JP2008059493A - Intersection nonstop vehicle travel control method for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To simplify a so-called intersection nonstop vehicle travel control system in which travelling conditions for passing an intersection nonstop on a green light are presented to a vehicle that has passed a specific point on the upstream of the intersection and is travelling toward the intersection, and the vehicle to which the conditions have been presented travels to the intersection on the travelling conditions and passes the intersection nonstop, and increase the feasibility of the system. <P>SOLUTION: Position specification is performed periodically in a vehicle and the result is transmitted to a vehicle travelling control center together with an ID of the vehicle. The vehicle travelling control center that has received the information of the position judges whether or not the position of the vehicle has reached the specific point for starting the intersection nonstop travel control which is determined for each intersection and each direction beforehand. When it judges that the position has reached the specific point, computes the intersection nonstop travel conditions and transmits them to the vehicle. The vehicle travels to the intersection and passes the intersection nonstop under the travelling conditions transmitted or the modified travelling conditions that are obtained by modifying the transmitted travel conditions with the time that has elapsed from the passing of the specific point, and the travel distance. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention significantly reduces the number of stops and stop time at the intersection red light of the vehicle, thereby reducing vehicle exhaust gas, reducing fuel consumption, and enabling stable and safe driving of the vehicle around the intersection. The present invention relates to a traveling control method.

  "Intersection non-stop traveling control system" has been proposed as a measure to reduce the number of stops and stop time by red traffic lights at vehicle intersections. This presents the driving conditions for a vehicle passing through a certain distance before the intersection toward the intersection from the road side so that the vehicle can pass through the intersection without a green light stop. It is a system that travels to an intersection and passes through the intersection without stopping.

JP 2003-056376 A JP 2006-031573 A Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-063217

  However, in the “intersection non-stop traveling control system”, four road condition calculation and vehicle side devices for reporting to each vehicle at each intersection, and a device for receiving information from the road side system on the vehicle side, for example, There is a big problem for the spread of the system that a road-to-vehicle communication vehicle-mounted device is required.

  The present invention is intended to alleviate the above problems and facilitate the realization and popularization of the “intersection non-stop traveling control system”.

The basic principle of the present invention is the same as the “intersection non-stop traveling control system” shown in Patent Document 2 and Patent Document 3 described above.
That is, for a vehicle passing a point A upstream from the intersection B by a distance L, the vehicle travels in the same direction before and after the vehicle and travels without changing its traveling order and passes the next intersection B with a green light. Travel condition information for the vehicle, point A passage time information of the vehicle, signal form information such as signal period and traffic light blinking time of traffic signal installed at intersection B, point A-intersection B distance L information, point A -Calculated from the maximum travel speed Vmax information allowed for traveling between the intersections B and reporting the calculation result to the vehicle, and the vehicle that received the report travels to the next intersection B under the reported travel conditions. Pass B without stopping.

First, the basic concept of the “intersection non-stop traveling control system” will be described below.
To realize this “intersection non-stop traveling control system”, the signal cycle or green signal of each traffic signal or the traffic signal to be controlled in the traffic control center that controls the traffic signals in the control area in the future It is premised that the signal form information such as the blinking time can be grasped from the past signal state change or from a preset equation for signal state control.

Under the above-mentioned preconditions, for a vehicle passing a point A at a certain distance L from the intersection B, a vehicle traveling in the same direction before and after the vehicle and the next intersection B with a green signal without changing the traveling order The driving conditions for passing are the point A passing time information of the vehicle, the signal form information such as the signal period of the traffic signal installed at the intersection B and the blinking time of the green light, and the distance L information between the point A and the intersection B. And the maximum traveling speed Vmax information allowed for traveling between the point A and the intersection B, and the calculation result is reported to the vehicle.
The vehicle that has received the report travels to the next intersection B under the travel conditions for which the report has been received.

