JP3463665B2 - Automatic toll collection system, billing information communication device, in-vehicle device, billing result acquisition device, center - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an automatic toll collection system and an apparatus used for the system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There is known an automatic toll collection system for automatically collecting a toll from a vehicle running on a toll road. In such an automatic toll collection system, an on-vehicle device that is a communication device that installs a roadside device that is a communication device at the entrance or exit of a toll road and that transmits information to vehicles passing through the toll road in response to an inquiry from the on-road device. An on-board machine is provided to communicate between the on-road machine and the on-board machine to automatically collect the toll.

In such an automatic toll collection system, the vehicle-mounted device receives the charging information from the roadside device, performs a predetermined charging process on the vehicle-mounted device based on the received charging information, and transmits the charging result to the roadside device. There is something to do. This is performed by the following procedure, for example. When a vehicle equipped with an on-vehicle device passes through the communication area of the on-vehicle device, the on-road device transmits billing information to the on-vehicle device. The vehicle-mounted device receives the billing information and subtracts the amount indicated by the received billing information from the current usable amount stored in the prepaid card or the like inserted in the vehicle-mounted device. As a result, when there is a usable amount (remaining amount) that can be paid for the toll, the remaining amount is written in the memory of the prepaid card and the writing result is confirmed. If the writing result is normal, the charging result indicating that is transmitted to the roadside device. On the other hand, when the balance is insufficient or the writing is not normally performed, the charging result indicating that is transmitted to the roadside device. Then, the roadside device can receive such a charging result and confirm whether or not the in-vehicle device has normally received the charge.

[0004]

However, while the vehicle-mounted device is performing the charging process, the vehicle equipped with the vehicle-mounted device may pass through the communication area of the roadside device. For example,
The writing process to the above-mentioned prepaid card is several hundred meters.
It generally takes a few tens of seconds from s,
When the vehicle travels at a normal traveling speed, the vehicle travels several meters to several hundred meters during this time. Generally, the communication area of a road vehicle is about several meters because it is limited to the size of the vehicles so that a plurality of vehicles do not enter at the same time. Therefore, it may pass through the communication area of the on-road unit while the on-vehicle unit is performing the writing process. In such a case, there is a problem that the roadside device cannot receive the billing result in the in-vehicle device, and it is impossible to confirm whether or not the in-vehicle device has successfully collected the charge.

Therefore, for example, as shown in FIG.
In a one-gantry system in which one road machine continuously transmits billing information and receives confirmation information, this problem is caused by limiting the traveling speed to an extremely low speed in consideration of such a time constraint. There is a way to solve. However, since the automatic toll collection system aims to eliminate traffic congestion by smoothly collecting tolls, limiting the traffic speed to an extremely low speed reduces the merit of introducing it.

Therefore, in order to communicate the confirmation information of the writing result to the roadside device without limiting the passage speed to an extremely low speed, as shown in FIG. 6B, the roadside device for transmitting the charging information and the confirmation information. The two gantry system may be adopted in which the road equipment for reception of is provided on the traveling road of the vehicle at a predetermined distance. However, in the two-gantry system, it is necessary to provide two gantry and two road machines at one tollgate, and there is a problem that the introduction cost becomes high.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an automatic toll collection system capable of confirming a toll collection result without limiting the traffic speed to an extremely low speed even with a single gantry system.

[0008]

According to the automatic toll collection system of claim 1, which is made to solve the above-mentioned problems, the vehicle-mounted device obtains the billing information on the road to be billed. be able to. Further, since the payee target information is stored in the center, the charge target can be specified in the center based on the payee target information.

Further, the billing result acquisition device, when the billing result is stored in the vehicle-mounted device, acquires the billing result and transmits it to the center, and when the center receives the billing result from the billing result acquisition device, Based on the billing result and the stored payee identification information, it is determined whether or not the billing was performed correctly.

Therefore, it is not necessary to perform the billing process in the vehicle-mounted device immediately when the vehicle-mounted device receives the billing information from the road-based device as in the conventional case, and to immediately transmit the billing result to the road-side device. Therefore, even in the one-gantry system in which the billing information communication device is a roadside device as described in claim 2, it is possible to confirm the charge collection result without limiting the traveling speed to an extremely low speed.

For example, the charging result acquisition device may be provided at a plurality of points, and the charging result acquisition device at any one point may acquire the charging result. The charging result acquisition device may be installed on the road to be charged, but the charging result acquisition device may be installed on a road other than the charging target. For example, if it is installed on a road with a large amount of traffic such as a main trunk road, the charging result can be acquired efficiently. Further, the charging result acquisition device may be, for example, a device that receives and acquires the charging result transmitted from the vehicle-mounted device via the mobile phone network, and is not limited to a device that communicates with a communication area on the road such as a road device. Alternatively, it may be acquired by wide area wireless communication. Of course, the charging result acquisition device may be a roadside device as well as the charging information communication device.

