JP2010257147A - System, apparatus, and method for toll road management - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a toll road management apparatus which reduces traffic jams of a toll road by enabling a charge and a payment of a toll of a road without using a toll booth and reduces risk of collision. <P>SOLUTION: A location information receiving unit 201 receives base station information including vehicle ID information and user ID information, and so on, to identify a vehicle and a driver and base station ID information to identify a base station device which manages a communication area which a vehicle has passed through. A toll booth identification unit 204 identifies a road where the vehicle has traveled based on the received base station information. A charge target management unit 205, a charge policy unit 206, and a toll adjusting unit 207, calculate a toll which is charged for use of the road identified by the toll booth identification unit 204. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a toll road management system, a toll road management apparatus, and a toll road management method, and more particularly to a toll road management system, a toll road management apparatus, and a toll road management method for a toll road including a toll road of an automobile.

  Currently, an expressway traffic system called an ETC (registered trademark) system (Electronic Toll Collection System) is in operation. In the ETC (registered trademark) system, an ETC (registered trademark) card is inserted in a vehicle-mounted device mounted on a vehicle. When a vehicle equipped with the vehicle-mounted device enters an ETC (registered trademark) lane provided in a toll gate on the highway, the ETC (registered trademark) card and the vehicle-mounted device communicate with the toll gate. Information necessary to settle the highway usage fee is exchanged by wireless communication. When the exchange of information is normally completed, an open / close bar for controlling the start of the vehicle installed in the ETC (registered trademark) lane is opened, and the vehicle can pass through the ETC (registered trademark) lane.

  Such an ETC (registered trademark) system is described in Non-Patent Document 1, for example. Moreover, as a prior art about an ETC (trademark) system, patent document 1 is mentioned, for example. Patent Document 1 enables communication between a mobile phone and an in-vehicle device, and uses the mobile phone as a highway toll settlement apparatus.

JP 2006-352850 A

Road System Advancement Promotion Organization ORSE, [online], “ETC General Information Portal Site”, [Search on March 26, 2009], Internet <URL: http://www1.go-etc.jp/riyouhouhou /riyouhouhou.html>

However, in the case of the above-described prior art, the vehicle has sufficiently slowed down and entered the ETC (registered trademark) lane in order to avoid the collision of the following vehicle with the preceding vehicle while the vehicle-mounted device and the communication communicate at the toll gate. There is a need to. For this reason, the ETC (registered trademark) system was constructed for the purpose of alleviating traffic jams at the toll booth, but leaves room for further congestion mitigation.
Moreover, if the vehicle speed is reduced or the vehicle is restarted after stopping, it will also contribute to the generation of exhaust gas and acceleration noise.
The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and by charging and adjusting the toll road usage fee without using the toll gate, the traffic congestion on the toll road can be reduced and the possibility of a collision can be obtained. It is an object of the present invention to provide a toll road management system, a toll road management apparatus, and a toll road management method for reducing the toll.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, the toll road management system according to claim 1 of the present invention is mounted on a vehicle and includes first identification information (for example, identifying at least one of the vehicle and a driver driving the vehicle). A communication module (for example, UM103 shown in FIG. 1) capable of transmitting vehicle ID information and user ID information), and receiving a signal including the first identification information transmitted by the communication module, and identifying the own station in the signal Base station apparatus (for example, base station apparatuses A to D shown in FIG. 1) that transmits second specific information (for example, base station ID information) to be transmitted and receiving means for receiving the base station information Based on the base station information received by the receiving means (for example, the position information receiving unit 201 shown in FIG. 2) and the use road specifying means (for example, the road used by the vehicle) 2 and a billing unit (billing object management unit 205, billing policy unit 206, fee settlement unit 207) that calculates a fee charged for use of the road identified by the use road identifying unit. And a toll road management device (for example, the management device 104 shown in FIG. 1). According to such an invention, it is possible to specify at least one of the vehicle or the driver who has passed through the communication area of the own station by the base station device. For this reason, the toll gate through which the vehicle has passed can be specified by the position of the base station device, and the toll road usage fee can be calculated. Therefore, the present invention can provide a toll road management system that can appropriately charge a toll road even if the vehicle passes through the toll gate without reducing the speed.

