EP3317612A1

EP3317612A1 - Method and device for uploading data of a motor vehicle

Info

Publication number: EP3317612A1
Application number: EP16723729.6A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Christian SKUPIN; Markus Langenberg; Daniel Zaum; Hanno Homann; Moritz Michael KNORR; Lukas KLEJNOWSKI; Alexander Geraldy; Michael Pagel; Emre CAKAR; Jochen Marx; Isabella HINTERLEITNER; Holger Mielenz
Original assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
Current assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
Priority date: 2015-06-30
Filing date: 2016-05-13
Publication date: 2018-05-09
Also published as: US20180357839A1; JP6494810B2; JP2018529141A; CN108027244A; DE102015212128A1; US10872477B2; CN108027244B; WO2017001104A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for uploading data of a motor vehicle, comprising the steps of: detecting surroundings data of the motor vehicle using a sensor device (10); producing a geographical reference for the surroundings data that have been detected; evaluating the detected surroundings data by comparing the detected surroundings data to known surroundings data of a data memory (42) of a server device (40); and uploading the detected surroundings data to the server device (40) depending on the evaluation.

Description

description

title

Method and device for uploading data of a motor vehicle

The invention relates to a method for uploading data of a motor vehicle. The invention further relates to a device for uploading data of a motor vehicle.

State of the art

In navigation technology, methods for providing data with the highest possible relevance are known. In this case, a data service provider can capture data, perform an aggregation of the collected data and provide an updated version of the aggregated data to users at defined time intervals (for example, quarterly or annually).

Also known is a so-called autarkic data aggregation, which is performed on the same device on which data to be aggregated are recorded. The data aggregated on the device are subsequently exclusively for use on this device.

Also known is a so-called collective data aggregation, which provides for an aggregation of data by a central instance, typically by a server or a server network. Users of the data service and / or a special fleet of data collectors perform data collection. The collected data is subsequently transmitted to the server for the purpose of aggregation.

The latter approach provides the most up-to-date aggregated data by collecting the collective data and providing it to the server for aggregation and the current status of the centrally aggregated data is made available by the server to the data collector.

Disclosure of the invention

An object of the invention is to provide an improved method for uploading data of a motor vehicle.

According to a first aspect, the object is achieved with a method for uploading data of a motor vehicle, comprising the steps:

- Detecting environmental data of the motor vehicle by means of a sensor device;

- establishing a location reference for the acquired environmental data;

- evaluating the acquired environmental data by comparing the acquired environmental data with known environmental data of a data memory of a server device; and

Upload the acquired environment data to the server device depending on the rating. According to a second aspect, the object is achieved with a device for

Uploading data of a motor vehicle, comprising:

a verification device and a relevance ranking device for evaluating acquired environmental data by comparing the acquired environmental data with known environmental data of a server device; and

- A second buffer for temporarily storing the detected environment data, wherein the detected environment data from the second buffer in response to the evaluation of the environment data to the server device are uploadable.

In this way, uploading sensed environmental data of the motor vehicle to the server device can be optimized depending on an available communication bandwidth. Preferably, such data are preferably uploaded, which have a high priority factor. This is advantageous especially for a highly automated or autonomously operable motor vehicle usable. Advantageous developments of the method and the device are objects of dependent claims.

An advantageous further development of the method provides that a degree of novelty is assigned to each data object of the acquired environment data, the degree of novelty being higher the less similar the data object is to a corresponding known data object.

A further advantageous development of the method provides that each data object of the acquired environmental data is assigned a first priority factor, the higher the degree of novelty, the greater the first priority factor.

A further advantageous development of the method is characterized in that a defined degree of relevance is assigned to each data object of the acquired environment data, the relevance level being higher, the higher the relevance of the data object.

A further advantageous development of the method provides that each data object of the acquired environmental data is assigned a second priority factor, the higher the degree of relevance of the data object, the greater the second priority factor.

A further advantageous development of the method provides that an overall priority is determined from the first priority factor and the second priority factor.

