2023 IEEE International Conference on Software Services Engineering (SSE)

A Service Model of Predictive Maintenance for

Autonomous and Connected Vehicles Using 5G
Khaled Mahmud Kyle Galway Edward Sykes Brad Tizard
Centre for Mobile Innovation Centre for Mobile Innovation Centre for Mobile Innovation Rogers Communications
Sheridan College Sheridan College Sheridan College Brampton, ON, Canada
Oakville, ON, Canada Oakville, ON, Canada Oakville, ON, Canada brad.tizard@rci.rogers.com
khaled.mahmud@sheridancollege.ca galwayk@sheridancollege.ca ed.sykes@sheridancollege.ca

Abstract— In this paper we present our ongoing research on (iv) ML-based predictive model for triggering maintenance
2023 IEEE International Conference on Software Services Engineering (SSE) | 979-8-3503-4075-4/23/$31.00 ©2023 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/SSE60056.2023.00026

the design and development of a service model for predictive event, and (v) sample user software for accessing data, trend,
vehicle maintenance, specifically suitable for autonomous vehicles alert or query results. Figure 1 presents a high-level architecture
and connected vehicles. We include a high-level service model and components of the service model.
architecture for autonomous vehicles/connected vehicles. The aim
of this work is a service model that will enable the development of
integrated, multiparty, end-to-end maintenance systems.

Keywords—predictive maintenance, autonomous vehicles,

machine learning, on-board diagnostics (OBD), service architecture

I. INTRODUCTION
New technologies and business models built around
autonomous vehicles and connected vehicles (AV/CV) will
have a transformative impact on our society in ways unseen
since the invention of automobiles itself. The predicted impact
will be on the automobile industry, health, welfare, urban
planning, traffic, insurance, labour market, and others. Despite
their perceived benefits, AV/CVs present potential challenges as
an unchartered territory for all stakeholders. ‘Autonomous
Safety’ is paramount for successfully designing and deploying
AV/CVs [1].
Fig. 1. Service model architecture.
As well recognized in the industry, ‘smart vehicles’ will
require ‘smart maintenance,’ especially in the era when AV/CVs A. Diagnostic Service Provider
are gradually becoming the primary mode of transportation. In A vehicle diagnostic service provider will collect and host
addition to the driving related electro-mechanical components, vehicle-related and other relevant data. Subscribed AV/CVs will
AV/CVs will have thousands of sensors, actuators, electronic continuously upload vehicle health and driving information to
control units (ECU) and embedded software modules based on the service provider. A set of machine learning models, as
trends of current usage and development. In an AV, any of the appropriate to the type of vehicle class, will use the collected
components may fail, malfunction, or need updating. With the data for training, and generating alerts or feedback messages to
ever-increasing number of components, the probability of issues subscribed consumers.
and events requiring maintenance will increase significantly.
Considering the driver-less nature of the vehicles, it is critical B. Third-party Data Provider
that these issues are addressed before they become substantial A vehicle diagnostic service provider will collect and host
problems. In this paper we present our ongoing research on the vehicle-related and other relevant data. Subscribed AV/CVs will
design and development of a service model for predictive continuously upload vehicle health and driving information to
vehicle maintenance, specifically suitable for autonomous the service provider. A set of machine learning models, as
vehicles and connected vehicles. The service model will enable appropriate to the type of vehicle class, will use the collected
the development of integrated, multiparty, end-to-end data for training, testing and refinement, and generate alerts or
maintenance systems. feedback messages to subscribed consumers.
II. SERVICE MODEL ARCHITECTURE FOR AV/CV C. Clients/Customers
The overall objective of the research project is to develop a Customers or clients may include individual vehicle owners,
proof-of-concept to deploy an end-to-end vehicle maintenance dealers, or third-party value-added service provider. Even
system that integrates several key technologies: (i) universal in- OEMs, governments, or regulatory bodies may subscribe to
car communication platform of autonomous vehicles, (ii) 5G custom services (packaged with desired set of data and
cellular network for high-speed, low-latency data transport, intelligence).
(iii) cloud-based data collection, storage and processing,
This research project is funded by Natural Sciences and Engineering
Research Council of Canada, and Rogers Communications, Canada.

