We survey the state-of-the-art in offboard diagnostics for vehicles, their occupants, and environments, with particular focus on vibroacoustic approaches. We identify promising application areas including data-driven management for shared mobility and automated fleets, usage-based insurance, and vehicle, occupant, and environmental state and condition monitoring. We close by exploring the particular application of vibroacoustic monitoring to vehicle diagnostics and prognostics and propose the introduction of automated vehicle-and context-specific model selection as a means of improving algorithm performance, e.g. to enable smartphone-resident diagnostics. The described approach may serve as the first step in developing "universal diagnostics," with applicability extending beyond the automotive domain.
Motivating the Need for Vehicle DiagnosticsThe automotive world is changing, and there is increasing concern about vehicles' environmental impact, particularly those with internal combustion engines. As a result, there is a growing prevalence of efficiency-improving systems within vehicles. One of the biggest contributors to lifetime efficiency is the availability of in-vehicle diagnostic systems, as these may report faults early and precisely to motivate owners and operators to seek out preventative or restorative maintenance, enhancing safety and reducing operating costs.At the same time, mobility culture is evolving, transitioning from the need to own a car towards the concept of mobilityas-a-service. Today, vehicle sales are slowing despite continued high mobility demand: The average vehicle age and lifetime miles travelled are increasing, particularly in developing countries [1,2], and shared mobility services, car rentals, and "robotaxis" are emerging. Increased utilization and novel use cases require enhanced fleet data generation and management capabilities. Key to enhanced fleet management is the concept of automotive diagnostics, i.e. the inference of a vehicle's condition based on observed symptoms indicating a technical state [3]. Diagnostics are important for monitoring vehicle, environment, and occupant status (e.g. component wear, road conditions, or driver alertness).Historically, these diagnostics draw upon in-situ sensors and computation to develop "On Board Diagnostics."
On-Board Diagnostics (OBD)On-Board Diagnostic (OBD-II) systems present on vehicles sold since 1996 [4] are an automated control system utilizing distributed sensing across a vehicle's embedded systems as a technical solution for measuring vehicle operational parameters and detecting, reporting, and responding to faults.