JP4580735B2 - Vehicle terminal and information providing system - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an in-vehicle terminal mounted in an automobile and an information providing method in a server that communicates with the in-vehicle terminal, and in particular, an in-vehicle terminal and an information providing method for performing a route guide for suppressing carbon dioxide (CO ₂ ) emitted from the automobile. About.

Recently, there is a strong demand for environmental measures such as air pollution prevention and global warming prevention. In particular, there is a growing concern about the increase in greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO ₂ ), and consideration is being given to the introduction of environmental taxes and trading of emission rights as a measure against global warming to curb these emissions. Has been. In addition, since CO ₂ is basically emitted in proportion to the amount of carbon contained in the fuel, suppressing CO ₂ emission also leads to a reduction in fuel consumption. It is also considered significant as a reduction measure.

  As conventional techniques for these problems, for example, in Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-316884), when the route guidance is not received, the estimated discharge amount when passing the route that is most likely to pass, and the route guidance are actually provided. It describes a hazardous substance reduction amount calculation system that includes means for comparing the emissions when traveling and receiving and calculating the reduction effect of harmful substances contained in the exhaust gas.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-316884

  Such prior art has the following problems.

That is, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-316884 provides a CO ₂ reduction effect by route guidance that minimizes distance and time, but does not describe a method of guiding a route with less CO ₂ emission.

An object of the present invention is to provide means for implementing route guidance that can suppress emission of harmful substances, particularly CO ₂ emission.

  The purpose is to calculate the vehicle information of each vehicle, in particular the calculation result obtained by converting the emission of harmful substances from the fuel consumption, together with the position and time directly from each vehicle or via a relay station via communication means. This is achieved by mapping the hazardous substance emissions collected and statistically processed on the map based on the location information.

  The object is achieved by classifying and processing the vehicle information for each vehicle type in the statistical processing.

  Further, the object is to obtain a shortest route when the statistical processing result mapped on the map is regarded as a weight of the route when the in-vehicle terminal is instructed to generate a route connecting two points, and the shortest route is obtained. This is achieved by notifying the in-vehicle terminal of the route.

  Further, the object is to download means for downloading the map information stored in the server, to instruct generation of a route connecting two points, and to calculate the statistical processing result mapped on the map as a route weight. This is achieved by the vehicle-mounted terminal having means for obtaining the shortest path when it is considered and means for displaying the shortest path.

  In addition, the object is to obtain at least a dischargeable remaining amount from a difference between a hazardous substance emission amount calculated from the vehicle information of the vehicle and a target emission amount calculated from a route of the vehicle, and at least the discharge is possible. This is achieved by the in-vehicle terminal having a display unit for displaying the remaining amount.

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide route information for suppressing CO ₂ emission. Since CO ₂ emission is considered to be proportional to fuel consumption, it leads to CO ₂ reduction, that is, fuel efficiency improvement and fuel cost reduction. It is also possible to utilize the collected actual CO ₂ emission value for carbon taxation or emission trading.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to an in-vehicle navigation system will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall system configuration of linkage between an in-vehicle terminal and a server according to the present invention. The overall system according to the present invention is mainly composed of an in-vehicle terminal 102 mounted on an automobile 101 and a server 121 that exchanges information with the in-vehicle terminal 102 via a communication network 120. The in-vehicle terminal 102 collects vehicle information exchanged between the electronic control units ECUs 103 a, 103 b,..., 103 n that control devices such as engines and brakes in the automobile 101 via the in-vehicle network 104.

The in-vehicle terminal 102 acquires position information and time information from the vehicle information collection unit 106 that collects vehicle information according to the collection conditions described in the collection condition table 105, the GPS 109, and the real-time clock (RTC) 110, respectively, to obtain vehicle information. Is stored in the terminal vehicle DB 111, the vehicle information in the terminal vehicle DB 111 and the in-vehicle communication unit 114 that transmits / receives the navigation route information to / from the server 121 via the base station 119 and the communication network 120, and the route A route processing unit 116 that processes information and displays a navigation screen on the display unit 117, and a discharge amount calculation unit 118 that calculates a CO ₂ emission amount from the fuel injection amount and displays a discharge state on the display unit 117. . The base station 119 may be of the same type as an ETC gateway that charges a toll.

