CN114111606B

CN114111606B - System and method for measuring vehicle parameters

Info

Publication number: CN114111606B
Application number: CN202010867559.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 王永明; 涂俊杰; 许艳伟
Original assignee: Nuctech Co Ltd
Current assignee: Nuctech Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-08-25
Filing date: 2020-08-25
Publication date: 2022-12-23
Anticipated expiration: 2040-08-25
Also published as: CN114111606A

Abstract

A system for measuring vehicle parameters and a method of measuring vehicle parameters are provided. A system for measuring vehicle parameters comprising: a measurement area into which a vehicle to be measured is driven in a traveling direction; a light source comprising a transmitter and a receiver, the transmitter being adapted to emit a light beam towards the vehicle; a wheel sensor adapted to generate a trigger signal when a wheel of the vehicle reaches the wheel sensor; a determination module adapted to instruct the light source to determine a distance Ln in a direction of travel between the vehicle and the light source from a reflected light beam reflected from the vehicle received by a receiver of the light source each time the wheel sensor generates a trigger signal, where n is an integer greater than zero; and the calculation module is used for obtaining the absolute value of the difference value between the distance Li measured at the ith time and the distance Lj measured at the jth time to obtain the wheelbase Lij between the ith axle and the jth axle. Parameters of the vehicle, such as wheel base, tire width, number of tires, number of axles, and body length, may be measured during travel of the vehicle.

Description

System and method for measuring vehicle parameters

Technical Field

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method of measuring a vehicle parameter, and more particularly, to a system suitable for measuring a vehicle parameter such as a wheel base of a front and rear axle of a vehicle, and a method of measuring a vehicle parameter.

Background

The automobile contour dimension measurement technology is an inspection and measurement technology which determines the technical condition or the working capacity of an automobile without disassembling the automobile by utilizing various detection devices. For a car, under normal conditions of the vehicle, it is necessary to obtain a distance between the front and rear wheels, i.e. a wheel base measurement.

At present, the manual wheel base measurement method is to use a steel tape, an angle ruler, a marking post and the like to perform manual measurement. The method has the advantages of high labor intensity, long measuring time and easy occurrence of human errors.

With the development of electronic technology, the optical, mechanical, electrical, physical, chemical and mechanical integrated detection technology combining electronics, optics, physical, chemical and mechanical has been developed and used for measuring the wheel base of the vehicle. For example, in a car wheel base measuring method based on a photoelectric switch, a wheel base measuring device respectively moves through two points of two adjacent wheels on the same side of a vehicle, emits light beams perpendicular to the planes of the wheels, calculates the time difference between a front rising edge and a rear rising edge or a rear falling edge by using the reflected light beams, and further calculates the wheel base of a car by combining the moving speed of the wheel base measuring device. The method needs to measure a static vehicle target, needs to move a wheel base measuring device, and is high in system complexity.

Disclosure of Invention

An object of the present disclosure is to solve at least one aspect of the above problems and disadvantages in the related art.

According to an embodiment of one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a system for measuring vehicle parameters, comprising: a measurement area into which a vehicle to be measured is driven in a traveling direction; a light source comprising a transmitter and a receiver, the transmitter adapted to emit a beam of light towards the vehicle; a wheel sensor adapted to generate a trigger signal when a wheel of the vehicle reaches the wheel sensor; a determination module adapted to instruct the light source to determine a distance Ln in a direction of travel between the vehicle and the light source from a reflected light beam reflected from the vehicle received by a receiver of the light source each time the wheel sensor generates the trigger signal, where n is an integer greater than zero; and the calculation module is used for obtaining the absolute value of the difference between the distance Li measured at the ith time and the distance Lj measured at the jth time to obtain the wheel base Lij between the ith axle and the jth axle, wherein i and j are integers between 1 and n, and i is not equal to j.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a distance between the light source and the wheel sensor in the traveling direction is greater than a maximum body length of a vehicle to be measured.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the calculation module determines the number of axles of the vehicle according to the number of times the wheel sensor is triggered, which is determined by the determination module.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the wheel sensor is buried in the ground of the measurement area, and the wheel sensor generates a trigger signal when a wheel of the vehicle passes the wheel sensor.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the plurality of wheel sensors are arranged in a lateral direction perpendicular to the direction of travel.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the wheel sensor includes a plurality of pressure sensors or a plurality of ground induction coils.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the distance between the portions of two adjacent wheel sensors corresponding to each other is smaller than the minimum distance between the outer circumferential edges of two adjacent tires mounted on the same axle, the judging module is adapted to determine the wheel sensors that are successively arranged in sequence and are simultaneously activated as a set of activation sensors, and the calculating module is adapted to determine the number of tires on the axle being measured according to the number of sets of activation sensors.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the calculation module is adapted to determine the width of a tire based on the number of triggered wheel sensors in a set of trigger sensors.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the wheel sensor is an optical sensor.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the optical sensor includes a first transmitter provided on one side of the measurement area in a lateral direction perpendicular to the traveling direction, and a first receiver provided on the other side of the measurement area, the transmitter being disposed so that at least a part of a light beam emitted from the first transmitter can be irradiated on a lower portion of the vehicle under test, the trigger signal being generated according to an event that the light beam emitted from the transmitter received by the first receiver is blocked, and a first corrected distance Li1 in the traveling direction between the vehicle and the light source is calculated.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the determining module is adapted to generate a recovery signal according to the event that the light beam emitted from the emitter is recovered to be not blocked and calculate a second corrected distance Li2 between the vehicle and the light source in the traveling direction after the event that the light beam is blocked, and the calculating module is adapted to take an average value of the first corrected distance and the second corrected distance to obtain the distance Li measured the ith time.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the system for measuring vehicle parameters further comprises a light curtain sensor adapted to detect the vehicle entering the measuring area and leaving the upper measuring area; the judging module is suitable for indicating the calculating module to calculate the length of the vehicle according to the fact that the light curtain sensor detects that the vehicle enters the measuring area and leaves the measuring area.

