JP2023174004A - Vehicle control apparatus and program update method - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a technique for increasing a speed in updating a program.SOLUTION: A vehicle control apparatus for executing a program includes: a processor for executing the program; a communication unit which can communicate with an external device through a first communication path and a second communication path higher in a speed than the first communication path; a nonvolatile memory which stores a first communication program for the first communication path; and a volatile memory which temporarily stores data. In updating the program, the vehicle control apparatus receives a second communication program for the second communication path from the external device, writes the received second communication program to the volatile memory, executes the second communication program, and rewrites the program stored in the nonvolatile memory through the second communication path.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

The present invention relates to a vehicle control device, and particularly to a program update method.

A vehicle control device for an automobile may update a program written in a nonvolatile memory to a new program.

As background technology in this technical field, there is the following prior art. Patent Document 1 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2014-139848) discloses an electronic control device for an automobile equipped with a nonvolatile memory that can electrically erase and write data, and the size of written data transferred from the outside. is less than half of the rewrite area size of the non-volatile memory, the transferred write data is temporarily stored, and a plurality of write data are collectively stored in the non-volatile memory as the rewrite area size. An electronic control unit for automobiles that writes data is described.

Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2014-139848

In recent years, the scale of in-vehicle programs has increased, and as the scale of in-vehicle programs increases, there is a problem in that it takes time to update the programs.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a technology for speeding up program updates.

A typical example of the invention disclosed in this application is as follows. That is, a vehicle control device that executes a program, in which a processor that executes the program and an external device communicate through a first communication path and a second communication path that is faster than the first communication path. a communication unit capable of updating the program, a non-volatile memory that stores a first communication program for the first communication path, and a volatile memory that temporarily stores data; A second communication program for a second communication path is received from the external device, the received second communication program is written in the volatile memory, the second communication program is executed, and the non-volatile memory is The present invention is characterized in that the program stored in the physical memory is rewritten.

According to one aspect of the present invention, it is possible to speed up program updates. Problems, configurations, and effects other than those described above will be made clear by the description of the following examples.

1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a vehicle control device according to an embodiment of the present invention. 2 is a flowchart of processing executed by an external device and a vehicle control device according to the present embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an initial state of an external device and a vehicle control device according to the present embodiment. It is a figure which shows the communication confirmation in a 1st communication path. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating reception of a rewriting program and writing to volatile memory through a first communication path. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating confirmation whether a program has been written normally. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing execution of a rewriting program from a startup program. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating communication confirmation on a second communication path. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating reception and update of a program. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating confirmation whether a program has been updated normally. It is a figure which shows the reset of a vehicle control device by a rewriting program. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing resetting of the vehicle control device by a startup program.

[Example 1]
Hereinafter, embodiments for carrying out the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a vehicle control device 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The vehicle control device 200 of this embodiment is connected to the external device 100 in order to update the program. The vehicle control device 200 includes a processor 250 that executes programs, a non-volatile memory 210 that can retain its stored contents even when the power is turned off, and a volatile memory 220 that does not retain its stored contents when the power is turned off. The vehicle control device 200 has hardware that can communicate with the external device 100 via a first communication path 110 and a second communication path 120, and is connected to the external device 100 by wire or wirelessly. The vehicle control device 200 also includes a first communication route relay device 230 and a second communication route relay device 240.

At this time, the first communication path 110 is preferably CAN (registered trademark) and the second communication path 120 is preferably Ethernet (registered trademark), but the communication speed of the second communication path 120 is higher than the communication speed of the first communication path 110. Other communication routes may be used as soon as possible.

The nonvolatile memory 210 of the vehicle control device 200 stores a startup program BP and a first application program AP1 for controlling the vehicle. The first application program AP1 is a target of program update. The startup program BP includes an initialization section that makes the first communication path 110 usable, a transmitting and receiving section that communicates through the first communication path 110, a writing section that writes a program to the volatile memory 220, and a writing section that writes the program to the volatile memory 220. It has a write confirmation section that confirms the written program, and a volatile memory execution section that executes the program written in the volatile memory 220.

The vehicle control device 200 includes a first communication path relay device 230 for receiving data from the first communication path 110 and a second communication path relay device 240 for receiving data from the second communication path 120. The external device 100 has hardware that communicates via a first communication path 110 and a second communication path 120.

