WO2018025530A1 - Tire mount sensor and chain regulation management system - Google Patents

Abstract

With the present invention, an assessment is made by a tire mount sensor (1) of whether a chain is mounted or not, and on the basis thereof, a chain regulation management is carried out which is performed by a monitor. Specifically, a communication center (200) is notified of a vehicle in violation which is not in compliance with chain regulations, and on the basis of violation information which has been communicated to the communication center (200), the monitor easily finds the vehicle which is in violation. Whether the chain regulations have been complied with or violated is stored as tire state data in a storage circuit unit (14) of the tire mount sensor (1). Thus, when the monitor communicates a command using a tool (300), the tire state data is transmitted from the tire mount sensor (1) to the tool (300), and it is possible for the monitor to verify whether the vehicle is in violation or not simply by checking the tool (300).

Description

Tire mount sensor and chain regulation management system Cross-reference to related applications

This application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2016-154755 filed on August 5, 2016 and Japanese Patent Application No. 2017-115277 filed on June 12, 2017. The description is incorporated by reference.

The present disclosure relates to a tire mount sensor and a chain regulation management that can confirm that a chain is attached to a tire and a tire regulation for winter in which a studless tire is fitted, that is, a so-called chain regulation. It is about the system.

On snowy road surfaces, chain regulation may be applied to ensure the safety of vehicle travel. The chain regulation is performed by the observer visually observing whether the tire is chain-attached to the tire or a vehicle using a studless tire that is a winter tire. However, unless the supervisor stops the traveling vehicle and visually inspects the tire, it is difficult to determine whether the tire is chain-attached or whether the vehicle uses a studless tire. In particular, in a situation where the tire is covered with snow on a snowy road, it may not be possible to instantaneously determine whether the tire is chain-attached or whether it is a vehicle using a studless tire. For this reason, it is a complicated task to check whether the vehicle complies with the chain regulation.

For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a device that can determine that a chain is attached to a tire. With this device, when the chain is mounted on the drive wheel side of the front and rear wheels, the output of the strain gauges arranged on the back of the tire tread will be different for the front and rear wheels. If the difference between the two is equal to or greater than the threshold value, it is determined that the chain is being worn.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-11885

However, the apparatus described in Patent Document 1 can only detect that the chain is attached to the tire, and cannot reduce the confirmation of whether the vehicle is a vehicle that complies with the chain regulation. In addition, since it is not possible to detect that the chain is attached unless the difference in the output of the strain gauges provided on the front and rear tires is acquired, it is necessary to attach the chain to the front and rear wheels. When there is no difference in the output of the strain gauge, as in the case where it is, it cannot be determined whether or not the chain regulation is supported.

It is an object of the present disclosure to provide a tire mount sensor and a chain regulation management system that can determine whether or not the vehicle is compatible with chain regulation without the observer watching the tire. To do. It is another object of the present invention to provide a tire mount sensor and a chain regulation management system that can determine whether or not each wheel is compatible with chain regulation.

The chain regulation management system according to one aspect of the present disclosure is based on a vibration detection unit that is attached to the back surface of a tire and outputs an output voltage corresponding to the magnitude of vibration of the tire as a detection signal, and an output voltage of the vibration detection unit. A tire mount sensor comprising: a signal processing unit that determines whether the tire is attached to the chain or not attached to the chain, and generates tire state data indicating the determination result; and a transmission unit that transmits the tire state data And a receiving unit that receives tire condition data transmitted from the tire mount sensor, and based on the tire condition data received by the receiving unit, it is determined whether the vehicle conforms to chain regulations, And a vehicle body side system for transmitting the discrimination result.

Thus, it is determined whether the chain is attached or not attached by the tire mount sensor, and the chain regulation is managed by the supervisor based on the determination result. For this reason, it is possible to determine whether or not the vehicle is compatible with the chain regulation without the observer watching the tire.

It is the figure which showed the block structure in the vehicle mounting state of the chain regulation management system concerning 1st Embodiment. It is a block diagram of a tire mount sensor. It is a cross-sectional schematic diagram of a tire to which a tire mount sensor is attached. It is a wave form diagram of a detection signal of an acceleration sensor. It is the figure which showed the change of the output voltage of an acceleration sensor in the case of drive | working the high micro road surface where road surface (mu) is comparatively large like an asphalt road. It is the figure which showed the change of the output voltage of an acceleration sensor in the case of drive | working on the low micro road surface where road surface (micro | micron | mu) is comparatively small like a frozen road. It is the figure which showed the result of having performed the frequency analysis of the output voltage in the earthing | grounding area about the case where it is drive | working on the high micro road surface, and the case where it is driving on the low micro road surface, respectively. It is the figure which showed the difference of the change of the output voltage of an acceleration sensor at the time of chain mounting | wearing and the chain non-mounting. It is the flowchart which showed the whole process performed by each part of a chain regulation management system, when calculating | requiring a violation vehicle by information exchange with a communication center. It is the flowchart which showed the whole process performed in each part of a chain regulation management system, when calculating a violation vehicle with a tool.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following embodiments, parts that are the same or equivalent to each other will be described with the same reference numerals.

(First embodiment)
A chain regulation management system 100 including a road surface state estimation device according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. The chain regulation management system 100 according to the present embodiment estimates a road surface state during traveling based on vibration applied to a ground contact surface of a tire provided on each wheel of the vehicle, determines whether a chain is attached to the tire, and the like. It detects and facilitates management of chain regulations.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the chain regulation management system 100 has a tire mount sensor 1 provided on the wheel side and a vehicle body side system 2 including each part provided on the vehicle body side. As the vehicle body side system 2, a receiver 21, an electronic control device (hereinafter referred to as navigation ECU) 22 of a navigation device, a vehicle communication device 23, a notification device 24, and the like are provided.

In the chain regulation management system 100, the tire mount sensor 1 transmits data representing the road surface condition during traveling, such as data indicating the road surface μ between the tire 3 and the road surface during traveling. Hereinafter, the data of the road surface μ is referred to as μ data, and the data representing the road surface state such as μ data is referred to as road surface data.

