JP2002077055A - Optical beacon transmitter-receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an optical beacon transmitter-receiver that requires no special facility and location and can simply be subjected to automatic connection diagnosis. SOLUTION: The optical beacon transmitter-receiver, that is used for the Vehicle Information and Communication System(VICS) where information by means of an optical signal is used for communication between vehicles and optical beacon on-road units placed on roads, is provided with a light transmission section 1 that transmits an optical signal, a light receiving section 2 that receives the optical signal and converts it into an electric signal, an analog/ digital converter 8 and a control section 6 that receives a leakage of the optical signal transmitted from the light transmission section 1 when the optical beacon transmitter-receiver is in operation through the light receiving section and the analog/digital converter 8 so as to conduct the connection diagnosis.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical beacon transceiver for a road traffic information communication system (VICS) which is built in or connected to an on-vehicle navigation device, and more particularly to an automatic connection diagnosis which can be performed. Optical beacon transceiver.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Various types of information such as current location and destination guidance, parking lot guidance, traffic congestion, traffic regulation, news, weather forecasts, etc. are provided to vehicles by radio communication of quasi-microwave beacons, optical beacons, and FM multiplex broadcasting. Traffic information communication system (VICS = Vehicl) that enables a driver to travel on an accurate route to a destination while comprehensively judging various information.
e Information and Communication System) has been put to practical use. Among these, the optical beacon employs a communication method using infrared rays as a medium, and an optical beacon road machine having an optical vehicle detector and an optical signal transmitting and receiving unit is installed at intervals above the road. Have been. When the passing vehicle approaches the communication area of the vehicle detector, downlink is performed for transmitting various information from the light transmitting and receiving unit of the optical beacon roadside device to the light receiving unit of the onboard optical beacon transceiver.
Various types of information obtained by this downlink include traffic congestion information, section travel time information, event regulation information, parking lot information, and the like included in a range from about 30 km ahead to about 1 km behind.

[0003] In addition, by linking the traveling beacon to the optical beacon road machine with an ID number for vehicle identification and travel time measurement information measured by the on-vehicle machine, the link travel time can be measured with high accuracy. Thus, it is possible to obtain traffic jam time information necessary for guiding a route by an on-vehicle navigation device.

[0004]

By the way, in order to diagnose whether or not the optical beacon transceiver is properly connected, for example, conventionally, the following has been performed. First, a downlink signal from the optical beacon road unit is acquired by another system, and a pseudo signal generator for generating a pseudo signal having the same content as the downlink data transmitted from the optical beacon road device based on this is prepared. The method of diagnosing the operation of the optical beacon transceiver using the pseudo signal transmitted from the pseudo signal generator, or actually driving the vehicle equipped with the optical beacon transceiver under the optical beacon on the road. I was going.

[0005] However, in order to perform a diagnosis by the above-described method, it is necessary to prepare a pseudo signal generator for generating a pseudo signal having the same content as the downlink data transmitted from the optical beacon road machine. There was a trouble that the optical beacon transceiver had to be mounted on the vehicle.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve these problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an optical beacon transceiver capable of automatically and easily performing connection diagnosis without requiring special equipment and space. To provide.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a road traffic information communication system (V) for transmitting information using an optical signal to and from an optical beacon on the road is provided.
In an optical beacon transceiver used for ICS), a light transmitting unit that transmits an optical signal, a light receiving unit that receives an optical signal and converts it into an electric signal, and an A / D converter that converts the electric signal into a digital signal are provided. And a control unit for performing connection diagnosis by receiving leakage of the optical signal transmitted from the light transmitting unit when the optical beacon transceiver operates, via the light receiving unit and the A / D converter.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An optical beacon transceiver according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. Here, FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an optical beacon transceiver which realizes the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining an operation of a connection diagnostic method of the optical beacon transceiver of the present invention.

First, the configuration of an optical beacon transceiver for realizing the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. This optical beacon transceiver is a device for receiving various desired information from an optical beacon road device (not shown) provided in an upper space of a road according to a predetermined communication protocol, and includes a light transmitting unit 1 and a light receiving unit 2. , A light emission driver 3, a reception amplifier 4, a signal processing unit 5, a control unit 6, a storage unit 7, and an A / D converter 8.

The light transmitting section 1 is usually arranged along with the light receiving section 2 on the dashboard of the vehicle, and is connected to an optical beacon transmitter / receiver I / O toward a road beacon provided in an upper space on the road.
D and so on.

Although not shown, the optical beacon roadside device has an optical vehicle sensor and an optical signal transmitting / receiving unit, and a light transmitting unit 1 and a light receiving unit of the optical beacon transceiver. 2 for transmitting and receiving optical signals to and from the VICS center and transmitting information to the vehicle. The light receiving section 2 is for receiving an optical signal transmitted from an optical beacon roadside device, and is connected to a signal processing section via a receiving amplifier 4. The receiving amplifier 4 is for amplifying a signal received by the light receiving section 2.
The light receiving unit 2 is installed on the dashboard of the vehicle, similarly to the light transmitting unit 1. Since the light receiving unit 2 is provided adjacent to the light transmitting unit 1, the optical signal transmitted from the light transmitting unit 1 leaks and is also received by the light receiving unit 2.

