JP2011237943A - Automatic toll collection system and its method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a more reliable automatic toll collection system and its method that can reduce the effect of an ambient environment as much as possible to lessen the possibility of wrong charging.SOLUTION: An automatic toll collection system comprises: an on-vehicle machine 11 mounted on a vehicle driving on a road; and a roadside machine 30 arranged on the road which performs road toll collection processing in a predetermined communication range by radio communication processing with the on-vehicle machine 11. The roadside machine 30 includes: a communication section 33 which performs the road toll collection processing using a radio communication signal with the on-vehicle machine 11; a direction estimation section 34 which sequentially executes processing of estimating a direction to the on-vehicle 11 while the on-vehicle 11 is moving in the communication range 3 by detecting the radio communication signal transmitted by the on-vehicle 11 during transmission/reception processing performed by the communication section 33; a determination section 35 which determines whether the on-vehicle 11 is present in the communication range 3 based on a plurality of direction estimation values obtained by the direction estimation section 34; and a control section 36 which controls acceptance/rejection of the collection processing performed by the communication section 33 based on the result obtained by the determination section 35.

Description

  According to the present invention, a fee is automatically charged between a roadside machine installed at a toll booth and a vehicle equipped with an in-vehicle device having an automatic fee collection function without temporarily stopping the vehicle traveling on the road. The present invention relates to a non-stop automatic toll collection system and a method thereof.

  In the automatic toll collection system, the vehicle is equipped with a wireless communication device and electronic payment means such as an IC card, a dedicated lane for automatic toll collection or a mixed lane with ordinary vehicles is set at the toll gate on the toll road, and the vehicle A wireless communication device (roadside device) for communicating with the on-vehicle device mounted therein is provided.

  At the beginning of the operation of the system, there was a problem that normal toll collection processing could not be performed due to oversight of a traveling vehicle not equipped with an in-vehicle device corresponding to the automatic toll collection system or failure to follow the traveling vehicle due to lane change. Therefore, as one of the countermeasures, there is a technique for estimating the direction of the traveling vehicle from the wireless communication signal by installing an array antenna having a plurality of element antennas on the roadside device side. As a result, a system has been proposed that reliably performs a receiving process with a traveling vehicle equipped with an in-vehicle device (see, for example, Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2).

JP 2001-34799 A JP 2002-243825 A

  However, with the recent popularization, the number of vehicles equipped with compatible in-vehicle devices is rapidly increasing, and the system is being used everywhere. In such a situation, there is an increased possibility that a plurality of automatic toll collection systems operate in an area where a plurality of toll roads are adjacent. Therefore, in general, there is a complicated propagation environment in which many structures are arranged in the vicinity of such an area, and a radio communication signal from an in-vehicle device mounted on a vehicle traveling on an adjacent road running alongside the road A situation occurs where the vehicle arrives at the roadside machine over the side belt or viaduct. At this time, a wireless communication signal from a vehicle outside the communication area is erroneously detected, and there is a possibility that normal charge collection processing is not performed. For example, in a complex road environment where multiple toll roads intersect, a large number of multipaths arrive. Therefore, in the conventional method using the instantaneous direction estimation value of a wireless communication signal, the reliability of the estimation value is reliable. Therefore, the applicability may be reduced in the actual environment.

  The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-described problems, and the influence of the surrounding environment is reduced as much as possible by performing a final determination based on a plurality of estimated values in the communication area. An object of the present invention is to obtain a more reliable automatic fee collection system and method that reduces the possibility of erroneous charges.

  An automatic toll collection system according to the present invention includes a vehicle-mounted device mounted on a vehicle traveling on a road and a road usage fee collecting process in a predetermined communication area by wireless communication processing with the vehicle-mounted device. A roadside device that performs communication with the vehicle-mounted device using the wireless communication signal to collect the road usage fee, and the vehicle-mounted device transmits the transmission / reception processing by the communication device. Direction estimation means for detecting a wireless communication signal to be detected and estimating a direction with respect to the in-vehicle device while the in-vehicle device is moving in the predetermined communication area, and a plurality of direction estimations from the direction estimation means A determination unit that determines whether or not the vehicle-mounted device is present in the predetermined communication area based on the value, and a control that controls whether or not the receiving process is performed by the communication unit based on a result of the determination unit It is intended to include a stage.

