WO2024111388A1 - Message control device and message control method - Google Patents

Abstract

A message control device according to an aspect of the present disclosure comprises a control unit that generates a message including sensor feature information regarding a plurality of sensors included in a vehicle on which the message control device is mounted, and a communication unit that transmits the message generated by the control unit. The control unit performs a sensor information change control to make the sensor feature information to be included in the message different between successively transmitted messages.

Description

Message control device and message control method CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is based on patent application No. 2022-185797 filed in Japan on November 21, 2022, and the contents of the original application are incorporated by reference in their entirety.

This disclosure relates to a message control device and a message control method in Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS).

For the purposes of autonomous driving and safe driving support, the sharing of information acquired by vehicles with other vehicles via wireless communication is being considered. For example, there is a technology called Collective Perception Service (CPS) that shares the detection status of targets and free space based on sensors (Non-Patent Document 1). With CPS, the direction of the sensor installed in the sending vehicle and the relative positional relationship between the sending vehicle and the target detected by the sensor are transmitted via communication, and the receiving vehicle can use the relative position of the target calculated from this information to avoid collisions.

Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communications raises concerns about privacy protection because the vehicle's location information (e.g., latitude and longitude) is transmitted to the surrounding area, and various countermeasures are being considered. One such concern is tracking. For example, there is a risk that a third party could record the V2X messages transmitted by a single vehicle at multiple locations, allowing the movement of the vehicle to be tracked. If tracking is carried out near the vehicle owner's home or workplace, there is a risk that the vehicle owner's home or workplace could be identified.

Collective Perception Messages (CPMs), the messages used in the above-mentioned CPS, have not yet been studied in detail, and sufficient consideration has not been given to privacy protection. For example, some of the sensor information contained in CPMs is expressed at a fairly fine resolution, so if a malicious third party receives multiple CPMs sent by a vehicle, there is a risk that the vehicle in question may be identified.

As can be seen from the above, there is a need for methods to make tracking CPM more difficult, but these have not been fully explored. Unless such methods are introduced, the use of CPM may not become widespread. If CPM is not used, the free space detection status will not be shared between vehicles, and there is a risk that driving safety will not be improved appropriately.

Therefore, one of the objectives of the present disclosure is to provide a message control device and a message control method that can effectively prevent a source vehicle from being tracked in V2X communication.

One aspect of the present disclosure is a message control device that has a control unit that generates a message including sensor feature information for a plurality of sensors included in a vehicle in which the message control device is installed, and a communication unit that transmits the message generated by the control unit, and the control unit executes sensor information change control that causes the sensor feature information included in the message to differ between successively transmitted messages.

A message control method according to one aspect of the present disclosure is a message control method having a step of generating a message including sensor feature information for a plurality of sensors included in a vehicle, in which the sensor feature information included in the message is made different between successively transmitted messages, and a step of transmitting the generated message.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, tracking of a transmitting vehicle in V2X communication can be effectively prevented.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of an intelligent road transportation system 1 according to an embodiment. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the distance to a target. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a sensor information container. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the contents of each piece of information included in the vehicle sensor information. FIG. 5A shows an example of the sensor reference position and sensor position indicated by the CPM without distributed transmission and variation of the sensor reference position of the present disclosure. FIG. 5B is a diagram showing an example of distributed transmission of sensor feature information based on an embodiment that combines embodiment 1.2 and embodiment 1.0. FIG. 6A is a diagram showing an example of a sensor position estimated by a receiver when the sensor reference position is not varied. FIG. 6B is a diagram showing an example of a sensor position estimated by the receiver when the sensor reference position is varied. FIG. 7A is a diagram showing an example of an actual detection area for a corrected detection area according to embodiment 1.4. FIG. 7B is a diagram showing an example of a correction detection area according to embodiment 1.4. FIG. 7C is a diagram showing an example of a correction detection area according to embodiment 1.4. FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a vehicle 10 according to an embodiment.

Below, an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the attached drawings. In the following description, identical parts will be given the same reference numerals. Since identical parts have the same names, functions, etc., detailed descriptions will not be repeated.

(Intelligent Transport Systems)
Fig. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of an intelligent transport system 1 according to an embodiment. The intelligent transport system (ITS) 1 shown in Fig. 1 may include a vehicle 10, a roadside unit 20, and an ITS server 30. The intelligent transport system 1 may be interchangeably read as an Intelligent Transport System (hereinafter, ITS), a road transport system, a transport system, and the like. The roadside unit 20 may be called a RoadSide Unit (hereinafter, RSU) 20.

ITS1 may be called a system in which information (e.g., traffic information, information for autonomous driving, etc.) is shared among multiple vehicles (so-called Cooperative ITS (CITS)).

In ITS1, communication is carried out using one of the message control methods according to each embodiment of this disclosure described below, or a combination of these.

Vehicle 10 is a vehicle that travels on a roadway. Vehicle 10 may be a car, or a vehicle that does not move autonomously (e.g., a bicycle). A car may be one or both of a four-wheeled vehicle and a two-wheeled vehicle.

The vehicle 10 has an on-board communication device and can communicate with other vehicles 10, the RSU 20, the ITS server 30, etc., via wireless communication. Wireless communication methods include, for example, Long Term Evolution (LTE), 5th generation mobile communication system (5G), and Wi-Fi (registered trademark). Furthermore, the wireless communication method may not only be LTE and 5G, but also other technical specifications (for example, 5G Advanced, 6G, etc.) defined by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP (registered trademark)).

Direct communication between vehicles 10 may be referred to as vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication. Communication between vehicles 10 and RSUs 20 may be referred to as vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication, etc. V2V communication and V2I communication may be referred to as vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication.

The messages transmitted between the vehicles 10 may include, for example, at least one of the following:
Cooperative Awareness Message (CAM), which periodically transmits vehicle position, speed, etc.
Decentralized Environmental Notification Message (DENM), which notifies when certain events occur;
- Collective Perception Message (CPM) for sharing the environment perceived based on perception sensors.

CAM is a message sent in the Cooperative Awareness (CA) service proposed by ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute). Cooperative awareness in road traffic means that road users and roadside infrastructure can know each other's location, movement and attributes. Road users refer to all users on and around the road who are responsible for road safety and control, such as cars, trucks, motorbikes, bicycles, pedestrians, etc., and roadside infrastructure refers to facilities such as road signs, traffic lights, barriers, entrances, etc.

CPM is a message sent in the CP service proposed by ETSI. The CP service is a service that notifies the surrounding area of the positions, behavior, and attributes of surrounding road users and other objects detected by the vehicle sending the CPM.

The RSU 20 collects information on the congestion status of surrounding roads, information on nearby traffic lights, etc. Traffic light information can include the color of the traffic lights. The RSU 20 also has the function of communicating the collected information with the vehicle 10, other RSUs 20, the ITS server 30, etc. Traffic lights may be called traffic lights. Traffic light information may be called information indicating the traffic light status. The RSU 20 may be equipped with a sensor and collect information using the sensor. This sensor may include a camera. Examples of road conditions are the congestion status of the road, the presence or absence of fallen objects, and the condition of the road surface. The RSU 20 may relay communication between the vehicle 10 and the ITS server 30.

The RSU 20 may be communicatively connected to one or both of the traffic lights and sensors via wires or wirelessly.

A mobile communication terminal may be used as the communication unit of the RSU 20. The mobile communication terminal is, for example, a mobile terminal such as a mobile phone, a smartphone, or a tablet terminal. The communication terminal is equipped with one or more sensors such as a camera, and is therefore expected to contribute to providing useful information.