In the case of this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, the chain regulation management system 100 receives road surface data transmitted from the tire mount sensor 1 by the receiver 21, and notifies the road surface state indicated by the road surface data 24. I tell you more. As a result, it is possible to inform the driver of the road surface condition such as low road surface μ, dry road, wet road or frozen road, and it is possible to warn the driver when the road surface is slippery. Become.

Further, in the chain regulation management system 100, the tire mount sensor 1 determines whether the tire 3 is in a state corresponding to the chain regulation, that is, whether the chain is attached to the tire 3. Then, the determination result is transmitted from the tire mount sensor 1 to the vehicle body side system 2 as tire state data. Since the vehicle body side system 2 can acquire the chain restriction information through the navigation ECU 22 or the like, it determines whether or not the chain restriction is supported from the tire condition data sent from the tire mount sensor 1 when the chain restriction is issued. To do. Here, it is determined by the vehicle body side system 2 whether the chain regulation is supported or violated from the tire condition data. Then, information on whether or not the chain regulation is supported, for example, if the chain regulation is violated, is transmitted to the communication center 200 described later through the vehicle communication device 23. Thereby, a supervisor such as a road administrator can easily identify the violating vehicle based on the violation information transmitted to the communication center 200. Further, by reading the tire condition data from the tire mount sensor 1 with the tool 300, it is possible to identify the vehicle as a violation vehicle. Details of the configuration of the chain regulation management system 100 will be described below.

The tire mount sensor 1 is a tire side device provided on the tire side. As shown in FIG. 2, the tire mount sensor 1 includes a power supply 11, an acceleration sensor 12, a control unit 13, a storage circuit unit 14, an LF reception circuit 15, and an RF transmission circuit 16, and is shown in FIG. Thus, it is provided on the back surface side of the tread 31 of the tire 3.

The power source 11 is constituted by, for example, a battery and supplies power for driving each part of the tire mount sensor 1.

The acceleration sensor 12 constitutes a vibration detection unit for detecting vibration applied to the tire. For example, the acceleration sensor 12 detects acceleration as a detection signal corresponding to vibration in a tire tangential direction indicated by an arrow X in FIG. 3 in a direction in contact with a circular orbit drawn by the tire mount sensor 1 when the tire 3 rotates. The detection signal is output. More specifically, the acceleration sensor 12 generates an output voltage as a detection signal in which one of the two directions indicated by the arrow X is positive and the opposite direction is negative.

The control unit 13 is a part corresponding to a signal processing unit, and uses the detection signal of the acceleration sensor 12 as a detection signal representing vibration data in the tire tangential direction, obtains road surface data by processing the detection signal, It plays a role of transmitting it to the RF transmission circuit 16. Specifically, the control unit 13 extracts the ground contact section of the acceleration sensor 12 when the tire 3 rotates based on the detection signal of the acceleration sensor 12, that is, the time change of the output voltage of the acceleration sensor 12. Note that the contact section here means a section in which a portion of the tread 31 of the tire 3 corresponding to the location where the acceleration sensor 12 is disposed is grounded on the road surface. In the case of this embodiment, since the location where the acceleration sensor 12 is disposed is the location where the tire mount sensor 1 is disposed, the portion corresponding to the location where the tire mount sensor 1 is disposed in the tread 31 of the tire 3 is the road surface. It is an agreement with the grounded section. Hereinafter, the arrangement location of the tire mount sensor 1 in the tread 31 of the tire 3, in other words, the arrangement location of the acceleration sensor 12 is referred to as an apparatus arrangement location.

For example, since the high-frequency component included in the detection signal of the acceleration sensor 12 in the contact section represents the road surface state, the control unit 13 extracts the high-frequency component from the detection signal and extracts the high-frequency component as described later. Based on the components, the road surface condition such as the road surface μ is estimated.

Thus, when the road surface state is estimated, the control unit 13 generates road surface data indicating the road surface state, and performs a process of transmitting the road surface data to the RF transmission circuit 16. Thereby, road surface data is transmitted to the receiver 21 through the RF transmission circuit 16. At this time, road surface data is transmitted from the RF transmission circuit 16 every time the tire 3 makes one rotation. In this case, power consumption increases. For this reason, the transmission interval may be lengthened to reduce the number of transmissions. However, if the transmission interval is simply increased, the change cannot be quickly transmitted to the vehicle body side system 2 when the road surface state changes. For this reason, you may make it set a transmission interval according to the change of a road surface state.

Further, the control unit 13 detects whether or not the chain is attached to the tire 3 based on the detection signal of the acceleration sensor 12. As described above, the detection signal of the acceleration sensor 12 indicates vibration data in the tire tangential direction. And since the vibration added to the tire 3 changes according to the state of the grounding surface of the tire 3, the detection signal of the acceleration sensor 12 becomes a waveform according to the state of the grounding surface of the tire 3. For example, when the chain is attached to the tire 3, a change occurs such that the vibration of the output voltage waveform of the detection signal of the acceleration sensor 12 becomes larger than when the chain is not attached. Based on this, the control unit 13 determines whether or not the chain is attached to the tire 3 and transmits the determination result to the receiver 21.

Specifically, the control unit 13 is configured by a known microcomputer including a CPU, ROM, RAM, I / O, and the like, and performs the above-described processing according to a program stored in the ROM. And the control part 13 is provided with the area extraction part 13a, the level calculation part 13b, the state detection part 13c, and the data generation part 13d as a function part which performs those processes.

The section extracting unit 13a extracts the ground section by detecting the peak value of the detection signal represented by the output voltage of the acceleration sensor 12. The output voltage waveform of the acceleration sensor 12 during tire rotation is, for example, the waveform shown in FIG. As shown in this figure, the output voltage of the acceleration sensor 12 takes a maximum value at the start of grounding when the device placement site starts to ground as the tire 3 rotates. The section extraction unit 13a detects the start of grounding at which the output voltage of the acceleration sensor 12 takes a maximum value as the timing of the first peak value. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 4, the output voltage of the acceleration sensor 12 takes a minimum value at the end of the grounding when the device arrangement portion is grounded with the rotation of the tire 3 when the grounding is stopped. The section extraction unit 13a detects the end of grounding at which the output voltage of the acceleration sensor 12 takes a minimum value as the timing of the second peak value.