  According to the automatic toll collection system of the present invention, the influence of the surrounding environment can be eliminated as much as possible, the possibility of erroneous charging can be reduced, and higher reliability can be ensured.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the automatic fee collection system which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a figure which shows transition of the direction estimated value which took time on the horizontal axis by the automatic fee collection system which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the automatic fee collection system which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a figure which shows the structure of the automatic fee collection system which concerns on Embodiment 2 of this invention. It is a figure which shows transition of the received signal electric power which made the horizontal axis the time by the automatic fee collection system which concerns on Embodiment 2 of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the automatic fee collection system which concerns on Embodiment 2 of this invention.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of an automatic fee collection system of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

Embodiment 1 FIG.
An automatic fee collection system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an automatic fee collection system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. In the following, in each figure, the same reference numerals indicate the same or corresponding parts.

  In FIG. 1, the automatic toll collection system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention includes an in-vehicle device 11 mounted on a vehicle 10 traveling on a road 1 and a roadside device 30 installed on the road 1. .

  In addition, the surrounding environment includes an in-vehicle device 21 mounted on the vehicle 20 traveling on the adjacent road 2 and a roadside belt 4 existing between the roads.

  The in-vehicle device 11 and the roadside device 30 execute each service such as toll collection processing in the communication area 3 by using radio communication signals (uplink and downlink) S1 and S2 using frequencies in the microwave band. The in-vehicle device 21 transmits and receives wireless communication signals S3 and S4.

  The roadside unit 30 includes antennas 31 and 32 that receive wireless communication signals, a communication unit (communication means) 33 that performs communication processing including toll collection processing, and a direction that estimates the direction of each traveling vehicle from the wireless communication signals. Based on information from the estimation unit (direction estimation unit) 34 and the direction estimation unit 34, a determination unit (determination unit) 35 that identifies a vehicle traveling on the road 1 that the roadside machine 30 is in charge of, that is, a vehicle to be charged. And the control part (control means) 36 which controls the communication part 33 based on the determination result is provided.

  Next, the operation of the automatic fee collection system according to the first embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a transition of the direction estimation value with time taken on the horizontal axis by the automatic toll collection system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the automatic fee collection system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

  The communication unit 33 transmits and receives radio communication signals to and from the in-vehicle device 11 via the antenna 31 and performs a road usage fee collection process. On the other hand, there is a possibility that a wireless communication signal from the in-vehicle device 21 of the traveling vehicle 20 on the adjacent road 2 may arrive at the roadside device 30 depending on the surrounding radio wave propagation environment. At this time, it is necessary to determine the in-vehicle device so that the receipt processing with the in-vehicle device 21 is not erroneously performed.

  The direction estimation unit 34 analyzes each wireless communication signal arriving at the roadside device 30 and estimates the arrival direction. The antenna 32 is described separately from the antenna 31, but may be shared. Basically, the direction of arrival is estimated by applying a monopulse method, high-resolution angle measurement technique or the like in an array antenna having a plurality of element antennas.

  However, if there is an environment in which wireless communication signals S1, S2 and S3, S4 of only direct waves from the vehicle-mounted devices 11, 21 as shown in FIG. 1 exist, sufficient estimation accuracy can be obtained by the existing direction estimation method. It is done. However, in an environment where there are many structures that reflect and scatter radio waves, such as the roadside belt 4, viaduct, and the gate that supports the roadside machine 30, there are usually many multipath waves, and the direction estimates vary. Is expected. That is, the accuracy of the instantaneous direction estimation value is not very likely.

  Therefore, the direction estimation unit 34 performs the same processing a plurality of times and outputs each estimated value to the determination unit 35. In the determination unit 35, the traveling vehicle to be charged is determined by the method described below, and the control unit 36 that receives the result controls the communication unit 33 to complete the toll collection process with the traveling vehicle. .