The ITS server 30 may provide traffic information, driving assistance information, etc. to the vehicle 10, and control traffic light lights based on information received from the vehicle 10, the RSU 20, etc. The ITS server 30 may be a cloud server or an on-premise server.

The entities that perform V2X communication, such as the vehicle 10 and the RSU 20, may be referred to as ITS stations (ITS-S). The ITS architecture used or operated by these entities may be referred to as the ITS-S architecture.

An example of the functional configuration and hardware configuration of each device, such as the vehicle 10, will be described later.

Note that the system configuration of ITS 1 shown in FIG. 1 is an example, and the configuration of ITS system 1 is not limited to the configuration shown in FIG. 1. Naturally, the number of vehicles 10 is not limited to the number shown in FIG. 1. Furthermore, the number of RSUs 20 and ITS servers 30 is not limited to the number shown in FIG. 1.

In the following description of this disclosure, reference symbols may be omitted. For example, ITS1 may simply be written as ITS, and vehicle 10 may simply be written as vehicle. Note that in this disclosure, vehicle, RSU, etc. may be interchangeably read as ITS-S.

(Collective Perception Message (CPM))
The message used in the above-mentioned CPS is called a CPM. The CPM includes a sensor starting position, an x distance, a y distance from the sensor starting position to the target, and the like. A receiving vehicle that receives the CPM can calculate the absolute position of the target from the sensor starting position, and the x distance, and the y distance from the sensor starting position to the target. In this disclosure, the target may be interchangeably read as a perceived object. The sensor mounting position may be the sensor starting position.

Here, the sensor starting position may be calculated from the absolute position of the vehicle, the mounting position of the sensor in the vehicle, the direction in which the vehicle is facing, etc. The absolute position of the vehicle may be, for example, latitude and longitude obtained by a positioning system (e.g., a satellite positioning system (Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), Global Positioning System (GPS), etc.)), and may be called a GPS positioning position, etc.

The sensor mounting position may also be a position with an offset (e.g., offset in the x-axis/y-axis directions) added based on a reference point for the vehicle. The reference point for the vehicle may be a ground position at the center of the front side of a rectangle (bounding box) surrounding the vehicle, or a GPS positioning position within the vehicle (e.g., the location where the locator is located).

In the vehicle coordinate system, the x-axis extends in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, the y-axis extends left and right when looking at the vehicle from the front, and the z-axis is perpendicular to the x-axis and y-axis.

The direction of the sensor axis may also be calculated from the direction in which the vehicle is facing. The start and end opening angles of the sensor detection range may also be used instead of the direction of the sensor axis. Because the sensor is fixed to the vehicle, the direction of the sensor axis relative to the direction in which the vehicle is facing or the start and end opening angles of the sensor detection range are fixed values. Therefore, the direction of the sensor axis or the start and end opening angles of the sensor detection range can be calculated by adding or subtracting a fixed value to the direction in which the vehicle is facing. Note that the direction in which the vehicle is traveling is used as the direction in which the vehicle is facing.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of distances to targets. In this example, target A is located at a distance of 1 in the x direction and 1 in the y direction from the vehicle's sensor starting point, and target B is located at a distance of 2 in the x direction and 2 in the y direction from the vehicle's sensor starting point.

The target position may represent the position with the shortest distance from the sensor starting position. However, this is not limited to this. Furthermore, the distance to the target may be the distance from the sensor starting position to the target, or may be calculated from the detection results of the sensor.

The sensor starting position, sensor mounting position, sensor axis direction, etc. may differ for each sensor, and the CPM may include information regarding these for each of multiple sensors.

A vehicle that receives a CPM from another vehicle may determine the absolute position of the target based on at least one of its own absolute position, the position of the other vehicle (obtained via CAM, etc.), the distance from the other vehicle to the target (obtained via CPM), etc.

The CPM may include at least one of the following containers:
A management container indicating the source ITS-S station type, reference position, etc.
A station data container showing detailed information about the source ITS-S.
A sensor information container indicating the type of sensor possessed by the sender ITS-S, detection area, etc.
A perceived object container indicating an object detected by a sensor of the transmitting ITS-S,
- A free space addendum container that provides additional information about the free space.

CPM includes a management container as a required container. The management container may be called a CPM management container. The station data container, the sensor information container, the perceived target container, and the free space adjunct container are optional containers that may be included in the CPM. The sensor information container, the perceived target container, and the free space adjunct container may be multiple containers. The upper limit of the sensor information container, the perceived target container, and the free space adjunct container that can be included in one CPM message may be set jointly or individually. The upper limit of the number of containers may be, for example, 128.

Note that a container may correspond to a set of information that includes one or more parameters. A parameter may also be called a data frame, data element, etc.

Figure 3 shows an example of a sensor information container. This example is written using Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1) notation. Note that this is merely an example and is not necessarily a complete description. The same applies to subsequent similar drawings.

The sensor information container includes one or more pieces of sensor information (SensorInformation), and the sensor information includes, for example, sensor ID information (sensorID) and detection area information (DetectionArea). The detection area information may include vehicle sensor information (VehicleSensor) related to a sensor mounted on the vehicle. The sensor information container is sometimes called a Field-of-View information container (Field-of-View Container).

All of the information illustrated in FIG. 3 may correspond to sensor feature information. Sensor feature information is information that represents the features of a sensor. Some or all of the information included in a sensor information container corresponds to sensor feature information. Sensor feature information may include information for identifying a sensor, such as a sensor ID. Sensor feature information may include information indicating the detection characteristics of a sensor. Sensor detection characteristics indicate the characteristics of a sensor related to object detection, such as the sensor's detection range and detection accuracy. Note that sensor feature information does not include information that naturally changes depending on the position of an object to be detected, etc. Therefore, sensor feature information does not include information indicating the position of an object detected by a sensor. Note that sensor feature information is sometimes referred to as sensor information.

The vehicle sensor information may include an ID (refPointId) for identifying (specifying) a reference point for the sensor position, offset information (xSensorOffset/ySensorOffset/zSensorOffset) indicating the offset of the mounting position in the x/y/z axis directions from the reference point, and a list (VehicleSensorPropertyList) of information (vehicleSensorProperties) indicating the actual extent of the area covered by a particular sensor.

VehicleSensorProperties may include information indicating the distance range detected by the sensor (range), and the opening angle start (horizontal(vertical)OpeningAngleStart)/opening angle end (horizontal(vertical)OpeningAngleEnd) for the horizontal and vertical directions. Note that range may refer to the distance range in the x-axis direction.

(Privacy protection for V2X communications)
In V2X communication, vehicle position information (e.g., latitude and longitude) is transmitted to the surroundings, which raises concerns about privacy protection, and various countermeasures are being considered. One of the concerns is the above-mentioned tracking.

As a measure to prevent tracking, the following three measures are provided in existing standards such as the Basic System Profile (BSP) of the CAR 2 CAR Communication Consortium (C2CCC), CAM, and DENM:
- Server-side mechanisms that make it difficult to link certificates to individual vehicles.
- Change the certificates used frequently based on rules.
When a certificate is changed, information relating messages before and after the certificate change is reset, set to 0, or randomly regenerated. For example, the address included in the message, the identifier (Identifier (ID)) included in the message, the message count (sequence number), etc. are randomly regenerated. The address included in the message is, for example, the source Internet Protocol (IP) address, the source Medium Access Control (MAC) address, etc. The message count may be set to 0. In addition, information indicating the travel trajectory (for example, CAM path history, DENM traces, etc.), event information (for example, DENM EventHistory), etc. are reset. The reset may be to empty or erase.

