JP2021189469A - Data collection device - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a data collection device capable of allowing another vehicle to recognize that transmission of peripheral data concerning a predetermined area to a server is not desired.SOLUTION: A data collection device comprises: a data collection section for allowing a storage section to store peripheral data which has been received from a plurality of vehicles and expresses peripheral states of the vehicles acquired by sensors respectively mounted on the plurality of vehicles; a management facility determination section for determining whether a range corresponding to prohibition range information which has been received from a first vehicle of the plurality of vehicles and indicates a range of a position where transmission of peripheral data showing the peripheral state of the first vehicle has to be prohibited; and a prohibition range transmission section for transmitting the information indicating the range to a second vehicle other than the first vehicle out of the plurality of vehicles when it is determined that the range includes a facility to be managed by an operator of the first vehicle.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 7

Description

The present invention relates to a data acquisition device.

A data collection device that collects peripheral data indicating the surrounding condition of a vehicle acquired by a sensor mounted on the vehicle is known. The collected peripheral data is used for updating maps and the like.

Peripheral data may contain information that is not desirable to send to the server. For example, a driver who is concerned about the living environment being disclosed by the peripheral data acquired around his / her home may not want to send such peripheral data to the server.

Patent Document 1 discloses an in-vehicle device for transmitting data acquired by a sensor mounted on a vehicle to a server. According to the in-vehicle device described in Patent Document 1, the data determined to be the transmission target and the data determined to be not the transmission target are displayed on the screen in a distinguishable manner. Therefore, the in-vehicle device described in Patent Document 1 makes it easy for the user to confirm which data is excluded from the transmission target, and reduces the burden on the user.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2014-059653

According to the in-vehicle device described in Patent Document 1, even if the data for a predetermined area is excluded from the transmission target in the own vehicle, the data for the area is transmitted to the server to other vehicles that have entered the area. Can't tell that isn't desired.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a data collection device capable of notifying other vehicles that peripheral data for a predetermined area is not desired to be transmitted to a server.

The data collecting device according to the present invention includes a data collecting unit that stores peripheral data representing the surrounding conditions of the vehicle, which is received from a plurality of vehicles and acquired by sensors mounted on each of the plurality of vehicles, in a storage unit. The range corresponding to the prohibited range information indicating the range of the position where the transmission of the peripheral data indicating the peripheral condition of the first vehicle received from the first vehicle among the vehicles of the first vehicle should be prohibited is the range of the first vehicle. A management facility determination unit that determines whether or not a facility managed by the driver is included, and a management facility determination unit that determines whether or not the range includes a facility managed by the driver of the first vehicle. Among them, a prohibited range transmission unit for transmitting to a second vehicle other than the first vehicle is provided.

According to the data acquisition device according to the present invention, it is possible to notify another vehicle that the transmission of peripheral data for a predetermined area to the server is not desired.

It is a schematic block diagram of a data collection system including a data collection device. It is an operation sequence diagram of the prohibition range information distribution processing in a data collection system. It is a schematic block diagram of a vehicle. It is a hardware schematic diagram of a data transmission device. It is a hardware configuration diagram of a server. It is a functional block diagram of the processor which a server has. It is a figure explaining the outline of the prohibition range information distribution processing.

Hereinafter, the data acquisition device will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The data collection device stores peripheral data received from a plurality of vehicles in a storage unit. Peripheral data is data representing the surrounding conditions of a vehicle acquired by sensors mounted on each of a plurality of vehicles. The data acquisition device receives the prohibited range information from the first vehicle among the plurality of vehicles. The prohibited range information is information indicating the range of the current position of the first vehicle to which transmission of peripheral data of the first vehicle should be prohibited. The data acquisition device determines whether or not the range corresponding to the received prohibited range information includes the facility managed by the driver of the first vehicle. Then, when it is determined that the range includes the facility managed by the driver of the first vehicle, the data acquisition device transmits the information indicating the range to the second vehicle among the plurality of vehicles.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an outline of a data collection system. In the present embodiment, the data collection system 1 has a vehicle A2-1 and a vehicle B2-2 (hereinafter, collectively referred to as “vehicle 2”), and a server 3. The server 3 is an example of a data collection device. The vehicle 2 accesses the communication network 4 to which the server 3 is connected and the radio base station 5 connected via a gateway (not shown) to the server via the radio base station 5 and the communication network 4. Connected to 3. The data collection system 1 may have one or three or more vehicles 2. Further, in the data collection system 1, a plurality of radio base stations 5 may be connected to the communication network 4.

FIG. 2 is an operation sequence diagram of the prohibited range information distribution process in the data collection system 1. The data collection system 1 executes the prohibited range information distribution process according to the sequence diagram shown in FIG.