A further advantageous development of the method provides that the uploading of the acquired environmental data to the server device is carried out as a function of the overall priority factor. In this way, a two-stage prioritization process is performed for each data object, as a result of which a defined, selective upload of the environment data to the server device is performed. For example, in the case where the overall priority factor is high, the data may be transmitted to the server device in the short term, and in the event that the overall priority factor is low, the data will be transmitted to the server device with a defined time delay. On In this way, it is possible to take advantage of what "knowledge level" the motor vehicle or the entire system already has. As a result, data traffic on a communication link between motor vehicle and server device can be optimally transmitted.

A further advantageous development of the method provides that the location reference of the environment data comprises a geometric description or a topological description. As a result, different concepts for producing a location reference of the environmental data can advantageously be realized.

The invention will be described in detail below with further features and advantages with reference to two figures. All described or illustrated features, alone or in any combination form the subject matter of the invention, regardless of their summary in the claims or their dependency, as well as regardless of their formulation or representation in the description or in the figures. The figures are primarily intended to illustrate the principles essential to the invention.

In the figures shows:

Fig. 1 is a schematic representation of an embodiment of the device according to the invention; and

Fig. 2 is a schematic flow diagram of an embodiment of the method according to the invention.

Description of embodiments

The term data aggregation originally comes from the field of cloud computing or data mining, whereby many data are processed and stored in an appropriate manner. One possible problem of using the collective aggregation of reference data for high-precision localization is the transmission of corresponding data between client and server in real time as much as possible data volumes for the localization of automated motor vehicles are typically very large, for example in the range of about 500 MB / km. In automated or autonomous driving, the motor vehicle should essentially perceive the environment free of human support and exclusively with the aid of sensors and bring the driver safely and without accidents to his destination. For this purpose, various sensors are used to detect the environment of the motor vehicle and for self-localization current reference data, the latter are the data to be aggregated in this example.

Since typically an upload link of a mobile radio system has a lower bandwidth than a corresponding download link, a strategy of data upload is proposed for central aggregation of current information, which makes it possible to make the best possible use of available communication bandwidth.

Conventional upload strategies that are currently used in collective data aggregation can be described by the following expressions:

A) All the data required for aggregation on the server is typically sent to a server as soon as it is collected on the client. This is a kind of real-time transmission of the data, whereby a bundling of timely recorded data is possible.

B) All data collected on the client is collected on the client and sent together in a large bundle to a server with a relatively large time delay for their capture (for example, on arrival at the destination if a WLAN radio network is available).

Expression A) has the disadvantage that it is only suitable for applications in which a data rate concerning the data to be transmitted by the client to the server is substantially smaller than an available communication bandwidth.

Expression B) has the disadvantage that recorded data is only available with a high time delay for aggregation on the server. The aggregated data are thus less up-to-date than in the case of characteristic A). The proposed approach to the upload strategy provides for a specific combination of expressions A) and B). In this way, acquired data are preferably determined according to characteristic A) a server if they have a high information content and / or if they are of significant relevance (ie the application requires, for example, a very precise and up-to-date aggregation regarding certain information).

Otherwise, acquired data are preferably transmitted to the server according to characteristic B). Through such a combination of both forms, a more up-to-date aggregated data can be achieved than in the case of expression B), advantageously requiring a lower average data transmission rate for the quasi-real-time transmission than in the case of characteristic A).

As a result, by means of the upload strategy described below, a high level of up-to-date aggregated data is supported with a simultaneously reduced requirement for the required data transmission rate.

Fig. 1 shows schematically an embodiment of a device 20 for uploading data. The device 20 downloads, via a data service from a central data memory 42 of a server device 40 for the current environment of the device 20, since all data have a location reference, the current state of aggregated data and stores it in a local first buffer memory 30. The central data memory 42 contains the aggregated by the aggregation device 41 data. The aggregation device 41 is in this example part of the server device 40, but may also be the latter completely or partially upstream. The device 20 is arranged, for example, on an automated or autonomous motor vehicle (not shown).

