120 are shown. To share information related to these objects, the RSUs 123 of the roadside entity 120 may share a CPM comprising one or more perceptual object containers 360, each related to a detected object.

[0088] The Perceptual Object Container 360 consists of a sequence of optional or mandatory Data Elements (DE) with one or more Data Fields (DF) that provide a detailed description of the dynamic state and characteristics of the detected (i.e., perceived) object.

[0089] As shown in FIG. 3, through field 370, the description information of the perceptual object may comprise: - The identifier of the detected object, called the DE objectID. a measurement time called DE timeOfMeasurement, which corresponds to the time difference between the measurement time of the provision information and the creation time of the management container 325 described in the management container 325; - The confidence level of the object, which corresponds to the confidence level associated with the object, called DE objectConfidnece. - A reference point (DE objectRefPoint) that corresponds to the reference point of the detected object. By default, the reference point is the center point of the detected object. - distances determined according to a reference system fixed to the originating ITS-S, for example denoted by three DFs: xDistance, yDistance and zDistance, so that the distances are determined relative to the three directions x, y and z of the reference frame, which together represent the distance between the perceived object and the reference point of the originating ITS station at the time of measurement. - the speed relative to the reference point of the originating ITS station at the time of measurement, e.g., the speed is given by three DFs xSpeed, ySpeed ​​and zSpeed, which represent the speed of a detected object as determined relative to the three directions x, y and z of the reference frame. - Acceleration relative to the reference point of the originating ITS station at the time of measurement, i.e. acceleration, like velocity, is indicated with three DFs: xAcceleration, yAcceleration, zAcceleration, with respect to the three directions of the reference frame fixed at the originating ITS-S. - Dynamic Status (DE dynamicStatus), which provides the ability of the originating ITS-S to move away from a perceived object. - dimension, which indicates the perceived dimension of the object. The dimension can be indicated by three DFs: planarObjectDimension1, planarObjectDimension2, verticalObjectDimension. - A classification within DE Classification, which provides a classification of the objects to be recognized.

[0090] According to some embodiments, the DE Classification may be used to indicate whether the detected object is a vehicle or a VRU. In particular, when the detected object is a VRU, within the DE Classification, a VRU profile as previously described herein may be specified.

[0091] According to the present invention, the CPM 300, in particular the perceptual object container 360, may further comprise a new optional DF 371 called "safety-critical level" to report its safety-critical classification level for each detected object according to the predefined safety-critical classification rules listed in FIG. 2.

[0092] This new DF371, which relates to the safety-critical classification level, can provide, for each individual detected object, an indication as to whether the detected object is a safety-critical object, as defined above.

[0093] According to some embodiments, DF371 may be a flag, e.g., a one-bit flag, such that the bit value is set to 1 for detected objects classified as safety-critical and set to 0 for those classified as non-safety-critical, as shown in FIG. 2. [Table 1]

[0094] According to some embodiments, the safety criticality level is an integer value, where a 0 value means that the object is not detected as safety critical, i.e. no safety risk is detected, and higher values ​​mean that the object is detected as a safety risk with various levels of criticality.

[0095] For example, a vehicle that may cause a collision at low speed with another vehicle is associated with a low safety criticality level since it has a low risk of injury to road users. Conversely, a vehicle that may cause injury to a VRU is associated with a higher safety criticality level since it has a high risk of injury. Thus, the value of the safety criticality level may depend on the importance of the risk that the object constitutes to the monitored area, for example, whether the object may cause injury to road users, especially the VRU. [Table 2]

[0096] In one variation, the safety-critical level may be a percentage value. [Table 3]

[0097] To determine the safety-critical status of an object, the objectSafetyCriticalLevel can be compared to a threshold, SafetyCriticalLevel_threshold. Objects with a level higher than the threshold are considered safety-critical objects.

[0098] The threshold value may be a predetermined value that is defined in advance in a standard or profile.

[0099] Alternatively, the threshold may depend on the type of ITS station, with a VRU ITS station having a lower threshold than a vehicle ITS.

[0100] The threshold may also vary depending on the surrounding conditions: for example, if there is a high number of detected vehicles or a high number of objects with a high SafetyCriticalLevel value, the threshold may be increased to limit the number of objects reported.

[0101] According to some embodiments, the safety-critical classification is included in a data element of the CPM, for example, other than the sensory object container.

[0102] The CPM 300 further includes a certificate 330 that contains instructions related to the different permissions granted to the originating ITS-S by the certificate authority.

[0103] In the described ITS, to secure V2X communications within the ITS 100, a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) defined in version 1.1.1 of the ETSI TS 102 731 specification may be used to provide the security and validation required to trust the originating ITS-S. PKI-based security may be implemented through the use of certificates delivered to the ITS authority by a certification authority.

[0104] Thus, each exchanged ITS message is made with CPM parameters 320, which are unencrypted messages accompanied by a digital signature, an anonymous certificate (also called an authentication ticket) that verifies the authenticity of the originating ITS-S and the integrity of the message while preserving the anonymity of the originating ITS-S. To communicate within an ITS, an ITS-S may be equipped with one or more authentication tickets and may use the authentication tickets to communicate.

[0105] The information provided to the DF 371 of the CPM 300 about the safety-critical classification of the different entities present in the monitored zone should preferably come from a station that is considered safe for security reasons.

[0106] Thus, the authentication ticket may comprise instructions related to the privileges and permissions of the originating ITS-S to send a particular ITS message, in particular the CPM 300 comprising the DF 371.

[0107] To do this, for example, the authentication ticket may contain a field called ITS AID, which contains a list of services that the station is authorized to access and use, as specified in ETSI TR 102 965. In particular, a specific one is dedicated to the Cooperative Awareness Service, which indicates that the sender is entitled to send CPMs. The authentication ticket also contains a field called ITS AID Service Specific Permissions (SSP), which indicates a specific set of permissions among the overall permissions indicated by the ITS-AID. Its format is specified in ETSI TS 103 097.

[0108] According to some embodiments, as discussed above, an SSP is provided that may be specified in the certificate of a CPM that includes DF 371. An example of an SSP 400 is shown in FIG.

[0109] The SSP 400 may comprise three octets 410, 420, and 430. The first octet 410 identifies the SSP version, while the second octet 420 and the third octet 430 specify the specific permission. The specific permission 450 is introduced using the first bit of the second octet 420 and is set to 1 to indicate permission to report safety-critical classification information in the payload of the CPM (0 otherwise). Of course, other positions are also possible.

[0110] According to some embodiments, such an SSP may be provided in an authentication ticket dedicated to the RSU, which is less likely to be hacked. Of course, according to some embodiments, such an SSP may be provided in an authentication ticket to any type of ITS-S.

[0111] For a better understanding of the present invention, a communication method according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 5, which is implemented in an originating ITS-S station, which may be either a vehicle or a VRU or an RSU.

[0112] The illustrated communication method is for transmitting a CPM including information related to a safety-critical classification according to the present invention. Such a method may be implemented in a Collective Perception Service module of an ITS station, such as an RSU 123, that has received authorization from a particular authority to report information related to the safety-critical classification in the transmitted CPM.

[0113] The method is triggered in step 500 at a CPM generation event as defined in standard ETSI TS 103 324 (section 6.1.3.1 CP Message generation frequency management).

