Fail-safe system in integrated control of vehicle

A method of fail-safe used in integrated control of a vehicle, comprising the steps of:

• detecting state quantities used in control of operation of vehicle structural elements actuated by actuators;
• enabling structural-element control portions to drive and control the actuators on the basis of the detected state quantities according to preset control programs, respectively, wherein preset priority degrees are given to the structural-element control portions respectively;
• detecting whether or not each of ones among the structural-element control portions which are necessary for travel of the vehicle fails;
• and
• when it is detected that one among the structural-element control portions which is necessary for travel of the vehicle fails, selecting one from non-failed ones of the structural-element control portions as a download destination in accordance with the priority degrees and downloading a substitute program corresponding to the failed structural-element control portion into the selected download-destination structural-element control portion, the selected download-destination structural-element control portion being lower in priority degree than the failed structural-element control portion;
• wherein the download-destination structural-element control portion drives and controls the actuator corresponding to the failed structural-element control portion on the basis of the detected state quantity corresponding to the failed structural-element control portion according to the downloaded substitute program.

A fail-safe system used in integrated control of a vehicle, comprising:

• a plurality of input output elements;
• a plurality of structural-element control portions for operation with the input output elements according to preset control programs, respectively, wherein preset priority degrees are given to the structural-element control portions respectively;
• a manager control portion for storing one or more substitute programs designed to implement functions of ones among the structural-element control portions which are necessary for travel of the vehicle;
• a communication line;
• wherein ones among the input output elements which are necessary for travel of the vehicle, the structural-element control portions, and the manager control portion are connected to the communication line to implement communications thereamong;
• failure detecting means for detecting failures of the structural-element control portions;
• and
• downloading means for, when the failure detecting means detects a failure of one of the structural-element control portions which is necessary for travel of the vehicle, selecting one from non-failed ones of the structural-element control portions as a download destination in accordance with the priority degrees and downloading the substitute program corresponding to the failed structural-element control portion into the selected download-destination structural-element control portion, the selected download-destination structural-element control portion being lower in priority degree than the failed structural-element control portion;
• wherein the download-destination structural-element control portion serves for the failed structural-element control portion according to the downloaded substitute program.