  By this control, all vehicles traveling from the point A to the intersection B can pass through the intersection B with a green light. By carrying out this control for all intersections in the control area of the traffic control center in each direction for each intersection, as long as the traffic capacity of the road does not become insufficient, all vehicles traveling within the control area will have no intersection in the control area. You will be able to run at a stop.

Next, the rationality of the basic concept will be described with reference to FIG.
In FIG. 1, it is assumed that the vehicle passes a point A and heads for the next intersection B, and the distance between the point A and the intersection B is L. The signal period of the vehicle traveling direction signal at the next intersection B is Tp, the green signal duration is Tg, and the red and yellow signal durations are Tn.

  In addition, the traffic signal in the direction from the point A to the intersection B is turned on at time tb1, tb3,..., And is turned off at times tb2, tb4,. The maximum allowable traveling speed between point A and intersection B is Vmax.

  Next, consider the time at point A. The time before the time Tmin from the time tb4 is ta4, and the time before the signal period Tp from the time ta4 is ta2. Here, if the time Tmin is the time required when the vehicle travels between the point A and the intersection B at the maximum allowable traveling speed Vmax, the time Tmin is expressed by (Equation 1), and the time ta4 is the time when the vehicle passes the intersection B at the green time. This is the final passing time of point A for passing during the time Tg between tb3 and tb4.

  Further, the vehicle that has passed the point A at the time ta2 before the signal period Tp from the time ta4 is made to reach the intersection B at the time tb3, that is, immediately after the green light at the intersection B is turned on. That is, a vehicle that has passed through point A during a period of traffic signal at time Tp between times ta2 and ta4 passes through intersection B during a green light at time Tg between times tb3 and tb4. All vehicles passing through A and heading for intersection B can pass through intersection B without stopping during the green light.

  Next, a vehicle that has passed point A at an arbitrary time ta between time ta2 and ta4 is overtaken or overtaken by a vehicle that travels in the same direction without changing its traveling order and its traveling order. In order to pass the intersection B at time tb between Tg of green light on from time tb3 to tb4 without exceeding the maximum allowable traveling speed Vmax, the times ta and tb are related by (Equation 2). Need to be satisfied.

As a result, the traveling condition between the point A and the intersection B, that is, the recommended required time topt is obtained by (Equation 3), and the recommended traveling speed vopt is obtained by (Equation 4).
That is, if the vehicle that has passed the point A at the time ta travels to the intersection B after that with the recommended travel time topt and the recommended travel speed vopt, the vehicle will arrive at the intersection B at the time tb. The intersection signal form is a green signal state as shown in FIG.

(Equation 1)
Tmin = L / Vmax

(Equation 2)
(Ta−ta2) / (ta4−ta2) = (tb−tb3) / (tb4−tb3)

(Equation 3)
topt = tb−ta
= {(L / Vmax) · Tg2 + (tb4−ta) · Tn2} / Tp2

(Equation 4)
vopt = L / topt

However, in the above (Equation 1), (Equation 2), (Equation 3), and (Equation 4),
L: Distance between point A and intersection B Vmax: Maximum allowable traveling speed between point A and intersection B Tmin: Minimum traveling time from point A to intersection B,
topt: Recommended travel time between point A and intersection B to pass intersection B with a green light
vopt: Recommended travel speed between point A and intersection B for passing green at intersection B

Tp: Traffic signal cycle at intersection B Tn: Duration of yellow and red traffic lights at intersection B Tg: Duration of green traffic light at intersection B
tb1, tb3, ...: Green light lighting time at intersection B
tb2, tb4, ...: Green light extinction time at intersection B
ta2, ta4,...: a point A passing time for a vehicle traveling at point A toward intersection B at speed Vmax to arrive at intersection B at times tb2, tb4,.
ta: Time at which vehicle passes through point A
tb: Arrival time at intersection B when a vehicle passing through point A at time ta travels toward intersection B at the recommended travel speed vopt
t: time,
It is.

  In addition, in calculating the recommended required time topt and the recommended travel speed vopt between time ta and time ta6 after time ta4 has elapsed, tb4 in the equation (Equation 3) is updated to tb6.

