JP2007328521A - Device for providing information on each lane - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem that a lane detecting means has to be newly arranged at the approach side of an intersection when different pieces of information are provided to vehicles by each lane for different destinations at the intersection, for example, though an optical beacon exists as the existing lane detecting means but the optical beacon is normally arranged at the leaving side of the intersection so as not to be used as it is. <P>SOLUTION: The lane of the vehicle at the intersection is recognized with the use of a lane position detecting device arranged at the leaving side of the adjacent intersection, for example, so as to specify the travel lane of the vehicle, and a lane change detecting device for subsequently detecting lane change between a lane detection spot and the intersection. The information are provided from a DSRC arranged at the intersection, based on the lane information. Accordingly, the information are provided by each lane with the use of the existing optical beacon in the upstream and the DSRC radio apparatus arranged at the intersection, without newly arranging the optical beacon in the approach part of the intersection. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a lane-specific information providing apparatus for providing a vehicle traveling on a road with lane-specific information corresponding to the travel lane.

  VICS (Road Traffic Information Communication System) has been put into practical use as a device that provides various types of information to automobiles traveling on the road, such as the degree of congestion ahead of the road that the vehicle is going to go. Various information including information is provided. In VICS currently put into practical use, there are communication means using FM radio waves, those using 2.4 GHz radio beacons, and those using optical beacons. Among these, those using optical beacons can narrow the communication area to, for example, about the lane width, and can transmit and receive different information for each lane. Since the destination of this vehicle is completely different and the information to be provided differs depending on whether the vehicle is in a straight lane, right turn lane, or left turn lane at intersections, etc., technology that provides different information for each lane is an essential technology . However, since conventional optical beacons are used mainly for vehicle travel time measurement, that is, speed measurement and number measurement of passing vehicles, the installation location is installed near the exit of the intersection (downstream side). In many cases, it cannot be used for information distribution to vehicles entering an intersection. Needless to say, it is too late to obtain the destination information after passing the intersection (including turning left and right), and it is desirable that the information be distributed before passing the intersection.

  On the other hand, as a communication device capable of new high-speed and large-capacity communication, DSRC (narrow band wireless communication) wireless devices used in ETC (automatic toll collection system) are installed at intersections to provide safety support information to vehicles What to do is also devised. For example, in the device disclosed in FIG. 7 of Patent Document 1, a DSRC antenna is installed at the center of the intersection. In this case, compared to the above-mentioned optical beacon, information can be provided over a wide area covering the entire intersection, and information can also be distributed to vehicles before entering the intersection, but this alone distributes information by lane. I can't do it. In order to distribute information by lane, it is necessary to newly install an optical beacon so that the communication area of the optical beacon (by lane) overlaps the DSRC communication area as disclosed in FIG. was there.

In this way, with VICS using conventional optical beacons, it is difficult to distribute information before entering an intersection even though it can handle information by lane, and with conventional DSRC, it is also possible to apply to vehicles before entering the intersection. While information can be distributed, there is a problem that it is difficult to distribute information by lane.
JP 2006-72613 A JP-A-2005-135015

  As described above, in order to provide information for each lane when approaching an intersection, the conventional technology has to newly install an optical beacon near the entrance of the intersection, which requires a large amount of cost. There was a problem to do.

  The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems, utilizes an existing optical beacon installed on the exit side (downstream side) of the intersection, and combines this with DSRC provided at the intersection, so that it is inexpensive information by lane An object is to provide a providing device.

A lane-specific information providing device of the present invention is a communication device that is installed at a specific point on a road having a plurality of lanes and communicates information by lane to a vehicle traveling on the road,
A lane position detection device that is installed at a point different from the specific point of the road and specifies a traveling lane of a vehicle traveling on the road toward the specific point;
A lane change detection device for detecting a lane change while reaching a specific point of a vehicle that has passed a point where the lane position detection device is installed;
A lane recognition device for certifying a lane at the specific point of the vehicle based on a detection result of the lane position detection device and a detection result of the lane change detection device;
An information providing vehicle-mounted device that is mounted on the vehicle and that selects and provides information related to the vehicle traveling in the specified lane from the information for each lane based on the result of the lane recognition device. It is.