On the other hand, the server 121 includes a server communication unit 122 that communicates with the in-vehicle communication unit 114 of the in-vehicle terminal 102, a server vehicle DB 123 that stores vehicle information acquired from the in-vehicle terminal 102, information in the server vehicle DB 123, and a map in the map DB 124. An emission amount map generation unit 125 that maps the actual emission amount value for each route on the map based on the information, and a route generation unit 126 that searches for a route that minimizes the CO ₂ emission amount.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of the in-vehicle terminal 102. The in-vehicle terminal 102 includes a ROM 201 that stores a program having the vehicle information collection unit 106, the vehicle information storage unit 112, the in-vehicle communication unit 114, the route processing unit 116, and the emission amount calculation unit 118 shown in FIG. A CPU 202 that loads and executes the program, a RAM 203 that provides a temporary storage area necessary for program execution, and an HDD 204 as an external storage area. Further, as an external interface, as a portable data communication card 205 for performing data communication with the server 121 via a portable wireless communication network, a wireless LAN communication card 206 for performing data communication via a wireless LAN access point, and an in-vehicle network A CAN interface 207 for collecting information from a CAN (Controller Area Network), and a button 208 as an input interface that allows a user to set a destination and the like. The above-described collection condition table 105 and terminal vehicle DB 111 are stored in the HDD 204 and accessed from the CPU 202. In addition, the above-described GPS 109, RTC 110, and display unit 117 are included. The vehicle information collection unit 106 collects CAN data transmitted from the ECU 103 via the CAN interface 207.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of the server 121. The server 121 includes a CPU 301 that loads and executes a program having the functions of the server communication unit 122, the emission map generation unit 125, and the route generation unit 126 shown in FIG. 1, and a RAM 302 that is used as a temporary storage area for the program. HDD 303 used as an external storage area, network interface card (NIC) 304 serving as a connection point with communication network 120, video card 305 serving as an interface for displaying a screen on display 306, CD-ROM, DVD-RAM, etc. An external storage disk 307 for accessing the medium, a keyboard 308 serving as an input interface by the user, and a mouse 309 are configured. The program recorded on the external storage disk 307 may be executed as it is, or once installed in the HDD 303, and then the program on the HDD 303 may be executed.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a processing flow when vehicle information is collected and accumulated by the in-vehicle terminal 102. First, the vehicle information collection unit 106 acquires vehicle information transmitted by the ECU 103 from the in-vehicle network 104 (step 401).

  FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a schematic structure of an example of CAN data actually acquired by the vehicle information collection unit 106. The CAN data has CAN ID 501 in the header, and vehicle information such as the engine speed 503 and the fuel injection amount 504 is packed and stored in the data field 502. In addition, the CAN data includes an SOF 511 indicating the start of the data frame, a control 512 indicating the data length of the field, a CRC 513 for performing a frame transmission error check, an ACK 514 indicating the delivery confirmation information, and an EOF 515 indicating the end of the frame.

  Such CAN data is broadcast on the CAN which is the in-vehicle network 104 from the in-vehicle ECU 103 at regular intervals of, for example, 10 milliseconds. The vehicle information collection unit 106 acquires a CAN data collection condition from the collection condition table 105 and collects CAN data based on the condition. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of the structure of the collection condition table 105 indicating the CAN data collection conditions. The collection condition table 105 includes a serial number 601, a CAN ID 602, a start bit 603 and an end bit 604 that specify where necessary vehicle information is packed, a conversion formula 605 that converts the acquired bit string into a meaningful value, and maintenance It consists of remarks 606 for describing supplementary information so that the contents of the data to be acquired can be understood. For example, in the example of FIG. 6, the “fuel injection amount” data with the serial number 601 of “1” is stored as 8-bit data from the 19th bit to the 26th bit in the CAN data of CAN ID 602 “123”. , The conversion formula 605 “itof ()” is converted from a binary number to a real value.