Note that the payee identification information may be any information that can directly or indirectly specify the payee of the charge. For example, an identification number that can uniquely identify the vehicle-mounted device, vehicle license plate information, vehicle It may be ID of the owner or the like, settlement account information such as a credit card number, or the like.

The billing information communication device and the billing result acquisition device may be separate entities, but may be as set forth in claim 3. For example, if the charging information communication device and the charging result acquisition device are one roadside device, the charging information of the road is transmitted to the vehicle-mounted device of the vehicle that has passed the communication area of this roadside device and the payee identification information is sent to the center. When the onboard device stores the charging result, which is the result of the charging process performed based on the charging information previously transmitted from the roadside device at another point or the roadside device at the same place. Can obtain the billing result and send it to the center. Therefore, in the 1-gantry system equipped with this on-road machine, the result of the already completed billing process can be efficiently obtained without restricting the traffic speed to an extremely low speed, and the center can charge the fee based on the billing result. It is possible to determine whether or not the receipt has been normally performed.

The predetermined billing process may be, for example, a communication process between the vehicle-mounted device and the billing system or the like, or may be a writing process to the memory as described in claim 4. In particular, it is effective when the writing time cannot be shortened due to physical properties such as writing to the EEPROM in the IC card.

The automatic fee collection system described in claims 1 to 4 achieves the above-mentioned effects by being constituted by the respective devices as defined in claims 5 to 8. According to the billing information communication device of the fifth aspect, billing information such as the billing amount of the road to be billed can be transmitted to the vehicle-mounted device, and the billing target person identification information can be sent to the center. The vehicle-mounted device according to the sixth aspect can receive the billing information from the billing information communication device, perform the billing process based on the billing information, and obtain and store the billing result. It is preferable to be able to store a plurality of billing results. The billing result acquisition device according to claim 7 can obtain the billing result stored in the vehicle-mounted device and transmit the billing result to the center. The billing result acquisition device may be capable of simultaneously obtaining a plurality of billing results. According to the center described in claim 8, it is possible to confirm whether or not the charge has been normally collected. The center may output or store the payee identification information and the billing information together with the determination result. In this way, it is possible to take appropriate measures according to the result of the charge, such as requesting payment to the payee who was not charged correctly.

[0016]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments to which the present invention is applied will be described below with reference to the drawings. Needless to say, the embodiment of the present invention is not limited to the following examples, and various forms can be adopted as long as they are within the technical scope of the present invention.

The automatic toll collection system 1 of the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, has a vehicle-mounted device 10 mounted on a vehicle, a roadside device 20 installed on a toll road, and fee collection information from the roadside device 20. And a center 30 for receiving and storing the information via the communication network 40. The vehicle-mounted device 10 is mounted on a plurality of vehicles, and the roadside device 20 is installed at a plurality of points. In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, toll booths 50 are provided on the main line immediately after the vehicle flows in from the interchange, and the roadside equipment 20 is installed at each toll booth 50. FIG. 2 shows a roadside machine 20A of the tollgate 50A installed on the main line of the interchange A and a roadside machine 20B of the tollgate 50B installed on the mainline of the interchange B among these.
Is illustrated. In the following description, the toll booth 50A or the toll booth 50 will be used when it is necessary to distinguish between these toll booths.
It is written as B, and when there is no distinction, A and B are omitted and written as a toll booth 50. Similarly, when it is necessary to distinguish between the roadside machines, the roadside machines will be referred to as roadside machines 20A or 20B,
When no distinction is made, A and B will be omitted and will be referred to as a road machine 20.

The roadside device 20 includes a wireless communication device 22 having an antenna 22a for performing wireless communication with the vehicle-mounted device 10,
A communication device 23 for communicating with the center 30 via a communication network 40, and a control device 21 including a microcomputer for controlling the wireless communication device 22 and the communication device 23 are provided.

On the other hand, the in-vehicle device 10 has a vehicle at each toll gate 50.
The prepaid card card for paying the toll is to automatically perform the data communication for paying the toll with the road machine 20 whose communication area is the lane in which the vehicle is traveling. An IC card 14 can be detachably attached. The in-vehicle device 10 is attached to the I
The IC card drive 13 that reads and writes information from the C card 14 and the road machines 20A and 2 installed at each tollgate.
0B ... Has a wireless communication device 12 having an antenna 12a for communicating with OB, and a control device 11 including a microcomputer for controlling these units.