In addition, in this disclosure, the certificate may be a security certificate (e.g., an Authorization (Authentication) Ticket (AT)) included in the envelope information (security envelope) of the message (payload).

Regarding the above certificate changes, for example, in the BSP, the AT is changed when a certain period of time (e.g., a few seconds) has passed since engine control was activated, and the AT is then changed according to the passage of a certain distance or period of time thereafter, thereby preventing the vehicle from being identified, particularly in the vicinity of the starting point.

Incidentally, among the information contained in messages transmitted by V2X communications, location information, speed information, etc. are constantly changing, and therefore are not thought to be used to directly identify individual vehicles. On the other hand, information on the shape of the vehicle (for example, the width, length, height, etc. of the vehicle) has a coarse resolution of 10 centimeters or more, because if it is too detailed it could lead to the identification of the vehicle. This is because with this level of resolution, there are many vehicles sending the same information, making it difficult to identify individual vehicles.

CPM has yet to be thoroughly explored, and compared to existing messages such as CAM, not enough consideration has been given to privacy protection.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the contents of each piece of information included in the vehicle sensor information. The offset information (xSensorOffset/ySensorOffset/zSensorOffset) included in the vehicle sensor information shown in FIG. 3, information indicating the distance range detected by the sensor (range), and the opening angle start (horizontal(vertical)OpeningAngleStart)/opening angle end (horizontal(vertical)OpeningAngleEnd) for the horizontal/vertical directions are shown.

The distance range detected by the sensor is in units of 10 centimeters, while the offset information is in units of 1 centimeter, and the opening angle, which indicates the angle of the sensor's detection area, is in units of 0.1 degrees.

In this way, offset information, opening angle information, and other information are expressed with a fairly fine resolution. Furthermore, sensor feature information such as offset information and opening angle information often differs depending on the vehicle model, year, grade, and so on. Therefore, a vehicle that receives multiple CPMs may be able to estimate whether the multiple CPMs it receives were sent from the same vehicle, based on the sensor feature information, such as the offset information and opening angle, contained in each CPM. If it can be inferred that multiple CPMs were sent from the same vehicle, there is a risk that the vehicle may be tracked.

As can be seen from the above, there is a demand for methods to make tracking CPM more difficult, but these have not been sufficiently considered. Unless methods to make tracking more difficult are introduced, the use of CPM may not become widespread.

The inventors therefore came up with a method to make it difficult to infer vehicle information such as the vehicle model, year, and grade from the CPM by restricting or modifying the sensor information contained in the CPM. Furthermore, they came to the conclusion that this idea could also be applied to messages other than CPM.

In the following description of the embodiment, CPM is exemplified as a message transmitted by a vehicle. However, CPM in this disclosure may be interpreted as any message including sensor characteristic information. The message may be a message defined in CPM, CAM, DENM, Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), Basic Safety Message (BSM), C2CCC BSP, or other standards.

(Message Control Method)
A message control method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is described below. Each message control method may be applied to the above-mentioned ITS.

First Embodiment
The first embodiment relates to a method for suppressing association of multiple CPMs.

The first embodiment is broadly divided into embodiments 1.0 to 1.5. Each embodiment is explained below.

[Embodiment 1.0]
In embodiment 1.0, the vehicle may transmit sensor information to be transmitted in one CPM by dividing it into multiple CPMs. The sensor information to be transmitted in one CPM may be information on all sensors used to detect information on the target to be included in the CPM. The sensor information may be each piece of information included in the sensor information container. When transmitting sensor information to be transmitted in one CPM by dividing it into multiple CPMs, the vehicle will make the sensor information to be included in the CPMs different for the CPMs to be transmitted successively. The control of making the sensor information to be included in the CPMs different for the CPMs to be transmitted successively is called sensor information change control. The sensor information change control is executed by the control unit 11, which will be described later.

One of these separated pieces of sensor information is also referred to as distributed sensor information below. Also, a set of distributed sensor information transmitted using multiple CPMs is also referred to as a sensor information set below. Multiple pieces of distributed sensor information included in a sensor information set may be used to configure sensor information to be transmitted in one CPM described above. The sensor information to be transmitted in one CPM is the sensor information set described above, and is also referred to as all sensor information.

In sensor information change control, multiple pieces of sensor information, in which at least some of the sensors that are the subject of the sensor information (i.e., sensor characteristic information) that are characteristic of different sensors, may be distributed and included in multiple CPMs. For example, in one CPM, the sensor that is the subject of the sensor information that is characteristic may be a millimeter wave radar, and in the next CPM to be transmitted, the sensor that is the subject of the sensor information that is characteristic of the sensor information may be a LiDAR.

Next, we will explain the timing of sending CPM containing sensor information in sensor information change control. The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) standard assumes that sensor information containers are sent at intervals of 1 second or longer. On the other hand, the above standard assumes that information about targets is sent at intervals of 0.1 seconds, or at intervals of 0.1 seconds or longer but shorter than 1 second.

In embodiment 1.0, the vehicle does not transmit all the sensor information at once in a cycle of 1 second or longer, but transmits at least some of the sensor information at a different timing from the other sensor information. For example, the distributed sensor information may be transmitted at different timings, such as transmitting sensor 1 information 100 ms after transmitting a CPM including target information, and transmitting sensor 2 information another 100 ms after transmitting. In other words, the distributed sensor information may be transmitted in such a manner that sensor 1 information is transmitted 100 ms after transmitting a CPM that does not include sensor information, and sensor 2 information is transmitted 200 ms after transmitting a CPM that does not include sensor information. Of course, it is also possible to transmit a CPM including sensor 1 information and target information, and then transmit a CPM including sensor 2 information 100 ms after transmitting the CPM that does not include sensor information, without generating a CPM that does not include sensor information.

In the above example, the transmission period of the first distributed sensor information included in the sensor information set is one second or more. On the other hand, the transmission timing of the i-th distributed sensor information (i is a natural number) may be the i-th time offset from the transmission timing of the first distributed sensor information or the transmission timing of the previous distributed sensor information.

Information regarding the i-th time offset may be stored in advance in a memory provided in the vehicle transmitting the CPM. Alternatively, the vehicle transmitting the CPM may be notified (set) of the information by another vehicle, an RSU, or an ITS server. The vehicle may determine the i-th time offset based on the information.

Furthermore, the transmission cycle of a CPM including a target does not have to be fixed at a cycle of 100 ms. The next CPM may be set to be transmitted when 100 ms or more has elapsed since the previous CPM was transmitted. In this case, for example, a CPM including sensor information from sensor 1 and target information may be transmitted, and at the transmission timing of the next CPM, a CPM including sensor information from sensor 2 and target information may be transmitted. Of course, the CPM transmitting the sensor information from sensor 2 may be the CPM two CPMs after the transmission of the sensor information from sensor 1.

The examples so far have been examples of distributing the distributed sensor information contained in one sensor information set to a CPM that includes a sensor information container and a subsequent CPM that is not supposed to include a sensor information container in the above standard. This makes it possible to transmit all of the sensor information in a short time while distributing it.

However, in the above standard, distributed sensor information included in one sensor information set may be distributed only to CPMs that include a sensor information container. For example, the CPM that transmits sensor information from sensor 2 may be the CPM that transmits sensor information from sensor 1 one second or more after the CPM that transmitted sensor information from sensor 1, and it is time to transmit sensor information again in the above standard. This increases the period until all sensor information is transmitted, which is highly effective in suppressing tracking.