  The vehicle information collected in this way is stored in the terminal vehicle DB 111 together with the position information acquired by the vehicle information storage unit 112 from the GPS 109 and the time information acquired from the RTC 110 (step 402).

  FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data structure of the terminal vehicle DB 111 collected and accumulated in step 402. The terminal vehicle DB 111 is represented as a table having areas of time 701, latitude 702 as position information, longitude 703, and collected data 704 for storing collected vehicle information. The value in the time 701 column represents the time including the first half including the date and the second half including the unit of 10 milliseconds. For example, “20040718 10082301” means “July 18, 2004 10: 08: 23.01 seconds”. The values in the latitude 902 and longitude 903 fields represent degrees, minutes, and seconds, respectively. For example, “35: 39: 29.1” at latitude 702 represents “35 degrees 39 minutes 29.1 seconds north”. The collected data 704 column describes data collected according to the collection conditions.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a communication processing flow between the in-vehicle terminal 102 and the server 121. First, an encryption communication path is established between the in-vehicle communication unit 114 and the server communication unit 122 (step 801). The encryption key used for encryption communication may be shared between the in-vehicle terminal 102 and the server 121 in advance, or may be securely shared on the spot when the encryption communication path is established. Typical encryption communication path establishment methods are SSL and IPSec. Thereafter, the vehicle information in the terminal vehicle DB 111 is combined with the vehicle ID and transmitted to the server communication unit 122 (step 802). The server communication part 122 adds vehicle information to the vehicle information 1203 column of server vehicle DB123 from the received data (step 803).

  FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the data structure of the server vehicle DB 123, and stores and manages the vehicle ID 901 and the vehicle information 903 for each managed vehicle.

The collected fuel injection amount is converted into a CO ₂ emission amount as a fuel consumption amount by the emission amount map generation unit 125 and mapped on the map.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a process for generating a CO ₂ emission map based on collected vehicle information. First, fuel consumption is converted into CO ₂ emission (step 1001). The CO ₂ emission amount can be obtained by the following equation: emission amount (kgCO ₂ ) = fuel consumption amount × unit heat generation amount × emission coefficient, and typical values of the unit heat generation amount and the emission coefficient are known depending on the type of fuel. Yes. For example, in the case of gasoline, the unit calorific value is 34.5 [MJ / L], and the emission coefficient is 0.0671 [kgCO ₂ / MJ]. Next, vehicle information is divided | segmented for every link based on the link information of map DB124 (step 1002).

  FIG. 11 is an image diagram showing map information stored in the map DB 124. Here, it is assumed that the map DB 124 describes the graph as a node 1101 and a link 1102.

12A, 12B, and 12C are diagrams showing the node information stored in the map DB shown in FIG. 14, the data structure of link information, and the average CO ₂ emission for each link. Yes, (A) is a table showing node ID 1201 and latitude 1202 and longitude 1203 as position information of each node 1101 as each node information, and (B) is a link ID 1204 and both end nodes of link 1102 as each link information. A table indicating the start point node ID 1205 and the end point node ID 1206 to be expressed, (C), stores the link ID 1204 and the average emission amount 1207 of CO ₂ . Here, the average discharge amount 1207 can be classified and stored for each vehicle type.

In FIG. 12C, the vehicle is classified according to the type of vehicle such as the light vehicle 1208a, the ordinary passenger car 1208b, and the 2-ton truck 1208c, but the classification method is not limited to this. Furthermore, each of the average emission amounts 1207 has a forward direction and a reverse direction. The direction from the start node to the end node is a forward direction, and the average value of the amount of CO ₂ emitted when moving in this direction is the forward direction. The average value of the amount of CO ₂ emitted when moving in the reverse direction is recorded in the reverse column.