According to an embodiment of another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method of measuring a vehicle parameter, including the steps of: the detected vehicle drives into the measuring area in the advancing direction; emitting a light beam by an emitter of a light source toward the vehicle; when a wheel of the vehicle reaches the wheel sensor, the wheel sensor generates a trigger signal; determining a distance Ln in the direction of travel between the vehicle and the light source from a reflected beam reflected from the vehicle received by the receiver of the light source each time the wheel sensor generates the trigger signal, where n is an integer greater than zero; and taking the absolute value of the difference value between the distance Li measured at the ith time and the distance Lj measured at the jth time to obtain the wheel base Lij between the ith axle and the jth axle, wherein i and j are integers between 1 and n, and i is not equal to j.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the number of axles of the vehicle is determined according to the number of times the wheel sensor is triggered.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the wheel sensors that are successively arranged in sequence and are simultaneously activated are referred to as a set of activation sensors, and the number of tires on the axle being measured is determined according to the number of sets of activation sensors.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the width of a tire is determined based on the number of activated wheel sensors in a set of activation sensors.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the wheel sensor includes a first transmitter provided on one side of the measurement area in a lateral direction perpendicular to the traveling direction, and a first receiver provided on the other side of the measurement area, the first transmitter being provided so that at least a part of the light beam emitted from the first transmitter can be irradiated on a lower portion of the vehicle under test, the trigger signal being generated in accordance with an event that the light beam emitted from the first transmitter received by the first receiver is blocked, and a first corrected distance Li1 in the traveling direction between the vehicle and the light source is calculated.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the first corrected distance Li1 is taken as the distance Li measured the ith time.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, after an event that a light beam is blocked, a restoration signal is generated according to an event that the light beam emitted from the first emitter received by the first receiver is restored to non-blocked, and when the restoration signal is generated, a second corrected distance Li2 in the traveling direction between the vehicle and the light source is calculated, and the first corrected distance and the second corrected distance are averaged to obtain the distance Li measured the ith time.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, detecting the vehicle entering and leaving the measurement area with a light curtain sensor; and calculating the length of the vehicle according to the fact that the light curtain sensor detects that the vehicle enters the measuring area and leaves the upper measuring area.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, it is determined that the last axle of the vehicle has been detected based on the light curtain sensor detecting that the vehicle leaves the measurement area.

Drawings

FIG. 1 illustrates a simplified schematic diagram of a system for measuring vehicle parameters in an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 illustrates a measurement schematic of a system for measuring vehicle parameters according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 shows a simplified schematic diagram of a wheel sensor arrangement of an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 shows a measurement schematic of a system for measuring vehicle parameters according to another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 shows a simplified schematic diagram of the arrangement of the optical sensors of the system for measuring vehicle parameters of FIG. 4; and

FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram of a method of measuring vehicle parameters according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present disclosure will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present disclosure, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present disclosure, and not all of the embodiments. The following description of at least one exemplary embodiment is merely illustrative in nature and is in no way intended to limit the disclosure, its application, or uses. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments disclosed herein without any inventive step, are intended to be within the scope of the present disclosure.

In the following detailed description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments of the disclosure. It may be evident, however, that one or more embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in diagram form to simplify the drawing. Techniques, methods, and apparatus known to one of ordinary skill in the relevant art may not be discussed in detail but are intended to be part of the specification where appropriate.

In the description of the present disclosure, it is to be understood that the directions or positional relationships indicated by directional terms such as "front, rear, upper, lower, left, right", "lateral, vertical, horizontal" and "top, bottom", etc., are generally based on the directions or positional relationships shown in the drawings, and are based on the direction of travel of the vehicle, and are merely for convenience of description and to simplify the description, and in the case of not making a contrary explanation, these directional terms do not indicate and imply that the device or element referred to must have a particular direction or be constructed and operated in a particular direction, and therefore, should not be construed as limiting the scope of the present disclosure; the terms "inner and outer" refer to the inner and outer relative to the profile of the respective component itself.

In the description of the present disclosure, it should be understood that the terms "first", "second", etc. are used to define the components, and are used only for convenience of distinguishing the corresponding components, and if not otherwise stated, the terms have no special meaning, and thus, should not be construed as limiting the scope of the present disclosure.