[0114] At the CPM generation event in step 500, the collective perception service module marks the list of detected objects to be transmitted in the next CPM to be transmitted, as defined in the standard ETSI TS 103 324 (section 6.1.3.2 Perceived Object Container Inclusion Management). Such objects are hereafter referred to as marked objects. According to some embodiments, more generally, the objects to be reported can be selected.

[0115] Next, in step 505, for each marked object, the current safety-critical classification as determined by the safety-critical classification module 122 is obtained.

[0116] Next, in step 510, perceptual object containers 360 of the marked objects are generated taking into account their transmission within the CPM. In particular, for each perceptual object container, the DF 371 is set to the corresponding safety-critical classification obtained in step 505.

[0117] Then, in step 520, the CPM is generated by generating the corresponding ITS PDU header 310 and other containers included in the CPM parameters 320, as described above in connection with FIG.

[0118] In step 530, a certificate 330 provided by a particular certificate authority containing permission to include safety-critical classification information in the CPM is generated and included within the CPM, as described with reference to FIG.

[0119] Then, in step 540, the CPM containing the safety-critical classification information is transmitted to one or more receiving ITS-S.

[0120] According to some embodiments, safety-critical classification information provided using the CPM may be registered, for example, data history relating to the safety-critical classification information may be registered.

[0121] Optionally, prior to the creation of the object container for the marked objects in step 510, redundancy mitigation techniques may be applied.

[0122] For example, an object that has recently been reported by another ITS station may be removed from the list of objects marked to be reported in the next transmitted CPM.

[0123] However, objects associated with a safety-criticality level higher than the threshold SafetyCriticalLevel_threshold are not subject to the redundancy mitigation techniques. In other words, if an object's safety-criticality level is higher than SafetyCriticalLevel_Threshold, the object should be included in the next CPM to be transmitted, regardless of whether the object has already been reported by the same ITS-S or by another ITS-S. Thus, the redundancy mitigation techniques are disabled for such safety-critical objects.

[0124] Such redundancy mitigation techniques may make it possible to reduce the number of marked perceptual objects to be reported in the next CPM to be transmitted. By reducing the size and number of transmitted CPMs, it may be useful to limit the risk of bandwidth congestion.

[0125] Such a method thus allows an ITS-S to provide safety-critical classification information for a particular detected object, preferably for all detected VRUs, to other ITS-S of the ITS. In a preferred embodiment, only an ITS-S having a certificate providing the ITS-S with the authorization to distribute safety-critical classification information may be authorized to transmit a CPM including the safety-critical classification information. Thus, thanks to this safety-critical classification information, the receiving station can quickly determine whether the safety of the monitored area is endangered (i.e., as mentioned above, whether an object in the monitored area constitutes a safety risk) and further determine which object detected by the fixed roadside entity 120 is the cause of this safety issue. Furthermore, thanks to the safety-critical level, it is possible to prioritize the perceived object candidates to be included in the next CPM during the next CPM generation event.

[0126] Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

[0127] In this second aspect of the invention, reporting of detected objects may be performed by grouping the objects according to one or more conditions. The grouping may include at least two detected objects. Such group reporting may be performed with or without using the safety-critical classification information described in the first aspect of the invention.

[0128] The advantage of using such group reports is that the transmitted CPM is more compact since features common to the detected objects of the group are filtered out. Thus, the obtained CPM does not contain descriptive information duplicated multiple times in separate containers associated with the detected objects. The CPM is shorter since, at the group level, it contains descriptive information common to all detected objects of the group.

[0129] The station may then process the group of detected objects as an entity within the ITS system. Such processing is particularly advantageous as it reduces the number of objects to compare and / or process.

[0130] First, the grouping concept of detected objects will be described with reference to Figs. 6 to 9, and then the grouping concept taking into account the safety-critical classification of detected objects will be described with reference to Figs. 10 to 16.

[0131] As shown in FIG. 6, the intersection shown in FIG. 1 is represented along with detected objects and groups of objects.

[0132] Such grouping is performed by an algorithm implemented in the roadside entity 120 after object detection by the VCA module 121 .

[0133] The detected objects are therefore grouped into groups of objects 671, 672, 674, 675 and 676 by an algorithm detailed below. As can be seen in Fig. 6, the groups of objects 671, 672, 674, 675 correspond respectively to a group of pedestrians 142-145, a group of two pedestrians 146-147 crossing the road outside a pedestrian crossing, a group of a motorcycle 154 and a pedestrian 150-153 on the sidewalk, and a group of a pedestrian and a cyclist 156-158 both on the bike path. Also, group 676 corresponds to a group of a pedestrian 160 and a dog 159 on the sidewalk and on the road, respectively.

[0134] Such grouping makes it possible to group together, within a given perceptual object container, information common to all objects forming a group of detected objects.

[0135] According to some embodiments, grouping is performed on VRUs that have similar "vulnerability."

[0136] The groups may be based on conditions such as the conditions for clustering join operations defined in ETSI TS 103 300, and described in more detail below with respect to FIG.

[0137] By adaptation of the DE classification within the CPM 300, such groups of detected objects may also be reported using the CPM 300 as described with reference to Figure 3. This adaptation may comply with the standard ETSI TS 103 300-3 for VRU aware basic services. In particular, adaptation may be made to report VRU profiles specified in ETSI TS 103 300-3 in the DE classification, and to report VRUs individually or as groups.

[0138] For example, the current version of the standard ETSI TR 103 562 enhances the DE classification with an additional class. More precisely, the new class specified by the field vruSubclass corresponds to objects classified as a single VRU, which corresponds to the class VruProfileAndSubprofile specified in ETSI TS 103 300-3.

[0139] The second class specified by the field groupSubclass corresponds to a group of VRUs corresponding to the class ObjectGroupSubClassType. Furthermore, the field groupSubclass indicates the profile of the VRUs and the number of VRUs contained (hereinafter referred to as the cardinality of the group of VRUs). [Table 4] [Table 5]

[0140] Thus, a detected object classified as a VRU may be reported individually or at least together with other detected objects in the perceptual object container 360, thereby forming a group of detected objects. In other words, the CPM 300 may report individual VRUs and / or groups of VRUs.

[0141] In the case of the perceptual object container 360, the description information of the group of objects is adapted as follows. - The data element (DE) timeOfMeasurement corresponds to the time difference between the generation of the CPM and the time of the measurement of the last object updated within the reported group (hereafter referred to as the reporting group). - DE objectConfidence corresponds to the minimum confidence among the confidences of the objects in the reporting group. - DE objectRefPoint corresponds to the reference point of one of the objects of the reporting group or to the centroid of the reference points of the objects of the reporting group. - DE xDistance, yDistance, and zDistance correspond to the average distance along the x, y, and z axes of the objects in the reporting group. - DE xSpeed, ySpeed, and zSpeed ​​correspond to the average speed of the objects in the reporting group. - DE xAcceleration, yAcceleration, and zAcceleration correspond to the average of the velocities along the x, y, and z axes of the objects in the reporting group. - DE yawAngle corresponds to the average yaw angle of the objects in the reporting group. - The DEs planarObjectDimension1, planarObjectDimension2 and verticalObjectDimension correspond to the union of the dimensions of the objects of the reporting group. These DEs can define areas, for example polygons whose sides constitute the group boundary. - DE objectAge corresponds to the maximum age of the objects in the reporting group. - DE dynamicStatus corresponds to the voting state of the objects in the reporting group. - DE groupSize corresponds to the number of objects contained in the reporting group. - DE groupType corresponds to the presence or absence of each VRU profile specified in ETSI TS 103 300-3 among the profiles of the objects included in the reporting group.