  The determination unit 35 determines a traveling vehicle to be charged based on a plurality of direction estimation values. The principle is that when the amount of variation (variation) in each direction estimation value is larger than a preset threshold value, it is determined that the wireless communication signal has arrived from another adjacent road 2. The reason for this is that the traveling vehicle 10 existing on the road 1 to be charged enters the roadside device 30 from the front direction, so that, for example, even if the vehicle 10a moves to the position of the vehicle 10a, there is a multipath effect. This is because, even if there are some variations, variations in the arrival directions of the radio communication signals S1 and S2 are relatively small.

  On the other hand, as the traveling vehicle 20 on the adjacent road 2 moves to the position of the vehicle 20a, for example, as the traveling vehicle 20 moves to the position of the vehicle 20a, the expected angle of the vehicle-mounted device 21 as viewed from the roadside device 30 changes greatly. The direction-of-arrival value estimated from the communication signals S3 and S4 varies greatly with time.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the black solid line means the direction estimation value D1 obtained from the wireless communication signal from the traveling vehicle in the own lane. Here, it corresponds to the traveling vehicle 10 of FIG. At this time, there is not much change in the communication area 3.

  On the other hand, a direction estimation value (broken line) D2 obtained from a wireless communication signal from another traveling vehicle (corresponding to traveling vehicle 20 in FIG. 1) varies greatly within communication region 3.

  Due to the effects of multipath, there is a possibility that the same direction estimation value as that of the traveling vehicle in the own lane may be calculated as an instantaneous estimation value. However, since the expected angle from the roadside machine 30 changes with time as described above, You can see the obvious differences by looking at Therefore, by using a plurality of direction estimation values, it is possible to determine the traveling vehicle to be charged with high accuracy by the roadside device 30 alone.

  First, in step 101, the communication unit 33 receives a wireless communication signal from the in-vehicle device 11.

  Next, in step 102, the direction estimation part 34 calculates a direction estimated value according to the defined algorithm. This process is performed a plurality of times (N times in FIG. 3) while the traveling vehicle 10 exists in the communication area 3.

  Next, in step 103, the determination unit 35 calculates a variation amount (change amount) between the N direction estimation values.

  Next, in step 104, the determination unit 35 determines whether or not the fluctuation amount is equal to or less than a threshold value.

  In step 105, when the fluctuation amount is equal to or smaller than the threshold value, the control unit 36 determines that the charge is to be charged and performs charge collection processing.

  On the other hand, in step 106, when the fluctuation amount is larger than the threshold value, the control unit 36 determines that the traveling vehicle corresponding to the direction estimation value having the fluctuation is present on the adjacent road 2, and performs the receiving process. Cancel.

  Note that the threshold value may be determined by measuring radio waves in advance at an actual site to obtain a guideline for the fluctuation amount or analytically by simulation. It is also possible to adjust to an appropriate value during operation.

  According to the first embodiment, high-accuracy receiving processing can be realized using only the wireless communication signal used in the existing automatic toll collection system, and the receiving processing is completed by the roadside device 30 alone. The system can be realized.

Embodiment 2. FIG.
An automatic fee collection system according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration of an automatic fee collection system according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

  In FIG. 4, the difference from the first embodiment is that the roadside unit 30A further includes a power estimation unit (power estimation unit) 37 that estimates the signal power of the radio communication signal arriving from each onboard unit. .

  In the first embodiment described above, the chargeable vehicle is basically determined from the estimated direction value of the wireless communication signal. In the second embodiment, the chargeable vehicle is also determined by simultaneously estimating the signal power. It is.

  From the radio communication signal received by the antenna 32, the direction estimation unit 34 estimates the signal arrival direction, and the power estimation unit 37 simultaneously estimates signal power. Based on both pieces of information, the determination unit 35 determines a chargeable vehicle.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a transition of received signal power with time on the horizontal axis in the automatic toll collection system according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention. The traveling vehicle in its own lane corresponds to the traveling vehicle 10 in FIG. 1 and means a vehicle to be charged. In the communication area 3, an area is configured so that the received electric field strength is as constant as possible from the viewpoint of communication stability, and the directivity of the antenna beam, the boresight direction, and the like are set. Therefore, in the communication area 3, the received power P1 is kept substantially constant.