The reason why the output voltage of the acceleration sensor 12 takes a peak value at the above timing is as follows. That is, when the device arrangement place comes into contact with the rotation of the tire 3, the portion of the tire 3 that has been a substantially cylindrical surface in the vicinity of the acceleration sensor 12 is pressed and deformed into a flat shape. By receiving an impact at this time, the output voltage of the acceleration sensor 12 takes the first peak value. In addition, when the device arrangement part moves away from the ground contact surface with the rotation of the tire 3, the tire 3 is released from pressing in the vicinity of the acceleration sensor 12 and returns from a planar shape to a substantially cylindrical shape. By receiving an impact when the tire 3 returns to its original shape, the output voltage of the acceleration sensor 12 takes the second peak value. In this way, the output voltage of the acceleration sensor 12 takes the first and second peak values when the grounding starts and when the grounding ends, respectively. Moreover, since the direction of the impact when the tire 3 is pressed and the direction of the impact when released from the press are opposite directions, the sign of the output voltage is also opposite.

Then, the section extracting unit 13a extracts the ground contact section of the acceleration sensor 12 by extracting the detection signal data including the timings of the first and second peak values, and the level calculating unit 13b indicates that it is in the grounded section. To tell.

Further, since the timing at which the output voltage of the acceleration sensor 12 takes the second peak value is when the grounding of the acceleration sensor 12 is completed, the section extraction unit 13a sends a detection signal to the RF transmission circuit 16 at this timing. As a result, the RF transmission circuit 16 is informed that the tire 3 has made one revolution.

The level calculation unit 13b, when notified from the section extraction unit 13a that it is in the grounding section, calculates the level of the high-frequency component caused by the vibration of the tire 3 included in the output voltage of the acceleration sensor 12 during that period. Then, the level calculation unit 13b transmits the calculation result to the data generation unit 13d as road surface data such as μ data. Here, the level of the high-frequency component is calculated as an index representing the road surface state such as the road surface μ. The reason will be described with reference to FIGS. 5A, 5B, and 6. FIG.

FIG. 5A shows a change in the output voltage of the acceleration sensor 12 when traveling on a high μ road surface having a relatively large road surface μ such as an asphalt road. FIG. 5B shows a change in the output voltage of the acceleration sensor 12 when the vehicle is traveling on a low μ road surface where the road surface μ is relatively small to the extent corresponding to the frozen road.

As can be seen from these figures, the first and second peak values appear at the beginning and end of the contact section, that is, at the start and end of the contact of the acceleration sensor 12, regardless of the road surface μ. However, the output voltage of the acceleration sensor 12 changes due to the influence of the road surface μ. For example, when the road surface μ is low, such as when traveling on a low μ road surface, fine high-frequency vibration due to slip of the tire 3 is superimposed on the output voltage. Such a fine high-frequency signal due to the slip of the tire 3 is not superposed when the road surface μ is high, such as when traveling on a high μ road surface.

Therefore, when the frequency analysis of the output voltage during the grounding section is performed for each of the cases where the road surface μ is high and low, the result shown in FIG. 6 is obtained. In other words, in the low frequency range, the level is high when the road surface μ is high or low, but in the high frequency range of 1 kHz or higher, the level is higher when the road surface μ is low than when it is high. . For this reason, the level of the high frequency component of the output voltage of the acceleration sensor 12 serves as an index representing the road surface state.

Therefore, by calculating the level of the high frequency component of the output voltage of the acceleration sensor 12 during the grounding section by the level calculation unit 13b, this can be converted to μ data. Further, from the μ data, for example, when the road surface μ is low, the road surface type corresponding to the road surface μ can be detected as a road surface state, such as determining that the road is frozen.

For example, the level of the high frequency component can be calculated by extracting the high frequency component from the output voltage of the acceleration sensor 12 and integrating the extracted high frequency component during the grounding section. Specifically, the high frequency components of the frequency bands fa to fb that are assumed to change according to the road surface condition and the road surface μ are extracted by filtering or the like, and the voltages of the high frequency components of the frequency bands fa to fb extracted by the frequency analysis are obtained. Integrate. For example, a voltage integral value of a high frequency component is obtained by charging a capacitor (not shown). In this way, the amount of charge increases when the road surface μ is low, such as when traveling on a low μ road surface, rather than when the road surface μ is high, such as when traveling on a high μ road surface. . Using this charge amount as the μ data, it is possible to estimate the road surface μ such that the larger the charge amount indicated by the μ data, the lower the road surface μ.

The state detection unit 13c detects whether or not the tire 3 is in a state corresponding to chain regulation. In the present embodiment, the state detection unit 13c detects from the tire state data whether the state corresponds to the chain regulation or is in violation. Specifically, the state detection unit 13 c detects that the chain is attached to the tire 3 based on the detection signal of the acceleration sensor 12.

The output voltage waveform of the acceleration sensor 12 changes depending on whether or not the chain is attached to the tire 3. For example, as shown in FIG. 7, the vibration of the output voltage waveform of the detection signal of the acceleration sensor 12 becomes larger when the chain is attached than when the chain is not attached. In particular, the oscillation of the output voltage waveform becomes large in a region other than the ground interval. For this reason, it is possible to determine that the chain is attached to the tire 3 if the region other than the grounding interval is subjected to frequency analysis in the output voltage waveform of the acceleration sensor 12 and, for example, the vibration level of the high frequency component exceeds the threshold value. In addition, the timing of the first peak value and the second peak value is shifted, and the ground contact section becomes longer when the chain is attached than when the chain is not attached. For this reason, the speed of the tire 3 is obtained from the time interval between the first peak values or between the second peak values, and the time interval between the first peak value and the second peak value with respect to the speed of the tire 3 is examined, whereby the tire 3 It can also be determined whether or not the chain is attached. That is, the time interval between the first peak value and the second peak value measured with the time interval between the first peak value and the second peak value assumed corresponding to the speed of the tire 3 when the chain is not mounted as a threshold value. If it exceeds the threshold value, it can be determined that the chain is attached to the tire 3.

