A method of and system for performing diagnostics in a hierarchical diagnostics electrical architecture of a vehicle, hosted by a plurality of on-board computing devices. The hierarchical diagnostics electrical architecture comprises: a component diagnostic layer having a plurality of electronic control units (ECUs) 211 each comprising a diagnostics server module or testing module 212; and at least one supervisory diagnostic layer, 22, 23. The method comprises receiving into the diagnostics server modules sensor output data from on-board vehicle sensors; performing, by the diagnostics server modules, diagnostic tasks based on received sensor output data to generate component-level diagnostic notifications, such as trouble codes (DTCs) from detect faults. The component-level diagnostic notifications are received into the supervisory layer from each of a group of the plurality of ECUs and aggregated to generate a supervisory-level diagnostic notification. The supervisory layer may have two separate layers: a system, zone or domain layer 22 and a higher vehicle diagnostic layer 23. The system layer can comprise application services 221, with diagnostics being performed at the service level. The aggregation of component-level notifications can include triaging the notifications. Diagnostic capabilities are localised in a vehicle. The supervisory-level diagnostic notification can be transmitted to an off-board tester.
Layered electrical architecture for vehicle diagnostics
2021-03-03
Patent
Electronic Resource
English