The signal processing unit 5 reads VICS information (for example, traffic congestion information and traffic regulation information) from the optical signal received by the light receiving unit 2, and transmits the optical beacon transceiver via the light emitting driver 3 and the light transmitting unit 1. This is for sending an ID or the like. Here, the light emitting driver 3 controls the light transmitting unit 1 to transmit each signal. The signal processing unit 5 is connected to a navigation device (not shown), and detects the detected VICS.
The information is output to the navigation device. The navigation device uses the VICS information to change the guidance route and to display traffic congestion information. And the signal processing unit 5
Has an uplink signal control unit 9 and a downlink reception processing unit 10 for encoding / decoding a signal to be transmitted / received. The signal processing unit 5 is connected to the control unit 6 and the receiving amplifier 4.

The uplink transmission processing section 9 is for transmitting the ID of the optical beacon transceiver input from the control section 6 to be described later, and the like.
It is connected to the. Then, the signal input from the control unit 6 is Manchester encoded and output in the uplink transmission processing unit 9, and transmitted to the optical beacon roadside device via the light emitting driver 3 and the light transmitting unit 1.

The downlink reception processing unit 10 is for reading out a signal transmitted from the beacon road device, and is connected to the light receiving unit 2 via the reception amplifier 4. Then, the optical signal transmitted from the beacon road device and received by the light receiving unit 2 is input to the downlink reception processing unit 10 via the reception amplifier 4, and the information transmitted from the beacon road device is read. I have.

The A / D converter 8 converts the electric signal received by the light receiving section 2 and input through the receiving amplifier 4 into a digital signal, and the control section 6 detects the received voltage. It is connected to the receiving amplifier 4 and the control unit 6.

The output signal output from the signal processing unit 5 via the light transmitting unit 1 is transmitted at 64 kbps.
The signal transmitted from the optical beacon road machine is 1024 kbp
s. For this reason, the downlink reception processing unit 1
In the case of 0, even if the transmission signal output from the light transmitting unit 1 is leaked and received by the light receiving unit 2, it cannot be determined what data has been received. Therefore, the A / D converter 8 is provided between the signal processing unit 5 and the light receiving unit 2 to detect only the reception voltage of the received signal, and whether the connection between the light transmitting unit 1 and the light receiving unit 2 is disconnected. You can check.

Here, the operation of the optical beacon transceiver of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, when the optical beacon transceiver of the present invention starts operating, the signal processing unit 5 sends out an optical signal from the light transmitting unit 1 (step 10).
1). The optical signal transmitted from the light transmitting unit 1 is
The light leaks and is received by the light receiving unit 2 (step 102).

Next, the optical signal leaked from the light transmitting unit 1 and received by the light receiving unit 2 is converted into an electric signal, and input to the signal processing unit 5 and the A / D converter 8 via the receiving amplifier 4. (Step 103). Then, the analog signal input to the A / D converter 8 in step 103 is A / D
The signal is converted into a digital signal by the D converter 8 (step 104) and input to the control unit 6. Control unit 6
Detects that the optical signal is received by the light receiving section 2 by detecting this digital signal (step 10).
5). Therefore, in this step 105, the optical signal is
It is possible to confirm that the light transmission unit 1 and the uplink signal control unit 9 and the light reception unit 2 and the downlink reception control unit 10 are not disconnected by detecting that the light is received.

As described above, in an optical beacon transceiver used in a road traffic information communication system (VICS) for transmitting information using an optical signal to and from an optical beacon on the road provided on the road, A light transmitting unit that transmits a signal, a light receiving unit that receives an optical signal and converts the signal into an electric signal, and an A / D converter that converts the electric signal into a digital signal. A control unit that performs connection diagnosis by receiving leakage of an optical signal transmitted from the light transmitting unit via the light receiving unit and the A / D converter is provided, so that connection can be performed without requiring special equipment or space. An optical beacon signal transceiver capable of performing a diagnosis can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an optical beacon signal transceiver that implements the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the optical beacon signal transceiver diagnosis method of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 light transmitting unit 2 light receiving unit 3 light emitting driver 4 receiving amplifier 5 signal processing unit 6 control unit 7 storage unit 8 A / D converter 9 uplink signal control unit 10 downlink reception control unit

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) // G08G 1/09

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An optical beacon transceiver for use in a road traffic information communication system (VICS) for transmitting information using an optical signal to and from an optical beacon on the road provided on the road. An optical unit, a light receiving unit for receiving the optical signal and converting the electrical signal into an electric signal, and an A / D converter for converting the electric signal into a digital signal; An optical beacon signal transceiver, comprising: a control unit that performs connection diagnosis by receiving leakage of an optical signal transmitted from a unit via the light receiving unit and the A / D converter.