The lane-specific information providing device of the present invention is installed on the exit side of the intersection (B) upstream of the intersection without installing a new optical beacon at the entrance of the intersection (A) where the information should be provided. Based on the information of the existing optical beacon, the lane position detection device that identifies the vehicle lane at the intersection (B) and the lane change operation from the intersection (B) to the intersection (A) are detected. The lane change detection device that determines the lane of the vehicle entering the intersection (A) is determined.
Based on this determination, the adaptive information is selected from the information including the lane-specific information received from the DSRC radio apparatus. By using an existing optical beacon, an inexpensive lane-specific information providing apparatus can be obtained.

The lane-specific information providing apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
Embodiment 1 FIG.
First, how the lane-by-lane information providing device of the present invention is arranged on a road will be described with reference to FIG. 1, and the positional relationship of vehicles for explaining an operation example will be described in advance. FIG. 1 is an installation example diagram of a lane-specific information providing apparatus. A case where there is an intersection A and an intersection B on a road 1 having a plurality of lanes (two lanes on one side in FIG. 1) will be described. An intersection A is an intersection where a DSRC antenna 201 is installed in the center and can perform DSRC communication. The intersection B is another intersection existing on the upstream side of the road 1 from the intersection A.
The vehicle 400 equipped with the information providing vehicle-mounted device 300 has a vehicle position 401 (in the intersection B), 402 (between the intersections B and A), and 403 (entrance of the intersection A) at time 1, time 2, and time 3, respectively. It shall be in A first lane optical beacon 101 and a second lane optical beacon 102 are installed on an existing installation pole 104 installed on a road from intersection B. When a vehicle equipped with the information providing vehicle-mounted device 300 enters the optical beacon communication area 105 of the first lane at the position 401 at time 1, the vehicle 400 passes through the first lane by receiving lane information by optical communication. I understand that.

Next, FIG. 2 shows the overall configuration of the lane-specific information providing apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention.
The optical beacon 100 is installed at the intersection B as described with reference to FIG. In the present embodiment, an example is shown in which the vehicle is installed on a two-lane road on one side, and includes a first lane light beacon 101 and a second lane light beacon 102. Also included is an optical beacon control device 103 that is connected to the network 204 and exchanges information. However, the optical beacon control device 103 may be individually incorporated in the first lane optical beacon 101 and the second lane optical beacon 102 and connected to the network 204.

The DSRC radio apparatus 200 is connected to the network 204 and installed at the intersection A, and includes a DSRC antenna 201, a DSRC communication control apparatus 202, and an information providing server 203. The information providing server 203 distributes information through the network 204 and may be installed outside the DSRC radio apparatus 200.
As will be described later with reference to FIG. 2, the information providing vehicle-mounted device 300 is a portion mounted on the vehicle 400, and includes an optical transmission / reception element 301 for performing optical communication, a communication device 302, and a lane position detection device 303. While receiving information distributed from the optical beacon 100, the lane position can be detected by communication. A white line recognition camera 304 is connected to the information providing vehicle-mounted device 300, and is connected to a lane change detection device 305 that determines whether or not the target vehicle being detected has changed the lane. Further, the information providing device 300 compares the DSRC antenna 306 and the DSRC communication device 307 for receiving the DSRC, the lane instruction information included in the received information, and the lane determined by the lane change detection device 305 for each lane. An information display / reproduction device 309 that displays and reproduces the lane-specific provision information selected by the information provision determination device 308 is included. The DSRC communication device 307 is a communication device according to the present invention.

Although FIG. 2 shows a configuration in which each element is integrated, each element may be separated in a separate housing.
Next, how the lane-specific information providing apparatus of the present invention operates on a road will be described with reference to FIGS.
As described above, the vehicle 400 equipped with the information providing vehicle-mounted device 300 has the vehicle positions 401 (in the intersection B), 402 (between the intersections B and A), 403 (intersections) at time 1, time 2, and time 3, respectively. It shall be at the entrance of A). A first lane light beacon 101 and a second lane light beacon 102 are installed on an existing installation pole 104 on the exit side from the intersection B upstream of the target intersection A. When a vehicle equipped with the information providing vehicle-mounted device 300 enters the optical beacon communication area 105 of the first lane at the position 401 at time 1, the information providing vehicle-mounted device 300 receives the ID of the optical beacon by optical communication. By receiving this lane information, it can be seen that the vehicle 400 has passed through the first lane. The ID information of the optical beacon used for lane detection is held in the information providing vehicle-mounted device 300. This information is also transmitted to the DSRC radio apparatus 200 through the network 204.