  The vehicle is informed about the recommended travel time topt and recommended travel speed vopt corresponding to the travel time ta of the vehicle at point A, and travels to intersection B under the reported travel conditions. There is also a risk that the travel conditions will deviate from the reported travel conditions. In order to solve this problem, the vehicle travels while counting the elapsed time tx and the travel distance Lx after passing through the point A, and the travel distance Lx changes by a constant distance ΔLx each time the elapsed time tx changes by a constant time Δtx. Each time, the corrected recommended travel time toptt and the corrected recommended travel speed voptt are calculated using (Equation 5) and (Equation 6), and the vehicle is corrected every fixed time Δtx or fixed distance ΔLx. There is a method of traveling to intersection B while sequentially updating to the latest corrected traveling conditions.

(Equation 5)
toptt = topt−tx

(Equation 6)
voptt = (L−Lx) / (topt−tx) = (L−Lx) / toptt ≦ Vmax

However,
toptt: Recommended time required for correction
voptt: Recommended recommended travel speed
tx: Elapsed time after passing through point A
Lx: Travel distance after passing through point A
It is.

  Next, a system simplification method according to the present invention based on the concept of the “intersection non-stop traveling control system” will be described.

  The system according to the present invention includes a vehicle-mounted device having a vehicle position specifying function such as a GPS receiver mounted on each vehicle and a communication function with a vehicle travel control center such as a mobile phone, and a vehicle sent from the vehicle-mounted device. Using the location information, the driving conditions for a vehicle that is about to pass through the intersection without a stop to the intersection of the “intersection non-stop running control” target in the jurisdiction are set at a certain distance from the intersection (however, this The fixed distance depends on the target intersection and depends on the direction to the intersection). It is composed of a vehicle travel control center that individually computes when passing a specific point upstream and informs the vehicle of the travel condition by the communication function .

The vehicle periodically specifies its own vehicle position by the vehicle position specifying function of the in-vehicle device, and reports the result together with the own vehicle ID to the vehicle travel control center by the communication function.
Here, the vehicle position specifying cycle (that is, the time required for one vehicle position specifying) is a cycle in which the vehicle moving distance during the cycle does not affect the control accuracy of the “intersection non-stop traveling control system”. Specifically, it is desirable that the maximum is 100 msec.

  In the vehicle travel control center, signal status information such as signal cycle of each intersection signal, green light lighting / light extinction time, etc., upstream specific point position information in each intersection and each direction, for all intersections subject to “intersection non-stop traveling control” in advance (For example, the point A in FIG. 1), the intersection-specific point distance information (for example, the distance L in FIG. 1) and the allowable maximum traveling speed information (for example, Vmax in FIG. 1), etc. 3) Collect and set various types of information necessary for calculating travel conditions for traveling and passing through an intersection without stopping using the formula (4).

  In the vehicle travel control center, the vehicle position information notified from the vehicle is stored together with the vehicle ID, and the vehicle position information newly notified from the vehicle is the specific point with respect to the intersection that the vehicle should pass next. When it is determined that the vehicle has reached the position, the recommended prize time topt and the recommended travel speed vopt, which are travel conditions for passing through the intersection without stopping at the green light with respect to the vehicle, are calculated using the above equations (3) and (4). Calculate and report to the vehicle.

The vehicle that has received the report travels to the intersection to be passed under the traveling conditions for which the report has been received, and passes through the intersection with a green light non-stop.
The vehicle travel control center performs the above calculation / report for all vehicles under the jurisdiction of the vehicle travel control center.

  However, as described above, the vehicle is not necessarily able to travel while following the traveling conditions for which the notification has been received. It is possible that the vehicle will run out of the driving conditions. This problem is solved by traveling to the intersection to be passed under the modified traveling condition by correcting the traveling condition by the equations (5) and (6).