According to a general inventive concept of the present disclosure, there is provided a system for measuring a vehicle parameter, including: a measurement area into which a vehicle to be measured is driven in a traveling direction; a light source comprising a transmitter and a receiver, the transmitter adapted to emit a beam of light towards the vehicle; a wheel sensor adapted to generate a trigger signal when a wheel of the vehicle reaches the wheel sensor; a determination module adapted to instruct the light source to determine a distance Ln in a direction of travel between the vehicle and the light source from a reflected light beam reflected from the vehicle received by a receiver of the light source each time the wheel sensor generates the trigger signal, where n is an integer greater than zero; and the calculating module is used for obtaining the absolute value of the difference value between the distance Li measured at the ith time and the distance Lj measured at the jth time to obtain the wheelbase Lij between the ith axle and the jth axle, wherein i and j are integers between 1 and n, and i is not equal to j.

According to another general inventive concept of the present disclosure, there is provided a method of measuring a vehicle parameter, including the steps of: the measured vehicle drives into the measuring area in the advancing direction; emitting a light beam by an emitter of a light source toward the vehicle; when a wheel of the vehicle reaches the wheel sensor, the wheel sensor generates a trigger signal; determining a distance Ln in the direction of travel between the vehicle and the light source from a reflected beam reflected from the vehicle received by the receiver of the light source each time the wheel sensor generates the trigger signal, where n is an integer greater than zero; and taking the absolute value of the difference value between the distance Li measured at the ith time and the distance Lj measured at the jth time to obtain the wheel base Lij between the ith axle and the jth axle, wherein i and j are integers between 1 and n, and i is not equal to j.

FIG. 1 illustrates a simplified schematic diagram of a system for measuring vehicle parameters in an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in fig. 1-3, there is provided a system for measuring a vehicle parameter, including: a measurement area 200 defined on the travel path of the vehicle 100, a light source 3, a wheel sensor 4, a judgment module, and a calculation module. The vehicle 100 under test enters the measuring region 200 in the direction of travel. The light source 3 comprises a transmitter 31 adapted to emit a light beam 33 towards said vehicle 100 and a receiver 32 adapted to receive a reflected light beam of said light beam from said vehicle. The wheel sensor 4 is adapted to generate a trigger signal when a wheel 1 of the vehicle 100 reaches the wheel sensor 4. The determination means are adapted to instruct said light source 3 to determine the distance Ln in the direction of travel between the vehicle 100 and the light source 3 from the reflected light beam reflected from the vehicle 100 received by the receiver of the light source 3 each time the wheel sensor 4 generates said trigger signal, where n is an integer greater than zero. The calculation module obtains an absolute value of a difference value between the distance Li measured at the ith time and the distance Lj measured at the jth time to obtain a wheel base Lij between the ith axle 2 and the jth axle, wherein i and j are integers between 1 and n, and i is not equal to j.

In an exemplary embodiment, the light source 3 may be a laser light source. The laser source generally comprises an emitter adapted to emit a laser beam towards a target, and a receiver adapted to receive the laser light reflected from the target. The laser source can directly acquire information such as distance, angle, reflection intensity, speed and the like of the target by detecting an echo signal of the emitted laser, and a multi-dimensional image of the target is generated. For example, the singlet lidar may calculate the distance between the singlet lidar and the target by measuring the round trip time of the laser emission signal and the laser echo signal.

In a time-variant or continuous embodiment, the wheel sensor 4 is arranged on the ground of the measuring area 200, the wheel sensor 4 generating a trigger signal when a wheel 1 of the vehicle 100 passes the wheel sensor 4. The wheel sensor 4 includes a plurality of pressure sensors or a plurality of ground coils. The pressure sensor and the ground induction coil can generate electric signals when being pressed, and the detection mode belongs to contact detection of wheels.

FIG. 2 illustrates a measurement schematic of a system for measuring vehicle parameters according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure; fig. 3 shows a simplified schematic diagram of the arrangement of the wheel sensors of an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to fig. 1-3, a light source 3 is disposed above the line of travel of a measurement region 200 and emits a light beam 33 into the measurement region. If the wheel base L13 between the first axle 21 and the third axle 23 of the line vehicle 100 is required, the wheel sensor 4 is pressed to send a first trigger signal when the first wheel 11 of the vehicle 100 runs to the wheel sensor 4 during the running of the vehicle 100 in the measurement area 200; the decision module, upon receiving this first trigger signal, instructs said light source 3 to determine the distance L1 in the direction of travel between the vehicle 100 and the light source 3 from the reflected light beam reflected from the vehicle 100 received by the receiver 32 of the light source 3; then, the vehicle 100 continues to run, and when the third wheel 13 of the vehicle 100 runs to the wheel sensor 4, the wheel sensor 4 receives the compression again and sends out a third trigger signal; the decision module, upon receipt of the third trigger signal, instructs said light source 3 to determine the distance L3 in the direction of travel between the vehicle 100 and the light source 3 from the reflected light beam reflected from the vehicle 100 received by the receiver 32 of the light source 3. The calculation module takes the absolute value of the difference between the first measured distance L1 and the 3 rd measured distance L3, resulting in the wheel base L13 between the 1 st axle 21 and the 3 rd axle 23.