The external device 100 stores a rewriting program WP and a second application program AP2 used for program update. The rewriting program WP includes a second communication path initialization section, a transmitting/receiving section, a nonvolatile memory writing section, and a writing confirmation section. The rewriting program WP may include a nonvolatile memory execution section. The second application program AP2 has a program that updates the program on the nonvolatile memory of the vehicle control device 200.

As shown in FIG. 3, in an initial state, a startup program BP and a first application program AP1 are written in the nonvolatile memory 210 of the vehicle control device 200. Further, the vehicle control device 200 is equipped with hardware that can communicate with the external device 100 using the first communication path 110 and the second communication path 120. The startup program BP of the vehicle control device 200 includes a communication program capable of communicating with the external device 100 through the first communication path 110 and does not include a communication program capable of communicating with the external device 100 through the second communication path 120.

First, as shown in FIG. 4, the vehicle control device 200 executes the startup program BP, transmits and receives confirmation data to and from the vehicle control device 200 through the first communication path 110, and sends and receives confirmation data to and from the vehicle control device 200 through the first communication path 110. Make sure you can communicate with.

Next, as shown in FIG. 5, the external device 100 transmits the rewriting program WP that can be communicated via the second communication path 120 to the vehicle control device 200 via the first communication path 110 (S10 in FIG. 2). Next, the vehicle control device 200 receives the rewriting program WP transmitted from the external device 100 (S11 in FIG. 2). Next, vehicle control device 200 stores the received rewriting program WP in volatile memory 220 (S12 in FIG. 2).

Next, as shown in FIG. 6, the external device 100 transmits a program confirmation command to the vehicle control device 200 via the first communication path 110, so that the rewriting program WP written in the volatile memory 220 is free from defects. (S13 in FIG. 2).

Next, as shown in FIG. 7, the vehicle control device 200 executes the rewriting program WP after confirming that the rewriting program WP has been correctly written into the volatile memory 220 (S14 in FIG. 2).

Next, as shown in FIG. 8, the external device 100 transmits and receives confirmation data from the vehicle control device 200 through the second communication path 120, and confirms that it can communicate with the vehicle control device 200 through the second communication path 120. (S15 in FIG. 2). Next, when the vehicle control device 200 normally receives data from the external device 100, it transmits a response to the external device 100, and then starts a program update (S16 in FIG. 2).

Next, as shown in FIG. 9, the external device 100 transmits the second application program AP2 to the vehicle control device 200 via the second communication path 120 to update the program. At this time, it is preferable to divide the second application program AP2 and send it to the vehicle control device 200 (S17 in FIG. 2). Next, the vehicle control device 200 receives the second application program AP2 via the second communication path 120. Vehicle control device 200 stores the received divided second application program AP2 in volatile memory 220 (S18 in FIG. 2). Next, vehicle control device 200 performs a program update. The first application program AP1 on the nonvolatile memory 210 is overwritten with the second application program AP2 stored in the volatile memory 220 to update the program (S19 in FIG. 2). This process is repeated until all updates of the second application program AP2 are completed.

Next, as shown in FIG. 10, after completing the update of the second application program AP2, the vehicle control device 200 receives a confirmation command for the updated program via the second communication path 120, and then checks whether the program has been written normally. (S20 in FIG. 2). Next, when the vehicle control device 200 is updated normally, it transmits a write completion response to the external device 100 (S21 in FIG. 2). If it has not been updated normally, the second application program AP2 is updated again.

Next, as shown in FIG. 11, after transmitting the update completion response, the vehicle control device 200 resets the volatile memory 220 and erases the rewrite program WP written in the volatile memory 220 (see FIG. S22). Therefore, the rewriting program WP can be introduced without increasing the memory capacity installed in the vehicle control device 200. At this time, as shown in FIG. 12, the process may be moved to the startup program BP in the nonvolatile memory 210, and after the startup program BP is executed, the vehicle control device 200 may be reset.

According to Example 1, the following effects can be obtained.

If the program cannot communicate through the high-speed second communication path 120 and can communicate only through the slow first communication path 110, the method of this embodiment uses the rewriting program WP that can communicate through the second communication path 120. It can be executed by the vehicle control device 200. Thereby, the update program can be transferred through the second communication path 120, and the time required to update the program of the vehicle control device 200 can be shortened.

In addition, in order to arrange the rewrite program WP that can communicate via the second communication path 120 in the volatile memory 220 of the vehicle control device 200, the rewrite program WP is temporarily stored without leaving the rewrite program WP in the vehicle control device 200 after the program update. can be used for Therefore, functions of the vehicle control device 200 can be added without increasing the memory capacity installed in the vehicle control device 200.