If the distributed sensor information is simply information obtained by dividing all the sensor information, when all the multiple pieces of distributed sensor information included in the sensor information set are received and combined, all the sensor information can be restored. For this reason, it is preferable to configure distributed sensor information that can suppress restoration. For example, the following embodiments 1.1-1.3 are suitable for suppressing restoration. Note that these embodiments may be used even when distributed sensor information is not used.

[Embodiment 1.1]
In embodiment 1.1, when the vehicle sequentially transmits the CPMs processed by the ID, one or more of the multiple CPMs are assigned IDs different from the other CPMs. If the IDs are different, it can be difficult for a third party to link the multiple CPMs. For example, the vehicle may process the CPMs including distributed sensor information with different IDs for each CPM. The different IDs may be generated randomly or according to a pre-defined rule.

Processing a CPM with an ID may mean including the ID in the CPM, or may mean using the ID for at least one of the processes from generating the CPM to transmitting it. The process is, for example, encryption.

The ID may be a temporary ID, an ID for V2X communication, a vehicle ID, or an ID for a sensor. It may also be multiple IDs among these IDs. The temporary ID may be called a temporary ID (tempID). The ID may be interpreted as at least one of an ITS-S ID, a station ID, a vehicle ID, a sensor ID, a target ID, a network ID, an address (e.g., IP address, MAC address), a certificate ID, a certificate, an ID related to an AT, and the like. The sensor ID is an ID (sensorID) of a sensor having characteristics of each sensor information (SensorInformation) notified using a sensor information container. The target ID is an ID (objectID) of each perceived object information (PerceivedObject) notified using a perceived object container. These IDs may be temporary IDs. The temporary ID may be an ID that is changed from time to time.

According to embodiment 1.1, for one or more sensors, the sensor ID for the same sensor can be made different between multiple CPMs transmitted from the same vehicle. Therefore, not only IDs that are naturally vehicle-specific, such as the ITS-S ID, but also sensor IDs that are often the same if the vehicle model is the same, can be made different between multiple CPMs transmitted from the same vehicle. This makes it possible to prevent the receiving side from assuming that multiple CPMs transmitted from the same vehicle are CPMs transmitted from the same vehicle based on the IDs contained in those multiple CPMs. Therefore, it is possible to preferably prevent the tracking of the source vehicle that transmits CPMs sequentially.

[Embodiment 1.2]
In embodiment 1.2, the vehicle makes the sensor reference position included in one or more of the multiple CPMs transmitted sequentially different from the sensor reference position included in the other CPMs. The sensor reference position is a position referenced when determining the position of the sensor. The position of the sensor is specified in the vehicle coordinate system. The position of the sensor may be determined by the sensor reference position and an offset. The sensor reference position may be, for example, a reference position (ReferencePosition) included in a management container. The sensor reference position may also be a reference point (reference point) included in a sensor information container. Note that the reference position and the reference point may be the same position.

The reference position may represent the geographical location of the vehicle using latitude and longitude, or latitude, longitude, and altitude. However, in this embodiment, the reference position is a position that is referenced when determining the position of the sensor, and is not information for notifying the surrounding area of the vehicle's location. Other messages, such as CAM, are used as messages to notify the surrounding area of the vehicle's location.

Since this information is not used to notify the surrounding area of the vehicle's position, changing the reference position is unlikely to cause any inconvenience to the receiving side that receives the CPM. The reference position may be a specific position inside or outside the vehicle, and may correspond to a position that moves along with the vehicle.

When the reference position is used as the sensor reference position, an offset is set for each different reference position to determine the relative position of the sensor with respect to the reference position. This offset may be an offset to the reference point with respect to the reference position. In this case, the offset also changes according to the change in the reference position. However, this has the advantage that there is no need to change xSensorOffset, ySensoroffset, zSensorOffset, which are the offsets from the reference point to the sensor position. The above offsets may also be offsets from the reference position to the sensor position. In this case, the reference point is equal to the reference position, and xSensorOffset, ySensoroffset, zSensorOffset change according to the change in the reference position.

The vehicle may determine different sensor reference positions for multiple sensors by randomly varying them based on a reference position. The reference position may be, for example, the center of the vehicle, the GNSS antenna position, or the center of the front end face of the vehicle in the vehicle width direction. The sensor reference position may also be a position that varies each time based on specific rules.

As mentioned above, embodiment 1.2 can be combined with embodiment 1.0. In other words, the sensor reference position included in one CPM may be different from the sensor reference position included in another CPM, and the sensor feature information set may be distributed and transmitted as distributed sensor feature information. Figure 5B is a diagram showing an example of distributed transmission of sensor feature information based on an embodiment that combines embodiment 1.2 and embodiment 1.0.

On the other hand, FIG. 5A shows an example of the sensor reference position and the sensor position indicated by the CPM when the distributed transmission and the change in the sensor reference position of the present disclosure are not performed. Note that in FIGS. 5A, 5B, 6A, and 6B, the sensor reference position is written as the reference position. In the example of FIG. 5A, the vehicle transmits sensor information of all sensors mounted on the vehicle with one CPM. Specifically, the sensor information is four pieces of sensor information including detection area information corresponding to areas A-D, which are detection areas in which the sensors detect targets. The sensor information also includes an offset indicating the position of each sensor from the sensor reference position. The information indicating the sensor reference position may be included in the sensor information container or may be included in the management container. In FIGS. 5A and 5B, the sensor positions are indicated by hatched circles. Note that in this example, the sensor positions of the sensor in area A and the sensor positions of area B overlap. The sensor reference position is common to each piece of sensor information.

FIG. 5B shows an example of information indicated by each CPM when performing distributed transmission and varying the sensor reference position of the present disclosure. The vehicle in FIG. 5B is the same vehicle as in FIG. 5A. The vehicle separates the sensor information in FIG. 5A into four pieces of distributed sensor information for four sensors, each of which has areas A to D as its detection area. Each piece of distributed sensor information is then transmitted using a different CPM. As shown in FIG. 5B, the sensor reference positions identified by each piece of distributed sensor information are different from each other.

FIG. 6A is a diagram showing an example of a sensor position estimated by the receiver when the sensor reference position is not changed. FIG. 6B is a diagram showing an example of a sensor position estimated by the receiver when the sensor reference position is changed.

Even if the sensor information is transmitted in a distributed manner, if the sensor reference position included in each piece of sensor information is the same as in Figure 6A, the relative positions of Area A and Area B can be correctly estimated by determining the positions of Area A and Area B based on the sensor reference position. The next time the sensor information set is transmitted as distributed sensor information, the receiver receiving the distributed sensor information can similarly estimate the relative position of Area A and Area B to be the same as the previous time. And because the relative positions of Area A and Area B are the same, it may be possible to estimate that the vehicle that estimated Areas A and B last time and the vehicle that estimated Areas A and B this time are the same vehicle.

In contrast, if the sensor information is transmitted in a distributed manner and the sensor reference position is varied as in Figure 6B, if the person receiving the sensor information determines the relative position of area A and area B by considering the sensor reference position to be the same, the relative position of area A and area B will not be the correct relative position, as shown in the rightmost diagram in Figure 6B. If the sensor information set is then transmitted as distributed sensor information, the sensor reference position contained in the distributed sensor information will be a different position from the previous transmission. As a result, the vehicle cannot be tracked even if the relative positions of areas A and B are used as a clue.

[Embodiment 1.3]
In embodiment 1.3, the vehicle uses an ID different from the ID used for CPM for other messages (e.g., CAM, DENM, BSM, etc.). The other messages may be called other types of messages, messages defined by other standards, etc. The ID used for CPM may be an ID to be included in CPM. The ID is, for example, a Station ID. In CPM, the Station ID is included in the header. The Station ID is an ID that identifies an ITS station, such as a vehicle, i.e., the sender. The ID used for other messages may be an ID to be included in the other messages. The ID to be included in the other messages may be an ID that identifies the sender of the other messages.