  As the calculation method of the corrected traveling condition, there are a method in which necessary information is provided from the vehicle traveling control center and performed on the vehicle side, and a method in the vehicle information center similar to the traveling condition calculation.

  When calculating the corrected driving conditions on the vehicle side, in addition to the driving conditions of the recommended award time topt and recommended driving speed vopt, the elapsed time tx and the driving distance Lx after passing the specific point, the distance information between the intersection and the specific point, the allowable maximum driving speed Information is needed.

  Since the specific point passing timing can be known as the driving condition sending timing from the vehicle driving control center, the elapsed time tx after passing the specific point is the elapsed time after passing the driving condition by the clock function of the in-vehicle device, or the specific point passing Each of the subsequent travel distances Lx can be known by time-integrating the vehicle speed information after the travel condition sending timing. In addition, the intersection-specific point distance information and the allowable maximum traveling speed information are provided when the traveling condition is received from the vehicle traveling control center.

  Further, the travel distance Lx after passing through the specific point can be known not by the vehicle travel speed integrated value but by integrating the change in the vehicle position periodically specified by the vehicle position specifying function.

  Further, the corrected traveling condition can be performed not on the vehicle side but on the vehicle traveling control center side. In this case, the elapsed time tx after passing the specific point is the elapsed time from the time when the travel condition was sent to the vehicle, and the travel distance Lx after passing the specific point is periodically sent from the vehicle as in the case of the vehicle side. It can be obtained as an integral value of the change in the incoming vehicle position.

Here, in the system according to the present invention, the reason why a specific point (for example, the point A in FIG. 1) where the traveling condition is to be calculated / reported will be described in advance with reference to FIG.
Consider the case where the travel condition calculation / notification is performed at point A (distance L to intersection B) and point A ′ (distance L ′ to intersection B) in FIG. When calculating the driving conditions at the point A, all the vehicles passing the point A during the intersection period Tp from the time ta2 to ta4 will reach the intersection B during the green light Tg from the time tb3 to tb4. When the driving conditions are calculated at ', each vehicle passing the point A' during the intersection period Tp from the time ta2 'to ta4' reaches the intersection B during the green signal Tg from the time tb3 to tb4. Calculate.
Here, for example, a vehicle that passes the point A at the time ta2 is given a driving condition such that it reaches the intersection B at the time tb3, whereas a vehicle that passes the point A ′ at the time ta reaches the intersection at the time tb. The driving conditions are calculated as follows. These two traveling conditions intersect at point X before intersection B.

  That is, even if the specific point is arbitrary for each vehicle, if the distance from the point to the intersection (but not the straight line distance, but the distance on the road) is clear, the driving condition corresponding to the distance can be calculated. It is difficult to set the intersection arrival time so that it does not concentrate at a specific time during the green light lighting period, so the order of arrival of the intersection of the vehicle is not fixed, that is, if the traveling condition is to be observed, the traveling order of the vehicle before the intersection will be changed. Some situations may have to occur. On the other hand, if traveling conditions can be calculated and reported at a specific point with a constant distance, the intersection arrival time of the vehicle can be set according to the specific point passing order, and the above problem does not occur.

While the above method works most effectively when applied to all vehicles traveling within the jurisdiction, it does not necessarily have to be applied to all vehicles.
In the method according to the present invention, the traveling condition presented to the vehicle is a speed equal to or lower than the allowable maximum traveling speed. Therefore, the vehicle does not travel corresponding to the traveling condition according to the present invention, that is, the vehicle travels near the allowable maximum traveling speed. When the general vehicles to be mixed are mixed, the general vehicles are forced to travel at a speed lower than the desired speed due to the presence of the vehicles traveling by the method of the present invention. However, just because you are traveling at a low speed, there is no delay in passing the intersection. For example, even if a general vehicle overtakes a vehicle traveling at a low speed by applying this method and heads for the intersection, it stops at a red light at the intersection, and eventually the green signal period after that, that is, the green signal period during which the vehicle to which this method is applied passes. This is because it will pass through the intersection.