In one embodiment, if the light source 3 is installed above the measurement area 200 as shown in fig. 2, and if the distance between the light source 3 and the vehicle 100 is D1 and the angle between the light beam and the traveling direction is θ 1 when the wheel sensor 4 is pressed to send the first trigger signal, the distance L1 between the vehicle 100 and the light source 3 in the traveling direction at this time is:

L1＝(D1*sinθ1)

assuming that when the wheel sensor 4 receives the pressing force and sends the third trigger signal, the distance between the light source 3 and the vehicle 100 is D3, and the included angle between the light beam and the traveling direction is θ 1, then the distance L3 between the vehicle 100 and the light source 3 in the traveling direction is:

L3＝(D3*sinθ3)

since the distance between the two axles is equal to the distance between the lowest points of the two wheels mounted on the two axles, the distance L13 between the first axle 21 and the third axle 23 is:

l13= L1-L3= (D1 × sin θ 1) - (D3 × sin θ 3), when θ 1 > θ 3

The process of obtaining the distance L13 between the first axle 21 and the third axle 23 is described above taking the example where the vehicle 100 travels toward the direction close to the light source 3. It will be appreciated that if the vehicle 100 is traveling away from the light source 3, the distance L13 between the first axle 21 and the third axle 23 is:

l13= L3-L1= (D3 × sin θ 3) - (D1 × sin θ 1), when θ 3 > θ 1

If the distance L13 between the first axle 21 and the third axle 23 is, regardless of the traveling direction of the vehicle:

L13＝|L3-L1|＝|(D3*sinθ3)-(D1*sinθ1)|

similarly, the distance L12 between the first axle 21 and the second axle 22 is:

L12＝|L2-L1|＝|(D2*sinθ2)-(D1*sinθ1)|

wherein θ 1 is an angle between the light beam 33 emitted by the laser and the traveling direction of the vehicle 100 when the wheel sensor 4 receives the pressing of the wheel 12 of the second axle 22 and sends the second trigger signal.

By analogy, in the n axles, the wheelbase Lij between the ith axle and the jth axle is:

Lij＝|Li-Lj|＝|(Di*sinθi)-(Dj*sinθj)|

di is an included angle between a light beam and a traveling direction when the wheel sensor 4 receives the compression of the wheel of the ith axle and sends an ith trigger signal, and Di is a distance between the light source 3 and the vehicle 100 when the wheel sensor 4 receives the compression of the wheel of the ith axle and sends an ith trigger signal; θ j is an angle between the light beam and the traveling direction when the wheel sensor 4 receives the compression of the wheel of the jth axle and sends out the jth trigger signal, and Dj is a distance between the light source 3 and the vehicle 100 when the wheel sensor 4 receives the compression of the wheel of the jth axle and sends out the jth trigger signal.

In an alternative embodiment, the light source is arranged outside the lateral direction of the measuring region 200 perpendicular to the direction of travel. It is understood that in this case, the distance between the two axles of the vehicle is calculated in a manner similar to that of the above-described embodiment, and is not described in detail herein.

In an exemplary embodiment, the distance between the light source 3 and the wheel sensor 4 in the direction of travel is greater than the maximum body length of the vehicle 100 to be measured. In this way, in the case of a vehicle travelling towards the light source, it can be avoided that the foremost part of the vehicle has moved out of the measurement area when the wheel sensor has not yet detected the last wheel of the vehicle; in the case of a vehicle traveling away from the light source, however, it is possible to avoid the rearmost part of the vehicle not yet entering the measurement area when the wheel sensor has detected the foremost wheel of the vehicle.

In one embodiment, the vehicle sensor 4 sends a trigger signal when the wheel 1 of each axle 2 passes the wheel sensor 4, so that the calculation module can determine the number of axles of the vehicle 100 according to the number of times the wheel sensor 4 is triggered, which is determined by the determination module. For example, in the embodiment shown in fig. 2, the vehicle 100 has 5 axles, and the wheel sensor 4 will be triggered 5 times during the passage of the vehicle 100 through the measurement area.

In one embodiment, referring to fig. 1 and 3, the wheel sensor 4 is embedded in the ground 201 of the measurement area 200, and the wheel sensor 4 generates a trigger signal when the wheel 1 of the vehicle 100 passes the wheel sensor 4. Further, a plurality of wheel sensors 4 are arranged in a transverse direction perpendicular to the direction of travel, so that during the passage of the vehicle through the measurement area, it is ensured that a portion of the wheel sensors 4 is pressed by the wheel 1 of the vehicle to generate a trigger signal. For example, the wheel sensor 4 includes a plurality of pressure sensors or a plurality of ground induction coils arranged in the lateral direction.