Further, when the state detection unit 13c determines whether or not the chain is attached to the tire 3 as described above, it transmits the determination result to the data generation unit 13d.

The data generation unit 13d basically generates road surface data based on the calculation result of the level calculation unit 13b. For example, the data generation unit 13d directly adopts μ data as road surface data, obtains a road surface state such as a frozen road or an asphalt road from the μ data, and generates data indicating the road surface data. Further, the data generation unit 13d generates, as tire state data, data indicating whether or not the chain is attached to the tire 3 based on the detection result of the state detection unit 13c. The road surface data and tire condition data generated by the data generation unit 13d are transmitted to the RF transmission circuit 16 simultaneously or separately. The tire condition data is also transmitted to the memory circuit unit 14.

The storage circuit unit 14 is a part corresponding to the storage unit, and performs erasure in addition to storing and reading data according to instructions from the control unit 13. For example, when tire state data is transmitted from the control unit 13, the storage circuit unit 14 stores the information. Further, when an instruction to read out the tire condition data is issued from the control unit 13, the storage circuit unit 14 reads out the stored tire condition data and transmits it to the control unit 13.

The LF reception circuit 15 corresponds to a reception unit, and is a circuit for inputting a command through the tool 300 or the like. For example, when an LF wave including an instruction command is transmitted to the tire mount sensor 1 through the tool 300 by the chain regulation monitor, the instruction command is transmitted to the control unit 13 through the LF reception circuit 15. Based on this, the control unit 13 issues an instruction to read out the tire condition data stored in the storage circuit unit 14 and causes the tire circuit data to be read out from the storage circuit unit 14. The tire condition data at this time is stored when the vehicle is running, but is stored even when the vehicle is stopped. Therefore, reading from the storage circuit unit 14 is performed even when the vehicle is stopped. It is possible.

The RF transmission circuit 16 constitutes a transmission unit that transmits road surface data such as μ data and tire condition data transmitted from the data generation unit 13d to the receiver 21 and the tool 300. Communication between the RF transmission circuit 16 and the receiver 21 or the tool 300 can be performed by a known short-range wireless communication technique such as Bluetooth (registered trademark).

The timing for transmitting the road surface data is arbitrary, but as described above, in this embodiment, the transmission trigger is sent from the section extraction unit 13a when the ground contact of the acceleration sensor 12 is completed, so that the road surface data and Tire condition data is sent. As described above, the data transmission by the RF transmission circuit 16 is not always performed, but is performed only at the end of the grounding of the acceleration sensor 12, so that the power consumption can be reduced. Also, when receiving an instruction command from the tool 300, the RF transmission circuit 16 transmits tire condition data so as to respond to the instruction command. As a result, the tire condition data can be transmitted to the tool 300.

Further, road surface data and tire condition data are sent together with wheel specific identification information (hereinafter referred to as ID information) provided in advance for each tire 3 provided in the vehicle. About the position of each wheel, since it can be specified by a known wheel position detection device that detects where the wheel is attached to the vehicle, by transmitting road surface data and tire condition data together with ID information to the receiver 21, It is possible to determine which wheel data.

Note that, here, transmission of tire condition data together with road surface data from the RF transmission circuit 16 has been described, but these may be stored in separate frames and transmitted at individual timings.

On the other hand, the receiver 21 receives the road surface data transmitted from the tire mount sensor 1, estimates the road surface state by the built-in control unit based on the received road surface data, and informs the informing device 24 of the estimated road surface state. In response, the notification device 24 informs the driver of the road surface condition. As a result, the driver tries to drive corresponding to the road surface condition, and the danger of the vehicle can be avoided. For example, the estimated road surface state may be always displayed through the notification device 24, or the estimated road surface state needs to be operated more carefully such as a wet road, a frozen road, a low μ road, or the like. Only when the road surface condition is displayed, the driver may be warned.

Further, the receiver 21 receives the tire condition data transmitted from the tire mount sensor 1 and recognizes whether the tire 3 is in the chain wearing state or not in the chain wearing state. And the receiver 21 acquires chain regulation information through navigation ECU22 or the vehicle communication apparatus 23, and if the chain regulation is underway, it will confirm the state of the tire 3 which tire condition data shows. Then, the communication center 200 is informed through the vehicle communication device 23 of whether or not the chain is being worn, that is, whether or not the chain regulation is supported. In this case, nothing is done because the chain is compliant with the chain regulation, and nothing is done when the chain is not attached. Sending data indicating that. For example, data indicating that the chain is not attached is transmitted to the communication center 200 together with the ID information of the host vehicle. In this way, it is possible to inform the communication center 200 of vehicles that violate chain regulations.

The navigation ECU 22 is provided in the navigation system and obtains information from a non-transitional physical storage medium such as a memory storing road information and measures the current position of the vehicle based on GPS (Global Positioning System) satellite position information. Process such as. The navigation ECU 22 performs various processes related to road guidance and the like based on the road information and the measured current position. In addition, the navigation ECU 22 obtains traffic information by road-to-vehicle communication or the like, and provides guidance that takes traffic information into account when performing road guidance or the like. Since the traffic information acquired by the navigation ECU 22 includes the chain regulation information, the chain regulation information is transmitted to the receiver 21.

In addition, although navigation ECU22 was mentioned as an example as what acquires chain regulation information here, things other than navigation ECU22 may be used. For example, information on a mobile device such as a mobile phone may be exchanged with each part of the vehicle body side system 2 and the chain regulation information may be acquired through the mobile device. Further, the chain restriction information may be acquired from the communication center 200 or the like through the vehicle communication device 23.