The center 30 is composed of a general personal computer connected to the communication network 40, and the online charge collection information database 3 is stored in its storage device.
2, a normal charge collection information database 34, and an abnormal charge collection information database 36.

As shown in FIG. 3, when the vehicle equipped with the vehicle-mounted device 10 passes through the tollgate 50A on which the roadside device 20A is installed, when the vehicle-mounted device 10 receives a pilot signal transmitted from the roadside device 20A. If the charging result of the charging process by another roadside device 20 is stored in the control device 11, the offline fee collection information including the charging result is transmitted. The processing when the charging result is stored will be described later, and the case where the charging result is not stored will be described here. When the charging result is not stored, the in-vehicle device 10 sends the IC card 14 to the on-road device 20A.
Card identification information that can identify the in-vehicle device 1
The payee identification information such as license plate information and vehicle type information set in the control device 11 of 0 is transmitted.

When the payee identification information is received from the vehicle-mounted device 10, the roadside machine 20A further identifies a tollgate for the received information and a tollgate number for uniquely identifying the tollgate. The transaction number for specifying the transaction, the received date and time information, and the charging information including the amount charged at the toll booth 50 are added to generate online fee collection information and send it to the center 30. In addition, this online fee collection information is sent to the in-vehicle device 10.
Send to. The billing information is, for example, if the tollgate 50A collects a toll of 700 yen, the toll of 700
It becomes the information of a circle.

Note that the roadside machine 20A has a predetermined communication area, and the processing of the vehicle-mounted machine 10 and the roadside machine 20A at the point of the tollgate 50A is performed at a relatively high speed because writing time to the IC card 14 is not required. be able to. Therefore, the communication can be completed within the communication area, and the vehicle equipped with the vehicle-mounted device 10 can pass through the on-road device 20A (the tollgate 50A) without reducing the speed to an extremely low speed.

On the other hand, the vehicle-mounted device 10 receives the online fee collection information from the roadside device 20A and stores it in the memory of the control device 11 and the memory 14 of the IC card 14.
Writing is performed by subtracting the amount of the billing information included in the online fee collection information from the remaining number stored in a. For example, if the remaining charge stored in the IC card 14 is 1000 yen, a new charge of 300 yen is written after subtracting the toll charge of 700 yen from the billing information.

Then, in order to determine whether or not the written result is correct, the control device 11 reads the remaining number written in the IC card 14 and confirms whether or not the remaining number is 300 yen. If the remaining charge is 300 yen, it is determined that the writing has been completed normally, and the charging result "normal" is added to the above-mentioned online fee collection information stored in the control device 11 and stored as offline fee collection information. . On the other hand, when the writing result is abnormal, the charging result “writing abnormality” is added to the online fee collection information stored in the control device 11 and stored as the offline fee collection information. If the remaining frequency is insufficient, for example, the remaining frequency is 40
In the case of 0 yen, 300 yen will be insufficient, so in this case, the new remaining frequency is set to 0 yen and written to the IC card 14, and it is confirmed that the writing result is 0 yen. “Yen” is added to the online fee collection information stored in the control device 11 and stored as offline fee collection information. Writing to the IC card 14 takes a predetermined time, but since the offline fee collection information including the charging result is acquired at the next toll gate 50B, this writing is performed from the toll gate 50A to the toll gate 50B. It is sufficient to perform it between the two, and it is possible to perform it with a sufficient margin as compared with the conventional method.

When the vehicle travels and the vehicle equipped with the in-vehicle device 10 passes the next toll gate 50B, when the in-vehicle device 10 receives the pilot signal from the on-road device 20B, the offline fee stored in the control device 11 is stored. Collect the collection information on the roadside machine 20B
Send to. The roadside machine 20B receives the offline fee collection information and transmits the received offline fee collection information to the center 30.

Then, as in the case where the charging result is not stored in the above-mentioned road unit 20A, the in-vehicle unit 10 is set to the road unit 20A.
IC that can identify the IC card 14 to B
The payee identification information such as the card identification information, the license plate information set in the control device 11 of the vehicle-mounted device 10, and the vehicle type information is transmitted.

The roadside machine 20B receives the payee identification information, and identifies the toll booth number for uniquely identifying the toll booth and the transaction at the toll booth with respect to the received information. Transaction number, and the charge information including the date and time of reception and the amount charged at the toll booth 50 are added to generate online fee collection information and send it to the center 30. Further, the online fee collection information is transmitted to the vehicle-mounted device 10.