  In addition, the toll road management device according to claim 2 includes first specifying information (for example, vehicle ID information and user ID information) for specifying at least one of a vehicle and a driver driving the vehicle, and communication through which the vehicle has passed. Receiving means (for example, the position information receiving unit 201 shown in FIG. 2) for receiving base station information including second specifying information (for example, base station ID information) for specifying a base station device that manages the area; Based on the base station information received by the means, use road specifying means (for example, the toll gate specifying unit 204 shown in FIG. 2) for specifying the road used by the vehicle, and the road specified by the use road specifying means Charging means (charging object management unit 205, charging policy unit 206, and fee settlement unit 207) for calculating a fee charged for use of the service. According to such an invention, it is possible to specify at least one of the vehicle or the driver who has passed through the communication area of the own station by the base station device. For this reason, the toll gate through which the vehicle has passed can be specified by the position of the base station device, and the toll road usage fee can be calculated. Therefore, the present invention can provide a toll road management device that can appropriately charge a toll road even if the vehicle passes through the toll gate without reducing the speed.

  Further, the toll road management device according to claim 3 is the toll road management device according to claim 2, wherein the second specific information is a sector antenna (for example, sector antennas 505a, 505b, 505c shown in FIG. 5) provided in the base station device. It includes reception state information indicating a reception state of a signal including the first specifying information, and the use road specifying unit specifies a road used by the vehicle based on the reception state information. According to such an invention, since one base station can know in which direction the vehicle uses a road with respect to the base station, the road used by the vehicle can be identified with higher accuracy. . Furthermore, since the approximate distance between the vehicle and the base station can be determined from the strength of the signal received by the sector antenna, it is possible to know how far the vehicle has used the road with respect to the base station.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the toll road management device according to the second or third aspect, the billing unit accumulates the calculated fee for a predetermined period and charges the fee for each predetermined period. It is characterized by doing. According to such an invention, compared to a system in which a fee is paid each time it passes through a toll gate like the ETC (registered trademark) system, for example, it is possible to charge for a toll road usage fee once a month, It is possible to improve the convenience of using the toll road management system for the user.

  The toll road management system according to claim 5 specifies first specifying information for specifying at least one of a vehicle and a driver driving the vehicle, and a base station device for managing a communication area through which the vehicle has passed. Based on the base station information including the second specifying information, the use road specifying step (for example, steps S401 and 402 shown in FIG. 4) for specifying the road used by the vehicle and the use road specifying step are specified. And a billing step (for example, steps S405 to 407 shown in FIG. 4) for calculating a charge imposed on the use of the road. According to such an invention, it is possible to specify at least one of the vehicle or the driver who has passed through the communication area of the own station by the base station device. For this reason, the toll gate through which the vehicle has passed can be specified by the position of the base station device, and the toll road usage fee can be calculated. Therefore, the present invention can provide a toll road management method that can appropriately charge a toll road even if the vehicle passes through the toll gate without reducing the speed.

It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the image of one Embodiment of this invention. It is a functional block diagram for demonstrating the structure of the management apparatus shown in FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram for illustrating a usage fee charged by a charging policy unit shown in FIG. 2. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the toll road management method of one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the method of specifying the road which the vehicle utilized of one Embodiment of this invention based on sector information.

Hereinafter, a toll road management system, a toll road management apparatus, and a toll road management method according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram for explaining an image of the present embodiment, where FIG. 1A is an image of a conventional ETC (registered trademark) system, and FIG. 1B is a toll road management of the present embodiment. An image of the system is shown.

  As shown in FIG. 1A, the conventional ETC (registered trademark) system is provided with toll gates A, B, C, and D at the entrance to the toll road 101 and the exit from the toll road, respectively. . For example, at the toll gate C, a billing process relating to the use of the toll road 101 is performed on the vehicle 102 having the vehicle-mounted device with the ETC (registered trademark) card inserted therein. Then, the vehicle 102 enters the toll road 101, and the toll gate A again performs billing processing regarding the use of the toll road 101 and exits from the toll road 101.

In the system shown in FIG. 1 (a), it is necessary to reduce the speed at the toll booth C and the toll booth A for the charge billing process, so that the occurrence of traffic congestion, exhaust gas, and noise at the toll booth is further reduced. It is requested.
On the other hand, the toll road management system of the present embodiment shown in FIG. 1 (b) is a mobile phone base station device at any point along the toll road without providing an opening / closing bar in each of the toll gates A to D. a to d are provided. The vehicle 102 is equipped with a ubiquitous module (hereinafter referred to as UM) 103 and communicates with any of the base station apparatuses a to d.

