Abnormal noise diagnosis device

Abstract

To provide an abnormal sound diagnosis device with which it is possible to properly diagnose abnormal sounds taking into account the secular change of vehicles.SOLUTION: An abnormal sound diagnosis device according to the present disclosure diagnoses abnormal sounds on the basis of the data of sounds emanating from a vehicle and inquiry information regarding the abnormal sounds generated in the vehicle, said device acquiring a physical quantity for diagnosing an abnormal sound from the sound data and setting a threshold that is compared with the physical quantity on the basis of travel history information that includes at least the travel distance of the vehicle, and determining, by comparison of the physical quantity with the threshold, which of an operation sound that is recognized to be normal taking into account a normal operation sound and a secular change or a sound generated due to some kind of abnormality the abnormal sound corresponds to.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present disclosure relates to an abnormal noise diagnosis device that diagnoses abnormal noise generated in a vehicle. [Background technology]

[0002] Conventionally, there is known a sound monitoring device that includes a storage means for storing in advance the sound pressure and frequency of normal sounds generated from each location of equipment as reference values, and a measurement means for measuring the sound pressure and frequency of sounds generated from each location of equipment during actual use (see, for example, Patent Document 1). This monitoring device determines whether the sound pressure and frequency of the sound measured by the measurement means deviate from the reference values ​​stored in the storage means, and issues an alarm when the measured sound pressure and frequency deviate from the reference values ​​by a predetermined amount or more. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-203146 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] If the sound pressure or frequency of a sound generated by a vehicle deviates from a standard value (threshold), it may be possible to diagnose that the abnormal sound is caused by some kind of abnormality. However, simply comparing the sound pressure, etc. with the standard value may result in the abnormal sound being diagnosed as caused by some kind of abnormality, even if it is recognized as normal considering changes over time, and it may be impossible to properly determine whether maintenance work is necessary.

[0005] Therefore, a main object of the present disclosure is to provide an abnormal noise diagnosis device that can properly diagnose abnormal noises while taking into account aging of the vehicle. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] The abnormal noise diagnosis device disclosed herein diagnoses abnormal noises based on data on sounds emitted from a vehicle and medical interview information regarding abnormal noises generated by the vehicle. This abnormal noise diagnosis device acquires physical quantities for diagnosing abnormal noises from the sound data, sets thresholds to be compared with the physical quantities based on driving history information including at least the vehicle's mileage, and, by comparing the physical quantities with the thresholds, determines whether the abnormal noise corresponds to a normal operating sound, an operating sound that is considered normal in consideration of aging, or a sound caused by some kind of abnormality. This makes it possible to properly diagnose abnormal noises while taking into account aging of the vehicle. The information processing device may also include a diagnosis unit constructed using machine learning to diagnose the cause of the abnormal noise based on provided information. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0007] [Figure 1] 1 is a schematic configuration diagram illustrating an abnormal sound diagnosis system including an abnormal sound diagnosis device according to the present disclosure. [Figure 2] 3 is a flowchart showing a series of processes executed by the abnormal sound diagnosis device of the present disclosure. [Figure 3] FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a threshold setting table used by the abnormal sound diagnosis device of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0008] Next, embodiments of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings.

[0009] 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an abnormal sound diagnosis system 1 including a server 20 as the abnormal sound diagnosis device of the present disclosure. The abnormal sound diagnosis system 1 shown in the figure is for diagnosing the cause of abnormal sounds generated in a vehicle V, such as a vehicle equipped with only an engine as a power generation source, a hybrid vehicle (HEV, PHEV), or an electric vehicle (BEV, FCEV), and includes, in addition to the server 20, a mobile terminal 10 that can exchange information with the server 20 via communication.

[0010] The mobile terminal 10 is used by a worker (user of the abnormal sound diagnosis system 1) at a vehicle dealership, repair shop, or the like when responding to a user (owner) of the vehicle V in which an abnormal sound has occurred, or when performing a reproduction test in which the vehicle V is driven (operated) on a roadway or a test bench to reproduce the abnormal sound. In this embodiment, the mobile terminal 10 is a smartphone including an SoC, ROM, RAM, an auxiliary storage device (flash memory) M, a touch-panel display 11, a communication module 12 capable of exchanging various information with a server 20 or an electronic control device of the vehicle V via wired or wireless communication, a microphone (not shown), and the like. An abnormal sound diagnosis support application (program) is installed on the mobile terminal 10. As shown in FIG. 1 , the mobile terminal 10 includes a medical interview information acquisition unit 13, a sound acquisition unit 14, a vehicle state acquisition unit 15, a calculation processing unit 16, an extraction unit 17, and a display control unit 18, which are constructed by the cooperation of the abnormal sound diagnosis support application (software) and hardware such as the SoC of the mobile terminal 10.