A sensor device 10 of the motor vehicle is capable of detecting current data or data objects in the environment. The sensor device 10 is preferably designed as a video sensor, a radar sensor, etc. of the motor vehicle. By means of the sensor device 10, it is possible to acquire data in the surroundings of the motor vehicle. By means of the sensor device 10, a location reference of the acquired environmental data can also be produced, for example in the form of a WGS84 coordinate (English: World Geodetic System 1984) by means of a GPS sensor (Global Positioning System) or in the form of a topological description of the detected data object. In this way, a concrete assignment of the acquired environmental data to spatial positions.

The sensor device 10 detects, in particular, image data in the form of point clouds, line features, etc. The data mentioned may also include semantic features, such as trees, street lighting devices, buildings, etc.

By means of the device 20 it is determined how or when the detected environment data for an aggregation on an aggregation device 41 are transmitted. By means of the aggregation device 41, localization reference data or landmark data are aggregated from collectively registered, location-related environment data which are stored in the central data memory 42 and are available for the purpose of vehicle self-localization for motor vehicles, so that finally improved localization of the respective motor vehicle is supported. The device 20 is designed for this purpose as a prioritization device and implements a multi-level prioritization process. It comprises as components a verification device 21, a relevance classification device 22 and a second intermediate memory 23. In an alternative, not shown, it is also conceivable to arrange the components described separately from one another in the motor vehicle. With regard to the upload prioritization of the environmental data, first the data acquired by the sensor device 10 are compared by means of the verification device 21 with corresponding data from the first intermediate memory 30. In this case, the data in the first buffer store 30 represent a subset of known data of the central data memory 42 of the server device 40. In a first step, a similarity of the acquired environment data with the known environment data is checked, as a result of the comparison a quantified novelty value N being applied to one first priority factor P1 is mapped according to the following relationship:

P1 = f (N) (1) Each detected data object is assigned in this way a first priority factor P1, where:

- P1 is big when the news N is big, and

- P1 is small, little news N is small

In the next step, a relevance degree R with respect to the data object type is checked for each detected data object by means of the relevance ranking device 22, wherein a data rate of relevance R is assigned to each data object, which is mapped to a second priority factor P2 according to the following relationship:

P2 = f (R) (2)

Each detected data object is assigned in this way a second priority factor P2, where:

P2 is large if the relevance degree R of the data object type t is high, and

P2 is small if the degree of relevance R of the data object type t is low

After the associated priority factors P1 and P2 have been determined in this way for a detected data object, an overall priority factor PG is determined from the two priority factors P1, P2 for the relevant data object, for example according to the following relationship:

PG = P1 + P2 (3)

Also conceivable are other mathematical relationships between the priority factors P1, P2, whereby the priority factors P1, P2 can also be weighted.

Attributed with the overall priority factor PG, data objects are transmitted to the second buffer 23 of the device 20. In the second buffer 23, it is decided, based on the overall priority factor PG of a data object, which data object is uploaded when and how to the server device 40, where the data object is subsequently device 41 is further processed and the aggregation result is then stored in the central data memory 42. For example, if the overall priority factor PG reaches or exceeds a system-wide known predefined threshold value SW, the immediate transmission of the corresponding data object to the server device 40 is initiated, whereby depending on the available radio technology, the transmission is performed by mobile radio, if available, preferably via WLAN. Said threshold SW is preferably also known to the server device 40 and can be transmitted to the device 20, for example, by the latter.

If, on the other hand, the total priority factor PG <SW, the corresponding data object is not transmitted immediately but is temporarily stored in the second intermediate memory 23. Caching is preferably carried out until a sufficiently large free and thus low-cost communication bandwidth is available (for example, by availability of WLAN) to the data objects at a later date, for example in the order of their overall priority factors PG (high priority factor PG first, low priority factor PG thereafter) to the server device 40 to transmit or upload.

