Control Unit Collision Data Storage via Triggered Archiving
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current systems for fully automated motor vehicles lack sufficient data storage to adequately reconstruct accidents and determine fault, especially when sensor systems or power supply fail during collisions, leading to insufficient data for legal evaluations.
Innovation Solution
A dedicated storage medium within the control unit generates a trigger signal based on collision probability, allowing continuous storage of environmental data before a collision occurs, using high-speed interfaces and storage solutions like SSDs or eMMC for rapid data recording, ensuring comprehensive documentation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If a small buffer memory is used in the control unit to store driving situation data, then the control unit size and cost are reduced, but the data storage capacity is insufficient to adequately reconstruct accidents for legal evaluation
Solution Approach 1:
The storage system is segmented into two distinct parts: a small buffer memory (512 KB to 2 MB) within the control unit for continuous data reception, and a larger external storage medium (SD card, SSD, or eMMC with several GB capacity) for accident data archiving. This segmentation allows the control unit to remain compact while providing sufficient storage capacity through the external medium that connects via high-speed interface.
Solution Approach 2:
A high-speed data interface acts as an intermediary between the buffer memory and the external storage medium. This intermediary enables rapid data transfer (superseding standard vehicle bus speeds) to store large volumes of environmental data from multiple sensors without requiring the control unit itself to have large internal memory, thus resolving the contradiction between storage capacity and control unit size.
2Loss of information
If data storage only occurs after collision detection, then storage resources are conserved, but data from the moments leading up to the accident is lost, making fault determination impossible
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by continuously monitoring collision probability and storing environmental data in advance of actual collision. When collision likelihood exceeds a threshold, the system proactively archives data from all sensors (cameras, radar, lidar, ultrasonic) to external storage before the accident occurs, ensuring complete pre-accident data availability without wasting storage resources on normal driving conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
A feedback mechanism continuously evaluates collision probability based on sensor data and dynamically controls data storage. When the evaluated collision probability exceeds a predetermined threshold, the system activates continuous archiving to external storage. This feedback-based approach ensures storage resources are used only when necessary (high collision risk) while preventing information loss that would occur with post-collision-only storage.
3Speed
If standard vehicle bus interfaces are used for data transmission, then system complexity is reduced, but transmission speed is too slow to capture all relevant data before power loss during accidents
Solution Approach 1:
The data transmission path is segmented into two stages: first, sensors transmit data to the control unit's buffer memory via existing vehicle bus interfaces (maintaining low interface complexity); second, a dedicated high-speed data interface transfers data from the buffer to external storage medium at superseding speeds. This segmentation allows fast transmission where needed without requiring all system interfaces to be complex high-speed connections.
Solution Approach 2:
The buffer memory acts as an intermediary that receives data via standard vehicle bus interfaces and then forwards it through a high-speed interface to external storage. This intermediary buffer allows the system to use simple standard interfaces for sensor communication while achieving fast transmission speeds for critical data archiving, resolving the contradiction between transmission speed and interface complexity.
Data Source
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AI summary
Method for operating a control unit of a motor vehicle, wherein the control unit is designed for fully automatic control of the motor vehicle by evaluating driving situation data, including environmental data from at least one environmental sensor of the motor vehicle supplied to the control unit, wherein a collision probability describing the probability of a collision with a foreign object is determined in the control unit by further evaluation of the driving situation data, wherein a trigger signal is generated when a threshold value for the collision probability is exceeded, upon the occurrence of which at least part of the current environmental data is continuously stored in a storage medium of the control unit for a period of time until at least the occurrence of the collision and/or until the collision probability falls below the threshold and/or a further threshold value, and is retrievable at a later time.to save.