The vehicle communication device 23 can perform road-to-vehicle communication, and exchanges information with the communication center 200 via a communication system (not shown) installed on a road, for example. In the case of the present embodiment, the vehicle communication device 23 is information on whether or not it corresponds to the chain regulation transmitted from the receiver 21, and in the case of the present embodiment, information on whether or not it corresponds to the chain regulation. Is transmitted to the communication center 200.

The notification device 24 is composed of, for example, a meter display and is used when notifying the driver of the road surface state. When the notification device 24 is configured by a meter display, the notification device 24 is disposed at a place where the driver can visually recognize the vehicle while driving, for example, in an instrument panel in the vehicle 1. When the meter indicator is informed of whether the road surface condition or chain regulation is compliant or violated from the receiver 21, the meter display displays in such a manner that the presence or absence of correspondence to the road condition or chain regulation can be grasped. Thus, the driver is visually notified.

Note that the notification device 24 can be configured by a buzzer or a voice guidance device. In that case, the notification device 24 can audibly notify the driver by a buzzer sound or voice guidance. In addition, although the meter display device is exemplified as the notification device 24 that performs visual notification, the notification device 24 may be configured by a display device that displays information such as a head-up display.

As described above, the chain regulation management system 100 according to the present embodiment is configured. In addition, each part which comprises the vehicle body side system 2 is connected through in-vehicle LAN (abbreviation of Local * AreaNetwork) by CAN (abbreviation for Controller | AreaNetwork) etc., for example. For this reason, each part can communicate with each other through the in-vehicle LAN.

On the other hand, the communication center 200 that exchanges information with the chain regulation management system 100 collects road information and provides road information and traffic information, for example, chain regulation information to vehicles, etc., and manages and operates chain regulations. Doing business. The communication center 200 and the vehicle communication device 23 may be configured to directly communicate with each other, but the communication center 200 can communicate with the vehicle communication device 23 through a communication system installed in various places such as roads. ing.

The communication center 200 manages a database of information on whether or not the vehicle conforms to the chain regulation transmitted from the vehicle communication device 23 of each vehicle, and determines whether or not the vehicle is a compatible vehicle based on the received information. is doing. In the case of the present embodiment, the communication center 200 manages a database of violation vehicle information indicating that the chain regulation transmitted from the vehicle communication device 23 of each vehicle is violated, and based on the received violation vehicle information. To determine which vehicles are in violation. For example, when the monitor uses a device capable of communicating with the vehicle communication device 23 or a device capable of inputting the number of a license plate attached to the vehicle as the tool 300, the monitor can access the database of the communication center 200. It can be determined whether or not there is. When the violation vehicle information is managed in the database of the communication center 200 as in the present embodiment, it is possible to determine whether the vehicle is a violation vehicle by accessing the database. Thereby, even if the supervisor does not visually recognize the tire 3, it is possible to identify the offending vehicle even from a place away from the distance.

In addition, some road systems can communicate with the vehicle communication device 23 and read the number on the license plate. Therefore, this road system is used to determine whether the vehicle is a compatible vehicle, for example, a violation vehicle. It is also possible. Similarly, in places where there is a system that can communicate with the vehicle communication device 23 and read the number on the license plate, such as the entrance of a toll road, the vehicle will fit before entering the entrance of the toll road. It is possible to determine whether the vehicle is a vehicle, for example, whether the vehicle is a violation vehicle. For this reason, even if the supervisor does not visually recognize the tire 3, it is possible to identify a violating vehicle and take measures such as suppressing the progress into the toll road.

Furthermore, it is possible to read out tire state data from the tire mount sensor 1 using the tool 300 and determine whether or not the vehicle is a conforming vehicle, for example, a violation vehicle. In the case of the present embodiment, as described above, whether or not the chain regulation is compliant or violated is stored in the storage circuit unit 14 as tire condition data, so that an LF wave including an instruction command is output from the tool 300. The tire condition data is read from the tire mount sensor 1. The tire condition data is transmitted from the RF transmission circuit 16 and received by the tool 300. As a result, the tool 300 can determine whether or not the tire 3 indicated by the tire condition data is a violation vehicle based on information on whether or not the tire 3 corresponds to the chain regulation. In this case, since it is only necessary to receive information from the tire mount sensor 1, it is possible to determine whether the vehicle 1 is a compatible vehicle, for example, whether it is a violation vehicle, even when the vehicle 1 is stopped, for example, when the ignition switch is turned off. .

Subsequently, the operation of the chain regulation management system 100 according to the present embodiment will be described. For the part that functions as the road surface state detection device in the chain regulation management system 100, the road surface data transmitted from the tire mount sensor 1 is received by the receiver 21, and the road surface state is transmitted to the driver through the notification device 24 as necessary. Acts to communicate. The chain regulation management system 100 manages chain regulation as follows. This chain regulation management method will be described with reference to FIGS. As for chain regulation management, the communication center 200 and the tool 300 identify whether or not the vehicle conforms to the chain regulation, and in the case of this embodiment, identifies the violating vehicle that does not comply with the chain regulation. There is. Therefore, each of these will be described.

First, the case where a violation vehicle that does not comply with the chain regulation is specified in the communication center 200 will be described with reference to FIG.

In the tire mount sensor 1, the control unit 13 performs each process shown in steps S100 to S115.

Specifically, as described in step S100, the vibration waveform of the output voltage of the acceleration sensor 12 for one rotation of the tire 3 is acquired, and the vibration waveform is divided into each region. For example, a region before the first peak value, a region where the first peak value is extracted, a region between the first peak value and the second peak value, a region where the second peak value is extracted, Divided into areas after 2 peak values. Subsequently, in step S105, a region other than the contact section, for example, a region before the first peak value or a region after the second peak value is selected from the regions divided in step S100, and the acceleration in that region is selected. The frequency of the vibration of the output voltage waveform of the sensor 12 is analyzed.