The vehicle A2-1 sets the prohibited range information indicating the range of the current position of the vehicle A2-1 where transmission of peripheral data of the vehicle A2-1 should be prohibited, to the setting of the prohibited range information by the driver of the vehicle A2-1. Accordingly, transmission to the server 3 is performed via the radio base station 5 and the communication network 4 (step S1).

When the server 3 receives the prohibited range information from the vehicle A2-1 via the communication network 4, the server 3 determines whether or not the range corresponding to the prohibited range information includes the facility managed by the driver of the vehicle A2-1. (Step S2).

When it is determined that the range includes the facility managed by the driver of the vehicle A2-1 (step S2: Y), the server 3 indicates the range to the vehicle B2-2 via the communication network 4 and the radio base station 5. Information is transmitted (step S3). On the other hand, when it is determined that the range does not include the facility managed by the driver of the vehicle A2-1 (step S2: N), the server 3 ends the prohibited range information distribution process.

FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of the vehicle 2. The vehicle 2 has a camera 21, a GNSS receiver 22, a DCM 23 (Data Communication Module), a storage device 24, and a data transmission device 25. The camera 21, the GNSS receiver 22, the DCM23, the storage device 24, and the data transmission device 25 are communicably connected to each other via a standard-compliant in-vehicle network such as a controller area network.

The camera 21 is an example of a sensor, and is a two-dimensional detector composed of an array of photoelectric conversion elements having sensitivity to visible light such as a CCD or C-MOS, and a region to be photographed on the two-dimensional detector. It has an imaging optical system that forms an image of. The camera 21 is mounted in the vehicle interior of the vehicle 2, for example, so as to face the front of the vehicle 2. The camera 21 photographs the front area of the vehicle 2 at predetermined shooting cycles (for example, 1/30 second to 1/10 second), and generates an image in which the front area is captured. The image obtained by the camera 21 may be a color image or a monochrome image. The vehicle 2 may be provided with a plurality of cameras, and the shooting directions or focal lengths of the plurality of cameras may be different from each other.

Each time the camera 21 generates an image, the camera 21 outputs the generated image to the data transmission device 25 via the in-vehicle network.

The GNSS receiver 22 receives a GNSS signal from a GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) satellite at predetermined intervals, and determines the self-position of the vehicle 2 based on the received GNSS signal. The GNSS receiver 22 outputs a positioning signal representing the positioning result of the self-position of the vehicle 2 based on the GNSS signal to the data transmission device 25 via the in-vehicle network at predetermined intervals.

The DCM23 is an example of a vehicle communication unit, and is a device that executes wireless communication processing conforming to a predetermined wireless communication standard such as so-called 4G (4th Generation) or 5G (5th Generation). The DCM23 is connected to the server 3 via the radio base station 5 and the communication network 4, for example, by accessing the radio base station 5. The DCM 23 receives the downlink radio signal from the radio base station 5, and passes the sensor data transmission request signal including the sensor data transmission request from the server 3 included in the radio signal to the data transmission device 25. Further, the DCM 23 includes the data received from the data transmission device 25 in the uplink radio signal, and transmits the radio signal to the radio base station 5, thereby transmitting the data to the server 3. The DCM 23 may be mounted as a part of the data transmission device 25.

The storage device 24 has a hard disk device or a non-volatile semiconductor memory. The storage device 24 stores map information for displaying a map. The storage device 24 temporarily stores the image data obtained from the camera 21. The storage device 24 reads the image data in accordance with the image data read request from the data transmission device 25, and passes the read image data to the data transmission device 25 via the in-vehicle network. Further, the storage device 24 stores a character string that identifies the vehicle 2 as a vehicle identifier.

The data transmission device 25 transmits the peripheral data including the image data representing the road surface condition around the vehicle 2 or the feature data representing the features around the vehicle 2 and the vehicle identifier to the DCM 23, and the radio base station 5 and the communication network. It is transmitted to the server 3 via 4. The data transmission device 25 generates image data and feature data based on the image obtained from the camera 21. Further, the data transmission device 25 accepts an operation for designating the prohibited range information by the driver. The data transmission device causes the DCM 23 to transmit the prohibited range information and the vehicle identifier to the server 3 via the radio base station 5 and the communication network 4. The data transmission device 25 may be mounted on the vehicle 2 as a drive recorder for storing an image representing the surrounding situation of the vehicle 2 generated by the camera 21 while the vehicle 2 is running in the storage device 24.

FIG. 3 is a schematic hardware diagram of the data transmission device 25. The data transmission device 25 includes a communication interface 251, a user interface 252, a memory 253, and a processor 254.