In one embodiment, referring to fig. 1 and 3, the distance W1 between the mutually corresponding portions of the adjacent two wheel sensors is smaller than the minimum distance between the outer circumferential edges of the two adjacent wheels (tires) 13 and 15 mounted on the same axle 2. With this arrangement, it is possible to ensure that there is at least one wheel sensor 4 between two adjacent wheels (tires) mounted on one side of the same axle, and when the two adjacent wheels pass the wheel sensor 4, the at least one wheel sensor 4 between the two adjacent wheels is not activated and cannot generate a trigger signal, but a plurality of wheel sensors pressed by the wheels (tires) simultaneously generate trigger signals. In this way, the wheel sensors corresponding to the two adjacent wheels are divided into two groups, the judging module is adapted to determine the wheel sensors 4, which are successively arranged in sequence and are simultaneously activated, as one group of the activation sensors 41, and the calculating module is adapted to determine the number of tires on the axle being measured based on the number of groups of the activation sensors 41. Thus, in the case where the vehicle 200 completely passes through the measurement region, the calculation module can calculate the number of all wheels (tires).

In one embodiment, referring to fig. 1 and 3, since the width of the plurality of wheel sensors arranged in the lateral direction themselves, and the spacing between two adjacent wheel sensors, are predetermined, the calculation module can determine the width of one tire (wheel) based on the number of activated wheel sensors in the set of activation sensors 41.

FIG. 4 shows a measurement schematic of a system for measuring vehicle parameters according to another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure; fig. 5 shows a simplified schematic diagram of the arrangement of the optical sensors of the system for measuring vehicle parameters of fig. 4.

In one embodiment, referring to fig. 4 and 5, the wheel sensor 4 is an optical sensor. The optical sensor 4 comprises a first emitter 42 arranged on one side of the measuring area 200 in a transverse direction perpendicular to the direction of travel and adapted to emit a light beam 44, and a first receiver 43 arranged on the other side of the measuring area 200 and adapted to receive the light beam 44 emitted by the first emitter 42. The first emitter 42 is arranged so that at least a portion of the light beam 44 emitted from the first emitter 42 can impinge on the lower portion of the wheel 1 under test, to avoid that the light beam 44 emitted by the first emitter 42 cannot be totally blocked by the casing of the vehicle 100, thereby allowing at least a portion of the light beam 44 to be obscured by the tyre under the wheel 1. The trigger signal is generated on the basis of the event received by the first receiver 43 that the light beam emitted from the first emitter is blocked, and a first corrected distance Li1 in the direction of travel between the vehicle 100 and the light source 4 is calculated.

Further, the determination module is adapted to generate a restoration signal after an event that the light beam 44 is blocked, based on the event that the light beam 44 emitted 42 from the first emitter received by the first receiver 43 is restored to be unblocked. In generating the restoration signal, a second corrected distance Li2 in the traveling direction between the vehicle 100 and the light source 3 is calculated. And taking the average value of the first corrected distance Li1 and the second corrected distance Li2 to obtain the distance Li measured at the ith time.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that during travel of the vehicle 100 within the measurement region 200, wheels 1 mounted on a plurality of axles 2 (e.g., 5 axles are shown in fig. 2) will pass in turn by the wheel sensor 4. Each time the wheel 1 passes the wheel sensor 4, the leading edge of the tyre of the wheel 1 first intercepts the light beam emitted from the first emitter 42, so that the light beam received by the first receiver 43 is reduced, thus generating a trigger signal according to the reduction. Immediately after the wheel 1 passes the wheel sensor 4, the light beam 44 emitted by the first emitter 42 is radiated from the rear edge of the tire of the wheel 1 to the first receiver 43, thereby generating a recovery signal according to the condition of the light beam recovery. The distance Li measured for the ith time is obtained by taking the average value of the first corrected distance Li1 and the second corrected distance Li2, so that the accuracy of the obtained distance between the ith vehicle axle and the light source 3 can be improved.

In particular, with reference to fig. 4 and 5, during the travel of the vehicle 100 towards the light source 3, the first wheel 11 of the vehicle 100 first reaches the wheel sensor 4 at a time t11, the determination module generates a first trigger signal according to the event received by said first receiver 43 that the light beam 44 emitted from said first emitter 42 is blocked, and calculates a first corrected distance L11 associated with the first wheel in the direction of travel between the vehicle 100 and the light source 4 at the time t 11. The decision module generates a first restoration signal at a time t12 following the event of the beam 44 being blocked, according to the event of the first receiver 43 receiving the restoration of the beam 44 emitted 42 from the first emitter to non-blocked, and calculates a second corrected distance L12 associated with the first wheel in the direction of travel between the vehicle 100 and the light source 3 at the time t 12. The calculation module averages the first corrected distance L11 and the second corrected distance L12 to obtain a first measured distance L1 associated with the first wheel,

L1＝(L11+L12)/2

thereafter, the vehicle continues to run, the second wheel 16 of the vehicle 100 reaches the wheel sensor 4 at the time t21, the determination module generates a second trigger signal on the basis of the event received by said first receiver 43 that the light beam 44 emitted from said first emitter 42 is blocked, and calculates a second corrected distance L21 associated with the second wheel in the direction of travel between the vehicle 100 and the light source 4 at the time t 21. The decision module generates a second recovery signal at a time t22 following the event of the beam 44 being blocked, according to the event of the first receiver 43 receiving a recovery of the beam 44 emitted 42 from the first emitter to unblocking, and calculates a second corrected distance Li2 associated with the second wheel in the direction of travel between the vehicle 100 and the light source 3 at the time t 22. The calculation module averages the first corrected distance L11 and the second corrected distance L12 to obtain a first measured distance L2 associated with the second wheel,