In step S110, it is determined whether the chain is attached or not attached based on the result of the frequency analysis in step S105. That is, as shown in FIG. 7, in the region other than the grounding section, the vibration of the output voltage waveform of the acceleration sensor 12 changes between when the chain is attached and when the chain is not attached. For this reason, if the output voltage waveform of the acceleration sensor 12 is subjected to frequency analysis in a region other than the ground contact section, it can be determined whether the chain is attached or not attached based on the analysis result.

In this way, when it is determined whether the chain is attached or not attached, in step S115, a process of transmitting the determination result to the vehicle body side system 2 is performed.

Thereafter, in the vehicle body side system 2, the processes in steps S 120 to S 145 are performed by the control unit built in the receiver 21.

Specifically, in step S120, the vehicle body side system 2 determines whether chain regulation information has been acquired. Here, if the navigation ECU 22 or the vehicle communication device 23 has acquired the chain restriction information, an affirmative determination is made, and if not, a negative determination is made. Then, if an affirmative determination is made in step S120, the process proceeds to step S125, and in the vehicle body side system 2, the chain regulation is performed based on the information indicating whether the chain is installed or not attached, received from the tire mount sensor 1. It is determined whether or not it is compatible. If a negative determination is made in step S120, the process proceeds to step S130, where the data transmitted from the tire mount sensor 1 indicating whether the chain is attached or not attached is discarded, and the process ends.

When the processing of step 125 is completed, the process proceeds to step S135, and it is determined whether the chain regulation is violated based on the determination result of step S125. Here, if the chain is not attached, an affirmative determination is made, the process proceeds to step S140, and the vehicle communication device 23 transmits to the communication center 200 that the vehicle does not comply with the chain regulation and is in violation. To do. On the other hand, if the chain is being worn, a negative determination is made, the process proceeds to step S145, and the same processing as in step S130 is performed.

Then, in response to the processing of step 140, the chain regulation supervisor can obtain information on the violating vehicle from the communication center 200, as shown in step S150, and identify the violating vehicle based on the information. It becomes possible. For example, at the entrance of a toll road, a violation system is identified using a road system, etc., and the entrance manager acts as a chain regulation monitor to prevent the violation of a chain regulation vehicle from entering the toll road. Is possible.

Next, with reference to FIG. 9, a case will be described in which a violation vehicle that does not comply with the chain regulation is identified using the tool 300.

In the tire mount sensor 1, the control unit 13 performs the same processes as steps S100 to S110 shown in FIG. 8 as the processes shown in steps S200 to S210. Then, the process of step S215 is performed. Specifically, based on the determination result in step S210, the storage circuit unit 14 stores tire condition data indicating whether the chain regulation is supported while the chain is installed, or whether the chain is not installed and does not support the chain regulation. To remember. The storage of the tire state data in the storage circuit unit 14 may be performed every rotation of the tire 3, but the chain is not mounted and the chain is not mounted for each rotation of the tire 3. . For this reason, every time the tire 3 rotates a plurality of times, for example, every 10 rotations, or when the tire 3 starts rotating again after being stopped, the tire state data is stored in the storage circuit unit 14 and the past stored contents are updated. You should do it.

Thereafter, in the tire mount sensor 1, the control unit 13 performs the processing from step S220 to step S230. In step S220, it is determined whether a command command for reading tire condition data from the tool 300 has been received. When the chain regulation monitor issues an instruction command through the tool 300, an affirmative determination is made in this step, and if not, a negative determination is made in this step.

Here, if an affirmative determination is made in step S220, an instruction command is issued from the tool 300, so the process proceeds to step S225, and data regarding whether the chain is attached or not attached is directed to the tool 300. Send. If a negative determination is made in step S220, the instruction command from the tool 300 has not been issued, so the process proceeds to step S230 without transmitting tire condition data regarding whether the chain is attached or not attached. The process ends.

Then, in response to the processing in step 225, the tool 300 is informed of data regarding whether the chain is attached or not attached. For this reason, as shown in step S235, the chain regulation monitor is based on the information shown in the tool 300, and the vehicle that has input the instruction command from the tool 300 is a vehicle that conforms to the chain regulation or is a violation vehicle. Can be determined instantly.

As described above, the chain regulation management system 100 according to the present embodiment determines whether the chain is attached or not attached by the tire mount sensor 1, and based on this, the chain regulation is managed by the observer. Like to do. Specifically, the communication center 200 is informed that the vehicle is a non-compliant vehicle that does not comply with the chain regulations, and the supervisor can easily determine the violation vehicle based on the violation information transmitted to the communication center 200. In addition, the storage circuit unit 14 of the tire mount sensor 1 stores the tire condition data as to whether it complies with or violates the chain regulation. For this reason, the supervisor uses the tool 300 to transmit a command command so that the tire condition data is transmitted from the tire mount sensor 1 to the tool 300. You can check whether or not.

Therefore, it is possible to determine whether or not the vehicle is compatible with the chain regulation without the observer watching the tire 3. In addition, it is possible to determine whether each tire mount sensor 1 is a vehicle that supports chain regulation. Accordingly, it is possible to determine whether or not each wheel is a vehicle that supports chain regulation.

(Second Embodiment)
A second embodiment will be described. In the present embodiment, the studless tire can be discriminated from the first embodiment, and the other parts are the same as those in the first embodiment. Therefore, only the parts different from the first embodiment will be described. .

In the above embodiment, it is determined whether the chain is attached or not attached using the detection signal of the acceleration sensor 12 of the tire mount sensor 1. On the other hand, in this embodiment, it is also determined whether the tire 3 is a studless tire.

Vehicles that comply with chain regulations include not only chain-equipped vehicles but also studless tire-equipped vehicles. Whether or not the tire 3 is a studless tire is known in advance. For this reason, when the tire mount sensor 1 is attached to the tire 3, if the type of the tire 3 is stored in advance as the tire condition data in the storage circuit unit 14, the tire 3 is radial with the studless tire based on the tire condition data. It is possible to determine which is a tire. For example, by registering unique ID information of the tire 3 as tire information data in the memory circuit unit 14, the tire type indicating whether the tire 3 is a studless tire or a radial tire can be grasped based on the ID information. . Of course, the storage circuit unit 14 may store data that directly indicates the tire type such as whether the tire 3 is a studless tire or a radial tire.