[0142] To better understand the formation and modification of groups and their reporting within the CPM, reference is now made to FIGS.

[0143] The VCA module 121 detects a list of objects, including newly detected objects and already tracked objects (individually or in a group). Based on all detected objects, a list of detected objects is maintained by the VCA module 121, and this list is called ObjectList. The detected objects are then processed individually to determine 1) whether these objects should be reported, and 2) whether the reporting should be performed individually or by group. Hereinafter, the next object to be processed from the ObjectList is called the allocation object.

[0144] For the above process, the present invention proposes reporting rules to be applied to the detected objects, as described in Figures 7 to 10. These reporting rules are specified for newly tracked objects (Figure 7), for objects already tracked individually (Figure 8) and for objects already tracked in groups (Figure 9). The application of such rules in the context of preparing reports of detected objects using CPM will now be explained with reference to Figure 10.

[0145] Figure 7 shows an example of a reporting algorithm for newly detected objects (hereafter referred to as allocation objects): Each time a new object is detected by the VCA module 121, the object is automatically marked to be reported in the next CPM to be transmitted.

[0146] The reporting algorithm first involves checking, in step 720, whether the allocation object can join an existing reporting group.

[0147] As mentioned before, the clustering combining operation defined in ETSI TS 103 300 is applied and consists mainly of comparing the current position and kinematic information of the marked object with those of the reference points of the existing reporting groups.

[0148] For example, an allocation object can join an existing reporting group if the following joining conditions are met: - An existing reporting group has not reached its maximum size maxGroupSize (i.e., the group cardinality of an existing reporting group is inferior to the DE group size DF maxGroupSize). - The assigned object is contained in a group dimension or is at a certain distance from the origin of an existing reporting group, which distance is less than a given threshold, maxClusterDistance. - The difference between the velocity of the allocation object and the velocity of an existing reporting group is less than a given threshold, maxClusterVelocityDifference.

[0149] According to some embodiments, the parameters maxGroupSize, maxClusterDistance, and maxClusterVelocityDifference may not be fixed, for example, these parameters may be varied to take into account environmental conditions.

[0150] As an example, if the congestion control module of the originating ITS-S detects that there is potential bandwidth congestion or if a large number of objects are detected in the scene, it can temporarily increase the parameters maxGroupSize, maxClusterDistance and maxClusterVelocityDifference to increase the number of objects contained in a group and thus reduce the number of elements reported in the CPM. Considering that the message bandwidth is limited, such parameters can thus help to keep the size of the messages low by reducing the number of objects to report.

[0151] According to some embodiments, the values ​​of the parameters maxGroupSize, maxClusterDistance, and maxClusterVelocityDifference are fixed at system initialization.

[0152] Then, if an existing reporting group is identified, meaning all conditions are met for the allocation object to join the group, the next step is 725. If not, the next step is 740.

[0153] If such participation is possible, then in step 725 the assigned object is associated with the existing group identified in step 720. Thus, reporting of the assigned object is done via the identified existing group, and not individually. In step 730, the descriptive information of the existing group of objects contained within the perceptual object container associated with this group is updated. Then, in step 735, the identified existing group is marked for reporting by the next CPM to be transmitted.

[0154] If one of the conditions is not met, i.e., the assigned object cannot be added to an existing group, then in step 740 it is checked whether the marked object can create a new group for reporting.

[0155] To do this, the conditions for the clustering creation operation defined in ETSI TS 103 300 are applied, which consist mainly of a comparison between the current position of the marked object and at least one other object, called the identified tracking object, that is already tracked and previously reported separately. For example, the conditions may be that the distance between the marked station and the identified tracking object is less than a given threshold maxClusterDistance and that the difference in velocity between the marked station and the identified tracking object is less than a given threshold maxClusterVelocityDifference.

[0156] According to some embodiments, the parameters maxClusterDistance and maxClusterVelocityDifference may be modified to take into account environmental conditions, for example, maxClusterDistance and maxClusterVelocityDifference may be temporarily increased to increase the number of objects included in a group and thus reduce the number of elements reported to the CPM.

[0157] If the clustering conditions are met, the next step is 745. Otherwise, the next step is 715.

[0158] If such group creation is possible, the allocation object and the identification tracking object are associated and combined to form a new reporting group in step 745. Next, in step 750, description information, i.e., reporting parameters, of the new reporting group created in step 740 are calculated. Next, in step 755, the new reporting group created in step 740 is marked to ensure that it is included in the next CPM to be sent.

[0159] If a new group cannot be created, the allocation object is marked to be reported individually in the next CPM sent.

[0160] In the remainder of this specification, steps 720-725-730-735-740-745-750-755 are referred to as global step 790, which has the purpose of selecting a reporting rule by which newly detected objects will be automatically marked to be automatically reported in the next CPM to be sent.

[0161] According to some embodiments, additional conditions may be added when creating or joining a group to a newly detected object, for example, a group may be based on the type of VRU.

[0162] With respect to other detected objects, particularly objects that have already been tracked by the VCA module 121 and are not included in a group, yet to be detected by the VCA module 121, the process of marking those objects to be reported by the next CPM is now described in connection with FIG. 8.

[0163] FIG. 8 is a schematic flow chart illustrating steps of a communication method having reporting rules for assigned objects that are already individually tracked.

[0164] These rules are applied for each allocated object from the ObjectList, which is already tracked separately.

[0165] When the algorithm starts, it is checked in step 720 whether the allocation object can join an existing reporting group. If such joining is possible, the same steps 720 to 735 are applied as described in relation to figure 7, i.e. if such joining is possible, the joining is performed, the group description information is updated and the existing group is marked for reporting in the next transmission CPM.

[0166] Then, in step 740, it is checked whether the allocation object is able to create a new reported group. If such creation is possible, the same steps 740 to 755 are applied as described in relation to figure 7. In other words, if such creation is possible, the group is created, description information of the group is calculated and the new group is marked for reporting in the next CPM to be transmitted.

[0167] If the assigned object cannot join either the existing group or the newly created group, in step 825 it is checked whether the perceptual object container inclusion conditions for reporting are fulfilled. The perceptual object container inclusion conditions are a list of one or more conditions that must be fulfilled to determine an already tracked object that should be reported again. For example, such reporting may be performed if the descriptive information of an already tracked object has evolved significantly since the last report or if no reporting of this object has been performed for a predefined period of time. According to some embodiments, the perceptual object container inclusion conditions for reporting may correspond to the "perceptual object container inclusion management" procedure described in the standard ETSI TS 103 324.

[0168] If the inclusion condition is not met, the already tracked object is not reported and the algorithm ends in step 830. Otherwise, in step 715, the already tracked object is marked for individual reporting.

[0169] Steps 720-725-730-735-740-745-750-755-825-715-830 are referred to as step 890 and configure reporting rules for previously individually tracked objects that may be marked for reporting.

[0170] FIG. 9 illustrates reporting rules for already tracked groups, the purpose of which is to determine whether an existing group should be marked for reporting consideration in the next CPM to be sent.

[0171] It is therefore proposed to enable reporting of already tracked groups whose descriptive information has evolved since the last CPM containing previous descriptive information of the already tracked group was sent, which allows sending updated descriptive information, especially when the already tracked group may have been modified.