The communication interface 251 has a communication interface circuit for connecting the data transmission device 25 to the in-vehicle network. The communication interface 251 supplies the received data to the processor 254. Further, the communication interface 251 outputs the data supplied from the processor 254 to the outside.

The user interface 252 has, for example, a touch panel display. The user interface 252 displays map information and the like received from the processor 254. Further, the user interface 252 accepts the driver's operation for designating the prohibited range information, instructing the transmission of the prohibited range information to the server 3, and the like.

The prohibited range information is represented as the inside of a circle having a predetermined radius centered on the predetermined position, for example, by designating the position and radius of one point on the map. The prohibited range information may be represented as the inside of a rectangle having those two points as vertices by designating the positions of the two points on the map. In addition, the prohibited range information may be specified by address information (for example, "3-chome Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo").

The memory 253 includes a volatile semiconductor memory and a non-volatile semiconductor memory. The memory 253 stores various data used for processing by the processor 254, for example, a parameter set for constructing a classifier. Further, the memory 253 stores various application programs, for example, a data transmission program that executes data transmission control.

The processor 254 is an example of a control unit, and has one or more processors and peripheral circuits thereof. The processor 254 may further include other arithmetic circuits such as a logical operation unit, a numerical operation unit, or a graphic processing unit.

The processor 254 generates feature data by inputting an image obtained from the camera 21 into a classifier trained in advance to detect the feature represented in the image. A feature is a feature included in the road environment, and is, for example, a road marking such as a lane marking line or a stop line on a road surface, a sign displayed on a road, or the like. In addition, a plurality of feature data may be generated from one image.

The classifier can be, for example, a convolutional neural network (CNN) having a plurality of convolutional layers connected in series from the input side to the output side. The convolution layer executes a convolution operation and outputs a feature map. The CNN may further have a fully connected layer and an output layer. The fully connected layer combines all the features contained in the feature map output by the convolution layer. The output layer inputs the output of the fully connected layer to the activation function and outputs the output value. As the activation function, a sigmoid function, a softmax function, or the like is used. By inputting the image including the feature, the type of the feature, and the position information of the area containing the feature into the CNN in advance as teacher data and performing learning, the CNN can select the area containing the feature from the image. Acts as a discriminator to detect.

The processor 254 executes a viewpoint conversion process using information such as the mounting position of the camera 21 on the vehicle 2, and cuts out a part of the camera 21 to obtain a bird's-eye view image based on the image obtained from the camera 21 of the vehicle 2. It is generated as image data showing the surrounding road surface condition.

FIG. 5 is a hardware configuration diagram of the server 3. The server 3 receives data from the vehicle 2 via the communication network 4, and executes processing using the received data. Therefore, the server 3 has a communication interface 31, a storage device 32, a memory 33, and a processor 34.

The communication interface 31 is an example of a communication unit, and has an interface circuit for connecting the server 3 to the communication network 4. The communication interface 31 is configured to be able to communicate with the vehicle 2 via the communication network 4 and the radio base station 5. That is, the communication interface 31 passes peripheral data and the like received from the vehicle 2 via the radio base station 5 and the communication network 4 to the processor 34. Further, the communication interface 31 transmits the prohibited range information and the like received from the processor 34 to the vehicle 2 via the communication network 4 and the radio base station 5.

The storage device 32 is an example of a storage unit, and has a storage device such as a hard disk device or a non-volatile semiconductor memory device. The storage device 32 stores peripheral data and prohibited range information received from the vehicle 2. Further, the storage device 32 stores position information indicating the position of the facility managed by the driver of the vehicle 2 in association with the vehicle identifier that identifies the vehicle 2.

The memory 33 has a volatile semiconductor memory and a non-volatile semiconductor memory. The memory 33 stores various data used for processing by the processor 34, for example, peripheral data received via the communication interface 31, prohibited range information, and the like. Further, the memory 33 stores various application programs, for example, a prohibited range information distribution program that executes prohibited range information distribution processing.

The processor 34 has one or more CPUs (Central Processing Units) and peripheral circuits thereof. The processor 34 may further include other arithmetic circuits such as a logical operation unit or a numerical operation unit.

FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram of the processor 34 included in the server 3.

The processor 34 of the server 3 has a data collection unit 341, a management facility determination unit 342, and a prohibited range transmission unit 343 as functional blocks. Each of these parts of the processor 34 is a functional module implemented by a program executed on the processor 34. Alternatively, each of these parts of the processor 34 may be implemented in the server 3 as an independent integrated circuit, microprocessor, or firmware.

The data collection unit 341 stores the peripheral data representing the surrounding condition of the vehicle, which is received from the plurality of vehicles via the communication interface 31 and acquired by the sensors mounted on each of the plurality of vehicles, in the storage device 32.