979-8-3503-4075-4/23/$31.00 ©2023 IEEE 125

DOI 10.1109/SSE60056.2023.00026
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D. Autonomous/Connected Vehicles
Vehicles equipped with proper on-board control platform
and communication system will continuously upload the
diagnostic or health data, as well as other driving or driver’s
behavior related data.
III. REQUIRED TECHNOLOGIES
The model encompasses several key technologies to build
the overall system. In the following subsections, we explain the
context and requirements of these technologies.
A. Accessing Vehicle Health Data
There are a set of communication protocols for accessing
vehicle sensors and diagnostic data. Over time, as more sensors
and electronic control units (ECUs) are installed in the vehicles,
many protocol standards were developed to facilitate
communication among these components [2]. The ECUs control
nearly all functions in modern vehicles, including engine,
transmission, electronic fuel injection, braking, anti-lock
braking system, door locks, window operation, and more.
Controller Area Network (CAN Bus) is the most common
protocol for the ‘nodes’ or ECUs of a vehicle to communicate
with each other, without needing any central controller or
computer. Commonly available protocol versions are CAN
2.0A, CAN 2.0B, CAN FD. CAN is used in cars, trucks, buses,
tractors, ships, planes, EV batteries, machinery and more. The
CAN standard provides specifications for two lower layers
(physical and data link layer) upon which other upper layer
protocols can be built. On-Board Diagnostic (OBD)-II interface
of a vehicle uses CAN as one of the underlying protocols [3].
The diagnostic data from relevant ECUs can be accessed using
OBD-II. There are hundreds of ECUs in modern vehicles [2].
The data from ECUs offer a valuable source of information
when troubleshooting problems inside a vehicle, as well as when
collecting and correlating the features of ECU states of operation
and remaining useful life (RUL).
Another communication protocol, Unified Diagnostic
Services (UDS, ISO-14229), used in ECUs by all tier-1 original
equipment manufacturers (OEMs), enables diagnostics,
firmware updates, routine testing and other maintenance
activities [4]. UDS can run on top of CAN bus or other protocols
like ethernet, LIN bus, etc. Using service identifiers (SID) and
diagnostic trouble codes (DTC), UDS can perform many OEM-
enhanced functions, like diagnostic and communication
management, data transmission, input/output control,
upload/download, and more. One of the challenges of accessing
sensor or diagnostics data in a vehicle is that OBD is
implemented in different ways across countries and vehicles.
B. Vehicle Maintenance
We can classify vehicle maintenance systems into three
categories: corrective maintenance, preventive maintenance,
and predictive maintenance. The objective of predictive
maintenance is to maximize the useful service life of equipment,
hence, to reduce overall cost, without compromising the
reliability and safety of operation. Advanced methods try to
predict the timing of the required maintenance actions using a
vehicle’s health state and historical data from this vehicle and
other related vehicles [5]. In the autonomous vehicle industry,
which is underpinned by an ecosystem of wide-range artificial
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intelligence, huge number of processing units and immense
volumes of data, it is logical to use predictive model for vehicle
maintenance. At the heart of a predictive maintenance system
are machine learning algorithms/models and the continuous
stream of data collected from all nodes (ECUs) of a vehicle,
from all the related vehicles in a fleet or in the system. The
advancement of machine learning algorithms has led to
considerable interest in the research community to use
predictive maintenance model in the industry [5]. Researchers
are proposing and developing various models or methods of
machine learning to address various aspects of maintenance [5].
Peng et al. provides a survey of prognostic methodologies for
condition-based maintenance (CBM) [4]. Ali investigates recent
research and development in condition monitoring and fault
diagnosis in machines using artificial intelligent systems like
artificial neural networks (ANN), fuzzy logic systems (FLS),
genetic algorithms (GA) and support vector machines
(SVM) [6]. Singh et al. investigated advances and associated
challenges of using deep learning techniques in the context of
automotive applications, e.g., virtual sensing for vehicle
dynamics application, vehicle inspection/health monitoring, and
data-driven product development [7]. Theissler et. al report that
almost all major components (i.e., engine, EV battery, EV
powertrain, air pressure system, gearbox, suspension system,
sensors, fuel cells, tyre, etc.) are investigated with various
degrees of success [5].
C. Vehicle OS
In addition to many electro-mechanical, and electronic
hardware components, today’s vehicles already host numerous
software components, ushering the era of ‘software defined
vehicle’ with realtime OS (RTOS) [8]. Popular RTOSs include
Microsoft’s Windows Embedded Automotive, Automotive
Grade Linux, and Automotive Open System Architecture
(AUTOSAR) [8]. Like any code, such OS, along with all
software components, will contain bugs and will require security
patches and fixes. This will become increasingly important with
autonomous vehicles.
D. Data Transport
Any ML-based predictive model will rely on continuous
streams of health data from the aforementioned multitude of
components from autonomous vehicles. It can be easily
forecasted that network load, in terms of connections/session
and data volume, will be enormous. Fortunately, 5G systems
were developed exactly with such future network scenarios in
mind [9]. By the requirement of the standard, a 5G system must
provide three key features: (i) Enhanced (ultra-fast) Mobile
Broadband (eMBB), (ii) Massive Machine Type
Communications (mMTC), and (iii) Ultra-Reliable/Low
Latency Communications (uRLLC) [10]. All these features will
become critical to develop and deploy a predictive maintenance
system that will require real-time insight as to the health of each
vehicle on and off the road, and may trigger time sensitive
maintenance events, e.g., Over-the-Air (OTA) updates of a
software component. 5G Automotive Association (5GAA)
published a forward-looking C-V2X (Cellular-Vehicle 2
Anything) roadmap for advanced driving use cases, connectivity
technologies, and radio spectrum needs [9]. The network slicing
feature of 5G can provide resources and strict quality of service
to such use cases.
 Figure 2 conceptual diagram of various components required
to access and control the data from a vehicle.