[0172] If the descriptive information of an already tracked group has not changed since the transmission of the last CPM that contained descriptive information of the already tracked group, then the already tracked group will not be marked as being reported in the next CPM that is transmitted.

[0173] According to some embodiments, such reporting rules are applied only when the cardinality of a group is not evolving, in which case, as described in relation to FIG. 7, when a new allocation object is added to an already tracked group, the group is systematically marked.

[0174] According to some embodiments, such reporting rules are applied regardless to all already tracked groups, in which case the reporting conditions may relate to the cardinality of the already tracked groups.

[0175] Before executing the algorithm (step 900 ), the descriptive information of the objects in the existing group (including in particular the position and kinematic information, the measurement times) is updated according to the last information provided by the VCA module 121 .

[0176] A list of reporting groups, called GroupList, is then retrieved for algorithmic processing in step 905. The reporting groups refer to a list of existing groups previously reported by the CPM.

[0177] Then, in step 910, the next element of the GroupList that has not yet been processed is identified, hereafter referred to as the allocation reporting group.

[0178] Then, in step 915, the relevant descriptive information, ie, the reported parameters of the allocation reporting group last reported by the previous CPM (referred to as previous reported parameters), is obtained.

[0179] Also, in step 920, current description information, ie, reported parameters (referred to as current reporting parameters) of the allocation reporting group is obtained.

[0180] It is then determined whether the allocation reporting group is marked to be reported in the next CPM to be transmitted, in step 930. This may be performed by checking a list of perceived object container inclusion conditions.

[0181] For example, the list of inclusion conditions of a perceptual object container may correspond to the cluster VAM transmission management described in section 6.4.2 of the standard ETSI TS 103 300-3, as detailed below. - if the period of time since the last transmission of an Allocation Reporting Group within the previous CPM exceeds a predefined threshold T_GenVamMax. - The absolute Euclidean distance between the previous and current positions of a reference point in the allocation reporting group exceeds a predefined threshold minReferencePointPositionChangeThreshold. - The difference between the previous and current estimated distances between the reference point of the allocation reporting group and the boundary of the allocation reporting group exceeds a predefined threshold minGroupDistanceChangeThreshold. - The difference between the previous estimated ground speed and the current estimated ground speed of a reference point in the allocation reporting group is greater than a predefined threshold, minGroundSpeedChangeThreshold. - The difference between the orientation of the previous estimated ground speed vector and the current estimated ground speed of the allocation reporting group is greater than a predefined threshold minGroundVelocityOrientationChangeThreshold. Ground speed is a vector defined by the DE xSpeed, ySpeed, and zSpeed ​​with precision. - The previously reported count of a type of object in an allocation reporting group is different from the current count of a type of object in the allocation reporting group. - The difference between the previous cardinality and the current cardinality of the allocation reporting group is greater than a predefined threshold, minCardinalityChangeThreshold.

[0182] According to some embodiments, the parameters T_GenVamMax, minReferencePointPositionChangeThreshold, minGroupDistanceChangeThreshold, minGroundSpeedChangeThreshold, minGroundVelocityOrientationChangeThreshold, and minCardinalityChangeThreshold may be fixed at system initialization.

[0183] According to some embodiments, if any one of these conditions is met, the assigned reporting group is marked to be reported in the next CPM to be transmitted, otherwise the reporting group is not marked, i.e., it is not reported in the next CPM.

[0184] Steps 910-915-920-930-935-940 are repeated until all reporting groups from the GroupList have been processed to determine if they should be marked as to be reported by the next CPM to be transmitted.

[0185] To better understand the generation of the next CPM to be transmitted applying the above reporting rules, refer to FIG.

[0186] FIG. 10 illustrates, in a schematic manner using a flow chart, the steps of a communication method for generating a perceptual object container to be included in a subsequently transmitted CPM, which is associated with the object selected to be reported by the collective perceptual service.

[0187] The algorithm starts at step 1000, whereupon a list of detected objects stored in a database called the Environment Model 1003 is obtained at step 1005. The Environment Model can be published by the VCA module 121. The list of objects detected by the VCA module 121 is called the ObjectList.

[0188] Then, in step 1010, the next unprocessed found object is obtained from the ObjectList, hereafter referred to as the allocated object.

[0189] Then, in step 1015, it is checked whether the assigned object is classified as a VRU. If the assigned object is not a VRU, a specific "perceptual object container inclusion management" procedure defined in the standard ETSI TS 103 324 is applied to report the assigned object in the CPM. Indeed, in this embodiment, it is considered that only VRUs may be reported in groups. Of course, as mentioned above, according to some embodiments, vehicles and VRUs may be reported in groups. In this case, the steps described below for VRUs can also be used for vehicles.

[0190] If the assigned object is a VRU, in step 1025 it is checked whether the assigned object has already been processed, i.e., already reported by the collective perception service. In this case, the assigned object has, consequently, been tracked since its first report. If the assigned object has not yet been tracked and is therefore a newly tracked object, in step 790 this object is automatically marked and the reporting rules for newly detected objects shown by FIG. 7 are applied.

[0191] If the assigned object is already being tracked, then in step 1040 it is checked whether the assigned object has already been reported in a reporting group. If the assigned object has not been reported in a group, i.e., reported individually, then in step 890 this object is marked as potential and the reporting rules described with reference to Figure 8 are applied.

[0192] If the assigned object is already being tracked within the found group, then in step 1065 it is checked whether the assigned object is still within its corresponding reporting group.

[0193] For that purpose it is checked whether the conditions are still fulfilled, for example the conditions of the clustering creation operation defined in ETSI TS 103 300 are applied. According to some embodiments it mainly consists in a comparison between the current position of the marked object and the positions of the reference points of the previous reporting group of detected objects.

[0194] For example, the condition may be that the distance between the marked station and the reference point of the reporting group remains smaller than a given threshold maxClusterDistance and that the difference in velocity between the marked station and the reference point of the reporting group remains smaller than a given threshold maxClusterVelocityDifference.

[0195] According to some embodiments, the parameters maxClusterDistance and maxClusterVelocityDifference may be modified to take into account environmental conditions, for example, maxClusterDistance and maxClusterVelocityDifference may be temporarily increased to increase the number of objects included in a group and thus reduce the number of elements reported to the CPM.

[0196] If the assigned object satisfies the joining condition, the assigned object is kept in the tracked group. In step 1070, the reporting parameters of the corresponding reporting group are updated according to the newly detected descriptive information. To determine whether the updated group should be marked for inclusion in the next CPM in which its descriptive information is transmitted, the reporting rules for groups of already tracked objects, described with reference to FIG. 10, are applied.

[0197] These steps 1010-1070 (including steps 790 and 890) are repeated until all objects in the list have been processed. Then, in step 1050, a perceptual object container is generated for each marked object and for each marked group of objects to be reported by the next CPM to be transmitted.

[0198] In a second embodiment of the second aspect of the present invention, the safety-critical classification is taken into account when reporting detected objects either in a group or individually, so that a group report can take into account the safety-critical classification information to determine 1) whether the detected object should be reported by the next CPM to be transmitted, and 2) whether the report is individual or group.

[0199] FIG. 11 illustrates, by means of a flow chart, the steps of a communication method for transmitting a CPM including safety-critical classification information according to a second aspect of the invention.

[0200] When a CPM generation event occurs in step 1100, a perceptual object container 370 for the marked objects is generated in step 1110, and a group of the marked objects is generated in step 1115.

