Vehicle control system, motor drive controller, and management controller

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10177966-B2
Application number	US-201715465598-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 22, 2017
Priority date	Mar 31, 2016
Publication date	Jan 8, 2019
Grant date	Jan 8, 2019

Abstract

A vehicle control system includes electronic controllers and first and second communications networks. The electronic controllers control a vehicle including an internal combustion engine and a drive motor. The electronic controllers include a management controller to manage travel control of the vehicle and a motor drive controller to control the drive motor. The first and second communications networks connect the electronic controllers together. The electronic controllers communicate via the first and second communications networks. The motor drive controller is configured to stop the drive motor when it is determined that a fault has occurred in the first communications network and configured to transmit information indicating that the fault has occurred in the first communications network to the management controller via the second communications network. The management controller is configured to control the electronic controllers not to communicate via the first communications network in response to the information.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A vehicle control system comprising:
electronic controllers to control a vehicle including an internal combustion engine and a drive motor to move the vehicle, the electronic controllers including a management controller to manage travel control of the vehicle and a motor drive controller to control the drive motor;
a first communications network which connects the electronic controllers together and via which the electronic controllers communicate;
a second communications network which connects the electronic controllers together and via which the electronic controllers communicate;
the motor drive controller configured to stop the drive motor when it is determined that a fault has occurred in the first communications network and configured to transmit information indicating that the fault has occurred in the first communications network to the management controller via the second communications network; and
the management controller configured to control the electronic controllers not to communicate via the first communications network in response to the information.

2. The vehicle control system of claim 1 , wherein
when the fault has not occurred in the first communications network, travel control information for controlling travel of the vehicle is passed over the first communications network, and travel management information for managing travel operation of the vehicle is passed over the second communications network.

3. The vehicle control system of claim 1 , wherein
the management controller is configured to control the electronic controllers to communicate information via the second communications network when it is determined that the fault has occurred in the first communications network.

4. The vehicle control system of claim 1 , wherein
vehicle control information, which is real-time information to control the vehicle, is transmitted via the first communications network, and
vehicle management information, which is non real-time information related to a travel of the vehicle, is transmitted via the second communications network.

5. The vehicle control system of claim 1 , wherein
when the fault has not occurred in the first communications network, travel control information for controlling travel of the vehicle is passed over the first communications network, and
when the fault has occurred in the first communications network, the travel control information for controlling travel of the vehicle is passed over the second communications network.

6. A vehicle control system comprising:
electronic controllers to control a vehicle including an internal combustion engine and a drive motor to move the vehicle, the electronic controllers including a management controller to manage travel control of the vehicle and a motor drive controller to control the drive motor;
a first communications network which connects the electronic controllers together and via which the electronic controllers communicate;
a second communications network which connects the electronic controllers together and via which the electronic controllers communicate;
each of the electronic controllers configured to detect a fault in the first communications network and configured to transmit information indicating that the fault has occurred in the first communications network to the management controller via the second communications network;
the management controller configured to determine that the fault has occurred in the first communications network when the management controller has detected the fault in the first communications network, and/or when the management controller has received the information from at least one of the electronic controllers, the management controller being configured to control the electronic controllers not to communicate via the first communications network and to control the motor drive controller to stop the drive motor when it is determined that the fault occurs in the first communications network.

7. The vehicle control system of claim 6 , wherein
when the fault has not occurred in the first communications network, travel control information for controlling travel of the vehicle is passed over the first communications network, and travel management information for managing travel operation of the vehicle is passed over the second communications network.

8. The vehicle control system of claim 6 , wherein
the management controller is configured to control the electronic controllers to communicate information via the second communications network when it is determined that the fault has occurred in the first communications network.

9. The vehicle control system of claim 6 , wherein
vehicle control information, which is real-time information to control the vehicle, is transmitted via the first communications network, and
vehicle management information, which is non real-time information related to a travel of the vehicle, is transmitted via the second communications network.

10. The vehicle control system of claim 6 , wherein
when the fault has not occurred in the first communications network, travel control information for controlling travel of the vehicle is passed over the first communications network, and
when the fault has occurred in the first communications network, the travel control information for controlling travel of the vehicle is passed over the second communications network.

11. A motor drive controller that is one of electronic controllers in a vehicle control system including the electronic controllers to control a vehicle including an internal combustion engine and a drive motor to move the vehicle, a first communications network which connects the electronic controllers together and via which the electronic controllers communicate, and a second communications network which connects the electronic controllers together and via which the electronic controllers communicate, the motor drive controller comprising:
a first transceiver configured to communicate via the first communications network;
a second transceiver configured to communicate via the second communications network;
an electronic motor controller configured to control the drive motor; and
a processor configured to:
detect a fault in the first communications network; and
control the second transceiver to transmit information indicating that the fault has occurred in the first communications network via the second communications network to a management controller that is one of the electronic controllers and to control the motor controller to stop the drive motor in response to detecting the fault in the first communications network.

12. The motor drive controller of claim 11 , wherein
vehicle control information, which is real-time information to control the vehicle, is transmitted via the first communications network, and
vehicle management information, which is non real-time information related to a travel of the vehicle, is transmitted via the second communications network.

13. The motor drive controller of claim 11 , wherein
the processor is configured to control the electronic controllers not to communicate via the first communications network in response to detecting the fault in the first communications network.

14. The motor drive controller of claim 11 , wherein
when the fault has not occurred in the first communications network, travel control information for controlling travel of the vehicle is passed over the first communications network, and travel management information for managing travel operation of the vehicle is passed over the second communications network.

Assignees

• Honda Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Kurauchi Atsushi
• Mikami Shinji
• Ohara Yasuhiro
• YAMASHIRO Yoichi
• Fujimoto Yoshikazu
• Mito Shintaro

Classifications

• B60W2510/06

  Combustion engines, Gas turbines · CPC title

• H04L67/12

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title

• B60W10/08

  including control of electric propulsion units, e.g. motors or generators · CPC title

• H04L41/0668 Primary

  by dynamic selection of recovery network elements, e.g. replacement by the most appropriate element after failure · CPC title

• B60W2710/06

  Combustion engines, Gas turbines · CPC title