[0011] The medical interview information acquisition unit 13 acquires information indicating the state of the vehicle V at the time of the occurrence of an abnormal sound (hereinafter referred to as "medical interview information") provided by the user of the vehicle V via the display unit 11. The medical interview information includes vehicle identification information including the vehicle model, vehicle identification number (chassis number), etc., orders, date and time of occurrence, frequency of occurrence, location of the abnormal sound, type of sound (onomatopoeia), physical quantities that change while the vehicle V is traveling such as vehicle speed, the driving state of the vehicle V, warm-up effects in engine-equipped vehicles, selection items selected by the driver while driving the vehicle V, and driving environment information for the vehicle V, and is input by the above-mentioned worker or the user of the vehicle V. The sound acquisition unit 14 acquires time axis data of the sound (sound pressure) when a reproduction test is performed by the worker. The vehicle state acquisition unit 15 acquires information indicating the state of the vehicle V (hereinafter referred to as "vehicle state data") in synchronization with the acquisition of the time axis data of the sound by the sound acquisition unit 14 when a reproduction test is performed. The vehicle condition data includes a plurality of physical quantities (vehicle speed, engine speed, etc.) corresponding to the items of medical interview information. The calculation processing unit 16 performs analysis processing of the time axis data of the sound acquired by the sound acquisition unit 14. The extraction unit 17 performs narrowing down of the analysis results by the calculation processing unit 16 according to the selection of the operator, etc. The display control unit 18 controls the display unit 11.

[0012] The server 20, which serves as an abnormal sound diagnosis device, is a computer (information processing device) including a CPU, ROM, RAM, input / output devices, a communication module, etc., and is installed and managed, for example, by the automobile manufacturer that produces the vehicle V. The server 20 is configured with an abnormal sound diagnosis unit 21 that diagnoses abnormal sounds generated in the vehicle V through cooperation between hardware such as the CPU and a pre-installed abnormal sound diagnosis application. The abnormal sound diagnosis unit 21 includes a neural network (convolutional neural network) configured by supervised learning (machine learning) to diagnose the cause of the abnormal sound generated in the vehicle V and the part that is the source of the abnormal sound, based on the medical history information and sound time axis data acquired by the mobile terminal 10. Furthermore, when the server 20 detects the occurrence of a new abnormal sound in the vehicle V, it performs re-learning of the abnormal sound diagnosis unit 21 using the sound time axis data acquired for the new abnormal sound and the contents of each item of the medical history information as training data.

[0013] The server 20 also includes a storage device 22 that stores an abnormal noise database containing, for each vehicle model, information on multiple abnormal noises that are known to occur in that vehicle. The abnormal noise database stores information such as time axis data for the noise, the cause of the abnormal noise, the parts that are the source of the noise, the details of medical interview information provided by the user, and measures to resolve the abnormal noise, linked to each of the multiple abnormal noises. The server 20 also updates the abnormal noise database based on information acquired from multiple vehicles, including vehicle V, and information on newly discovered abnormal noises transmitted from automobile manufacturers (developers, etc.), vehicle dealerships, repair shops, etc. The server 20 is also capable of exchanging information with the vehicle information management server 30 shown in FIG. 1 via communication, and acquires information necessary for diagnosis from the vehicle information management server 30 when diagnosing abnormal noises.

[0014] The vehicle information management server 30 is a computer including a CPU, ROM, RAM, input / output devices, a communication module, etc., and is installed and managed by the automobile manufacturer that produces the vehicle V. The vehicle information management server 30 acquires vehicle information from multiple registered vehicles via an on-board communication device and stores it in a vehicle database stored in a storage device (not shown). The vehicle information includes, for example, the vehicle identification number or chassis number, vehicle number, current vehicle user name, vehicle user contact information, user history, manufacturer name, vehicle name, vehicle model, year, body color, grade name, individual equipment, vehicle photos, vehicle inspection status, ownership status, maintenance records, mileage, accident history, body data, driving records, and user driving tendencies analyzed from the driving records. This vehicle information is linked to IDs assigned to each of the multiple vehicles and stored in the vehicle database. Furthermore, the vehicle information management server 30 periodically requests the multiple vehicles to transmit vehicle information, updates the vehicle database based on the vehicle information transmitted from each vehicle, and updates the vehicle database as new vehicles are registered.

[0015] Next, the abnormal sound diagnosis procedure performed by the abnormal sound diagnosis system 1 will be described with reference to FIGS.