The management facility determination unit 342 receives the prohibited range information from the first vehicle among the plurality of vehicles via the communication interface 31, and the range corresponding to the received prohibited range information is the driver of the first vehicle. Determine if it includes facilities managed by. The management facility determination unit 342 first receives the prohibited range information together with the vehicle identifier for identifying the vehicle. Then, the management facility determination unit 342 specifies the position information indicating the position of the facility managed by the driver of the first vehicle stored in the storage device 32 based on the vehicle identifier associated with the prohibited range information. .. Then, the management facility determination unit 342 determines whether or not the position information about the facility managed by the driver of the first vehicle is included in the range corresponding to the prohibited range information.

When the management facility determination unit 342 determines that the range corresponding to the prohibited range information includes the facility managed by the driver of the first vehicle, the prohibited range transmitting unit 343 indicates information indicating the range corresponding to the prohibited range information. Is transmitted to the second vehicle among the plurality of vehicles via the communication network 4.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an outline of the prohibited range information distribution process.

The vehicle A2-1 transmits to the server 3 the prohibited range information indicating the range R1 and the range R2 as the range in which the transmission of peripheral data should be prohibited, together with the vehicle identifier that identifies the vehicle A2-1. The range R1 includes the position of the driver's home H of the vehicle A2-1.

The management facility determination unit 342 of the server 3 receives the prohibited range information from the vehicle A2-1 via the communication network 4 and the communication interface 31. Then, the management facility determination unit 342 determines whether or not the ranges R1 and R2 corresponding to the received prohibited range information include the facilities managed by the driver of the vehicle A2-1, respectively.

In the example of FIG. 7, the storage device 32 stores the position information indicating the position of the driver's home H of the vehicle A2-1 as a facility managed by the driver of the vehicle A2-1. Therefore, the management facility determination unit 342 determines that the range R1 includes the facility managed by the driver of the vehicle A2-1. On the other hand, the management facility determination unit 342 determines that the range R2 does not include the facility managed by the driver of the vehicle A2-1.

The prohibited range transmission unit 343 transmits information indicating the range R2 determined to include the facility managed by the driver of the vehicle A2-1 to the vehicle B2-2 via the communication interface 31 and the communication network 4.

The data transmission device 25 of the vehicle B2-2 that has received the prohibited range information transmits peripheral data to the server 3 when the current position is not within the range indicated by the received prohibited range information. Further, the data transmission device 25 of the vehicle B2-2 does not transmit peripheral data to the server 3 when the current position is within the range indicated by the received prohibited range information.

The prohibited range information may be displayed on the user interface 252 of the data transmission device 25. At this time, it is preferable that the range corresponding to the prohibited range information specified by the own vehicle and the range corresponding to the prohibited range information designated by the other vehicle are displayed in different modes.

By executing the prohibited range information distribution process in this way, the data collection system 1 can expand the transfer of the facility manager regarding data collection to other vehicles, and the peripheral data for a predetermined area can be transferred to the server. You can let other vehicles know that you do not want to send.

According to the modification, the prohibited range information may be information indicating a range in which transmission should be prohibited for each data type of peripheral data. For example, the prohibited range information may be information that specifies different ranges for the image data and the feature data.

Further, according to a different modification, the prohibited range transmission unit 343 may transmit the prohibited range information to the second vehicle having a traveling history in a predetermined range including the range corresponding to the prohibited range information. The travel history is generated by the data transmission device 25 based on the positioning signal output by the GNSS receiver 22 of the vehicle 2, and is transmitted to the server 3 via the DCM23, the radio base station 5, and the communication network 4. The server 3 stores the received travel history in the storage device 32 in association with the vehicle identifier.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various changes, substitutions and modifications can be made to this without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

1 Data collection system 2 Vehicle 3 Server 341 Data collection unit 342 Management facility judgment unit 343 Prohibition range transmission unit

Claims (1)

A data collection unit that stores peripheral data that represents the surrounding conditions of the vehicle, which is received from a plurality of vehicles and is acquired by sensors mounted on each of the plurality of vehicles, in a storage unit.
The range corresponding to the prohibited range information indicating the range of the position where the transmission of the peripheral data indicating the peripheral condition of the first vehicle received from the first vehicle among the plurality of vehicles should be prohibited is the first. A management facility determination unit that determines whether or not a facility managed by the driver of one vehicle is included,
When it is determined that the range includes a facility managed by the driver of the first vehicle, it is prohibited to transmit information indicating the range to a second vehicle other than the first vehicle among the plurality of vehicles. Range transmitter and
A data acquisition device equipped with.

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