  On the other hand, for other traveling vehicles (incoming signals from the adjacent road 2), the received power P2 varies greatly due to the influence of multipath propagation. Further, since the antenna gain decreases as the angle becomes wider with respect to the front direction, it is generally considered that the received power P2 decreases as the distance from the roadside unit 30 increases.

  Therefore, although the accuracy of the instantaneous power estimation value is not high as in the case of the direction estimation value, it is effective to observe the fluctuation amount and determine whether the vehicle is traveling in the own lane to be charged.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the automatic fee collection system according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

  First, in step 201, the communication unit 33 receives a wireless communication signal from the in-vehicle device 11.

  Next, in step 202, the power estimation unit 37 calculates a signal power estimation value according to a predetermined algorithm.

  Next, in step 203, the direction estimation unit 34 calculates a direction estimation value. The calculation processing of the signal power estimation value and the direction estimation value is performed a plurality of times (N times in FIG. 6) while the traveling vehicle 10 exists in the communication area.

  Next, in step 204, the determination unit 35 calculates a variation amount (change amount) of the N power estimation values and the direction estimation value.

  Next, in step 205, the determination part 35 determines whether the fluctuation amount of an electric power estimated value and a direction estimated value is below a threshold value.

  In step 206, when both the fluctuation amounts are equal to or smaller than the threshold value, the control unit 36 indicates that the fluctuation amount of the power estimation value is equal to or smaller than the power threshold value and the fluctuation amount of the direction estimation value is equal to or smaller than the direction threshold value. In this case, it is determined that the charge is to be charged, and the receipt process is performed.

  On the other hand, in step 207, the control unit 36 determines that the traveling vehicle corresponding to the direction estimation value having the fluctuation larger than the direction threshold is the adjacent road 2 when the fluctuation amount is either or both are larger than the threshold. It is determined that it exists, and the receipt process is stopped.

  According to the second embodiment, more accurate toll collection processing is realized by effectively using both power and direction estimates using only wireless communication signals used in existing automatic toll collection systems. In addition, it is possible to realize a system that completes the receiving process by the roadside device 30 alone.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Road, 2 Adjacent road, 3 Communication area, 4 Roadside zone, 10 Vehicle, 11 Car-mounted machine, 20 Vehicle, 21 Car-mounted machine, 30 Roadside machine, 30A Roadside machine, 31 Antenna, 32 Antenna, 33 Communication part, 34 Direction estimation Unit, 35 determination unit, 36 control unit, 37 power estimation unit.

Claims (8)