[0201] According to this embodiment, as described in more detail in connection with Figures 12, 13 and 14, the selection of the marked objects and the corresponding type of report, i.e., individual or group, can take into account the safety-critical classification information of the detected objects.

[0202] Optionally, prior to the generation of object containers of marked objects and / or groups of marked objects in step 510, redundancy mitigation techniques may be applied.

[0203] For example, objects and / or groups of objects that have already been recently reported by other ITS stations may be removed from the list of marked objects to be reported in the next CPM transmitted.

[0204] However, objects and / or groups of objects associated with a safety-critical level higher than the threshold SafetyCriticalLevel_threshold should not be subject to redundancy mitigation techniques. In other words, an object or group of objects should be included in the next CPM to be transmitted if its safety-critical level is higher than SafetyCriticalLevel_Threshold, regardless of whether it has already been reported by the same ITS-S or by another ITS-S. Thus, redundancy mitigation techniques are disabled for such safety-critical objects.

[0205] Such redundancy mitigation techniques may make it possible to reduce the number of marked perceptual objects to be reported in the next CPM to be transmitted. By reducing the size and number of CPMs to be transmitted, it may be useful to limit the risk of bandwidth congestion.

[0206] Then, in steps 1120, 1130, and 1140, the CPM is generated and transmitted, similar to steps 520, 530, and 540 described above with respect to FIG.

[0207] In this embodiment, the certificate provided by a particular certificate authority, included in the CPM at step 1130, contains permissions authorizing the reporting of security information in the CPM, as described with reference to FIG.

[0208] Therefore, reporting rules for newly tracked objects and already tracked objects (individually or in groups) are adapted as shown in Figures 12, 13, and 14, respectively.

[0209] According to some embodiments, detected objects that are deemed to be safety-critical objects are reported individually, allowing a receiving station to quickly determine safety issues, for example by first processing the perceived object containers associated with the individual objects.

[0210] In the newly tracked object reporting rules of FIG. 12, upon starting the algorithm, in step 1205, the safety-critical classification information associated with the assigned object is retrieved from the safety-critical classification module 122.

[0211] In step 1210, if the assigned object is deemed to be a safety-critical object, the assigned object is marked for being reported separately with the next CPM that is sent.

[0212] Otherwise, reporting rules for systematically marked newly tracked objects are applied in step 790. Such reporting allows non-safety-critical objects to be reported within a group when the conditions for group joining or group creation are met.

[0213] In the reporting rules of FIG. 13 for already tracked objects that were previously reported separately, the algorithm starts in step 1300 where the descriptive information of the assigned object (including, inter alia, position and kinematic information, time measurements) is updated based on the VCA module detection.

[0214] Next, the current safety-critical classification of the assigned object provided by the safety-critical module is retrieved in step 1305. In addition, the previously assigned safety-critical classification information of the assigned object is stored in memory.

[0215] Next, in step 1315, it is checked whether the assigned object was previously classified as a safety-critical object based on previous safety-critical classification information stored in memory.

[0216] If the assigned object was a non-safety-critical object but becomes a safety-critical object in step 1321, then the assigned object is marked for individual reporting in the next CPM sent in step 1316. If the assigned object is still a non-critical safety object, then in step 890 the rules for reporting objects already tracked separately (as described in connection with FIG. 8) are applied to determine whether the assigned object should be marked for reporting.

[0217] If the assigned object was a safety-critical object but becomes a non-safety-critical object in step 1320, the assigned object is systematically marked for reporting and the reporting rules described in step 790 of Figure 7 are applied. Thus, according to the present embodiment, such an object is treated as a newly detected object.

[0218] If the assigned object is a safety-critical object in step 1315 and is still a safety-critical object in step 1320, it is checked in step 1325 whether the assigned object already reported should be reported again. To do this, it can be checked whether the object container inclusion conditions for safety-critical objects are met. If the object has a severity higher than a threshold (SafetyCriticalLevel_threshold) and if the time elapsed since the last time the object was included in the CPM exceeds T_GenCpmMaxCritical, the object is included. In this case, the assigned object is marked for individual reporting by the next CPM to be sent in step 1335. If not, the algorithm ends in step 1330.

[0219] FIG. 14 illustrates, using a flow chart, the steps of a method for indicating reporting rules to be applied to assigned objects tracked in a previous reporting group while taking into account safety-critical classification information associated with the assigned objects.

[0220] The algorithm starts at step 1400, whereupon the descriptive information of the assigned object (including, inter alia, position and kinematic information, time measurements) is updated at step 1403. Next, at step 1405, the current safety-critical classification information of the assigned object given by the safety-critical module is retrieved.

[0221] Next, in step 1415, it is checked whether the assigned object is currently classified as a safety-critical object based on the current safety-critical classification information and the registered previous safety-critical classification information.

[0222] If the assigned object is a non-safety-critical object, in step 1465 it is checked whether the assigned object is still in its corresponding reporting group. To do this, it is checked whether the conditions are still met, as described in step 740, in particular with respect to the thresholds maxClusterDistance and maxClusterVelocityDifference. If the assigned object is still in the reporting group, in step 1470 the descriptive information of the reporting group is updated based on the current descriptive information of the assigned object. To determine whether the group should be reported by the next CPM to be transmitted, the reporting rules shown in FIG. 9 may be applied. If the conditions for keeping the assigned object in the reporting group are not met, the assigned object is removed from the reporting group and the reporting parameters of the identified existing reporting group are updated to take into account the removal of the assigned object. The assigned object is then marked for separate reporting by the next CPM to be transmitted and the reporting rules 790 for newly detected objects are applied to determine whether the assigned object can be reported in another group or separately.

[0223] If the assigned object is a safety-critical object and the assigned object was previously reported within the group, then in step 1455 the assigned object is removed from the reporting group and the reporting parameters of the identified already reported reporting group are updated to account for the removal of the assigned object.

[0224] Next, in step 1460, the allocated objects that are safety-critical objects are marked for being reported separately by the next CPM to be transmitted.

[0225] For better understanding, in Fig. 15 the steps of an example of a communication method for generating a perceptual object container to be included in the next CPM to be transmitted are illustrated diagrammatically using a flow chart. In the proposed method, the perceptual object container corresponds to the objects selected to be reported by the collective perception service applying the reporting rules detailed above while taking into account the safety-critical classification information according to the second embodiment of the second aspect of the invention.

[0226] The method starts at step 1500. Steps 1505-1520 are similar to steps 1005-1020 of FIG.

[0227] If the assigned object is a newly tracked object, then in step 1530 the reporting rules described in FIG.

[0228] If the assigned object is already tracked separately, then in step 1545 the reporting rules described in FIG.

[0229] If the assigned object is already being tracked within the group, then in step 1555 the reporting rules described in FIG.

[0230] These steps 1510-1555 are repeated until all objects in the list have been processed. Then, in step 1550, a perceptual object container is generated for each marked object and for each marked group of objects to be reported by the next CPM to be transmitted.

[0231] Therefore, in this proposed method, the allocation object, - If classified as a safety-critical object, it will be reported separately and systematically. - If classified as non-safety-critical objects, they will be reported in groups.

[0232] According to some embodiments, the CPM may not include information related to the safety-critical classification of the reported object. In this case, the safety-critical classification of the reported object may be implicit and may be deduced in the receiving ITS-S depending on whether the assigned object is in a group or not. If the assigned object is reported in a group, the receiving station deduces that the assigned object, together with all objects in the group, is classified as a non-safety-critical object. Such an embodiment is advantageous since the implicit signaling of the safety-critical classification of the reported object allows to reduce the CPM payload. In this embodiment, only safety-critical classification information related to non-safety-critical detected objects is provided.