In addition, UM as used in this specification is a small module which integrated the radio | wireless part of the mobile telephone and the data communication adapter function. The UM 103 can support FOMA (registered trademark) packet communication and DoPa (registered trademark) communication provided by NTT Docomo, for example.
In the present embodiment, a mobile phone owned by the user can be placed in the vehicle 102 and used as a UM. At this time, since the mobile phone functions as a UM when the power is turned on, it is not necessary to operate the mobile phone and does not affect driving.

  According to the present embodiment, information exchange between the UM 103 and the base station devices a to d is performed in the same manner as location registration, which is a general process in a mobile phone. That is, when the vehicle 102 passes through the toll gate C, the vehicle 102 enters the communication cell of the base station device c from the range of the communication cell of another base station device. At this time, a handover occurs and the UM 103 requests location registration from the base station c.

In the present embodiment, at the time of position registration, user ID information for specifying a driver (also referred to as a user) of the vehicle 102 and vehicle ID information for specifying the vehicle 102 are transmitted from the UM 101 to the base station c.
According to the present embodiment as described above, the vehicle 102 can pass through the toll gate C without particularly reducing the traveling speed for information exchange. For this reason, according to the present embodiment, the congestion at the toll gate is alleviated as compared with the prior art, and the generation of exhaust gas and noise associated with the restart can be reduced. Furthermore, the possibility that the following vehicle collides with the preceding vehicle can be reduced.

  The information of the UM 103 received by the base station devices a to d is transmitted to the management device 104 via the communication network N that provides the carrier of the mobile phone. The UM information transmitted to the management apparatus 104 includes ID information that identifies a user who manages the UM. The management device 104 can acquire information related to the user's payment from an HLR (home location register) that stores subscriber information of the mobile phone via the communication network N.

As described above, the present embodiment can smoothly perform the accounting process for the user by using the communication network of the mobile phone. Note that the billing information stored in the HLR may be submitted to the management device 104 when the user applies for use of the toll road management system. When a mobile phone is used as the UM 102, the user can be charged using the subscriber information of the mobile phone. The management device 104 functions as a toll road management device of this embodiment.
Further, in the present embodiment, in addition to the determination of the traveling position of the vehicle by communication between the UM 102 and the base station devices a to d, position information acquired by a positioning device such as GPS (Global Positioning System) may be used in combination. . In this way, when the toll gates of two different toll roads are within the range of one communication cell, the two can be distinguished with high accuracy.

  FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram for explaining the configuration of the management apparatus 104 shown in FIG. The illustrated management apparatus receives information transmitted from the UM to the base station apparatus via the base station apparatus. The information transmitted from the UM to the base station device includes user ID information that identifies the user and vehicle ID information that identifies the vehicle. The user ID information is input to the UM by the user when getting on the vehicle. The input may be manual input such as operating a numeric keypad. Further, a non-contact type IC card or the like may be used.

The vehicle ID may be input to the UM by the user, or may be set in advance in the UM.
The base station apparatus generates base station information by adding base station ID information for identifying the base station apparatus to the signal received from the UM. Then, the generated base station information is transmitted to the management device. Further, in this embodiment, the base station apparatus is provided with a sector antenna, and among the sector antennas, sector information for specifying a sector having a relatively high reception intensity of a signal transmitted from the UM is added. did. Sector information will be described in detail later.

  As a result of the above operation, the management apparatus receives user ID information, vehicle ID information, base station ID information, and sector information (the above information is collectively referred to as base station information). The management apparatus includes a location information receiving unit 201 for receiving base station information, a location information storage unit 202 for storing base station ID information among the received base station information, and a base station stored in the location information storage unit 202 A map information storage unit 203 that stores map information to be collated with ID information is provided.

  In addition, the management apparatus according to the present embodiment includes a toll gate specifying unit 204 that specifies the toll gate through which the vehicle has passed by comparing the base station ID information with the map information. The toll gate specifying unit 204 reads out the base station ID information stored in the location information storage unit 202 and specifies the toll gate in order while collating with the map information. As a result, the toll gate specifying unit 204 specifies the toll gate through which the vehicle has passed in order. For this reason, the toll gate specifying unit 204 can obtain the route of the toll road where the vehicle has traveled and the travel time.