  Since the vehicle information includes position information, in step 1002, the link 1102 on which each vehicle information is generated is classified and divided. For example, once the link 1102 that exists on the position in the initial state is determined once, the vehicle information collected by tracking the branch at the node 1101 due to the movement is displayed on which link 1102 It is possible to grasp whether it has occurred. At this time, the moving direction is confirmed based on the position information for each time, and the data belonging to the forward direction or the reverse direction is classified as link information (step 1003). The classified emission data is added to the corresponding link information column in the map DB 124 and the total emission value on the link 1402 is further taken into account to obtain an average value (step 1004). Specifically, for example, when the total of the n discharge amount measurement values up to the previous time is X and the current discharge amount measurement value is Y, the updated average value is represented by (X + Y) / (n + 1). Is done.

By generating the CO ₂ emission amount map as described above, it is possible to calculate a route that minimizes the CO ₂ emission amount. First, a case where the route generation unit 126 in the server 121 generates a route will be described.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing the processing when the server generates the minimum CO ₂ route. First, the current location and the location of the destination are designated by the in-vehicle terminal 102 (step 1301). The current location can be designated by the GPS 109, and the destination can be designated by user input using the button 208, for example. The acquired current location and destination location information and the CO ₂ minimum route generation request are transmitted to the route generation unit 126 of the server 121 via the in-vehicle communication unit 114 and the server communication unit 122 (step 1302). The route generation unit 126 solves the shortest route problem between the current location and the destination using the average emission amount as the weight of the link 1402 (step 1303). The shortest path problem can be solved by using Dijkstra method, which is a well-known solution. The obtained shortest route, that is, the minimum CO ₂ route is transmitted to the route processing unit 116 of the in-vehicle terminal 102 (step 1304), and the route processing unit 116 displays the route as map information on the display unit 117 (step 1305).

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating an example of a navigation screen and a CO ₂ meter display screen displaying the minimum CO ₂ route. A CO ₂ minimum route 1402 is displayed as map information in the navigation display area 1401 of the display unit 117. A vehicle image 1403 indicates the current position of the vehicle. At this time, a CO ₂ meter screen 1417 can also be displayed in order to visually grasp the amount of CO ₂ discharged up to the present location on the route.

The CO ₂ meter includes a full scale 1411, a caution scale 1412, a planned discharge scale 1413 indicating a planned discharge quantity, and a final measurement point scale 1414. The measuring hand 1415 starts from the full scale 1411 and moves clockwise to indicate a decrease. The measuring needle 1415 instructs full when the route is set, and instructs the planned discharge amount 1413 when it arrives at the destination with the planned discharge amount. The planned value is indicated by a reference line 1416 so that the planned value and the actual value up to the corresponding point can be compared even during the route. When the measuring needle 1415 is instructed above the reference line 1416, it indicates that better CO ₂ emission suppression than planned is achieved.

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating a flowchart of processing when the CO ₂ minimum path is generated by the in-vehicle terminal. First, the information of the map DB 124 including the emission map information of the server 121 is downloaded in advance to the route processing unit 116 of the in-vehicle terminal 102 (step 1501). Thereafter, the current location and the location of the destination are designated by the in-vehicle terminal 102 (step 1502). This step 1502 is the same as step 1301 described above. Next, the shortest path problem between two points with the average discharge amount set as the weight of the link 1402 is obtained by the path processing unit 116 (step 1503), and the obtained path is displayed on the display unit 117 (step 1504). Step 1504 is the same as Step 1305 described above. When the in-vehicle terminal generates the minimum CO ₂ route, the information in the map DB 124 including the emission map information of the server 121 is downloaded and used, so the data is updated by downloading at an appropriate cycle. Of course, it is necessary to keep it.