Therefore, the in-vehicle device 10 at the tollgate 50B
Also, the processing of the roadside machine 20B can be performed at a relatively high speed because it does not require a writing time to the IC card 14. Therefore, the communication can be completed within the communication area, and the vehicle equipped with the vehicle-mounted device 10 can pass through the road device 20B (the tollgate 50B) without slowing down the speed to an extremely low speed.

Next, the fee collection information processing of the center 30 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. S11 of FIG.
At 0, it is determined whether or not the fee collection information is received. When the fee collection information is received (S110: YES),
When the process proceeds to S120 and the fee collection information is not received (S110: NO), S110 is repeatedly executed until it is received.

In S120, it is determined whether the received fee collection information is online fee collection information. In the case of online fee collection information (S120: YES), S
The process proceeds to step 130, the online fee collection information received in the online fee collection information database is registered, and S1
Return to 10.

On the other hand, if the received fee collection information is not online fee collection information, that is, if it is offline fee collection information (S120: NO), the process proceeds to S140. In S140, the online fee collection information database 32 is searched for the fee collection information corresponding to the received offline fee collection information. For example, the toll booth number, transaction number, date and time may be used as a key for the search.

In the subsequent S150, it is determined whether or not there is corresponding online fee collection information as a result of the search in S140. If there is corresponding online fee collection information (S150: YES), the process proceeds to S160, and if there is no corresponding online fee collection information (S150:
NO), and the process proceeds to S200.

In S160, the corresponding online fee collection information and offline fee collection information are compared to confirm whether the data correspond correctly. In S170, it is determined whether or not the data correspondence is normal, and if the data correspondence is normal (S170: YES), the process proceeds to S180.
If the correspondence of the data is abnormal (S170: N
O), and shifts to S200.

In S180, it is determined whether or not the charging result included in the offline fee collection information is normal. If the charging result is normal (S180: YES), S190
If the charging result is abnormal (S180: N
O), and shifts to S200. In S190, the received offline fee collection information and the online fee collection information corresponding to the offline fee collection information are moved to the normal fee collection information database 34.

On the other hand, in S200, the received offline fee collection information is moved to the abnormal fee collection information database 36, and if there is the corresponding online fee collection information, the online fee collection information is also moved to the abnormal fee collection information database 36. . That is, according to the processing of S110 to S200, when the fee collection information reaches the center 30, if the information is the online fee collection information,
It is stored in the online fee collection information database 32. On the other hand, when the offline fee collection information is received, the online fee collection information corresponding thereto is searched from the online fee collection information database 32. If the corresponding online fee collection information does not exist as a result of the search, the offline fee collection information is moved to the abnormal fee collection information database 36. On the other hand, if the corresponding online charge collection information exists, the contents of the online charge collection information and the offline charge collection information are collated, and if the contents match and the billing result is normal, the online charge collection information and the offline charge collection information If the collection information is moved to the normal charge collection information database 34 and does not match or the charging result is abnormal, the abnormal charge collection information database 3
Moved to 6.

Therefore, in the center 30, the online fee collection information database 32 storing the transactions for which the offline fee collection information has not been received yet.
Then, it is possible to obtain the normal fee collection information database 34 which stores the transaction for which the confirmation of the collection of the fee has been normally completed, and the abnormal fee collection information database 36 which stores the transaction which is abnormal in the collection of the fee.

The normal charge collection information database 3
By referring to 4, it is possible to confirm the transactions that were able to collect the charges normally, and by confirming the abnormal charge collection information database 36, the transactions in which the charges were not collected normally You can know. The abnormal charge collection information database 3
Since the billing result included in the offline fee collection information is stored in 6, the cause of the abnormality can be known. Further, by referring to the online fee collection information database 32, it is possible to confirm the transaction whose billing result has not been confirmed. Therefore, for example, for transactions stored in the abnormal charge collection information database 36 and transactions stored in the online charge collection information database 32 that have passed a predetermined period, such as one year, each database From the payee identification information such as license plate information stored in, identify the payee and pay the charge.
Appropriate measures can be taken using the stored contents of each database.

In this embodiment, the vehicle equipped with the in-vehicle device 10 passes through the tollgate 50A and then the tollgate 50B.
However, it may pass through the toll booth 50A again after passing through the toll booth 50A. in this case,
The operation when passing through the toll booth 50A for the second time is the same as the processing at the toll booth 50B described above. For example, in FIG. 2, there is an interchange C, which is an exit to the general road, between the toll booth 50A and the toll booth 50B, and a vehicle entering from the interchange A passes through the toll booth 50A and then exits from the interchange C to the general road. Then, at a later date, it occurs when the toll booth 50A is passed again. When there are a plurality of lanes, the roadside machine 20 may be installed in each lane as shown in FIG.