An in-vehicle device mounted on a vehicle traveling on a road;
A roadside device disposed on a road and performing a road usage fee collection process in a predetermined communication area by wireless communication processing with the in-vehicle device,
The roadside machine
Communication means for performing collection processing of the road usage fee using a wireless communication signal with the in-vehicle device,
Direction estimating means for sequentially executing processing for detecting a wireless communication signal transmitted by the in-vehicle device and estimating a direction with respect to the in-vehicle device in transmission / reception processing by the communication means while the in-vehicle device moves in the predetermined communication area. When,
Based on a plurality of direction estimation values from the direction estimation unit, a determination unit that determines whether the vehicle-mounted device exists in the predetermined communication area;
An automatic fee collection system comprising: a control unit that controls whether or not the collection process by the communication unit is possible based on a result of the determination unit. The said determination means determines that it is not the vehicle equipment used as the object which receives the said road use charge, when the fluctuation amount between several direction estimation values is larger than the preset threshold value. Automatic fee collection system according to 1. An in-vehicle device mounted on a vehicle traveling on a road;
A roadside device disposed on a road and performing a road usage fee collection process in a predetermined communication area by wireless communication processing with the in-vehicle device,
The roadside machine
Communication means for performing collection processing of the road usage fee using a wireless communication signal with the in-vehicle device,
Direction estimating means for sequentially executing processing for detecting a wireless communication signal transmitted by the in-vehicle device and estimating a direction with respect to the in-vehicle device in transmission / reception processing by the communication means while the in-vehicle device moves in the predetermined communication area. When,
In the transmission / reception process by the communication means, a process of detecting a wireless communication signal transmitted by the in-vehicle device and estimating a signal power of the wireless communication signal is sequentially executed while the in-vehicle device moves in the predetermined communication area. Power estimation means;
A determination unit that determines whether or not the vehicle is present in the predetermined communication area based on a plurality of direction estimation values from the direction estimation unit and a plurality of signal power estimation values from the power estimation unit;
An automatic fee collection system comprising: a control unit that controls whether or not the collection process by the communication unit is possible based on a result of the determination unit. The determination means includes
When the fluctuation amount between the plurality of direction estimation values is larger than the preset first threshold value,
When the variation amount between the plurality of signal power estimation values is larger than the preset second threshold value,
Alternatively, when the fluctuation amount between the plurality of direction estimation values is larger than the preset first threshold value, and when the fluctuation amount between the plurality of signal power estimation values is larger than the preset second threshold value. ,
The automatic toll collection system according to claim 3, wherein the automatic toll collection system is determined not to be an in-vehicle device that is to receive the road usage fee. An in-vehicle device mounted on a vehicle traveling on a road;
In an automatic toll collection system provided with a roadside device that is arranged on a road and performs a toll collection processing of a road usage fee in a predetermined communication area by wireless communication processing with the in-vehicle device,
A communication step of performing a collection process of the road usage fee using a wireless communication signal with the in-vehicle device by communication means;
A process of detecting a wireless communication signal transmitted by the in-vehicle device in the transmission / reception process in the communication step and estimating a direction with respect to the in-vehicle device by the direction estimation means, while the in-vehicle device is moving in the predetermined communication area. A direction estimation step to be performed;
A determination step of determining whether or not the vehicle-mounted device is present in the predetermined communication area based on a plurality of direction estimation values from the direction estimation step by a determination unit;
An automatic fee collection method, comprising: a control unit that controls whether or not the collection process is performed in the communication step based on a result of the determination step. The determination step determines that the vehicle is not a vehicle-mounted device that receives the road usage fee when a variation amount between a plurality of direction estimation values is larger than a preset threshold value. 5. Automatic fee collection method according to 5. An in-vehicle device mounted on a vehicle traveling on a road;
In an automatic toll collection system provided with a roadside device that is arranged on a road and performs a toll collection processing of a road usage fee in a predetermined communication area by wireless communication processing with the in-vehicle device,
A communication step of performing a collection process of the road usage fee using a wireless communication signal with the in-vehicle device by communication means;
A process of detecting a wireless communication signal transmitted by the in-vehicle device in the transmission / reception process in the communication step and estimating a direction with respect to the in-vehicle device by the direction estimation means, while the in-vehicle device is moving in the predetermined communication area. A direction estimation step to be performed;
In the transmission / reception process in the communication step, the vehicle estimation device moves the predetermined communication area by detecting the wireless communication signal transmitted by the vehicle-mounted device and estimating the signal power of the wireless communication signal by the power estimation unit. A power estimation step that is sequentially executed during,
Determining whether or not the vehicle is a vehicle-mounted device existing in the predetermined communication area based on a plurality of direction estimation values from the direction estimation step and a plurality of signal power estimation values from the power estimation step Steps,
An automatic fee collection method, comprising: a control unit that controls whether or not the collection process is performed in the communication step based on a result of the determination step. The determination step includes
When the fluctuation amount between the plurality of direction estimation values is larger than the preset first threshold value,
When the variation amount between the plurality of signal power estimation values is larger than the preset second threshold value,
Alternatively, when the fluctuation amount between the plurality of direction estimation values is larger than the preset first threshold value, and when the fluctuation amount between the plurality of signal power estimation values is larger than the preset second threshold value. ,
The automatic toll collection method according to claim 7, wherein it is determined that the vehicle is not an in-vehicle device that is to receive the road usage fee.

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