The ID used for CPM may be changed to make the ID used for CPM different from the ID used for other messages. The ID used for other messages may also be changed. To make the ID used for CPM different from the ID used for other messages, for example, a vehicle may use different IDs for CPM and other messages that are transmitted simultaneously or close to each other. Whether or not the messages are transmitted close to each other may be determined, for example, by whether or not the difference between the transmission times of the messages is equal to or less than a threshold. The threshold may be one or several transmission cycles of the CPM and other messages. Information regarding the threshold may be notified to the vehicle from another vehicle, an RSU, or an ITS server.

The more messages sent from the same vehicle are combined, the more likely the combination will have characteristics that can be distinguished from combinations of messages sent from other vehicles. Therefore, when a CPM is combined with other messages, this combination makes it easier to identify the vehicle that sent the message.

However, according to embodiment 1.3, the ID used for CPM is made different from the ID used for other messages. This prevents a third party who receives the CPM and other messages from linking the CPM to the other messages based on the ID. This prevents a third party from sequentially identifying the vehicles that have sent messages and tracking the vehicles that have sent the messages.

[Embodiment 1.4]
In embodiment 1.4, the vehicle corrects the detection area information (DetectionArea) corresponding to the same sensor. Correction may also be called adjustment.

Instead of including detection area information indicating the range of the actual detection area directly in the CPM, the vehicle may include detection area information that modifies the range of the actual detection area in the CPM and transmit the same. The modified detection area may be called a modified detection area. The vehicle may change the detection area information for a certain sensor each time it transmits a CPM, either once or multiple times.

The vehicle may generate detection area information for the modified detection area by varying, within a certain range, one or more parameters for indicating the range of the actual detection area. The vehicle may generate the changed parameters based on a calculation formula set in advance. The vehicle may also generate the changed parameters randomly. The detection area information for the modified detection area may be generated by multiplying one or more parameters of the detection area information for the actual detection area by a coefficient. The coefficient is, for example, a value near 1. The range that the coefficient can take can be determined in advance. For example, the range that the coefficient can take may be 0.8 to 1.2. The coefficient may be a value near 1 that is equal to or less than 1. For example, the range that the coefficient can take may be 0.8 to 1.

The multiple values that the coefficient can take or the range that the coefficient can take may be predetermined in a standard, or information regarding the multiple values that the coefficient can take or the range that the coefficient can take may be notified to the vehicle from another vehicle, an RSU, or an ITS server. The value of the coefficient may be different for each sensor.

The vehicle may regenerate the coefficients each time it transmits a CPM, or may regenerate the coefficients when either or both of the certificate and ID are changed.

In addition, in Non-Patent Document 1, only vehicle sensor information (VehicleSensor) is permitted as detection area information for a sensor mounted on a vehicle. This information expresses the sensor detection area by the distance range from the sensor (range) and the opening angle of the sensor detection area, which is the range that the sensor can detect. The above coefficient may be a coefficient multiplied by the range.

However, the detection area information of the CPM transmitted by the vehicle may be notified of a detection area of any shape (such as an n-sided polygon (n is an integer of 3 or more), circle, or ellipse). The detection area information included in the sensor information may be represented by at least one of AreaRadial, AreaPolygon, AreaCircular, AreaEllipse, AreaRectangle, etc. shown in FIG. 3. In addition, VehicleSensorProperties may include at least one of AreaRadial, AreaPolygon, AreaCircular, AreaEllipse, AreaRectangle, etc., which indicate the detection area, together with or instead of range, etc.

FIGS. 7A-7C are diagrams illustrating the modified detection area according to embodiment 1.4. FIG. 7A shows an example of an actual detection area. FIGS. 7B and 7C show an example of a modified detection area corresponding to FIG. 7A.

The modified detection area shown in Figures 7B and 7C is, for example, an area in which the shape of the actual detection area has been randomly changed. More specifically, it is an area in which the shape of the actual detection area has been randomly changed to narrow it. The modified detection area shown in Figure 7B and the detection area shown in Figure 7C have mutually different shapes. Therefore, it is possible to prevent a third party from recognizing that a CPM including detection area information for the modified detection area in Figure 7B and a CPM including detection area information for the modified detection area in Figure 7C are messages sent from the same vehicle. As a result, it is possible to prevent tracking based on the fact that the detection area information is identical.

[Embodiment 1.5]
In embodiment 1.5, the vehicle sequentially changes the resolution of one or more parameters included in the sensor information. That is, the resolution of one or more parameters included in the sensor information is made coarse or fine. Resolution can also be called granularity.

For example, the vehicle may change the resolution of the offset information included in the sensor information from 1 centimeter to 10 centimeters. Conversely, the vehicle may change the resolution of the offset information included in the sensor information from 10 centimeters to 1 centimeter. The vehicle may also change the resolution of the opening angle information included in the sensor information from 0.1 degrees to 1 degree. Conversely, the vehicle may change the resolution of the opening angle information included in the sensor information from 1 degree to 0.1 degrees.

Note that the resolution of the parameters included in the first sensor information may be different from the resolution of the parameters included in the second sensor information. In other words, the resolution of the parameters may be different for each sensor.

According to the first embodiment described above, even if a third party receives multiple CPMs, it is possible to effectively prevent the third party from identifying them as containing information corresponding to the same vehicle.

Second Embodiment
The second embodiment relates to a transmission timing for changing and transmitting sensor information. Note that the sensor information here may correspond to the distributed sensor information of the first embodiment.

In the second embodiment, the vehicle may implement sensor information change control when a sensor information change condition is met. The sensor information change control is a control that sequentially changes the sensor information to be included in the CPM transmitted from the vehicle. The sensor information change control may be at least one of the following:

(A) The sensor information change control may be a control for sequentially switching between including the sensor information in the CPM to be sequentially generated and not including the sensor information. As described above, the sensor information may correspond to the distributed sensor information of the first embodiment.
(B) The sensor information change control may be a control not to transmit a CPM. Since a CPM is not transmitted, the sensor information that is normally transmitted is changed to a state where it is not transmitted.
(C) The sensor information change control may be control that applies at least one of the controls in the first embodiment.

When the sensor information change condition is met, the sensor information transmitted from the vehicle is restricted compared to when the CPM is transmitted without restriction and the CPM always includes unrestricted sensor information. This reduces the opportunities for third parties to receive sensor information. The sensor information change condition may also be called a sensor information restriction condition. By reducing the opportunities to receive sensor information, it becomes difficult for third parties to infer that successively received CPMs were transmitted from the same vehicle based on the sensor information. This reduces tracking.

The sensor information change conditions may be exemplified as follows.
(1) A certain period of time has not passed since the vehicle power was turned on.
(2) The vehicle has not moved a certain distance since the vehicle power was turned on.
(3) A certain period of time has not passed since the certificates included in the CPM were changed.
(4) You have not moved a certain distance since changing the certificate to be included in the CPM.
(5) A period from a certain period before a certificate included in the CPM is changed to the period until the certificate is changed.
(6) The vehicle is present at a position from a certain distance before the point at which the certificate to be included in the CPM is to be changed until the certificate is to be changed.
(7) A certain period of time has not passed since the ID used for CPM was changed.
(8) The ID used for CPM has not been changed and a certain distance has not been moved.
(9) A period from a certain period before the ID used for CPM is changed to the period until the ID is changed.
(10) The vehicle is present at a position a certain distance before the point where the ID used for CPM is to be changed and up to the point where the ID is to be changed.