A technical implementation of the device 20 is preferably carried out as software of an electronic control unit (not shown) of the motor vehicle, whereby a simple update and change of features of the device 20 is supported. The device 20 may alternatively also be implemented as a hardware, for example as an ASIC (English: application-specific integrated circuit) or FPGA (English: field programmable gate array).

In a variant, not shown, it may also be provided that the server device 40 is arranged inside the motor vehicle. In this case, it can advantageously be achieved that an amount of data to be transmitted to the motor vehicle internal database is optimized and this can thereby be designed more efficiently.

2 shows a basic procedure of the method: In a step 200, detection of environmental data of the motor vehicle is carried out by means of a sensor device 10.

In a step 210, a location reference for the acquired environment data is produced.

In a step 220, an assessment of the acquired environmental data is performed by comparing the acquired environmental data with known environmental data of a data memory 42 of a server device 40.

Finally, in a step 230, the acquired environment data is uploaded to the server device 40 in response to the evaluation.

In summary, the present invention proposes a method and a device with which it is possible to carry out a data upload of a motor vehicle to a server device on the basis of a prior evaluation of data objects. In this way, an available communication bandwidth can be used efficiently, so that an entire system can efficiently connect as many road users as possible.

Furthermore, this advantageously supports that only such data are transmitted to the server that are actually required, e.g. for the purpose of localization.

One skilled in the art will suitably modify and / or combine the features of the invention without departing from the gist of the invention.

Claims

claims

1 . Method for uploading data of a motor vehicle, comprising the steps:

- Recording environmental data of the motor vehicle by means of a sensor device (10);

- establishing a location reference for the acquired environmental data;

- evaluating the acquired environmental data by comparing the acquired environmental data with known environmental data of a data memory (42) of a server device (40); and

- uploading the acquired environment data to the server device (40) in dependence on the rating.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each data object of the detected environment data is assigned a degree of novelty (N), the degree of novelty (N) being higher, the less similar the data object is to a corresponding known data object.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein each data object of the detected environment data, a first priority factor (P1) is assigned, wherein the first priority factor (P1) is greater, the higher the degree of novelty (N).

4. The method of claim 3, wherein each data object of the detected environment data is assigned a defined degree of relevance (R), wherein the relevance degree (R) is higher, the higher a relevance of the data object.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein each data object of the detected environment data, a second priority factor (P2) is assigned, wherein the second priority factor (P2) is the greater, the higher the degree of relevance (R) of the data object.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein a total priority (PG) of the first priority factor (P1) and the second priority factor (P2) is determined.

A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the uploading of the acquired environmental data to the server device (40) is performed in dependence on the overall priority factor (PG).

8. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the location reference of the environmental data comprises a geometric description or a topological description.

9. A device (20) for uploading data of a motor vehicle, comprising:

a verification device (21) and a relevance ranking device (22) for evaluating acquired environmental data by comparing the acquired environmental data with known environmental data of a server device (40); and

a second latch (23) for latching the acquired environment data, wherein the acquired environment data from the second latch (23) is uploadable to the server device (40) in response to the evaluation of the environment data.

A device (20) according to claim 9, characterized in that by means of the verification device (21) the environment data is comparable to data representing a subset of data of the server device (40).

1 1. Device (20) according to claim 9 or 10, characterized in that by means of the verification device (21) a first priority factor (P1) of the detected environmental data can be determined.

12. Device (20) according to claim 1 1, characterized in that by means of a Relevanzeinstufungseinrichtung (22), a second priority factor (P2) of the environmental data can be determined.

13. Device (20) according to claim 12, characterized in that a total priority factor (PG) from the first priority factor (P1) and / or the second priority factor (P2) can be determined for the detected environment data.

14. Device (20) according to claim 13, characterized in that a threshold value (SW) can be defined, wherein the detected environmental data is uploaded to the server device (40) as a function of the overall priority factor (PG) to the threshold value (SW).

Computer program product with program code means for carrying out the method according to one of Claims 1 to 8, when it runs on a device (20) according to one of Claims 9 to 14 or is stored on a computer-readable data medium.