As described above, in the vehicle travel control system according to the present invention, the in-vehicle device is, for example, a mobile phone with a GPS function or a car navigation system with a mobile phone function, and the road side device is replaced with a road side device that requires four at each intersection. Since only one vehicle travel control center needs to be installed in the jurisdiction, the system as a whole can be easily realized.
In addition, it is possible to easily cope with system expansion, for example, addition of an intersection to be controlled or increase in the number of vehicles.

The use of a mobile phone with a GPS function is most effective as an in-vehicle device. However, the GPS function is desired to have a position identification period of 100 msec. At the maximum, preferably 50 msec or less.
Here, the GPS function is preferably converted to DIFFERENTIAL-GPS (DGPS) or NETWORK-ASSISTEDE-GPS (AGPS) in order to improve the position specifying accuracy or shorten the position specifying time.
Also, the vehicle travel control center is not intended for all vehicles or all intersections in the jurisdiction. For example, the vehicle travel control center is limited to trucks entering and exiting the distribution center, or a route around the distribution center where the truck travels or from the distribution center. It is also effective to set a control object in a period up to a high-frequency automobile exclusive road.

FIG. 2 shows a configuration example of an intersection non-stop vehicle travel control system according to the present invention.
11 is a GPS receiver that specifies a vehicle position at a position specifying timing that is output from the arithmetic device 13 described later at a constant period;

  12 transmits the vehicle position information, which is the output of the GPS receiver 11, together with a vehicle ID to the vehicle travel control center 2 described later, and corrects in addition to the travel conditions or travel conditions from the vehicle travel control center 2. A communication device for receiving various information such as specific point-intersection distance information or allowable maximum traveling speed information for calculating driving conditions;

  13 has a clock function and outputs a position specifying timing for specifying a position at a constant cycle to the GPS receiver 11 and an intersection of the own vehicle sent from the vehicle travel control center 2 which is an output of the communication device 12 Various information such as recommended travel time topt, recommended travel speed vopt and specific point-intersection distance information or allowable maximum travel speed information, and the progress after passing through the specific point An arithmetic unit that calculates the corrected recommended travel speed voptt from the time tx and the travel distance Lx that is the travel speed integrated value after passing through the specific point, using the (Equation 5) and (Equation 6);

14 is a display device that displays the corrected recommended travel speed voptt, which is the output of the arithmetic device 13;
The above 11 to 14 constitute the in-vehicle device 1.

  The driver travels toward the intersection B at the corrected recommended traveling speed voptt displayed on the display device 14, and passes through the intersection B without stopping at a green light.

  21 receives the current position information of the vehicle sent from the in-vehicle device 1, and stores in the storage device 22, which will be described later, and the travel conditions of the recommended required time topt and the recommended travel speed vopt which are outputs of the arithmetic device 23 which will be described later. A communication device that transmits various information such as specific point-intersection distance information and allowable maximum traveling speed information for calculating the corrected traveling condition,

  22 always inputs / updates and stores signal state information of each intersection to be controlled in the jurisdiction, and stores each intersection position information, specific point position information for each direction of each intersection, and each intersection-the specified Point-to-point distance information (however, this distance is a distance on the road, not a straight line) and the maximum allowable traveling speed information of each road are stored, and the vehicle current position information that is the reception output of the communication device 21 is input. A storage device that determines whether or not the vehicle has passed through a specific point, and provides information necessary for calculating the driving condition and the corrected driving condition to the computing device 23 when it is determined that the vehicle has passed,

23 has a clock function, and when the storage device 22 detects passage of a specific point of the vehicle, it receives various information from the storage device 22 for calculating the traveling conditions up to the intersection of the vehicle (Equation 3), An arithmetic device that calculates the driving condition using the equation (4) and outputs the various information necessary for calculating the corrected driving condition in the vehicle together with the calculation result to the communication device 21;
Thus, the vehicle travel control center 2 is configured by the above 21, 22, and 23.