The vehicle power source may be interpreted as an ignition switch. Turning on the vehicle power source may be determined by the start of engine control. Turning on the vehicle power source may be interpreted as the vehicle departing. The certain period of time may be, for example, 5-6 minutes, or several minutes. The certain distance may be, for example, several hundred meters, or about 1 km.

Since the vehicle power supply is turned on at the departure point, the above (1) or (2) is satisfied from the time the vehicle departs until a certain period of time has passed or until the vehicle has traveled a certain distance. At this time, the transmission of sensor information is suppressed by the sensor information change control. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the vehicle from being tracked based on the CPM containing the sensor information, using the fact that the sensor information is the same as a clue, and to prevent the departure point of the vehicle from being estimated.

According to (3), (4), (5), and (6) above, even if the certificate included in the CPM has been changed, it is possible to prevent the CPM before and after the certificate change from being assumed to have been sent from the same vehicle, based on the fact that the sensor information included in the CPM is the same. This makes it possible to prevent vehicles before and after the certificate included in the CPM has been changed from being tracked.

According to (7), (8), (9), and (10) above, even if the ID used for CPM has been changed, it is possible to prevent the CPM before and after the ID change from being assumed to have been sent from the same vehicle, based on the fact that the sensor information contained in the CPM is the same. Therefore, it is possible to prevent vehicles before and after the ID used for CPM is changed from being tracked.

The sensor information change conditions are not limited to the above (1) to (10). For example, the sensor information change condition may be that the vehicle is not located near an intersection. The sensor information change condition may also be that the vehicle's speed is not low. As long as it is possible to reduce the opportunities for a third party to receive sensor information, the distance range from an intersection that is considered to be near the intersection can be set appropriately. The threshold for determining that the vehicle's speed is low can also be set appropriately.

<Additional Information>
In the above-described embodiments, the transmission control of information included in the sensor information container of the CPM has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. Each of the above-described embodiments may be applied to the transmission control of information included in any container of the CPM.

For example, instead of each of the above-mentioned embodiments, the above-mentioned embodiments may be applied to the transmission control of information included in a free space supplemental container of a CPM. In this case, the sensor information in each of the above-mentioned embodiments may be read as free space additional information (FreeSpaceAddendum). Furthermore, the detection area information may be read as at least one of free space confidence information (FreeSpaceConfidence) and free space area information (FreeSpaceArea). Furthermore, in addition to each of the above-mentioned embodiments, the above-mentioned embodiments may be applied to the transmission control of information included in a free space supplemental container of a CPM.

(Additional Note)
The following is noted regarding one embodiment of the present disclosure.
[Appendix 1]
A message control device,
A control unit that generates a message including sensor feature information about a plurality of sensors included in a vehicle in which the message control device is installed;
A communication unit that transmits a message generated by the control unit,
The control unit is a message control device that executes sensor information change control for making the sensor feature information included in the message different between successively transmitted messages.
[Appendix 2]
The message control device according to claim 1, wherein the sensor information change control includes control of distributing and including multiple pieces of sensor feature information, at least some of which are different from each other in the target sensors, in multiple messages.
[Appendix 3]
The sensor characteristic information includes an identifier of the sensor;
3. The message control device according to claim 1, wherein the sensor information change control includes control of changing identifiers of one or more sensors to be included in each of the multiple messages to different values for the same sensor.
[Appendix 4]
The sensor characteristic information includes a sensor reference position that is used as a reference when determining the position of the sensor;
A message control device described in any one of Supplementary Note 1 to Supplementary Note 3, wherein the sensor information change control includes control for making a sensor reference position included in one or more of a plurality of messages transmitted sequentially different from a sensor reference position included in other messages.
[Appendix 5]
The sensor feature information includes detection area information indicating an area in which the sensor detects an object;
5. The message control device according to claim 1, wherein the sensor information change control includes control for making detection area information corresponding to a certain sensor different among a plurality of messages.
[Appendix 6]
The sensor characteristic information includes a resolution of a parameter of the sensor;
6. The message control device according to claim 1, wherein the sensor information change control includes control for varying a resolution of a parameter of the sensor among a plurality of messages.
[Appendix 7]
A message control device as described in any one of Appendix 1 to Appendix 6, wherein the control unit performs the sensor information change control when a certain period of time has not elapsed since the vehicle power supply of the vehicle was turned on or the vehicle has not moved a certain distance.
[Appendix 8]
A message control device described in any one of Appendix 1 to Appendix 7, in which the control unit performs the sensor information change control when a certain period of time has not elapsed since changing a certificate to be included in the message or an identifier that identifies the sender of the message, or when the vehicle has not moved a certain distance.
[Appendix 9]
A message control device described in any one of Supplementary Note 1 to Supplementary Note 8, wherein the control unit performs sensor information change control when the vehicle is located from a certain period before the certificate to be included in the message or the identifier to identify the sender of the message is changed until the certificate to be included in the message or the identifier to identify the sender of the message is changed, or when the vehicle is located from a certain distance before the point at which the certificate to be included in the message or the identifier to identify the sender of the message is changed to the point at which the certificate to be included in the message or the identifier to identify the sender of the message is changed.
[Appendix 10]
10. The message control device according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the control unit differentiates an identifier for identifying a sender included in one type of message from an identifier for identifying a sender included in a message of a different type from the message.
[Appendix 11]
A step of generating a message including sensor feature information for a plurality of sensors included in the vehicle, the step of making the sensor feature information included in the message different between successively transmitted messages;
and transmitting the generated message.

(Hardware configuration)
FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a vehicle 10 according to an embodiment. The vehicle 10 includes a control unit 11, a sensor 12, a locator 13, an input/output unit 14, and a communication unit 15. The block diagram shown in this example shows functional blocks. Each of these functional blocks (components) is realized by any combination of at least one of hardware and software. Note that the "vehicle" described in the above embodiment may be read as any one or more functional blocks (e.g., the control unit 11, the communication unit 15) in the vehicle 10.

FIG. 8 shows only the parts necessary for explaining the present disclosure. The vehicle 10 includes parts necessary for driving, such as a drive unit and an operating unit. The drive unit is, for example, one or both of an engine and a motor. The operating unit is, for example, a steering wheel.

The control unit 11 is composed of a microprocessor (hereinafter simply referred to as the processor) 111, a memory 112, and a communication interface 113. The communication interface 113 is, for example, an Input/Output (IO) port. The control unit 11 may be called an Electronic Control Unit (ECU), or may be composed of a Central Processing Unit (CPU) including interfaces with peripheral devices, a control device, an arithmetic unit, registers, etc.

The control unit 11 may be configured to include hardware such as a microprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a programmable logic device (PLD), or a field programmable gate array (FPGA), and the processing of the processor 111 may be realized using such hardware. For example, the processor 111 may be implemented using at least one of these pieces of hardware.

Each function of the vehicle 10 (e.g., message generation, processing based on information from the sensor 12) may be realized by, for example, loading specific software (programs) onto hardware such as the processor 111 and memory 112, causing the processor 111 to perform calculations, control communication via the communication unit 15, and/or control the reading and writing of data in the memory 112.

The processor 111 may, for example, operate an operating system to control the entire in-vehicle computer. The processor 111 may also read programs, software modules, data, etc. into the memory 112 and execute various processes according to these. The program may be a program for causing the computer to execute at least a portion of the operations described in the above-mentioned embodiments. The program may be read as program code.