[0233] When the safety-critical classification information is taken into account, the obtained group of objects shown in FIG. 16 is different from that obtained without the safety-critical classification information, as shown in FIG.

[0234] When applying the method, detected objects classified as safety-critical are now reported individually and not as a group. For example, pedestrians 146 and 147 crossing the road outside the crosswalk are no longer reported in reporting group 172, but instead individually 1681 and 1682. Thus, although both pedestrians are considered safety-critical objects, the method proposes to report them individually.

[0235] Similarly, the dog 159 on the road is no longer reported in a reporting group 172 with the pedestrian 1684, but is reported separately (1683). Unlike the pedestrian 160, the dog 159 is considered a safety-critical object.

[0236] Additionally, a motorcycle 154 traveling on a sidewalk is no longer reported in group 174 with pedestrians 150-153, but is instead reported separately (1685), and a pedestrian 155 on a bike path is no longer reported in group 175 with cyclists 156-158, but is instead reported separately (1686).

[0237] However, 161 cyclists traveling the wrong way are still reported individually (1676).

[0238] According to some embodiments, grouping may also be performed for detected objects that are not VRUs, such as vehicles.

[0239] In a third embodiment of the second aspect of the present invention, safety-critical classifications are also taken into account when reporting detected objects.

[0240] According to some embodiments, the described method of the second aspect of the invention may be adapted such that an assigned object may join an existing reporting group only if it has the same safety-criticality classification as the existing group. Similarly, a new group may be created when, in addition to the conditions mentioned above, the assigned object and the identified and tracked object have the same safety-criticality classification.

[0241] In other words, in such an embodiment, the collective perception service may allow a safety-critical object to be included in a group that contains only safety-critical objects if group joining or group creation conditions are met.

[0242] Thus, groups of objects that can be classified as safety-critical or non-safety-critical will be homogenous groups of safety-critical and non-safety-critical objects, respectively.

[0243] For example, an assigned object can join a group that has the same safety-critical classification as itself. For example, an assigned object can create a new reported group only if the assigned object and other already tracked objects included in the reporting group have the same safety-critical classification.

[0244] To that end, the algorithm presented in relation to the second embodiment of the second aspect of the invention is adapted as follows.

[0245] First, in case of newly detected objects, the conditions for the assigned object to join an existing group (step 720 in FIG. 7) and the conditions for creating a new reporting group (step 740 in FIG. 7) may further include conditions regarding the safety-critical classification of the assigned object and / or objects in the existing group and / or the identified and tracked objects involved in creating the newly reported group. In case of detected objects that were previously reported individually, the same additional conditions related to the safety-critical classification apply (step 890, FIG. 8, similar steps 720 and 740).

[0246] Such a condition on the safety-critical classification may consist of checking whether the safety-critical classification of a newly detected object or a previously tracked object that was previously reported individually is the same safety-critical classification as an object in an existing group or an identified tracked object involved in creating the newly reported group. Thus, only objects that share the same safety-critical classification may be reported together in a group.

[0247] If the assigned object is a previously tracked object and is reported with a reporting group (FIG. 14), the conditions for determining whether the assigned object is still in the reporting group in step 1465 may further include conditions regarding the safety-critical classification of the assigned object and / or the reporting group. For example, if the safety-critical classification of the assigned object changes and is different from the safety-critical classification of the reporting group, the assigned object is no longer in the reporting group and the rules defined in step 790 apply. In other words, if the safety-critical classification of an object in a reported group changes, the object is reported independently of the reporting group and instead is reported separately or with another group according to the rules applied in step 790.

[0248] The CPM generated by the methods according to the various described embodiments is received by another ITS-S, called the receiving ITS-S.

[0249] According to some embodiments, upon receiving a CPM that includes safety-critical classification information associated with a detected object, the receiving ITS-S processes the CPM to determine whether the detected object is critical to the safety of the area monitored by the originating ITS-S, and thus the CPM can use the safety-critical classification information to quickly determine safety risks.

[0250] According to some embodiments, when receiving a CPM containing at least one group of detected objects, the receiving ITS-S may rapidly determine information related to the group, such as the descriptive information previously described herein, which may be included in a perceptual object container. Such information may further include safety-critical classification information common to all objects of the group of detected objects. This allows the station to process the group of detected objects as an entity in the ITS system, and thus, in some embodiments, to determine whether some objects pose a safety risk to the area.

[0251] In some embodiments, the safety-critical classification is taken into account to trigger the generation of a new CPM, which may involve identifying certain situations (or events) and / or changing the transmission frequency of the CPM when a safety-critical object is detected within the monitored area.

[0252] For example, if a sensor embedded in the originating ITS-S detects a new object associated with a safety criticality level indicating a safety risk of a previously detected object or indicating that the safety criticality level of the previously detected object is higher than before, it may be considered to send a new CPM containing information about the object quickly or in a shorter period of time than the period of time that elapsed between the last two CPMs sent by the originating ITS-S.

[0253] In other words, the CPM generation time depends on the safety-criticality information related to the objects to be reported in the next CPM, i.e. the marked objects. The CPM generation time is set taking into account newly detected objects with high safety-criticality level or an increase in the safety-criticality level of previously detected objects.

[0254] Such an embodiment may, for example, allow for rapid alerting of surrounding ITS-Ss of a safety-critical situation involving a newly detected object that has been classified as a safety-critical object.

[0255] An example of such an embodiment will now be described with reference to FIG. 18 which illustrates, in a flow chart, an example of steps of a communication method for triggering the transmission of a CPM including safety-critical classification information upon detection of a safety risk according to a fourth embodiment of the second aspect of the present invention.

[0256] First, the illustrated method is initiated upon detection of a sensory event.

[0257] The sensory event can be either a dedicated timer event or an event triggered by information provided by an embedded sensor in the originating ITS-S.

[0258] According to some embodiments, the dedicated timer event may be associated to a timer configured to trigger a perceptible event when a selected time between a minimum and a maximum time value has elapsed, as specified in TS 103 324 V0.0.22. The selected time should be chosen to be lower than the minimum time between two successive CPM generation. In other words, the selected time (called T_GenCpmMinCritical) must be lower than the value T_GenCpmMin defined in the standard ETSI TS 103 324 (section 6.1.3.1 CP Message generation frequency management). Typically, T_GenCpmMinCritical may be equal to 10 ms and T_GenCpmMin may be equal to 100 ms.

[0259] According to some embodiments, the sensory event may be related to information provided by embedded sensors of the originating ITS-S. Such information includes data provided by the embedded sensors and analyzed by the VCA module 121.

[0260] Such data may include data related to object detection. For example, the data may include data related to newly detected objects in the monitored area. For example, such data may include information about previously detected objects whose descriptive information has changed. For example, when an increase in the speed of a vehicle is detected, the safety criticality level of the vehicle may change to indicate that the vehicle constitutes a safety risk for the monitored area. In another example, when a movement of a pedestrian from the sidewalk to a road area outside the crosswalk is detected, the safety criticality level of the pedestrian may change to indicate that the pedestrian constitutes a safety risk for the monitored area.