L2＝(L21+L22)/2

if the traveling direction of the vehicle is not considered, the distance L12 between the first axle and the second axle is:

L12＝|L2-L1|＝|(L21+L22)/2-(L11+L12)/2|

similarly, the distance L13 between the first and third axles is:

L13＝|L3-L1|＝|(L31+L32)/2-(L11+L12)/2|

Lij＝|Li-Lj|＝|(Li1+Li2)/2-(Lj1+Lj2)/2|

in an alternative embodiment, the first corrected distance Li1 may be taken as the distance Li measured the i-th time if the difference in the outer diameters of all the wheels is not considered. In the case of this situation, it is,

among the n axles, the wheelbase Lij between the ith axle and the jth axle is:

Lij＝|Li-Lj|＝|Li1-Lj1|

in embodiments where the leading and trailing edges of the wheel (tire) are detected using the first transmitter and the first receiver, the system for measuring vehicle parameters may be fixed on the ground and define a measurement area such that the vehicle travels into the measurement area; the system for measuring vehicle parameters can also be mounted on a mobile platform which passes by the side of the vehicle to be detected, so as to realize the measurement of the wheel base between two axles of the vehicle. Since the first transmitter and the first receiver are in contact with the vehicle during detection of the presence of the wheel, the detection mode belongs to non-contact detection of the wheel.

In an embodiment, with reference to fig. 1, the system for measuring vehicle parameters further comprises a light curtain sensor 5 adapted to detect the entry of said vehicle 100 into said measuring area 200 and the exit from said upper measuring area 200, and to generate an entry signal when said vehicle 100 enters said measuring area 200 and an exit signal when said vehicle exits said measuring area 200, said calculation module being adapted to instruct said calculation module to calculate the length of said vehicle 100 depending on said light curtain sensor 5 detecting the entry of said vehicle 100 into said measuring area and the exit from said upper measuring area.

In an exemplary embodiment, the light curtain sensor 5 comprises light curtain emitters arranged in a row and light curtain receivers arranged in a row. The light beams emitted by the array of light curtain emitters form a light curtain radiating in a planar direction. Thus, when the vehicle 200 runs to the light curtain, a part of the light beam of the light curtain is shielded, so that the light beam received by the light curtain receiver is changed and an entering signal is generated, thereby judging that the vehicle enters a designated area. The light source 3 acquires the distance Lf between the forefront of the vehicle and the light source upon receiving the entry signal. When the vehicle 100 continues to run and the rearmost part of the vehicle 200 leaves the light curtain, all light beams of the light curtain are restored to the unblocked state, so that the light beams received by the light curtain receiver are changed again and a leaving signal is generated, thereby judging that the vehicle leaves a designated area. Upon receiving the exit signal, the light source 3 acquires the distance Lr between the rearmost portion of the vehicle and the light source. The calculation module calculates the length of the vehicle 100 as the difference between the distance Lr between the rearmost part of the vehicle and the light source and the distance Lf between the foremost part of the vehicle and the light source.

It is understood that the system for measuring vehicle parameters of the embodiments of the present disclosure further includes a controller controlling the operation of the light source, the wheel sensor, the light curtain sensor, the judging module and the calculating module.

According to an embodiment of another aspect of the present disclosure, referring to fig. 1, 2 and 6, there is provided a method for measuring a vehicle parameter using the system for measuring a vehicle parameter according to any one of the embodiments, including the steps of: the vehicle 100 to be measured enters the measurement area 200 in the traveling direction; emitting a light beam 33 by an emitter 31 of a light source 3 towards the vehicle; judging whether the wheel of the vehicle reaches the wheel sensor 4, and when the wheel 1 of the vehicle reaches the wheel sensor 4, generating a trigger signal by the wheel sensor 4; determining, by the determination module, a distance Ln in the direction of travel between the vehicle 100 and the light source 3 from the reflected light beam reflected from the vehicle 100 received by the receiver 32 of the light source 3 each time the wheel sensor 4 generates the trigger signal, where n is an integer greater than zero; and taking the absolute value of the difference value between the distance Li measured at the ith time and the distance Lj measured at the jth time by the calculation module to obtain the wheelbase Lij between the ith axle and the jth axle, wherein i and j are integers between 1 and n, and i is not equal to j.

In one embodiment, the number of axles 2 of the vehicle is determined according to the number of times the wheel sensor 3 is triggered. The wheel sensors 4 that are successively arranged in sequence and are simultaneously activated are referred to as a set of activation sensors 41, and the number of tires (wheels) on the axle 2 being measured is determined based on the number of sets of activation sensors. The width of one tire (wheel) is determined based on the number of triggered wheel sensors in the set of trigger sensors 41.