[0016] When a worker at a vehicle dealership, repair shop, or the like is requested by a user of vehicle V to resolve an abnormal noise, the worker listens to medical history information from the user and then performs a reproduction test to obtain information necessary for diagnosing the abnormal noise. To perform the reproduction test, the worker connects mobile terminal 10 to an electronic control device of vehicle V and places or fixes mobile terminal 10 or an external microphone connected to mobile terminal 10 in an appropriate position on vehicle V. The worker also launches an abnormal noise diagnosis support application and turns on the start switch of vehicle V. Accordingly, mobile terminal 10 obtains information such as the vehicle identification number or chassis number of vehicle V from the electronic control device. The worker also taps the recording start button displayed on display unit 11 and drives (operates) vehicle V on a roadway or test stand to reproduce the driving conditions in which the abnormal noise occurred based on the medical history information from the user of vehicle V.

[0017] While the vehicle V is running (operating), the sound acquisition unit 14 of the mobile terminal 10 acquires time axis data of the sound emitted from the vehicle V at predetermined time intervals (micro time intervals) and stores the data in the auxiliary storage device M, and the vehicle state acquisition unit 15 acquires vehicle state data specified by the worker in response to medical interview information from the user of the vehicle V, etc., from the electronic control device of the vehicle V at predetermined time intervals (micro time intervals) in synchronization with the acquisition of the sound time axis data by the sound acquisition unit 14, and stores the vehicle state data in the auxiliary storage device M. When the worker taps the recording stop button displayed on the display unit 11, the acquisition of the sound time axis data and vehicle state data is completed.

[0018] After the reproduction test is completed, the calculation processing unit 16 performs a Short-Time Fourier Transform (STFT) on the time-axis data of the sound to obtain a spectrogram (acoustic spectrogram) showing the relationship between time, frequency, and sound pressure. The display control unit 18 then displays the spectrogram on the display unit 11. In this embodiment, the spectrogram is a color map in which the horizontal axis represents the time axis and the vertical axis represents the frequency axis, and the sound pressure level is color-coded to show the relationship between time and sound pressure level for each frequency. Furthermore, on the display unit 11, the operator selects (specifies) a range of the spectrogram to be diagnosed (analyzed) by the abnormal sound diagnosis unit 21 (server 20) (hereinafter referred to as the "diagnosis range"). Furthermore, the operator inputs medical interview information into the input screen displayed on the display unit 11. When the operator taps an information transmission button displayed on the display unit 11, the information necessary for diagnosing the abnormal sound is transmitted from the communication module 12 of the mobile terminal 10 to the server 20. In this embodiment, the information transmitted from the mobile terminal 10 to the server 20 includes time axis data of the sound acquired by the sound acquisition unit 14, vehicle state data acquired by the vehicle state acquisition unit 15, medical interview information, and information specifying the diagnostic range selected by the operator.

[0019] FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a series of processes executed by the server 20 in response to receiving information from the mobile terminal 10.

[0020] As shown in FIG. 2, the abnormal sound diagnosis unit 21 of the server 20 acquires sound time axis data, vehicle condition data, medical interview information, and information defining the diagnosis range from the mobile terminal 10 (step S100). Based on this information, the abnormal sound diagnosis unit 21 diagnoses the cause of the abnormal sound generated in the vehicle V using the neural network (step S110). The diagnosis result obtained in step S110 includes the name of the abnormal sound, the part that is the source of the abnormal sound, etc. Furthermore, the abnormal sound diagnosis unit 21 acquires driving history information, such as the mileage of the vehicle V and the driving habits of the user of the vehicle V, from the vehicle information management server 30 (step S120). In step S120, the abnormal sound diagnosis unit 21 transmits a request to the vehicle information management server 30 to send the driving history information together with the vehicle identification information of the vehicle V included in the medical interview information. The vehicle information management server 30 reads the driving history information of the vehicle V from the vehicle database based on the vehicle identification information from the server 20, and transmits the read driving history information to the server 20.

[0021] Next, the abnormal sound diagnosis unit 21 sets a threshold value to be used for final diagnosis of an abnormal sound generated in the vehicle V based on the driving history information acquired in step S120 (step S130). In this embodiment, the storage device 22 of the server 20 stores, for each vehicle model, a threshold setting table shown in FIG. 3 that specifies the relationship between the vehicle condition, driving tendency, mileage, frequency of the abnormal sound, and the reference sound pressure level of the abnormal sound for each of a plurality of abnormal sounds (abnormal sound names). In step S130, the abnormal sound diagnosis unit 21 derives a reference sound pressure level corresponding to the driving condition of the vehicle V at the time of the abnormal sound generation obtained from the medical interview information or vehicle condition data, the user's driving tendency included in the driving history state, and the mileage of the vehicle V, from the threshold setting table corresponding to the vehicle model of the vehicle V and the abnormal sound name acquired in step S110 (injector operating sound in the example of FIG. 3), and sets the reference sound pressure level as the threshold value.

