JP2000149180A - Online traffic information collection system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Problem] To dynamically provide traffic situation information according to the situation of each car to each car. SOLUTION: The degree of importance is determined from various traffic condition information obtained from a driving environment sensor 101 from a current position of the vehicle obtained from a navigation unit 102 and past traffic condition information stored in a traffic condition database 103. The degree of urgency is further given from information from the center 200. Communication device location database 106
The communication medium is selected by the communication medium selection unit 107 based on the communication device position of the
Thus, the traffic situation information to which the urgency is given is transmitted to the center 200 by the communication medium.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an online traffic information collection system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as one of traffic information providing services, there is a service for notifying a driver of a transit time on a traffic congestion route. In this service, as shown in FIG. 7, the passage time (required time) is measured by measuring the time from when the sensor 402 senses the car 401 to when another sensor 403 senses the car 401 at the center 404. It was calculated and displayed on the display as shown in FIG.

Further, as shown in FIG. 9, there is a service for notifying the driver of road conditions such as "caution against crosswind" and "freezing ahead" by a display capable of displaying display contents.

[0004]

Problems such as economic loss caused by traffic congestion and environmental pollution caused by low-speed running are becoming problems. On the other hand, as mentioned above, in the service that acquires traffic conditions using sensors installed at multiple fixed points and notifies the driver, the fixed points at which the sensors are installed are limited, so the driver can use dynamic traffic. There were problems such as the inability to respond to changes in the situation, and the inability to receive services at all in areas where sensors were not installed.

[0005] In the traffic information providing service which mainly provides information relating to stability such as "crosswind" and "freezing", the content of the information to be provided is generally qualitative as described above, and is quantitative. Even with the content, there is a problem in that it is necessary to convert and calculate the influence of the driver on his or her own vehicle in the vehicle that received the information, such as "temperature -7 degrees" or "cross wind 3 m", from experience.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an online traffic information collection system that allows a driver to flexibly cope with dynamically changing traffic conditions and to provide traffic condition information according to individual vehicles.

[0007]

An on-line traffic information collecting system according to the present invention comprises a processing unit mounted on each car and a center, and the processing unit collects traffic condition information while the car is running. Traffic condition information collecting means, a navigation means for detecting the current position of the vehicle, a traffic condition database for storing past traffic condition information obtained from the vehicle and traffic condition information transmitted from the center, and Weighting means for weighting the traffic condition information obtained by the current position, the past traffic condition information and the information obtained from the center, and selecting a communication medium according to the given weight and the traffic condition information from the center. Communication medium selecting means, and communication means for transmitting the weighted traffic situation information to the center by the selected communication medium, Centers includes a communication means for transmitting and processing means for storing and processing the traffic condition information transmitted from each processing unit, the information processed by the processing means in each processing unit.

[0008] Since a sensor is mounted on each vehicle to collect traffic conditions on a running road, it is possible to provide information flexibly corresponding to dynamically changing road conditions.

[0009] By exchanging traffic condition information between vehicles running close to each other, it is possible to secure an appropriate communication path during normal traffic congestion and the like.

After the traffic condition information received from the center is converted according to the characteristics of the vehicle, the map information of the driving area and the driving condition of the vehicle are compared with each other. By doing so, improvement in safety is expected.

[0011]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

Referring to FIG. 1, an on-line traffic information collecting system according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a processing device 100 mounted on each car, and a center 200 for transmitting and receiving traffic information to and from the processing device 100. .

The processing device 100 includes a driving environment sensor 101, a navigation unit 102, a traffic situation database 103, an importance assigning unit 104, an urgency assigning unit 105, a communication device position database 106, and a communication medium selecting unit 10.
7 and a communication unit 108.

The driving environment sensor 101 detects the speed of the vehicle, the distance between the vehicle running ahead, the road surface condition, the weather, the presence or absence of an accident vehicle, and the like. Includes a pressure gauge. The navigation unit 102 detects the current position of the vehicle using GPS. As shown in FIG. 2, the traffic situation database 103 includes, on a card provided with a uniquely identifiable item number, a traffic situation type, a situation, and a location obtained by the driving environment sensor 100 and transmitted from the center 200. , Time, impact, etc. are recorded. The importance assigning unit 104 assigns importance to the traffic condition information obtained from the driving environment sensor 101 using the current position obtained from the navigation unit 102 and the past traffic condition information history obtained from the traffic condition database 103. I do. That is, traffic condition information characterized by weather such as heavy rain, road surface condition, temperature, speed, time, and location, and a traffic condition database 10 corresponding to the traffic condition information.
The influence (target time, fuel consumption, etc.) of the target traffic condition on the operation of the vehicle is estimated based on the "effect" information of the card No. 3, and the importance is given according to the degree of the influence. The urgency assigning unit 105 calculates the urgency of the information based on the importance calculated by the importance assigning unit 104 and the surrounding traffic situation sent from the center 200 in real time. Here, the “urgency” refers to an irreversible traffic situation on a time axis. It is considered to be mainly for safety but also for efficiency. For example, how many kilometers the traffic congestion continues (information obtained from the center 200), and it is necessary to turn left at the intersection 20m ahead to bypass it.
It can be said that the information such as becomes urgent. The communication device location database 106 stores the facility locations of roadside communication devices for each communication medium. The communication medium selection unit 107 transmits information from the degree of grasp of the current state of the center 200 obtained by the communication unit 108, the urgency given by the urgency giving unit 105, and the installation location obtained from the communication device position database 106. A communication medium (DSRC, mobile phone, satellite line, or the like) is selected, and traffic condition information to which urgency is assigned is output to the communication unit 108. The communication unit 108 transmits the traffic situation information to which the urgency is given to the center 200 by the selected communication medium.