Next, the vehicle 400 changes the lane at the vehicle position 402 at time 2 and enters a state of straddling the white line. At this time, from the image of the position of the white line taken by the white line recognition camera 304, this image is analyzed and it is determined whether or not the lane change is detected by the lane change detection device 305 (whether or not the white line has been exceeded) and then it is recognized that it has exceeded In this case, in this example, the lane information detected and held at time 1 is changed from the first lane to the second lane (performed by a lane recognition device not shown) and stored again. The video analysis is performed by a determination device (not shown). If the white line on the road is dirty and cannot be detected sufficiently and it is difficult to detect the movement of the lane, the lane information is cleared. In addition, if the lane change is expected by turn signal operation by inputting the operation information (turn signal information) of the direction indicator, the threshold for determining the lane change (analysis reference value for the image of the white line) is lowered. When the turn signal is not being operated, the threshold value (same as above) for determining that the lane has been changed is raised. For example, when the vehicle is temporarily crossing the lane when avoiding a bicycle, it is determined that the lane has been changed. You may make it prevent a malfunction.
In addition, although it demonstrated that the said determination apparatus determined whether it exceeded the white line, in the case of a two-lane road with only one white line, this may be sufficient. I cannot determine which lane I moved to. Therefore, a lane change direction determination device (not shown) may be used to determine the direction beyond the white line (whether it has exceeded the right side, the left side, or the side). In this case, it goes without saying that the white line recognition cameras 304 should be provided on the left and right sides of the vehicle, or two white lines should be photographed by one unit so that image processing can be performed.

  The vehicle 400 enters the DSRC communication area 205 at the vehicle position 403 at time 3. In this example, the DSRC antenna 201 is installed above the center of the intersection, and can be distributed around 360 degrees. When the vehicle position is 403, the DSRC radio apparatus 200 transmits information including lane-specific information regarding all lanes. The information providing vehicle-mounted device 300 selects information stored in the lane corresponding to the current lane stored from the information on all received lanes, in this example, the information distributed to the second lane. The information display / reproduction device 309 provides the information to the driver.

3, 4, and 5 are format examples of lane-specific information sent from the DSRC radio apparatus 200. The lane-specific information includes lane information 501, optical beacon information 502, and distribution information 503. In this example, the lane information 501 is coded to indicate eight lanes including the lane information including information outside the lane. In order to classify a specific 8 lane, 3 bits may be used, but 8 bits are assigned in consideration of distribution by designating a plurality of lanes. For example, in order to deliver to the 1st lane and the 2nd lane on the road of 3 lanes, it can deliver to the 1st lane and the 2nd lane by setting the 1st bit and the 2nd bit. Also, by assigning the 0th bit to the lane outside the 1st lane (left side in Japan) as the 0th lane, and assigning the 7th bit to the lane outside the 6th lane (right side in Japan), the lane is temporarily at the intersection. The information can be distributed to the vehicle even when the number increases. If all bits are set, information can be distributed to vehicles in all lanes.
FIG. 4 is an example in which information is distributed to vehicles on the first and second lanes on a three-lane road on one side. FIG. 5 shows an example of delivery to vehicles in the third and fourth lanes when a right turn lane is added to a four-lane road on a three-lane road on one side.
In the optical beacon information 502, an ID that is a number assigned to each optical beacon whose lane is detected is indicated. If the distributed optical beacon information 502 matches the ID of the optical beacon used for lane detection, lane-specific information is provided to the driver. If the IDs do not match, it indicates that the vehicle has entered the intersection from another direction, and in this case, no information is provided to the driver.

Embodiment 2. FIG.
FIG. 4 shows the overall configuration of Embodiment 2 of the lane-specific information providing apparatus of the present invention. Compared to the first embodiment, a high-accuracy GPS antenna 310, a high-accuracy GPS position calculation device 311 and a high-accuracy including lane information corresponding to a satellite that can obtain a higher positional accuracy than conventional GPS, such as a quasi-zenith satellite. Map data 312 and an orientation sensor 313 are added. In the present embodiment, the high-precision GPS (including the high-precision GPS antenna 310 and the high-precision GPS position calculation device 311) and the high-precision map data 312 including the lane information are used. By determining which lane the host vehicle is driving, the lane can be determined even in a place where no optical beacon is installed. In addition, since the azimuth sensor 313 using a geomagnetic sensor or a gyro is mounted, the lane can be recognized quickly even when the traveling direction suddenly changes such as when turning right or left.