For example, when transmitting the determination result indicating whether the chain is attached or not attached to the vehicle body side system 2 shown in Step S115 of FIG. 8, the tire 3 is a studless tire or a radial tire. It may be transmitted as tire information data. When determining whether or not the chain regulation is violated in step S135, it is determined that the chain regulation is not violated not only when the chain is mounted but also when the tire 3 is a studless tire. .

Similarly, for example, when transmitting the tire condition data in step S230 in FIG. 9, not only whether the chain is attached or not attached, but whether the tire 3 is a studless tire or a radial tire. Tell.

In this way, in the communication center 200, a vehicle that violates the chain regulation can be a vehicle that is not attached to the chain and the tire 3 is not a studless tire, and the chain regulation can be managed more accurately. Become. In addition, the same can be done when the monitor uses the tool 300 to monitor the offending vehicle.

In this case, tire state data is transmitted from the tire mount sensor 1 every rotation of the tire 3 as shown in the flowcharts of FIGS. In other words, the type of the tire 3 is also transmitted every rotation of the tire 3. As for the chain, it is effective to transmit the tire condition data for each rotation of the tire 3 because there is a possibility that the chain is attached and the chain is not attached even if the type of the tire 3 is not changed by changing the tire. . However, the tire type does not change unless the tire is changed. For this reason, the type of the tire 3 may be transmitted to the vehicle body side system 2 when the tire mount sensor 1 is attached to the tire 3, and there is no need to transmit every rotation of the tire 3.

In addition, here, in addition to the tire type of whether the tire 3 is a studless tire or a radial tire, the presence / absence of chain attachment is also detected and transmitted as tire information data. However, only the tire type may be transmitted as tire information data.

(Other embodiments)
Although the present disclosure has been described based on the above-described embodiment, the present disclosure is not limited to the embodiment, and includes various modifications and modifications within an equivalent range. In addition, various combinations and forms, as well as other combinations and forms including only one element, more or less, are within the scope and spirit of the present disclosure.

For example, in the above-described embodiment, the ground section is specified from the detection signal of the acceleration sensor 12 that constitutes the vibration detection unit, and the calculation result of the level of the high-frequency component in the detection signal in the ground section is road surface data indicating the road surface state. It is used as. However, this is only an example of a method for estimating the road surface state using the detection signal in the vibration detection unit, and even if the road surface state is estimated by another method using the detection signal in the vibration detection unit. good. Moreover, although the case where the vibration detection part is comprised by the acceleration sensor 12 was illustrated, the vibration detection part can also be comprised by the element which can perform another vibration detection, for example, a piezoelectric element. Further, the power source 11 is not limited to a battery, and may be configured by a power generation element or the like. For example, if a vibration detection element is used, the power source 11 can be configured while the vibration detection unit is configured by the vibration detection element.

In the case of the above-described embodiment, the receiver 21 serves as a control unit that performs determination of a change in road surface state based on road surface data, determination of whether or not the vehicle is compatible with chain regulation, and the like. Yes. However, this is merely an example, and a control unit may be provided separately from the receiver 21, or another ECU such as the navigation ECU 22 may function as the control unit.

In the above embodiment, the violation information is transmitted to the communication center 200 when the vehicle is a violating vehicle. Conversely, when the vehicle is compatible with the chain regulation, the vehicle is a conforming vehicle. The matching information shown may be transmitted to the communication center 200. In that case, the conforming vehicle information about the conforming vehicle to the chain regulation is managed in the database of the communication center 200. Therefore, when using the tool 300 to determine whether the chain regulation is compliant or violated, the vehicle is determined to be a compatible vehicle if it is managed in the database, and is determined to be a violating vehicle if not managed in the database. It will be. Of course, information regarding both the conforming vehicle and the violating vehicle can be transmitted to the communication center 200 so that both the conforming vehicle and the violating vehicle can be grasped.

In the above embodiment, when it is determined that the vehicle is a violation vehicle at the entrance of the toll road as one of the methods for suppressing the violation vehicle that does not comply with the chain restriction from passing on the road where the chain is restricted. In the above example, the entry to the toll road is suppressed. In addition, a warning function of the road system can be used to audibly alert the driver that the vehicle is in violation of the chain regulations, such as “cannot drive because of chain regulation”. When the navigation ECU 22 can grasp the chain regulation section, for example, before entering the area or in the area, notifying that the chain regulation is not supported by a warning alarm by the notification device 24 or the like. You can also. Similarly, via the vehicle communication device 23, the communication center 200 informs the vehicle body side system 2 that the vehicle is approaching the chain regulation section, and the notification device 24 may notify that the chain regulation is not supported. it can.

In the above embodiment, the form of the tool 300 used by the supervisor is not limited. That is, not only a device that can be carried and used by a supervisor, but also a device embedded in a road or the like.

Furthermore, in the second embodiment, the type of the tire 3 can be grasped by registering the unique ID information of the tire 3 in advance. On the other hand, by determining whether the tire 3 is a studless tire or a radial tire based on the output voltage waveform of the vibration detection unit, and storing the determination result in the storage circuit unit 14, You may enable it to grasp | ascertain the kind of tire 3. FIG.

For example, in the case of a studless tire, since the unevenness formed in the tread 31 is higher than that of a radial tire and the rubber of the tire 3 is made of a soft material, the vibration attenuation rate is large, and the acceleration sensor The oscillation of the output voltage waveform of 12 is reduced. Therefore, it can be determined whether the tire 3 is a studless tire or a radial tire based on the magnitude of vibration of the output voltage waveform of the acceleration sensor 12.