Memory 112 is a computer-readable recording medium and may be composed of, for example, at least one of Read Only Memory (ROM), Erasable Programmable ROM (EPROM), Electrically EPROM, Random Access Memory (RAM), or other suitable storage medium. Memory 112 may also be referred to as a register, cache, main memory, etc. Memory 112 may store executable programs, software modules, etc. for implementing a method according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

The control unit 11 may include a storage (auxiliary storage device) that is a computer-readable recording medium with a larger capacity than the memory 112. The control unit 11 may read and write data to and from the memory 112 to the storage. The storage is not limited to being provided in the control unit 11, and may be independent of the control unit 11 and connected to the control unit 11 via a communication line.

The communication interface 113 may be called an input/output port, and may be used to exchange information between the control unit 11 and other blocks. The other blocks are, for example, blocks for operation. For example, the control unit 11 may obtain a signal from the sensor 12 via the communication interface 113.

The control unit 11 may provide driving assistance functions, autonomous driving functions, etc. based on an inertial navigation system, an artificial intelligence (AI) chip, an AI processor, AI functions, etc.

The sensors 12 may include, for example, a current sensor, a wheel rotation speed sensor, a tire pressure sensor, a vehicle speed sensor, an acceleration sensor, an angular velocity sensor, an object detection sensor, and the like. Each sensor may provide a signal (on/off signal, analog signal, digital signal, etc.) obtained by measurement to the control unit 11 via the communication interface 113. For example, the object detection sensor may generate a detection signal when it detects a target such as an obstacle, a vehicle, or a pedestrian.

The sensor 12 may include a device capable of providing information on the environment surrounding the vehicle 10, such as a millimeter wave radar, a Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), a camera, a gyro system (e.g., an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU)), etc. A plurality of sensors 12 may be mounted on the vehicle 10, and a plurality of sensors 12 of the same type may be mounted on the vehicle. For example, cameras serving as sensors 12 may be mounted on the front, rear, and both sides of the vehicle 10.

The locator 13 acquires location information of the vehicle 10. In the present disclosure, the location information may include, for example, latitude, longitude, etc. The locator 13 may acquire the location information based on a positioning system (for example, a satellite positioning system (Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), Global Positioning System (GPS), etc.)), map information (for example, a High Definition (HD) map, an Autonomous Vehicle (AV) map, etc.), and speed, acceleration, angular velocity, etc. obtained from the sensor 12 described above.

The input/output unit 14 includes an input device that accepts input from the outside and an output device that performs output to the outside. The input device is, for example, a keyboard, a mouse, a microphone, a switch, a button, or a sensor. The output device is, for example, a display, a speaker, or a Light Emitting Diode (LED) lamp. The input device and the output device may be integrated into one structure (for example, a touch panel).

The input/output unit 14 may be composed of various devices for providing various information such as driving information, such as a car navigation system, an audio system, a television, a radio, etc., and one or more ECUs for controlling these devices. The input/output unit 14 may provide various information/services to the occupants of the vehicle 10 by using information obtained from an external device (e.g., an ITS server 30) via the communication unit 15.

The input/output unit 14 may receive input through user operation, or may be connected to a specific device, storage medium, etc. to receive data input. The input/output unit 14 may output the input result to, for example, the control unit 11.

The input/output unit 14 may output data, content, etc. in a format that is perceptible to the user.

The communication unit 15 is hardware for communicating wirelessly with an external device (e.g., another vehicle 10, an ITS server 30, etc.), and is also referred to as, for example, a transmission/reception device, a network device, a network controller, a network card, a communication module, etc. The communication unit 15 may be configured to include a high-frequency switch, a duplexer, a filter, an amplifier, a frequency synthesizer, an antenna, etc. The communication unit 15 may be configured by a transmitter/receiver, a transmission/reception circuit, or a transmission/reception device, which are described based on a common understanding in the technical field to which this disclosure relates.

The communication unit 15 may be, for example, Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), LTE-Beyond (LTE-B), SUPER 3G, IMT-Advanced, 4th generation mobile communication system (4G), 5th generation mobile communication system (5G), 6th generation mobile communication system (6G), xth generation mobile communication system (xG (x is, for example, an integer or decimal)), Future Radio Access (FRA), New-Radio A Communications may be performed using access Technology (RAT), New Radio (NR), New radio access (NX), Future generation radio access (FX), Global System for Mobile communications (GSM (registered trademark)), CDMA2000, Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi (registered trademark)), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX (registered trademark)), IEEE 802.20, Ultra-WideBand (UWB), Bluetooth (registered trademark), or other wireless communication methods, or wireless communication methods extended, modified, created or defined based on these.

The communication unit 15 may be controllable by the processor 111 of the control unit 11, and the communication unit 15 may be included in the control unit 11.

The communication unit 15 may transmit at least one of the signal from the sensor 12, information obtained based on the signal, and information based on the input from the input/output unit 14 to an external device via wireless communication.

The communication unit 15 may receive various information (traffic information, signal information, vehicle distance information, etc.) from an external device and provide it to the control unit 11. This information may be output via the input/output unit 14. The control unit 11 may perform control based on this information.

The method of realizing each functional block is not particularly limited. That is, each functional block may be realized using one device that is physically or logically combined, or may be realized using two or more devices that are physically or logically separated and connected directly or indirectly (for example, using wires, wirelessly, etc.). The functional block may be realized by combining software with the one device or the multiple devices.

For example, although only one processor 111 is shown, there may be multiple processors. Furthermore, processing may be performed by one processor, or processing may be performed by two or more processors simultaneously, sequentially, or using other techniques. Furthermore, processor 111 may be implemented by one or more chips.

The hardware of each functional block may be connected by a bus for communicating information. The bus may be configured using a single bus, or may be configured using different buses between each device. The bus may be realized by a wired or wireless system.

Note that the RSU 20, ITS server 30, etc. may have the same configuration as the vehicle 10. A person skilled in the art would be able to understand the descriptions related to the vehicle 10 by appropriately interpreting them.

In addition, the configuration of the vehicle 10 that includes the control unit 11 or the configuration that includes the control unit 11 and the communication unit 15 may be called a message control device.

The control unit 11 generates a message that includes information about all or a plurality of sensors 12 included in the vehicle 10 in which the message control device is installed. The control unit 11 executes sensor information change control that causes the sensor information included in the generated message to differ between successively transmitted messages. The sensor information may include each piece of sensor information included in the sensor information container.

The sensor information change control may include control to distribute multiple pieces of sensor feature information across multiple messages. The communication unit 15 may transmit multiple messages.

The sensor information change control may include control to set one or more sensor identifiers (IDs) included in each of the multiple messages to different values for the same sensor.

The sensor information change control may include control to make the sensor reference position included in one or more of the multiple messages transmitted sequentially different from the sensor reference position included in the other messages.

The control unit 11 may differentiate between an identifier for identifying a sender included in one type of message and an identifier for identifying a sender included in a different type of message.

The sensor information change control may be a control that causes the detection area information corresponding to a certain sensor to differ among multiple messages that include sensor feature information related to the certain sensor.

The sensor information change control may be a control that changes the resolution of a specific parameter included in sensor information related to the same sensor included in multiple messages.

The control unit 11 may perform the sensor information change control if a certain period of time has not elapsed since the vehicle power supply of the vehicle was turned on, or if the vehicle has not moved a certain distance.

The control unit 11 may perform sensor information change control if a certain period of time has not elapsed since the certificate included in the message or the identifier identifying the sender of the message was changed, or if the vehicle has not moved a certain distance.