Further, when updating not only the first application program AP1 but also the starting program BP, the vehicle control device 200 cannot update the starting program BP while the starting program BP is being executed. In the method of the present embodiment, the program update program is executed by the rewriting program WP on the volatile memory of the vehicle control device 200, so the startup program BP on the nonvolatile memory 210 can be updated.

According to this embodiment, the data divided into communicable sizes through the first communication path 110 is aggregated and transmitted to the vehicle control device 200 through the second communication path 120 to update the program of the vehicle control device 200. The device 100 side can also update programs at high speed without changing conventional update support tools.

In this embodiment, the first communication path 110 is CAN and the second communication path 120 is Ethernet. However, if the communication speed of the other second communication path 120 is faster than the communication speed of the first communication path 110, It may be a communication route. For example, the first communication path 110 may be CAN, and the second communication path 120 may be CAN-FD. Furthermore, if a communication path faster than Ethernet is introduced as the second communication path 120, the first communication path 110 may be Ethernet and the second communication path 120 may be the faster communication path.

In this embodiment, it has been explained that the external device 100 and the vehicle control device 200 are connected by wire to communicate, but other communication paths may be used. The external device 100 and the vehicle control device 200 may communicate wirelessly through the first communication path 110 and the second communication path 120.

As explained above, when updating the program, the vehicle control device 200 of the present invention receives the second communication program (rewrite program WP) for the second communication path from the external device 100, and Since the communication program is written in the volatile memory 220, the second communication program is executed, and the application program AP1 stored in the non-volatile memory 210 is rewritten via the second communication path 120, it has a communication function using the second communication path 120. , an update program transfer function via the second communication path 120 can be added to the vehicle control device 200 that updates the program via the first communication path 110, and the program can be updated at high speed.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and includes various modifications and equivalent configurations within the scope of the appended claims. For example, the embodiments described above have been described in detail to explain the present invention in an easy-to-understand manner, and the present invention is not necessarily limited to having all the configurations described. Further, a part of the configuration of one embodiment may be replaced with the configuration of another embodiment. Further, the configuration of one embodiment may be added to the configuration of another embodiment. Further, other configurations may be added, deleted, or replaced with a part of the configuration of each embodiment.

Further, each of the above-mentioned configurations, functions, processing units, processing means, etc. may be realized in part or in whole by hardware, for example by designing an integrated circuit, and a processor realizes each function. It may also be realized by software by interpreting and executing a program.

Information such as programs, tables, files, etc. that realize each function can be stored in a storage device such as a memory, a hard disk, or an SSD (Solid State Drive), or a recording medium such as an IC card, an SD card, or a DVD.

Furthermore, the control lines and information lines shown are those considered necessary for explanation, and do not necessarily show all the control lines and information lines necessary for implementation. In reality, almost all configurations can be considered interconnected.

100 External device 110 First communication path 120 Second communication path 200 Vehicle control device 210 Nonvolatile memory 220 Volatile memory 230 First communication path relay device 240 Second communication path relay device BP Startup program WP Rewriting program AP1 First application program AP2 2nd application program

Claims (4)

A vehicle control device that executes a program,
a processor that executes the program;
a communication unit capable of communicating with an external device through a first communication path and a second communication path faster than the first communication path;
a nonvolatile memory that stores a first communication program for the first communication path;
Equipped with volatile memory that temporarily stores data,
when updating the program, receiving a second communication program for the second communication path from the external device;
writing the received second communication program into the volatile memory;
A vehicle control device that executes the second communication program and rewrites the program stored in the nonvolatile memory through the second communication path. The vehicle control device according to claim 1,
A vehicle control device that executes the second communication program and checks whether communication is possible through the second communication path. The vehicle control device according to claim 1,
A vehicle control device characterized in that the second communication program on the volatile memory is erased after the update of the program is completed. A program update method for updating a program executed in a vehicle control device, the method comprising:
The vehicle control device includes a processor that executes the program and a communication unit capable of communicating with an external device through a first communication path and a second communication path faster than the first communication path; a nonvolatile memory that stores a first communication program for the first communication path; and a volatile memory that temporarily stores data;
The program update method is as follows:
The vehicle control device receives a second communication program for the second communication path from the external device when updating the program;
the vehicle control device writes the received second communication program onto the volatile memory;
A program update method characterized in that the vehicle control device executes the second communication program and rewrites the program stored in the nonvolatile memory via the second communication path.

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