  In the state where the radio wave from the satellite cannot be received under an overpass or the like, the lane information held at the time of detecting the lane is detected by the white line recognition camera 304 and the lane change detection device 305, and the lane information is detected by the lane change detection device 305. Since it is updated, it is possible to identify the lane even if the radio wave from the satellite cannot be received when entering the intersection. Since the following operations are the same as those in the first embodiment, description thereof is omitted.

Embodiment 3 FIG.
In the first and second embodiments, the example in which DSRC communication is performed at the intersection A has been described. However, this is not necessarily an intersection, for example, a highway branch point, a branch point from a highway to a rampway, The present invention can be applied to any point where it is meaningful to provide information by lane, such as an entrance to a highway, and an existing optical beacon is installed on the upstream side.
Further, in the present invention, there is an economic effect in that an existing optical beacon is used, but it goes without saying that it is functionally equivalent even if it is not existing or newly installed. Needless to say, in the case of a new installation, this optical beacon can also be used for the purpose of installing a conventional optical beacon. In addition, ultrasonic beacons can be used as long as they can identify lanes.

  The lane-specific information providing apparatus of the present invention can be used not only for vehicles traveling on roads but also for guidance in parking lots and factories.

It is a figure explaining the installation example of the information provision apparatus classified by lane of Embodiment 1. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a lane-specific information providing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. It is an example of a direction information format. It is an example of a direction information format. It is an example of a direction information format. It is a block diagram of the information provision apparatus according to lane of Embodiment 2 of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

1 road, A intersection, B intersection,
100 optical beacons, 101 first lane optical beacons,
102 optical beacon for the second lane, 103 optical beacon control device,
104 installation pole, 105 optical beacon communication area,
201 DSRC antenna, 202 DSRC communication control device,
203 information providing server, 204 network,
205 DSRC communication area, 300 information-providing vehicle-mounted device,
301 optical transmission / reception element, 302 optical communication device,
303 lane position detection device, 304 white line recognition camera,
305 Lane change detection device, 306 DSRC antenna,
307 DSRC communication device, 308 Information provision judgment device by lane,
309 information display / reproduction device, 310 high-precision GPS antenna,
311 high-precision GPS position calculation device, 312 high-precision map data,
313 direction sensor, 400 vehicle, 401 vehicle position at time 1
402 vehicle position at time 2, 403 time 3, 501 lane information,
502 Optical beacon information, 503 delivery information.

Claims (8)

A communication device that is installed at a specific point on a road having a plurality of lanes and communicates information for each lane to a vehicle traveling on the road;
A lane position detection device that is installed at a point different from the specific point of the road and detects a traveling lane of a vehicle traveling on the road toward the specific point;
A lane change detection device for detecting a lane change while reaching a specific point of a vehicle that has passed a point where the lane position detection device is installed;
A lane recognition device for certifying a lane at the specific point of the vehicle based on a detection result of the lane position detection device and a detection result of the lane change detection device;
An information providing vehicle-mounted device that is mounted on the vehicle and that selects and provides information related to the vehicle traveling in the certified lane from the information for each lane based on the certification result of the lane certification device. A lane-specific information providing device.   2. The lane-specific information providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the lane position detecting means uses an optical beacon installed on the road.   2. The lane-specific information providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the lane position detecting means uses a high-accuracy position measuring device using a satellite and a high-accuracy map including lane information.   The lane change detection device includes a camera that captures a positional relationship between a white line that divides a lane on the road and the vehicle, and an image captured by the camera, and the vehicle changes the lane beyond the white line. The lane-specific information providing device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein a determination device that determines whether or not the vehicle is used.   The lane change detection device includes a camera that captures a positional relationship between a white line that divides a lane on the road and the vehicle, and an image captured by the camera that analyzes the image that the vehicle exceeds the white line. The lane-specific information providing device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein a lane change direction determining device that determines which lane the lane is changed from to the lane is used. .   5. The lane-specific information provision according to claim 4, wherein the determination device has an image reference for recognizing the white line, and the image reference is changed based on an operation signal of a direction indicator of the vehicle. apparatus.   The lane change detection device has an image reference for recognizing a positional relationship between the white line and the vehicle, and the image reference is changed based on an operation signal of a direction indicator of the vehicle. The lane-specific information providing device according to claim 5.   The lane-specific information providing device according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the communication device is a narrow-range wireless communication device.

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