The roadside machine 20 has both an online fee collection information transmission function for generating and transmitting online fee collection information and an offline fee collection information acquisition function for obtaining offline fee collection information. It may have one function. In this case,
At least on-road equipment equipped with an online fee collection information transmission function is installed on the road to be charged. Then, a road machine equipped with an offline fee collection information acquisition function is installed on an arbitrary road. By doing so, the online fee collection information is transmitted to the vehicle-mounted device 10 and the center 30 from the charging target road, and the IC card 14 can be charged, while the offline fee collection information including the charging result is arbitrary. It can be obtained from a road machine installed on the road. Therefore, it is advisable to install a roadside machine having an offline fee collection information acquisition function on a road with a high traffic volume.

Further, the offline fee collection information acquisition function may take any form as well as the roadside equipment, as long as it can obtain the offline fee collection information stored in the vehicle-mounted device 10. That is, it may be acquired using wide-area radio waves or acquired via a communication device such as a mobile phone connected to the vehicle-mounted device 10. Further, the offline fee collection information is also stored in the IC card 14, and the IC card 14 is removed from the vehicle-mounted device 10 and inserted into the offline fee collection information reading device corresponding to the billing result acquisition device to read it. The offline fee collection information may be transmitted to the center 30.

Although the communication device is provided on the road like the roadside device 20, it may be installed at any place as long as it can communicate with the vehicle-mounted device 10. Further, the online fee collection information and the offline fee collection information can be prevented from being tampered with by adding a certifier such as a signature or by encrypting the information.

In this embodiment, basically the same terms as those described in the claims are used for explanation,
Correspondences will be described for those using terms different from the claims. In this embodiment, the road machine 20 (the road machines 20A, 20
B ...) corresponds to a billing information communication device and a billing result acquisition device. The online fee collection information corresponds to the payee identification information, and the offline fee collection information corresponds to the billing result.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of an automatic fee collection system according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an installation location of a roadside device of the automatic toll collection system according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a flow of information in the automatic fee collection system according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a process executed in the center of the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an example when there are a plurality of driving lanes.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a conventional one-gantry system and a two-gantry system.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Automatic toll collection system 10 ... In-vehicle device 11 ... Control device 12 ... Wireless communication device 12a, 22a ... Antenna 13 ... IC card drive 14 ... IC card 14a ... memory 20, 20A, 20B ... Road machines 21 ... Control device 22 ... Wireless communication device 23 ... Communication device 30 ... Center 32 ... Online fee collection information database 34 ... Normal charge collection information database 36 ... Abnormal charge collection information database 40 ... communication network 50, 50A, 50B ... Tollgate

Claims (8)

(57) [Claims] 1. A charging information communication device installed on a road to be charged, an in-vehicle device mounted on a vehicle traveling on the road to be charged, and a charging result acquisition device for acquiring a charging result in the on-vehicle device. An automatic toll collection system including a center for determining whether or not charging has been correctly performed, wherein the charging information communication device transmits charging information of a road to be charged to the in-vehicle device, and the in-vehicle device. From the payee, and sends the payee-specific information to the center; the vehicle-mounted device receives the billing information; and sends the payee-specific information to the billing information communication device. Then, after performing a predetermined billing process based on the billing information, the result of the predetermined billing process is stored as the billing result associated with the payee identification information. The billing result stored in the in-vehicle device is acquired and transmitted to the center, and when the center receives the payee identification information, the center stores the received payee identification information. When receiving the billing result, it is determined whether or not the billing corresponding to the stored payee identification information is correctly performed based on the received billing result. system. 2. The automatic toll collection system according to claim 1, wherein the billing information communication device is a roadside device. 3. The automatic fee collection system according to claim 1, wherein the billing result acquisition device is incorporated in the billing information communication device. 4. The automatic toll collection system according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined billing process is a writing process to a memory. 5. A billing information communication device used in the automatic fee collection system according to claim 1.
A billing information communication device comprising the configuration described with respect to the billing information communication device according to any one of claims 1 to 4. 6. An in-vehicle device used in the automatic fee collection system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein:
In any one of 4 above, the on-vehicle device is provided with the configuration described for the on-vehicle device. 7. A billing result acquisition device used in the automatic fee collection system according to claim 1.
A billing result acquisition device, comprising the configuration described with respect to the billing result acquisition device according to any one of claims 1 to 4. 8. A center used in the automatic fee collection system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein:
4. The center according to any one of 4 to 4 having the configuration described for the center.