[0261] When a sensory event is detected, in step 1802, the latest state vectors, i.e., description information, are obtained for all sensory objects with a sufficiently high confidence level. For each detected object, the associated confidence level is evaluated and compared with a predefined confidence threshold. Thus, detected objects that do not have a sufficient confidence level are not reported in the CPM.

[0262] A current safety-critical classification level is then determined for each perceived object in step 1805. As explained above, the safety-critical module 122 associates a safety-critical level with each perceived object.

[0263] Then, in step 1806, the next CPM generation event time T_GenEvent, ie the time at which a new CPM should be generated, is determined.

[0264] According to standard TS 103 324 V0.0.22, the elapsed time between two successive CPM generation events, denoted T_GenCpm, should be selected within the range of values ​​defined by a minimum value, denoted T_GenCpmMin, and a maximum value, denoted T_GenCpmMax (i.e. T_GenCpmMin≦T_GenCpm≦T_GenCpmMax), where T_GenCpmMin=100 ms and T_GenCpmMax=1000 ms depend on the congestion situation on the wireless network.

[0265] When the T_GenCpm time has elapsed, i.e., when the difference between the current time (denoted by T_Now) and the time when the last CPM was generated (denoted by T_LastCpm) is equal to or greater than T_GenCpm, the next CPM generation event time (denoted by T_GenEvent) is set to the current time T_Now. Otherwise, the next CPM generation event time T_GenEvent is the sum of T_LastCpm and T_GenCpm.

[0266] According to some embodiments, it may be proposed to set the latency reporting for safety-critical objects as low as possible. Thus, in response to detection of a safety-critical object, T_GenCpm should be selected in the range of values ​​between T_GenCpmMinCritical=0 ms (or another value lower than the current T_GenCpmMin) and T_GenCpmMaxCritical=100 ms (or another value lower than the current T_GenCpmMax). The triggering of a CPM generation event T_GenEvent may be immediately after the minimum time delay T_GenCpm from the previous CPM generation event has elapsed.

[0267] According to some embodiments, the detection of an event that may constitute a safety risk for the area may trigger a CPM-generated event. For example, such an event may be the detection of a safety-critical object. In this case, a CPM-generated event may be triggered immediately.

[0268] For example, if the safety-critical level of the marked object is higher than a threshold (denoted SafetyCriticalLevel_threshold) or if the safety-critical level of the marked object becomes higher than this threshold, the situation may be considered as an event that constitutes a safety risk.

[0269] For a subsequent inclusion request of an already reported object related to a safety-critical level indicating a safety-critical situation in the next CPM, the minimum elapsed time T_GenCpm between successive CPMs may be preferably set within a range of values ​​between T_GenCpmMinCritical and T_GenCpmMaxCritical. Thus, in case of a safety-critical situation, the objects related to this situation may be reported more frequently, for example every 10 ms.

[0270] According to some embodiments, in case of a new detection of a safety-critical object, when this detection event triggers a CPM generation event, the CPM generation event time T_GenEvent is set to the current time T_Now, in this case the next CPM should be generated immediately, for example because there is a new critical object.

[0271] If only non-safety-critical objects are perceived by the ITS-S, the current value of the waiting time between two CPM generated events T_GenCpm is calculated according to standard TS 103 324 V0.0.22 and the next CPM generated event time T_GenEvent is the sum of T_LastCpm and T_GenCpm.

[0272] According to some embodiments, the value of T_GenEvent may be calculated and stored in embedded memory of the originating ITS-S.

[0273] After calculating the next CPM generating event time T_GenEvent, step 1807 checks whether the next CPM generating event time T_GenEvent has been reached.

[0274] According to some embodiments, to do so, it may be checked whether T_Now reaches or is greater than T_GenEvent.

[0275] For example, the stored value of T_GenEvent is compared to T_Now to determine, for example, whether T_Now is less than T_GenEvent. If T_Now is less than T_GenEvent (meaning T_GenEvent has not been reached), then in step 1808, a waiting period begins until T_Now reaches the value of the next T_GenEvent.

[0276] As shown, during this waiting period, the above-mentioned steps 1802, 1805, 1806 are performed to monitor the surroundings. The monitoring aims to detect new objects or events in the monitoring area during the waiting period and / or to update the CPM generation time T_GenEvent if the safety-criticality level of the detected objects changes or if a new safety-critical object is detected during the waiting period. When the value of T_GenEvent is updated, the waiting period may change.

[0277] When T_Now reaches or is greater than T_GenEvent, CPM generation is triggered.

[0278] According to some embodiments, a dedicated timer may be used such that upon expiration of the dedicated timer from a T_LastCpm value having a duration of T_GenCpm, the next CPM generation event time T_GenEvent is set to the current time T_Now. When T_GenEvent is set to the current time T_Now, CPM generation is triggered. As above, a waiting period is initiated in step 1808 while the timer is elapsed. As shown, during this waiting period, steps 1802, 1805, 1806 described above are performed to monitor the surroundings.

[0279] Alternatively, if a safety-critical object is detected, a dedicated timer can be used to check whether a minimum time delay T_GenCpmMinCritical has elapsed since the last CPM generation event (T_LastCpm). Thus, at the end of a dedicated timer with a duration of T_GenCpmMinCritical, the next CPM generation event time T_GenEvent is set to the current time T_Now. In this case, at the end of the T_GenCpmMinCritical period, it is considered that the next CPM needs to be generated immediately, when enough time has elapsed since the last CPM generation. As above, a waiting period is started in step 1808 while the timer is elapsed. As shown, during this waiting period, the above-mentioned steps 1802, 1805, 1806 are performed to monitor the surroundings.

[0280] When T_Now reaches T_GenEvent, then in step 1810 a perceptual object container 370 for the marked object is generated, and in step 1815 a perceptual object container for the group of marked objects is generated.

[0281] According to this embodiment, the selection of the marked objects and the corresponding type of reporting, i.e., individual reporting or reporting as a group, may take into account the safety-critical classification information of the detected objects, as described in more detail in relation to steps 1110 and 1115 of FIG. 11 and FIGS. 12, 13 and 14.

[0282] The inclusion conditions according to TS 103 324 V0.0.22 can be modified to take into account the safety-criticality level of the marked object. Thus, if the safety-criticality level is higher than a threshold SafetyCriticalLevel_threshold and if the time that has elapsed since the object was last included in a CPM exceeds T_GenCpmMaxCritical, then the object with a sufficient trust level should be included in the next CPM to be transmitted.

[0283] According to some embodiments, a detected object should be reported individually in the next CPM to be transmitted when the detected object is considered as a safety-critical object, i.e. has a safety-critical level higher than SafetyCriticalLevel_Threshold. In other words, regardless of the type of detected object, even VRU type, a detected object considered as a safety-critical object is reported individually and not in a group, e.g. a VRU group.

[0284] A CPM is then generated and transmitted in steps 1820, 1830, and 1840. Once a CPM is generated (step 1820), the T_LastCpm value is set to the T_GenEvent value. The CPM is similar to steps 520, 530, and 540 described above with respect to FIG.

[0285] In this embodiment, the certificate provided by a particular certificate authority and included within the CPM in step 1830 contains authorization to approve the reporting of security information within the CPM, as described with reference to FIG.

[0286] Optionally, it may be contemplated to apply a mechanism to prevent reporting of previously reported detected objects before the generation of object containers of marked objects and groups of marked objects in steps 1810, 1815. For example, it may be contemplated to apply redundancy mitigation techniques.

[0287] For example, an object that has been recently reported by another ITS-S may be removed from the list of marked objects to be reported in the next CPM.

