Failure detection device, failure detection method, and failure detection program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11624805-B2
Application number	US-201716488857-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 7, 2017
Priority date	Mar 7, 2017
Publication date	Apr 11, 2023
Grant date	Apr 11, 2023

Abstract

A failure detection apparatus ( 10 ) acquires, as target data, sensor data output in a past reference period by a sensor ( 31 ), such as a millimeter wave radar or LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging), mounted on a moving body ( 100 ). The failure detection apparatus ( 10 ) determines whether detected data indicating a characteristic of a detected object indicated by normal data, which is sensor data output when the sensor ( 31 ) is normal, is included in the acquired detected data in the past reference period. In this way, the failure detection apparatus ( 10 ) determines whether a failure has occurred in the sensor ( 31 ).

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A failure detection apparatus comprising:
processing circuitry to:
acquire, as detected data, sensor data output in a past reference period by a sensor mounted on a moving body;
determine whether a detected object included in the detected data is positioned outside a moving area where the moving body moves; and
based on the detected object being outside the moving area, determine whether a failure has occurred in the sensor, based on whether detected data indicating a characteristic of the detected object indicated by normal data, which is sensor data output when the sensor is normal, is included in the acquired detected data.

2. The failure detection apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the sensor data indicates a movement direction and a movement velocity of the detected object which are relative to the moving body, and
wherein the characteristic is a movement direction that is opposite to a movement direction of the moving body and a movement velocity that is same as a movement velocity of the moving body.

3. The failure detection apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the processing circuitry determines whether a failure has occurred in the sensor for each divided area obtained by dividing a sensing range of the sensor.

4. The failure detection apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the sensor data indicates a position of the detected object,
wherein the processing circuitry determines, for the acquired detected data, whether the position of the detected object is outside the moving area where the moving body moves, and
determines whether a failure has occurred in the sensor, based on whether detected data indicating the characteristic is included in the detected data determined to indicate that the position of the detected object is outside the moving area.

5. The failure detection apparatus according to claim 4 ,
wherein the moving body is a vehicle, and
the moving area is a road on which the vehicle travels.

6. The failure detection apparatus according to claim 4 ,
wherein the processing circuitry compares a position of the moving area indicated by map data or a position of the moving area detected by a camera with the position of the detected object indicated by the detected data, so as to determine whether the position of the detected object is outside the moving area.

7. The failure detection apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the processing circuitry notifies about the sensor for which occurrence of a failure has been determined.

8. The failure detection apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry refrains from determining whether the failure has occurred in the sensor based on the detected object not being outside the moving area.

9. The failure detection apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry determines whether the detected object is positioned outside the moving area by measuring a relative velocity of the detected object with respect to an acquired velocity of the moving body.

10. A failure detection method comprising:
acquiring, as detected data, sensor data output in a past reference period by a sensor mounted on a moving body;
determining whether a detected object included in the detected data is positioned outside a moving area where the moving body moves; and
based on the detected object being outside the moving area, determining whether a failure has occurred in the sensor, based on whether detected data indicating a characteristic of the detected object indicated by normal data, which is sensor data output when the sensor is normal, is included in the acquired detected data.

11. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a failure detection program causing a computer to execute:
a sensor data acquisition process to acquire, as detected data, sensor data output in a past reference period by a sensor mounted on a moving body;
an area determination process to determine whether a detected object included in the detected data is positioned outside a moving area where the moving body moves; and
based on the detected object being outside the moving area, a failure determination process to determine whether a failure has occurred in the sensor, based on whether detected data indicating a characteristic of the detected object indicated by normal data, which is sensor data output when the sensor is normal, is included in the detected data acquired by the sensor data acquisition process.

Assignees

• Mitsubishi Electric Corp

Inventors

• Tsushima Naoyuki
• Tanimoto Masahiko
• Abukawa Masahiro

Classifications

• G01S17/86

  Combinations of lidar systems with systems other than lidar, radar or sonar, e.g. with direction finders · CPC title

• G01S13/931 Primary

  of land vehicles · CPC title

• G01S17/931

  of land vehicles · CPC title

• G01S2007/4975

  of sensor obstruction by, e.g. dirt- or ice-coating, e.g. by reflection measurement on front-screen · CPC title

• G01S2013/9323

  Alternative operation using light waves · CPC title