In addition, about the vibration of the output voltage waveform of the acceleration sensor 12, if it is a predetermined | prescribed road surface, since it changes according to a vehicle speed, it is preferable to set the threshold value which discriminate | determines the kind of tire 3 according to a vehicle speed. Regarding the vehicle speed, since the interval between the first peak values or the interval between the second peak values of the output voltage waveform of the acceleration sensor 12 is the time taken for one rotation of the tire 3, it can be calculated based on these intervals. . Therefore, it is preferable to calculate the change in the vehicle speed from the output voltage waveform of the acceleration sensor 12 and set the threshold according to the calculated vehicle speed to determine the type of the tire 3.

Further, in each of the above embodiments, the chain regulation management system that can confirm that the chain regulation is supported has been described as being capable of determining whether the vehicle is a conforming vehicle or a violation vehicle. However, it is only necessary to determine whether or not the vehicle is a conforming vehicle without determining whether the vehicle is a violation vehicle. For example, the tire mount sensor 1 may be any sensor that stores or transmits information indicating whether or not it conforms to chain regulation. Further, the receiver 21 may be any device that determines whether the vehicle is compatible with the chain regulation based on the information indicating whether the chain regulation is supported. The vehicle communication device 23 may be any device that transmits information that can be used to determine whether the vehicle is compatible with chain regulation. Similarly, the communication center 200 only needs to be able to manage and provide information on whether or not it complies with chain regulations.

In addition, a mode has been described in which a determination result regarding whether or not the chain regulation is supported is transmitted to the receiver 21 or the tool 300. The transmitted determination result is transmitted to a chain regulation monitor through the tool 300 or to the communication center 200 through the vehicle communication device 23. However, this is also one of the usage forms of the transmitted determination result, and the determination result as to whether or not the chain regulation is supported may be used for vehicle motion control. That is, the stability of the vehicle when traveling on a snowy road changes depending on whether or not the chain regulation is supported. For this reason, for example, when setting a threshold value for vehicle motion control such as a threshold value for control intervention in antilock brake control or side slip prevention control, a determination result as to whether or not the chain regulation is supported may be used.

In addition to radial tires and studless tires, there are also all-season tires as types of tires 3. The all-season tire is characteristically located between the radial tire and the studless tire, and can run even with all-season tires in light snowfall or the like. For this reason, whether or not all-season tires are made to conform to chain regulations is handled differently depending on countries and regions. For this reason, all-season tires may be treated as studless tires when handled as tires conforming to chain regulations, and as radial tires when not treated as tires conforming to chain regulations.

Claims (12)

1. A vibration detector (12) attached to the back surface of the tire (3) and outputting an output voltage corresponding to the magnitude of vibration of the tire as a detection signal, and the tire is chained based on the output voltage of the vibration detector It has a signal processing unit (13) that determines whether the chain is mounted or the chain is not mounted, and generates tire state data indicating the determination result, and a transmission unit (16) that transmits the tire state data. A tire mount sensor (1);
   It has a receiving part (21) which receives the tire condition data transmitted from the tire mount sensor, and it is based on the tire condition data received by the receiving part whether or not it is a vehicle conforming to chain regulation. A chain regulation management system comprising: a vehicle body side system (2) for determining and transmitting the determination result.
2. Based on the determination result transmitted by the vehicle body side system, information indicating compliance information indicating whether or not the vehicle is compatible with the chain regulation is managed in the database of the communication center (200),
   The chain regulation management system according to claim 1, wherein it is determined whether or not the vehicle is a conforming vehicle based on the conformity information managed in the database.
3. 3. The chain regulation management system according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle body side system discriminates whether the vehicle is a vehicle conforming to the chain regulation or a violation vehicle based on the tire condition data, and transmits the discrimination result.
4. Based on the determination result transmitted by the vehicle body side system, at least one information of compliance information indicating that the vehicle conforms to the chain regulation and violation information indicating that the vehicle is a violation vehicle is managed in the database of the communication center. And
   The chain regulation management system according to claim 3, wherein the conforming vehicle and the infringing vehicle are discriminated based on at least one of the conforming information and the infringing information managed in the database.
5. The tire mount sensor
   A storage unit (14) for storing the tire condition data;
   The chain regulation management system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the signal processing unit reads the tire condition data stored in the storage unit based on a command command and transmits the tire state data from the transmission unit.
6. When the command command is transmitted from the tool (300) to the tire mount sensor, the signal processing unit reads the tire state data stored in the storage unit, and transmits the tire state data to the tool from the transmission unit. The chain regulation management system according to claim 5, which transmits the chain regulation management system.
7. A storage unit (14) for storing information indicating the type of the tire, which indicates whether the tire is a studless tire or a radial tire, as the tire state data;
   The chain regulation management system according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the tire mount sensor transmits information representing the type of the tire to the vehicle body side system as the tire condition data.
8. A vibration detector (11) attached to the back surface of the tire (3) and outputting an output voltage corresponding to the magnitude of vibration of the tire as a detection signal, and the tire is chained based on the output voltage of the vibration detector It has a signal processing unit (13) that determines whether the chain is mounted or the chain is not mounted, and generates tire state data indicating the determination result, and a transmission unit (16) that transmits the tire state data. Tire mount sensor.
9. A storage unit (14) for storing the tire condition data;
   When a command command is transmitted from the tool (300) to the tire mount sensor, the signal processing unit reads the tire condition data stored in the storage unit, and transmits the tire condition data to the tool from the transmission unit. The tire mount sensor according to claim 8.
10. The tire mount sensor according to claim 9, wherein the storage unit also stores, as the tire state data, information indicating a type of the tire, which indicates whether the tire is a studless tire or a radial tire.
11. A storage unit (14) attached to the back surface of the tire (3) and storing information indicating the type of the tire, which means whether the tire is a studless tire or a radial tire, as tire state data; and the storage unit A tire mount sensor comprising: a signal processing unit (13) that reads out the tire condition data; and a transmission unit (16) that transmits the tire condition data.
12. When a command command is transmitted from the tool (300) to the tire mount sensor, the signal processing unit reads the tire condition data stored in the storage unit, and transmits the tire condition data to the tool from the transmission unit. The tire mount sensor according to claim 11.

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