[0022] Furthermore, the abnormal sound diagnosis unit 21 acquires, as a determination physical quantity for diagnosing an abnormal sound, a sound pressure level of a frequency defined in the threshold setting table from a range corresponding to the diagnostic range of the time axis data of the sound acquired in step S100 (step S140). The sound pressure level acquired in step S140 may be an average value or a maximum value of the sound pressure levels of the frequency. The abnormal sound diagnosis unit 21 then compares the determination physical quantity acquired in step S140 with the threshold set in step S130 to determine whether the abnormal sound generated in the vehicle V is a normal operation sound or a sound generated due to some kind of abnormality (step S150). In the example of FIG. 3 , if the determination physical quantity exceeds the threshold, the abnormal sound generated in the vehicle V is determined to be a sound generated due to some kind of abnormality, regardless of the threshold value, i.e., the driving history information (mileage). On the other hand, if the determination physical quantity is equal to or less than the threshold, the abnormal sound generated in the vehicle V is determined to be a normal operation sound or an operation sound that is considered normal in consideration of aging, depending on the threshold value, i.e., the driving history information (mileage).

[0023] After the processing of step S150, the abnormal sound diagnosis unit 21 creates a final diagnosis result based on the diagnosis result of step S110, the determination result of step S150, etc. (step S160). The diagnosis result of step S160 includes the name of the abnormal sound, the part that is the source of the abnormal sound, the determination result of step S150, the cause of the abnormal sound, and measures to eliminate the abnormal sound that are read from the storage device 22. Furthermore, the abnormal sound diagnosis unit 21 transmits the diagnosis result created in step S160 to the mobile terminal 10 (step S170), thereby ending the series of processes in FIG. 2. When the diagnosis result from the server 20 is received by the mobile terminal 10, the diagnosis result is displayed on the display unit 11. This allows the operator to accurately explain the diagnosis result from the server 20 to the user of the vehicle V, etc., and promptly proceed with measures to address the abnormal sound.

[0024] As described above, the server 20 serving as an abnormal sound diagnosis device in the abnormal sound diagnosis system 1 acquires a sound pressure level, which is a physical quantity for diagnosing an abnormal sound generated in the vehicle V, from the sound time axis data, and sets a reference sound pressure level based on driving history information including at least the mileage of the vehicle V as a threshold value to be compared with the physical quantity (steps S130-S140). By comparing the physical quantity with the threshold value, the server 20 determines whether the abnormal sound generated in the vehicle V corresponds to a normal operating sound, an operating sound that is recognized as normal in consideration of aging, or a sound generated due to some kind of abnormality (step S150). In this way, the server 20 serving as an abnormal sound diagnosis device can properly diagnose an abnormal sound while taking into consideration aging of the vehicle V. As a result, both the worker and the user of the vehicle V can properly determine the need for maintenance work and the details of the maintenance by using the abnormal sound diagnosis results obtained by the server 20.

[0025] The abnormal sound diagnosis support application installed on the mobile terminal 10 may also be installed on a tablet terminal, personal computer, or the like, and the tablet terminal or the like may be used in place of the mobile terminal 10. Also, some of the functions of the abnormal sound diagnosis unit 21 may be provided in the mobile terminal 10, and the abnormal sound diagnosis system 1 may be configured as a single information processing device such as a personal computer. [Industrial Applicability]

[0026] The invention of the present disclosure is extremely useful for diagnosing abnormal noises occurring in a vehicle. [Explanation of symbols]

[0027] 1 Abnormal sound diagnosis system, 10 Mobile terminal, 11 Display unit, 12 Communication module, 13 Questionnaire information acquisition unit, 14 Sound acquisition unit, 15 Vehicle state acquisition unit, 16 Arithmetic processing unit, 17 Extraction unit, 18 Display control unit, 20 Server (information processing device), 21 Abnormal sound diagnosis unit, 22 Storage device, 30 Vehicle information management server, V Vehicle.

Claims

[Claim 1] An abnormal noise diagnosis device that diagnoses an abnormal noise based on data of a sound emitted from a vehicle and inquiry information regarding the abnormal noise generated in the vehicle, diagnosing the cause of the abnormal noise using a neural network based on the sound data and the medical interview information; a physical quantity for diagnosing the abnormal noise is obtained from the sound data, and a threshold value is set to be compared with the physical quantity based on driving history information including at least the driving distance of the vehicle; if the physical quantity exceeds the threshold value, the abnormal noise is determined to be a sound caused by some kind of abnormality; if the physical quantity is equal to or less than the threshold value, the abnormal noise is determined to be a normal operating sound or an operating sound that is recognized as normal in consideration of aging, depending on the value of the threshold value; creating a diagnosis result including the cause of the abnormal noise and the result of the determination; Abnormal noise diagnosis device.

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