Vehicle control system having a hierarchical distributed architecture

1. A vehicle comprising a control system having a hierarchical distributed architecture, the control system comprising:

a plurality of nodes, each node hosting one or more services and a respective node agent;

a communications bus providing communication between the nodes; and

a system agent hosted on one of the plurality of nodes, the system agent being configured to monitor a lifecycle state of the system;

wherein each node agent is configured to transmit data relating to a state of its respective node and a respective state of each service hosted on its respective node to the system agent, thereby enabling the system agent to monitor the lifecycle state of the system, and further wherein each node agent is configured to transmit power consumption data and wherein the system is arranged to control the state of the vehicle and to supervise activities and power consumption.

2. A control system according to claim 1 , wherein each node agent is configured to propagate control commands received from the system agent to services hosted on its respective node.

3. A control system according to claim 1 , wherein each node hosts one or more partitions.

4. A control system according to claim 3 , wherein each partition hosts one or more services and a respective partition agent.

5. A control system according to claim 4 , wherein each partition agent is configured to transmit data relating to a state of its respective partition and a state of each service hosted on its respective partition to its respective node agent.

6. A control system according to claim 5 , wherein each partition agent is configured to propagate control commands received from its respective node agent to services hosted on its respective node.

7. A control system according to claim 1 , wherein the system agent comprises the node agent of the node on which the system agent is hosted.

8. A control system according to claim 1 , comprising at least one authorised agent that is configured to issue control commands to one or more of the services hosted on the plurality of nodes, wherein each authorized agent is configured to issue control commands based on the data acquired by the system agent from the node agents.

9. A control system according to claim 8 , wherein the at least one authorised agent comprises one or more of a group comprising: a user; a watchdog; and a policy handler.

10. A control system according to claim 1 , the system having a service-oriented architecture.

11. A control system according to claim 1 , the system being configured to control a vehicle.

12. A control system according to claim 11 , wherein each node relates to a respective subsystem of the vehicle.

13. A vehicle comprising the control system of claim 1 .

14. A control system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the plurality of nodes, services and node agents comprise components of the system and the system agent is arranged to monitor the state of all system components such that, in the event of a failure, the system is arranged to either stop and restart a failing function or to start a replacement function.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable computer program instructions to implement the control system as claimed in claim 1 .

16. A control system having a hierarchical distributed architecture, the control system comprising:

a plurality of nodes, each node hosting one or more services and a respective node agent;

a communications bus providing communication between the nodes; and

a system agent hosted on one of the plurality of nodes, the system agent being configured to monitor a lifecycle state of the system;

wherein each node agent is configured to transmit data relating to a state of its respective node and a respective state of each service hosted on its respective node to the system agent, thereby enabling the system agent to monitor the lifecycle state of the system, and further wherein the plurality of nodes, services and node agents comprise components of the system and further wherein, responsive to a component failing to initialize, the system agent is arranged to generate a state change request to transition the system to a shutdown state.

17. A control system according to claim 16 , wherein each node agent is configured to propagate control commands received from the system agent to services hosted on its respective node.

18. A control system according to claim 16 , comprising at least one authorised agent that is configured to issue control commands to one or more of the services hosted on the plurality of nodes, wherein each authorized agent is configured to issue control commands based on the data acquired by the system agent from the node agents.

19. A vehicle comprising the control system of claim 16 .

20. A control system having a hierarchical distributed architecture, the control system comprising:

a plurality of nodes, each node hosting one or more services and a respective node agent;

a communications bus providing communication between the nodes; and

a system agent hosted on one of the plurality of nodes, the system agent being configured to monitor a lifecycle state of the system,

wherein each node agent is configured to transmit data relating to a state of its respective node and a respective state of each service hosted on its respective node to the system agent, thereby enabling the system agent to monitor the lifecycle state of the system, and

wherein the plurality of nodes, services and node agents comprise components of the system and further wherein, responsive to a component failing to initialize, the system agent is arranged to move the system into a pre-configured backup state in which non-essential services are powered down to free system resources for essential services.