In one embodiment, the wheel sensor 4 includes a first transmitter 42 disposed on one side of the measurement area 200 in a lateral direction perpendicular to the travel direction, and a first receiver 43 disposed on the other side of the measurement area. The first emitter 42 is arranged so that at least a part of the light beam 44 emitted from the first emitter can impinge on the lower part of the vehicle 200 under test, to avoid that the light beam 44 emitted by the first emitter 42 cannot be totally blocked by the casing of the vehicle 100, thus allowing at least a part of the light beam 44 to be obscured by the tyres of the lower part of the wheel 1. The trigger signal is generated on the basis of the event received by the first receiver 43 that the light beam 44 emitted from the first emitter 42 is blocked, and a first corrected distance Li1 in the direction of travel between the vehicle 100 and the light source 3 is calculated. The first corrected distance Li1 may be taken as the distance Li measured the ith time. In this embodiment, the wheel sensor may comprise a laser scanner.

In one embodiment, after the event of the beam being blocked, a recovery signal is generated from the event of the beam emitted from the first emitter 42 recovering to non-blocking, received by the first receiver 43, and in generating the recovery signal, a second corrected distance Li2 in the direction of travel between the vehicle and the light source is calculated, the first corrected distance and the second corrected distance being averaged to obtain the distance Li measured the ith time.

In one embodiment, the vehicle is detected by a light curtain sensor entering the measuring area and leaving an upper measuring area; and calculating the length of the vehicle according to the condition that the light curtain sensor detects that the vehicle enters the measuring area and leaves the upper measuring area. Further, it is possible to determine that the last axle of the vehicle has been detected based on the light curtain sensor detecting that the vehicle has left the measurement area, so that the wheel base between any two axles can be calculated.

According to the method for measuring the vehicle parameters and the system for measuring the vehicle parameters of the embodiment of the disclosure, the parameters of the vehicle, such as the wheel base, the tire width, the number of tires, the number of axles and the length of the vehicle body, can be measured during the running of the vehicle, and the traffic efficiency of the vehicle is improved. The vehicle can enter the measuring area in two mutually opposite directions. The vehicle under test may include a sedan, a large truck having a plurality of axles, a container vehicle, etc., and the axle data of the vehicle is obtained while the vehicle is inspected. The laser radar is used for realizing the automatic measurement of the relevant parameters of the moving vehicle; during the measurement process, the device is not influenced by the use environment of the device.

The system for measuring vehicle parameters in the embodiment of the disclosure can be flexibly integrated with other systems such as a speed measuring and positioning system, a length, width and height measuring system and the like, and the axle base and the axle number are measured with the minimum cost. In addition, the system for measuring the vehicle parameters can provide the functions of measuring the wheelbase, the number of axles and the number of wheels for the X-ray vehicle container inspection system, and can better adapt to the change of the charging mode of the toll road from weight-based charging to truck-based charging.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the embodiments described above are exemplary and can be modified by those skilled in the art, and that the structures described in the various embodiments can be freely combined without conflict in structure or principle.

While the present disclosure has been described in connection with the accompanying drawings, the embodiments disclosed in the drawings are intended to be illustrative of the preferred embodiments of the disclosure, and should not be construed as limiting the disclosure. Although a few embodiments of the disclosed inventive concept have been shown and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the general inventive concept, the scope of which is defined in the appended claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. A system for measuring vehicle parameters, comprising:

a measurement area (200) into which a vehicle (100) under test travels in a direction of travel (200);

a light source (3) comprising a transmitter (31) and a receiver (32), said transmitter being adapted to emit a light beam towards said vehicle under test;

the wheel sensor (4) is suitable for generating a trigger signal when the wheel (1) of the vehicle to be detected reaches the wheel sensor (4);

a judging module, adapted to instruct the light source to determine a distance Ln in a traveling direction between the vehicle under test and the light source from a reflected light beam reflected from the vehicle under test received by a receiver of the light source each time the wheel sensor generates the trigger signal, where n is an integer greater than zero; and

a calculation module for obtaining the absolute value of the difference between the distance Li measured at the ith time and the distance Lj measured at the jth time to obtain the wheel base Lij between the ith axle and the jth axle, wherein i and j are integers between 1 and n and i is not equal to j,

wherein the wheel sensor comprises a plurality of pressure sensors or a plurality of ground sensing coils, a part of the wheel sensors are pressed by the wheel of the detected vehicle to generate a trigger signal,

the distance between the mutually corresponding portions of the adjacent two wheel sensors is smaller than the minimum distance between the outer circumferential edges of the two adjacent tires mounted on the same axle, so as to ensure that there is at least one wheel sensor between the two adjacent tires mounted on one side of the same axle,

the determination module is adapted to determine the wheel sensors that are successively arranged in sequence and are simultaneously activated as a set of activation sensors,

the calculation module is adapted to determine the number of tires on the axle being measured from the number of sets of trigger sensors.

2. A system for measuring vehicle parameters according to claim 1, wherein the distance between the light source and the wheel sensor in the direction of travel is greater than the maximum body length of the vehicle under test.