The control unit 11 may perform sensor information change control when the vehicle is located from a certain period before the certificate to be included in the message or the identifier to identify the sender of the message is changed until the certificate to be included in the message or the identifier to identify the sender of the message is changed, or when the vehicle is located at a certain distance before the point at which the certificate to be included in the message or the identifier to identify the sender of the message is changed to the point at which the certificate to be included in the message or the identifier to identify the sender of the message is changed.

(Modification)
In addition, terms explained in this disclosure and terms necessary for understanding this disclosure may be replaced with terms having the same or similar meanings.

In this disclosure, terms such as apparatus, circuit, device, section, and unit may be read interchangeably.

The term "vehicle" in this disclosure may be interpreted as any moving object. Examples of moving objects include, but are not limited to, vehicles, transport vehicles, automobiles, motorcycles, bicycles, connected cars, excavators, bulldozers, wheel loaders, dump trucks, forklifts, trains, buses, handcarts, rickshaws, ships and other watercraft, airplanes, rockets, satellites, drones, multicopters, quadcopters, balloons, and objects mounted on these.

The moving body may be a moving body that moves autonomously based on an operating command. The moving body may be a moving body that moves with a person on board, in other words a vehicle (e.g., a car, an airplane, etc.), or it may be an unmanned moving body (e.g., a drone, an autonomous vehicle, etc.). The moving body may be a robot. The robot may be either manned or unmanned.

The information, parameters, etc. described in this disclosure may be represented using absolute values, may be represented using relative values from a predetermined value, or may be represented using other corresponding information. For example, a radio resource may be indicated by a predetermined index.

The names used for parameters and the like in this disclosure are not limiting in any way. Furthermore, the formulas and the like that use these parameters may differ from those explicitly disclosed in this disclosure.

The information, signals, etc. described in this disclosure may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies. For example, the data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, chips, etc. that may be referred to throughout the above description may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or magnetic particles, optical fields or photons, or any combination thereof.

Input/output information, signals, etc. may be stored in a specific location (e.g., memory) or may be managed using a management table. Input/output information, signals, etc. may be overwritten, updated, or added to. Output information, signals, etc. may be deleted. Input information, signals, etc. may be transmitted to another device.

The notification of information is not limited to the aspects/embodiments described in this disclosure, and may be performed using other methods. Furthermore, the notification of specific information (e.g., notification that "X is the case") is not limited to explicit notification, and may be performed implicitly (e.g., by not notifying the specific information or by notifying other information).

Software shall be construed broadly to mean instructions, instruction sets, code, code segments, program code, programs, subprograms, software modules, applications, software applications, software packages, routines, subroutines, objects, executable files, threads of execution, procedures, functions, etc., whether referred to as software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or otherwise.

In addition, software, instructions, information, etc. may be transmitted and received via a transmission medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using at least one of wired technologies (such as coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)), and/or wireless technologies (such as infrared, microwave, etc.), then at least one of these wired and wireless technologies is included within the definition of a transmission medium.

Each aspect/embodiment described in this disclosure may be used alone, in combination, or switched between depending on the implementation. In addition, the processing procedures, sequences, flow charts, etc. of each aspect/embodiment described in this disclosure may be rearranged as long as there is no inconsistency. For example, the methods described in this disclosure present elements of various steps using an exemplary order, and are not limited to the particular order presented.

As used in this disclosure, the phrase "based on" does not mean "based only on," unless expressly stated otherwise. In other words, the phrase "based on" means both "based only on" and "based at least on."

Any reference to elements using designations such as "first," "second," etc., used in this disclosure does not generally limit the quantity or order of those elements. These designations may be used in this disclosure as a convenient method of distinguishing between two or more elements. Thus, a reference to a first and second element does not imply that only two elements may be employed or that the first element must precede the second element in some way.

In this disclosure, "A/B" and "at least one of A and B" may be interpreted as interchangeable. Also, in this disclosure, "A/B/C" may mean "at least one of A, B, and C."

In this disclosure, the term "A and B are different" may mean "A and B are different from each other." The term may also mean "A and B are each different from C." Terms such as "separate" and "combined" may also be interpreted in the same way as "different."

When the terms "include," "including," and variations thereof are used in this disclosure, these terms are intended to be inclusive, similar to the term "comprising." Additionally, the term "or," as used in this disclosure, is not intended to be an exclusive or.

In this disclosure, where articles have been added through translation, such as a, an, and the in English, this disclosure may include that the noun following these articles is in the plural form.

In this disclosure, terms such as "less than", "less than", "greater than", "more than", "equal to", etc. may be read as interchangeable. In addition, in this disclosure, terms meaning "good", "bad", "big", "small", "high", "low", "fast", "slow", "wide", "narrow", etc. may be read as interchangeable, not limited to positive, comparative and superlative. In addition, in this disclosure, terms meaning "good", "bad", "big", "small", "high", "low", "fast", "slow", "wide", "narrow", etc. may be read as interchangeable, not limited to positive, comparative and superlative, as expressions with "ith" (i is any integer) (for example, "best" may be read as "ith best").

In this disclosure, the terms "of," "for," "regarding," "related to," "associated with," etc. may be read interchangeably.

Although the present disclosure has been described in detail above, those skilled in the art can implement the embodiments in modified and altered forms without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.

Claims (11)

1. A message control device,
   A control unit that generates a message including sensor feature information about a plurality of sensors included in a vehicle in which the message control device is installed;
   A communication unit that transmits a message generated by the control unit,
   The control unit executes sensor information change control to make the sensor feature information included in the message different between the messages transmitted successively.
2. The message control device according to claim 1, wherein the sensor information change control includes control for distributing and including multiple pieces of sensor characteristic information, at least some of which are different from each other for the target sensors, in multiple messages.
3. the sensor characteristic information includes an identifier of the sensor;
   The message control device according to claim 1 , wherein the sensor information change control includes control for changing identifiers of one or more of the sensors to different values for the same sensor, the identifiers being included in each of the plurality of messages.
4. the sensor characteristic information includes a sensor reference position that is referenced when determining the position of the sensor;
   The message control device according to claim 1 , wherein the sensor information change control includes control for making the sensor reference position included in one or more of the plurality of messages transmitted sequentially different from the sensor reference position included in other messages.
5. the sensor characteristic information includes detection area information indicating an area in which the sensor detects an object;
   The message control device according to claim 1 , wherein the sensor information change control includes control for making the detection area information corresponding to a certain sensor different among a plurality of the messages.
6. the sensor characteristic information includes a resolution of a parameter of the sensor;
   The message control device according to claim 1 , wherein the sensor information change control includes control for making a resolution of the parameter of the sensor different among the plurality of messages.
7. The message control device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the control unit performs the sensor information change control when a certain period of time has not elapsed since the vehicle power supply of the vehicle was turned on, or when the vehicle has not moved a certain distance.
8. The message control device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the control unit performs the sensor information change control when a certain period of time has not elapsed since the certificate included in the message or the identifier identifying the sender of the message was changed, or when the vehicle has not moved a certain distance.
9. The message control device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the control unit performs the sensor information change control when the vehicle is present at a position from a certain period before the certificate to be included in the message or the identifier to identify the sender of the message is changed until the certificate to be included in the message or the identifier to identify the sender of the message is changed, or from a certain distance before the point at which the certificate to be included in the message or the identifier to identify the sender of the message is changed to the point at which the certificate to be included in the message or the identifier to identify the sender of the message is changed.
10. The message control device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the control unit differentiates an identifier for identifying a sender included in one type of message from an identifier for identifying a sender included in a type of message different from the message.
11. A step of generating a message including sensor feature information for a plurality of sensors included in the vehicle, the sensor feature information being varied among the messages to be transmitted successively;
    and transmitting the generated message.

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