Is a block diagram showing an overall functional configuration of the CO ₂ emissions management service system according to the present invention. It is a hardware block diagram of a vehicle-mounted terminal. It is a hardware block diagram of a server. It is a flowchart showing the process which collects and accumulate | stores vehicle information in a vehicle-mounted terminal. It is a figure showing the structure of the data which flows on CAN as an in-vehicle network. It is a figure showing the data structure of the collection condition table which has set the collection conditions of vehicle information. It is a figure showing the data structure of terminal vehicle DB. It is a flowchart showing the process at the time of transmitting vehicle information from a vehicle-mounted terminal to a server. It is a figure showing the data structure of server vehicle DB. Based on the collected vehicle information is a flowchart illustrating a process of generating a CO ₂ emission amount map. It is an image figure showing the map information stored in map DB. (A) is node information stored in the map DB, (B) is a data structure of link information, and (C) is a diagram showing an average CO ₂ emission amount for each link. The process of generating CO ₂ minimum path is a flow chart for performing the server. It is a diagram illustrating a navigation screen and CO ₂ meter display screen displaying the CO ₂ minimum path. The process of generating CO ₂ minimum path is a flow chart for performing in-vehicle terminal.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 ... Automobile, 102 ... In-vehicle terminal, 103 ... ECU, 109 ... GPS, 110 ... Real time clock, 119 ... Base station, 120 ... Communication network, 121 ... Server, 502 ... CAN data field, 901 ... Vehicle ID, 1101 ... Node , 1102 ... link, 1401 ... navigation display area, 1402 ... CO ₂ minimum path, 1403 ... the current position of the vehicle mark, 1411 ... full scale, 1412 ... Note scale, 1413 ... planned target value scale, 1414 ... measurement final point scale, 1415 ... measurement needle, 1416 ... reference line, 1417 ... CO ₂ meter display area.

Claims (4)

In an information providing system comprising an in-vehicle terminal mounted on an automobile and a server that exchanges information with the in-vehicle terminal via a communication network,
The in-vehicle terminal includes a display unit,
The vehicle information exchanged between the electronic control units that control the equipment in the vehicle is collected via the in-vehicle network according to the specified collection conditions, and the result of calculating the amount of harmful substances emitted by the vehicle is calculated based on the position and time. Together with the vehicle information sent to the server,
Obtain the remaining dischargeable amount from the difference between the harmful substance discharge amount and the target discharge amount calculated from the route of the vehicle, and display at least the dischargeable remaining amount on the display unit,
The server statistically processes the hazardous substance emission amount based on the position information and maps it on a map.
An information providing system characterized by that.   The information providing system according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle information includes information related to a vehicle type of the own vehicle, and the statistical processing classifies and processes the vehicle information for each vehicle type.   The server obtains a shortest route when the statistical processing result mapped on the map is regarded as a weight of the route when the in-vehicle terminal is instructed to generate a route connecting two points, and determines the shortest route. The information providing system according to claim 1, wherein the information is notified to the in-vehicle terminal. Vehicle information exchanged between electronic control units that control devices in the vehicle by each in-vehicle terminal of multiple vehicles is collected via the in-vehicle network according to the specified collection conditions, and the amount of harmful substances emitted by the vehicle The information calculation system is configured to transmit the result of the calculation to the server together with the position and time as vehicle information, and the server statistically processes the hazardous substance emission amount based on the position information and maps it on the map a vehicle terminal that can be applied to an information providing system,
The in-vehicle terminal includes a means for downloading the map information stored in the server, a means for instructing generation of a route connecting two points, and the statistical processing result mapped on the map as a route weight. From the difference between the means for obtaining the shortest route when considered, the shortest route, the harmful substance emission calculated from the vehicle information of the vehicle, and the target emission calculated from the vehicle route, An in-vehicle terminal comprising a display unit that obtains a dischargeable remaining amount and displays at least the dischargeable remaining amount .

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