3. The system for measuring vehicle parameters of claim 1, wherein said calculation module determines the number of axles of said vehicle under test based on the number of times said wheel sensor is triggered as determined by said determination module.

4. A system for measuring vehicle parameters according to any of claims 1-3, wherein the wheel sensors are buried in the ground of the measurement area, the wheel sensors generating a trigger signal when a wheel of the vehicle under test passes the wheel sensors.

5. The system for measuring vehicle parameters of claim 4, wherein a plurality of wheel sensors are arranged in a lateral direction perpendicular to the direction of travel.

6. A system for measuring vehicle parameters according to claim 1, wherein said calculation module is adapted to determine the width of a tire based on the number of triggered wheel sensors in a set of trigger sensors.

7. A system for measuring vehicle parameters according to any of claims 1-3, wherein the wheel sensors are optical sensors.

8. The system of measuring vehicle parameters of claim 7, wherein said optical sensor comprises a first transmitter disposed on one side of said measurement area in a lateral direction perpendicular to said direction of travel and a first receiver disposed on the other side of said measurement area,

the emitters are arranged such that at least a portion of the light beam emitted from the first emitter can impinge on the lower portion of the vehicle under test,

the trigger signal is generated according to the event that the light beam emitted from the emitter is blocked and received by the first receiver, and a first correction distance Li1 between the vehicle to be measured and the light source in the traveling direction is calculated.

9. The system for measuring vehicle parameters of claim 8, wherein the judging module is adapted to generate a recovery signal according to the event of the first receiver receiving the light beam emitted from the emitter recovering to being unobstructed after the event of the light beam being obstructed and to calculate a second corrected distance Li2 between the vehicle under test and the light source in the traveling direction,

the calculation module is suitable for taking the average value of the first correction distance and the second correction distance to obtain the distance Li measured in the ith time.

10. A system for measuring vehicle parameters according to any of claims 1-3, further comprising a light curtain sensor adapted to detect the entry and exit of the vehicle under test into and out of the upper measurement zone;

the judging module is suitable for indicating the calculating module to calculate the length of the vehicle to be measured according to the fact that the light curtain sensor detects that the vehicle to be measured enters the measuring area and leaves the measuring area.

11. A method of measuring a vehicle parameter using the system for measuring a vehicle parameter of claim 1, comprising the steps of:

the vehicle (100) to be measured enters the measuring area (200) in the traveling direction;

emitting a light beam to the vehicle to be detected by a transmitter of a light source (3);

when a wheel (1) of a vehicle to be detected reaches a wheel sensor (4), the wheel sensor generates a trigger signal;

determining a distance Ln in a traveling direction between the vehicle under test and the light source from a reflected light beam reflected from the vehicle under test received by the receiver of the light source each time the wheel sensor generates the trigger signal, where n is an integer greater than zero; and

taking the absolute value of the difference between the distance Li measured at the ith time and the distance Lj measured at the jth time to obtain the wheel base Lij between the ith axle and the jth axle, wherein i and j are integers between 1 and n and i is not equal to j,

the wheel sensors that are successively arranged in sequence and are simultaneously activated are referred to as a set of activation sensors, and the number of tires on the axle being measured is determined based on the number of sets of activation sensors.

12. The method of measuring vehicle parameters of claim 11, wherein the number of axles of the vehicle is determined according to the number of times the wheel sensor is triggered.

13. The method of measuring vehicle parameters of claim 11, wherein the width of a tire is determined based on the number of triggered wheel sensors in a set of trigger sensors.

14. The method of measuring vehicle parameters of claim 11, wherein said wheel sensors comprise a first transmitter disposed on one side of said measurement area in a lateral direction perpendicular to said direction of travel and a first receiver disposed on the other side of said measurement area,

the first emitter is disposed so that at least a part of the light beam emitted from the first emitter can be irradiated on a lower portion of the vehicle under test,

the trigger signal is generated on the basis of the event received by the first receiver that the light beam emitted from the first emitter is blocked, and a first corrected distance Li1 in the direction of travel between the vehicle under test and the light source is calculated.

15. The method of measuring vehicle parameters according to claim 14, wherein the first corrected distance Li1 is taken as the distance Li measured the ith time.

16. The method of measuring vehicle parameters of claim 14, wherein, after an event that a light beam is occluded, generating a restoration signal based on the event that the first receiver receives a restoration to an unoccluded light beam emitted from the first emitter,

calculating a second corrected distance Li2 in the traveling direction between the vehicle under test and the light source when the recovery signal is generated,

and taking the average value of the first correction distance and the second correction distance to obtain the distance Li measured in the ith time.

17. The method of measuring vehicle parameters of any of claims 11-16, wherein the vehicle under test is detected entering and leaving the measurement area with a light curtain sensor; and

and calculating the length of the vehicle to be measured according to the fact that the light curtain sensor detects that the vehicle to be measured enters the measuring area and leaves the upper measuring area.

18. The method of measuring vehicle parameters of claim 17, wherein it is determined that the last axle of the vehicle under test has been detected based on a light curtain sensor detecting that the vehicle under test leaves the measurement area.