  The billing target management unit 205 is configured to identify the vehicle from the vehicle ID information and to identify the driver from the user ID information. Here, the specification of the vehicle refers to specifying the parameters of the vehicle in which the toll road usage fee changes, such as the type of vehicle, large size, medium size, or small size. The vehicle ID information may be input to the UM by the user and transmitted to the billing target management unit 205. Further, it may be set as information unique to the UM. Furthermore, it may be set in advance in association with user ID information.

  The identification of the driver means identification of the driver of the vehicle, and thus the user who should charge the fee. The billing object management unit 205 registers user ID information, the address or name of the user such as the driver or the contractor who has the user ID information, and the account number from which the contract fee and fee should be deducted when the toll road management system is contracted. Has been. The billing target management unit 205 identifies a user such as a vehicle driver and a contractor who should charge a fee based on the user ID.

In the present embodiment, it is possible to select whether the object to be charged (charge object) is determined based on the vehicle or the driver. Whether the selection criterion is a vehicle or a driver may be set at the time of contract. Further, it may be determined on the management device side based on the user ID information and the vehicle ID information.
When a charging target is selected on the basis of a vehicle, even if a plurality of users use one vehicle, it is possible to charge the users to be charged collectively. In addition, when selecting a billing target based on the driver, if one driver uses multiple vehicles, the toll road usage fees used by the driver for each vehicle are aggregated and the toll road is used. The driver can be charged.

  The charging policy unit 206 manages discount service information according to toll road usage fees, usage fee time zones, and the like. Then, the vehicle toll booth and passage time zone specified by the toll booth specifying unit 204 and the vehicle type and driver specified by the billing target management unit 205 are compared with the managed information (billing policy). Based on the charging policy, the usage fee for the toll road to be charged is calculated.

  The fee settlement unit 207 performs a billing process on the subject to which the usage fee is to be paid, based on the calculated usage fee and the billing target information specified by the billing target management unit. The billing process referred to in the present embodiment refers to a process for specifying a target and requesting payment by specifying a fee and a payment date. In the present embodiment, the usage charges calculated by the charging policy unit 206 are accumulated for a predetermined period, and a charge is charged for each predetermined period for the charging target.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for illustrating a usage fee charged by charging policy unit 206 shown in FIG. Data 301 shown in the figure is user data specified by the billing object management unit 205. Data 302 is vehicle data specified by the billing target management unit 205. Data 303 indicates the toll gate through which the vehicle has passed, and data 304 indicates the travel time.
For user A shown in FIG. 3, for example, the usage charges for Tomei Expressway, Yokohama, Yokosuka Road, Kinugawa Toll Road used from January 5, 2009 to January 20, 2009 are bundled. Will be charged. In addition, for user B, for example, usage fees for toll roads used after February 7, 2009 are collectively charged.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the toll road management method of the present embodiment. According to the flowchart shown in the figure, the management apparatus determines whether or not the position information receiving unit transmits information indicating the movement route of the vehicle on which the UM is mounted, that is, whether or not the base station information is transmitted (step S401). When information is not transmitted (step S401: No), processing is ended.
When the base station information is transmitted (step S401: Yes), the toll gate specifying unit collates the base station ID information included in the base station information with the map information, and whether or not the vehicle uses a toll road. Judgment is made (step S402). If the toll road is not used (step S402: No), the process is terminated.

  When it is determined in step S402 that the toll road has been used (step S402: Yes), the toll gate specifying unit sequentially specifies the toll gate of the toll road through which the vehicle has passed. By this process, the toll road, the passage section, and the passage time through which the vehicle has passed can be specified. The charging policy unit calculates the toll road used by the vehicle based on the specified toll road, the charge for the passage section, and discount information based on the passage time (step S403).

The fee settlement unit determines whether to select a charging target based on the vehicle or to select a charging target based on the driver (step S404). Then, when the charging target is determined based on the driver (driver), the charging processing condition corresponding to the user ID is extracted (step S405). Further, when the charging object is determined based on the vehicle (vehicle), the charging process condition corresponding to the vehicle ID is extracted (step S406).
The fee settlement unit 207 executes billing processing using the extracted conditions (step S407).
In the present embodiment, as described above, the base station apparatus includes the sector antenna, and the base station information includes the sector information together with the base station ID information. The sector information indicates the reception state of the user ID information and the vehicle ID information of the sector antenna, that is, the sector number having the highest reception intensity of the user ID information and the vehicle ID information.