Fig. 4. OBD2 data visualization dashboard.

V. CONCLUSION
Fig. 2. Access and control components for AV/CV. Our research project aims to seamlessly stitch together some
of the new and upcoming technologies to develop a smart
IV. PROOF-OF-CONCEPT maintenance system that will contribute to the safer operation of
In the current stage of our research project, we assembled AV/CVs. Although significant amount of research work is done
various hardware components for interfacing with a test car and on predictive maintenance, there are gaps of research in
uploading data to the cloud. We also developed a pipeline to connecting the building blocks along an end-to-end system.
send the data to a cloud database and then present this data to a Currently, some manufacturers and dealerships have smarter
dashboard for visual presentation. Figure 3 presents the flow of software systems to provide convenient maintenance support to
data. We are using the PEAK-USB adapter (peak-system.com) the owners, however, these are nowhere near the potential that
to read from the OBD2 port of a car. An inseego 5G modem an end-to-end system may offer. The proposed service model
(inseego.com) is used to transport data to the cloud. The ML will enhance innovative service development, and flexible and
service is yet to be finalized. adaptive operation.
A major challenge in the research will be to have diagnostic
data for training the model(s). In collaboration with Rogers, we
will strive get access to as much data (either from OEMs,
dealers, or third party [11]).
REFERENCES
[1] Transport Canada, Canada’s Safety Framework for Automated and
Connected Vehicles. 2019; Available from: https://tc.canada.ca/en.
[2] CSS Electronics, “Can bus explained,”. [Online]. Available:
https://www.csselectronics.com/pages/can-bus-simple-intro-tutorial.
[3] “On-board diagnostics,” Wikipedia, 22-Mar-2023. [Online]. Available:
Fig. 3. Proof-of-concept data pipeline implementation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On-board_diagnostics.
[4] Y. Peng, et al., Current status of machine prognostics in condition-based
For testing the pipeline, we selected a small subset of OBD2 maintenance: a review. The International Journal of Advanced
data available. Table I lists a few of them. The final objective is Manufacturing Technology, 2010. 50(1): p. 297-313.
to read and upload all available vehicle health and status data, as [5] A. Theisslera, et al., Predictive maintenance enabled by machine
well as GPS and other driving ambience related data. learning: Use cases and challenges in the automotive industry.
Reliability Engineering & System Safety, 2021.
TABLE I. SELECTED ON-BOARD DIAGNOSTIC DATA [6] Ali, Y.H.A., et. al., H. Yasir, Artificial Intelligence Application in
Machine Condition Monitoring and Fault Diagnosis. 2018.
Service, Description [7] K. B. Singh, and M.A. Arat, Deep Learning in the Automotive Industry:
Param ID Min Max Unit Recent Advances and Application Examples. 2019.
o
S1, PID_05 Engine Coolant Temp -40 215 C
S1, PID_0C Engine RPM 0 16384 rpm [8] Automotive RTOS. [Online]. Available:
S1, PID_0D Vehicle Speed 0 255 km/h https://blackberry.qnx.com/en/ultimate-guides/software-defined-
S1, PID_0F Intake Air Temperature -40 215 o
C vehicle/automotive-rtos. [Accessed: 22-Mar-2023]
S1, PID_10 MAF Air Flow Rate 0 655 g/s [9] 5GAA, A visionary roadmap for advanced driving use cases,
S1, PID_33 Abs Barometer Pressure 0 255 kPa connectivity technologies,and radio spectrum needs. 2022.
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S1, PID_46 Ambient Air Temp -40 215 C [10] P. Popovski, et al., 5G Wireless Network Slicing for eMBB, URLLC,
and mMTC: A Communication-Theoretic View. IEEE Access, 2018. 6:
p. 55765-55779.
Figure 4 presents the data visualization dashboard presenting
[11] BlackBerry. BlackBerry IVY Connected Vehicle Data Platform. 2023;
vehicle speed, intake manifold absolute pressure readings, Available: https://www.blackberry.com/us/en/product
engine RPM, and engine load graphs and trends.

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