[0288] However, objects associated with a safety-critical level higher than the threshold SafetyCriticalLevel_Threshold should not be subjected to the redundancy mitigation techniques (1809). In other words, if the safety-critical level of an object is higher than SafetyCriticalLevel_Threshold, regardless of whether it has already been reported by the same ITS-S or by another ITS-S, the object should be included in the next CPM to be transmitted. Thus, for such safety-critical objects, the redundancy mitigation techniques are disabled.

[0289] Such redundancy mitigation techniques may reduce the number of marked perceptual objects and / or groups of marked objects to be reported in the next CPM to be transmitted. By reducing the size and number of transmitted CPMs, it may be useful to limit the risk of bandwidth congestion.

[0290] The methods described, together with reporting rules, are implemented by the ITS-S and are configured to implement such methods and rules.

[0291] An example of an ITS-S is described with reference to FIG. 17, which may be an ITS-S embedded either in the vehicle, on or in the VRU, or in the roadside entity 120.

[0292] The communication device 1700 can be a device such as a microcomputer, a workstation, or a lightly portable device. The communication device 1700 includes a communication bus 1713, which is preferably connected to the following components: A central processing unit 1711, such as a microprocessor, designated as a CPU; A read-only memory 1707, denoted by ROM, for storing a computer program for implementing the invention; a random access memory 1712, denoted RAM, for storing the executable code of the method according to an embodiment of the invention, as well as registers adapted to record variables and parameters necessary for implementing the method according to an embodiment of the invention; At least one communication interface 1702 connected to a wireless V2X communication network over which ITS messages are transmitted. ITS messages are written to the network interface for transmission from a FIFO transmit memory in RAM 1712, or read from the network interface for reception and writing to a FIFO receive memory in RAM 1712 under the control of a software application executing in the CPU 1711.

[0293] Optionally, the communications device 1700 may also include the following components: data storage means 1704, such as a hard disk, for storing a computer program for implementing the method according to one or more embodiments; a disk drive 1705 for a disk 1706, adapted to read data from the disk 1706 or to write data to said disk, A screen 1709 that serves as a graphical interface with the user, provided by means of a keyboard 1710 or any other pointing means.

[0294] The communications device 1700 may optionally be connected to a variety of peripheral devices including sensory sensors 1708 , such as a digital camera, each connected to an input / output card (not shown) to provide data to the communications device 1700 .

[0295] The communications bus preferably provides communication and interoperability between the various elements included in or connected to the communications device 1700. The representation of a bus is not limiting, in particular a central processing unit is operable to communicate instructions to any element of the communications device 1700 directly or by means of another element of the communications device 1700.

[0296] The disk 1706 may be replaced by any information carrier, such as, for example, a compact disk (CD-ROM), a rewritable or non-rewritable compact disk, a ZIP disk, a USB key or a memory card. More generally, the disk 1706 may be replaced by any information storage means that can be read by a microcomputer or microprocessor, that can be incorporated in a device, possibly removable, and that can be adapted to store one or more programs, the execution of which can implement the method according to the invention.

[0297] The executable code may optionally be stored either in a read-only memory 1707, in the hard disk 1704 or on a removable digital medium, such as for example the disk 1706 as previously described. According to an optional variant, the executable code of the program may be received by means of the communication network 1703, via the interface 1702, to be stored in one of the storage means of the communication device 1700, such as the hard disk 1704, before being executed.

[0298] The central processing unit 1711 is preferably adapted to control and direct the execution of instructions or parts of the software code of the program according to the invention, which instructions are stored in one of the aforementioned storage means. On power-up, the program or programs stored in a non-volatile memory, for example the hard disk 1704 or the read-only memory 1707, are transferred to the random access memory 1712, which contains the executable code of the program or programs, as well as registers for storing variables and parameters necessary to implement the invention.

[0299] In a preferred embodiment, the device is a programmable device that uses software to implement the invention, however, the invention may also be implemented in hardware (e.g., in the form of an application specific integrated circuit or ASIC).

[0300] Although the present invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, the present invention is not limited to those embodiments, and variations therein will be apparent to those skilled in the art that are within the scope of the present invention.

[0301] Many further variations and modifications will be suggested to those skilled in the art by reference to the exemplary embodiments described above, which are not intended to limit the scope of the invention, which is determined solely by the appended claims. In particular, different features from the various embodiments may be interchanged where appropriate.

[0302] Each of the embodiments of the invention described above can be practiced alone or in combination with one another, and features from the various embodiments can be combined where appropriate or where a combination of elements or features from the individual embodiments in a single embodiment is beneficial.

[0303] In the claims, the word "comprising" does not exclude other elements or steps, and the indefinite articles "a" or "an" do not exclude a plurality. The mere fact that different features are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these features cannot be used to advantage.

Claims

1. 1. A method for controlling an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) including at least one originating ITS station for transmitting a collective perception message (CPM), the method comprising the steps of: a transmitting step of transmitting CPM report information relating to at least one object detected within a monitoring area of ​​the originating ITS station; the CPM report information includes safety-critical classification information indicating whether the detected object is critical to the safety of the monitored area; Prior to the transmitting step, determining safety-critical classification information of the detected object, where the safety-critical classification information comprises a safety-critical level; determining whether the safety-critical level of the detected object is higher than a corresponding safety-critical level threshold; and decreasing a minimum elapsed time between two successive CPM generating events if the safety-critical level of the detected object is higher than the corresponding safety-critical level threshold.

2. A method for controlling an intelligent transportation system (ITS) including at least one originating ITS station for transmitting a collective perception message (CPM), the method comprising the steps of: a transmitting step of transmitting CPM report information relating to at least one object detected within a monitoring area of ​​the originating ITS station; the CPM report information includes safety-critical classification information indicating whether the detected object is critical to the safety of the monitored area; The safety-criticality classification information includes a safety-criticality level; The method of claim 1, further comprising disabling any controls to prevent detected objects associated with a safety-criticality level higher than a corresponding safety-criticality level threshold from being reported in the CPM.

3. A method for controlling an intelligent transportation system (ITS) including at least one originating ITS station for transmitting a collective perception message (CPM), the method comprising the steps of: a transmitting step of transmitting CPM report information relating to at least one object detected within a monitoring area of ​​the originating ITS station; the CPM report information includes safety-critical classification information indicating whether the detected object is critical to the safety of the monitored area; Prior to the transmitting step, a selection step of selecting from among the objects detected by the originating ITS station, objects to be reported in the transmitted CPM; The method of claim 1, wherein the CPM includes information reporting information associated with each selected object.

4. The selecting step comprises, for each detected object: obtaining current safety-critical classification information of the detected object; obtaining previous safety-critical classification information of the detected object that was previously transmitted in a previous CPM; and selecting the detected object if the current safety-critical classification information is different from the previous safety-critical classification information.

5. the previous safety-critical classification information and the current safety-critical classification information are the same; obtaining a previous value of at least one reporting parameter of the detected object previously transmitted in a previous CPM; obtaining a current value of the reporting parameter of the detected object; 5. The method of claim 4, further comprising the step of: selecting the detected object if a difference between the current value and the previous value of the reported parameter is greater than a predefined threshold.

6. 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the reporting parameter is one of position, velocity, or acceleration relative to the originating ITS station.

7. The method of claim 3 , wherein the selected object is one of a vulnerable road user (VRU) or a vehicle.

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