The center 200 has a communication section 201, an information processing section 202 for processing information, and an information storage section 203 for storing information.

FIG. 3 shows a processing example of the communication medium selecting unit 107. When the communication medium that can be selected is, for example, DSRC and a mobile phone, when the urgency is low, or when the communication unit 10
When the estimated required time to the DSRC area obtained from step 8 is short, information transmission is refrained from the DSRC area where large capacity can be transmitted / received, but urgency is high or DSRC is high.
If the estimated required time to the area is long, information is transmitted using a mobile phone. Furthermore, when highly urgent information is obtained outside the mobile phone area, the information is transmitted using a satellite line.

Further, in a situation A such as traffic congestion as shown in FIG. 4, the communication medium selection unit 107 of the vehicle which has detected the situation, such as the inter-vehicle distance obtained from the driving environment sensor 101 and the communication unit 108. Based on the obtained line conditions, it is determined that inter-vehicle communication is appropriate, and information is transmitted and received by short-range high-speed communication as if they were connected by a single line.

FIG. 5 shows a second embodiment of the present invention. The processing apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 1 includes an information storage unit 109, a notification determination unit 110, and a high-speed communication unit 111.
The high-speed communication unit 111 is, for example, a high-frequency, low-output communication unit for passing through a nearby automobile. Information storage unit 10
Reference numeral 9 stores information obtained by the high-speed communication unit 111. If the same information as the information obtained by high-speed communication unit 111 is not stored in information storage unit 109, notification determination unit 110 instructs communication unit 108 to notify the nearby vehicle of the information.

FIG. 6 shows a third embodiment of the present invention. The processing apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 5 is further provided with an automobile characteristic database 112, an information conversion unit 113, and an operation status monitoring unit 1.
14, the map information database 115, and the alarm determination unit 116
And a warning display section 117. Information converter 1
Reference numeral 13 denotes the information (air volume, wind direction, etc.) from the center 200 obtained by the communication unit 108, and the characteristics (projection area of each axis, friction coefficient of tires, hardness of suspension, behavior characteristics, etc.) of the vehicle. The information is converted into information suitable for the vehicle based on the information from the vehicle characteristic database 112 shown. From the dynamic characteristics such as the air volume and direction, the direction and speed of the own vehicle, the contact pressure and the contact area of the tire, and the static characteristics such as the projected area to the wind direction and the rigidity of the suspension, the movement of the own vehicle by the wind The amount can be calculated. The warning determination unit 116 obtains the information obtained from the information conversion unit 113 from the operation status monitoring unit 114, and outputs the speed, the continuous operation time,
Handle displacement area etc. and map information database 115
The warning level is calculated from the road alignment information obtained from, and a warning corresponding to the warning level is displayed on the warning display unit 117.
Here, the "road alignment information" indicates a radius of curvature or a gradient of a curve of a road. For example, when calculating a warning level on a frozen road surface, even if the road surface is in the same frozen state, the degree of danger greatly changes depending on the gradient and the radius of the curve. Therefore,
By using the map information database 115, information can be provided according to the situation.

[0020]

As described above, the present invention has the following effects. 1) According to the first aspect of the present invention, by mounting a sensor for collecting road conditions in each vehicle, it is possible to flexibly cope with dynamically changing road conditions and to provide detailed information, thereby improving safety. 2) According to the second aspect of the present invention, it is possible to secure an appropriate communication path even in a traffic jam where communication congestion is most likely to occur. 3) According to the third aspect of the present invention, it is possible to provide information including not only vehicle characteristics but also driver characteristics, and further improvement in safety is expected.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the contents of a traffic situation database 103.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a processing example of a communication medium selection unit 107;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a road situation.

FIG. 5 is a system configuration diagram of a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a system configuration diagram according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram of a conventional traffic condition notification system.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a conventional road condition notification.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a conventional road surface condition notification example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 processing device 101 driving environment sensor 102 navigation unit 103 traffic situation database 104 importance giving unit 105 urgency giving unit 106 communication device position database 107 communication medium selecting unit 108 communication unit 109 information storage unit 110 notification determination unit 111 high-speed communication unit 112 Vehicle characteristic database 113 Information conversion unit 114 Driving status monitoring unit 115 Map information database 116 Warning determination unit 117 Warning display unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An online traffic information system for collecting various road traffic information and notifying the information to a driver, comprising: a processing device mounted on each vehicle; and a center, wherein the processing device comprises: Traffic condition information collecting means for collecting traffic condition information while the vehicle is traveling; navigation means for detecting the current position of the vehicle; past traffic condition information obtained by the vehicle and traffic transmitted from the center A traffic situation database that stores situation information;
Weighting means for weighting the collected traffic condition information based on the current position, past traffic condition information, and information obtained from the center; and communication in accordance with the assigned weight and the traffic condition information from the center. Communication medium selecting means for selecting a medium; communication means for transmitting the weighted traffic condition information to the center by the selected communication medium; and the traffic condition information transmitted from each of the processing devices. An online traffic information collection system, comprising: processing means for accumulating and processing information; and communication means for transmitting information processed by the processing means to each processing device. 2. High-speed communication means for communicating the road traffic condition information collected by the traffic condition information collecting means with a processing device of an automobile running in the vicinity, and information newly obtained by the high-speed communication means. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a notification unit configured to determine whether or not the information has been obtained before, and to notify the high-speed communication unit to transmit newly obtained information if not obtained. 3. An information converting means for converting traffic condition information received from said center from said center into information corresponding to said vehicle, said information processing device converting said converted traffic condition information into map information of a traveling area and said vehicle. The system according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising a warning unit that warns the driver when it is determined that there is a danger in comparison with the driving condition of the vehicle.