  In the above description, the vehicle position information is specified in the in-vehicle device 1 to be transmitted to the vehicle travel control center 2, the travel condition is calculated in the vehicle travel control center 2, and the travel conditions from the vehicle travel control center 2 to the in-vehicle device 1. The time until the transmission of the other information needs to be within a time period during which the vehicle travel distance does not interfere with the vehicle non-stop traveling in this system. That is, it is desirable that this time is 100 msec at the maximum in a normal urban area, preferably 50 msec.

  As an input signal to the calculation device 13 shown in FIG. 2 for obtaining the travel distance information Lx from the specific point of the above equation (6), instead of the travel speed information in the first embodiment, the output of the GPS receiver 11 is used. It can also be certain vehicle position information. Travel distance information by calculating and integrating the vehicle position change every N times of vehicle position information periodically output (for example, if the vehicle position specifying period is 50 msec, N = 20 is 1 sec) Lx can be obtained.

  In the first embodiment and the second embodiment, the calculation of the corrected traveling condition is performed by the arithmetic device 13 of the in-vehicle device 1 shown in FIG. 2, but in the third embodiment, this is performed on the vehicle traveling control center 2 side. Therefore, the arithmetic device 13 of the in-vehicle device 1 has only a function of outputting the position specifying timing signal to the GPS receiver 11.

  On the other hand, in the vehicle travel control center 2, after the vehicle passes a specific point, the travel condition is calculated and reported to the vehicle, the vehicle that is the output of the GPS receiver 11 of the in-vehicle device 1 as in the second embodiment. The vehicle position change amount every N times of the position information is calculated and integrated to obtain the vehicle travel distance Lx after passing the specific point, and the elapsed time tx after the vehicle passes the specific point is counted (Equation 5). ) Calculate the corrected travel speed from the formula and notify the vehicle.

Explanatory drawing which shows the basic concept of the "intersection non-stop traveling control system" which is the basis of the present invention, In the present invention, an explanatory diagram of the reason why the driving condition calculation / reporting point (specific point) must be fixed, It is a block diagram which shows the vehicle side apparatus which comprises the vehicle travel control system by this invention, and the function structural example of a vehicle travel control center.

Explanation of symbols

1 and 2,
L: Distance between point A and intersection B Vmax: Maximum allowable traveling speed between point A and intersection B Tp: Intersection B traffic signal signal period Tg: Intersection B traffic signal blue signal duration Tn: Intersection B traffic signal yellow and red signal duration

tb1, tb3, tb5, ...: Intersection B traffic light green light lighting time
tb2, tb4, tb6, ...: Intersection B traffic light green light extinction time
ta2, ta4, ta6, ...: tb2, tb4, tb6, ... each time (L / Vmax)
ta2 ', ta4', ...: tb2, tb4, ... each time (L '/ Vmax)
ta: Time when the vehicle passes through point A
ta ': Time when the vehicle passes through point A'
tb: Point B arrival time of the vehicle that passed point A at time ta
tb ': Arrival time at intersection B of the vehicle that passed through point A' at time ta '
t: Time

In FIG.
1: vehicle-mounted device 11: GPS receiver 12: communication device 13: arithmetic device 14: display device 2: vehicle travel control center 21: communication device 22: storage device 23: arithmetic device

Claims (1)

  The position is periodically determined in the vehicle, and the result is reported to the vehicle travel control center together with the vehicle ID. At the vehicle driving control center that received the notification, it was determined whether the vehicle position that received the notification reached a specific point where the intersection non-stop driving control should be started for each intersection / direction. When it is determined that the vehicle has traveled without stopping at the intersection, the vehicle is informed of the vehicle, and thereafter the vehicle is informed of the travel condition or the reported travel condition is the elapsed time from the specific point. An intersection non-stop vehicle travel control method characterized in that the vehicle travels to an intersection and passes through the intersection without stopping, with the corrected traveling condition corrected by the travel distance.

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