The toll gate specifying unit of the present embodiment specifies the road used by the vehicle based on the sector information. Hereinafter, with reference to FIG. 5, an example of such a road identification method will be described.
FIG. 5A shows an example in which the vehicle uses which of the intersecting roads 501 and 502 is specified. In such a case, a base station apparatus provided with sector antennas 505a and 505b is provided around a place where roads 501 and 502 intersect. When the sector information includes information indicating sectors 3 and 4 of the sector antenna 505a and information indicating sectors 1 and 6 of the sector antenna 505b, it can be determined that the vehicle has passed the road 501. If the sector information includes information indicating sectors 6 and 5 of the sector antenna 505a and information indicating sectors 2 and 3 of the sector antenna 505b, it can be determined that the vehicle has passed the road 502.

  FIG. 5B shows an example of identifying which road the vehicle uses among the parallel roads 503 and 504. In such a case, a base station apparatus including the sector antenna 505c is provided between the roads 503 and 504. When the sector information includes information indicating the sectors 3 and 4 of the sector antenna 505c, it can be determined that the vehicle has passed the road 504. On the other hand, when the sector information includes information indicating the sectors 1 and 6 of the sector antenna 505c, it can be determined that the vehicle has passed the road 503.

  In addition, embodiment of this invention is not limited to what distinguishes which vehicle used among the roads which adjoin using sector information. For example, according to the present embodiment, the approximate speed of the vehicle can be estimated based on the frequency of UM handover. If one of the two adjacent roads is a highway and the other is a general road, the speed limits of the two are greatly different. In such a case, the present embodiment can determine whether the vehicle is using an expressway or a general road using the traveling speed of the vehicle.

  The present invention is suitable for a system for managing toll road charging processing. It can also be applied to searching for stolen vehicles and tracking people who are running away using vehicles. Furthermore, it is also possible for the management device to guide a vehicle not equipped with a positioning device such as GPS to the destination while monitoring the travel route of the vehicle.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Toll road 102 Vehicle 104 Management apparatus 201 Location information receiving unit 202 Location information storage unit 203 Map information storage unit 204 Toll gate identification unit 205 Charge object management unit 206 Charge policy unit 207 Fee adjustment unit 301, 302, 303, 304 Data 501 502, 503, 504 Road 505a, 505b, 505c Sector antenna

Claims (5)

A communication module mounted on a vehicle and capable of transmitting first identification information identifying at least one of the vehicle and a driver driving the vehicle;
A base station device that receives a signal including first specifying information transmitted by the communication module, adds second specifying information specifying the own station to the signal, and transmits the signal as base station information;
Receiving means for receiving the base station information;
Based on the base station information received by the receiving means, use road specifying means for specifying the road used by the vehicle;
A toll road management device comprising charging means for calculating a charge imposed on use of the road specified by the use road specifying means,
A toll road management system characterized by including: Base station information including first specification information for specifying at least one of a vehicle and a driver driving the vehicle and second specification information for specifying a base station device that manages a communication area through which the vehicle has passed is received. Receiving means;
Based on the base station information received by the receiving means, use road specifying means for specifying the road used by the vehicle;
Charging means for calculating a charge imposed on the use of the road specified by the use road specifying means;
A toll road management device comprising: The second specific information includes reception state information indicating a reception state of a signal including the first specific information of a sector antenna included in the base station device,
The use road specifying means includes:
The toll road management apparatus according to claim 2, wherein a road used by the vehicle is specified based on the reception state information.   The toll road management apparatus according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the charging unit accumulates the calculated charges for a predetermined period and charges a charging fee for each predetermined period. Based on base station information including first specifying information for specifying at least one of a vehicle and a driver driving the vehicle, and second specifying information for specifying a base station device that manages a communication area through which the vehicle has passed. , A use road specifying step for specifying a road used by the vehicle;
A billing step of calculating a charge imposed on the use of the road identified in the use road identifying step;
A toll road management method characterized by comprising:

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