JP2019204297A - Vehicle group determination device and vehicle group determination system - Google Patents

Abstract

To appropriately determine a vehicle group.SOLUTION: A vehicle group determination device according to one aspect of the present disclosure comprises: a receiver which receives at least one of positional information and speed information of vehicles; and a controller which generates a directed graph on the basis of the positional information of the vehicles and vehicle lengths of the vehicles and uses the directed graph to determine a vehicle group including the one or more vehicles.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

  The present disclosure relates to a vehicle group determination device and a vehicle group determination system for determining a vehicle group that is a unit composed of one or more vehicles. The car may mean any moving body.

  As one of intelligent transport systems (ITS), traffic information providing systems that provide traffic information such as VICS (Vehicle Information and Communication System, “VICS” is a registered trademark) have been developed.

  In the traffic information providing system, for example, traffic information is generated based on a vehicle detection result using a sensor that is spot-installed on a road such as an expressway or a general road. The traffic information is provided to an in-vehicle device (for example, a car navigation device) using FM multiplex broadcasting, an optical beacon, a radio beacon, or the like (for example, Patent Document 1).

  The traffic information provided to the in-vehicle device includes, for example, information on traffic jams (for example, sections and degrees of traffic jams), information on traffic regulations (for example, road closure, lane regulation, chain regulation), information on required time (eg, purpose) Time required to the ground, time required for a predetermined section), information on traffic obstacles (for example, broken cars, accidents, construction). The traffic information may be referred to as traffic flow information.

  In addition, some vehicles are considered as “vehicle groups” and are being used for traffic control. For example, the vehicle group may be formed of vehicles that travel on the same road in the same direction at the same speed (Patent Document 2).

JP-A-2018-36134 Japanese Patent No. 4424425

  It has been studied to control vehicles based on traffic flow information to eliminate the formation of vehicle groups related to the occurrence of traffic jams and to suppress traffic jams. However, there is a possibility that the vehicle group cannot be properly determined by the vehicle group determination methods proposed so far. In this case, it is not possible to control each vehicle, and traffic jams are not suitably suppressed.

  Therefore, an object of the present disclosure is to provide a vehicle group determination device and a vehicle group determination system that can appropriately determine a vehicle group.

  A vehicle group determination device according to an aspect of the present disclosure generates a directed graph based on a reception unit that receives at least one of vehicle position information and speed information, the vehicle position information, and a vehicle length of the vehicle, And a control unit that determines a vehicle group including one or more of the vehicles by using a directed graph.

  According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a vehicle group can be appropriately determined.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a schematic configuration of a vehicle group determination system according to an embodiment. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a flowchart of a vehicle group determination method according to an embodiment. FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram for explaining an example of application of vehicle group determination according to an embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a first step of directed graph generation corresponding to FIG. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a second step of directed graph generation corresponding to FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of vehicle group determination based on the directed graph corresponding to FIG. 3. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing another example of vehicle group determination based on the directed graph corresponding to FIG. FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of the estimation of the presence of an unconnected car at zero speed. FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of a functional configuration of the vehicle according to the embodiment. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of a vehicle, a server, and the like according to an embodiment.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description, the same parts are denoted by the same reference numerals. Since the same part has the same name, function, etc., detailed description will not be repeated.

(Car group determination system)
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a schematic configuration of a vehicle group determination system according to an embodiment. The vehicle group determination system 1 shown in FIG. 1 may include a vehicle 10, a base station 20, a vehicle group determination server 30, and a traffic signal 40.

  The vehicle 10 is a vehicle that travels on a roadway. The vehicle 10 may be an automobile or a non-automatic car (for example, a bicycle).

  Note that the vehicle 10 according to the present disclosure may be read as a moving body that moves along a certain route. For example, the vehicle 10 may be an unmanned moving body (for example, a drone, an autonomous driving vehicle, etc.), a vehicle (for example, a ship, an airplane, etc.), or a robot (manned or unmanned). Type).

  The vehicle 10 may include at least one of an in-vehicle communication device and a communication device brought into the vehicle 10, and the vehicle 10 in the present disclosure may be replaced by the communication device. For example, the wireless communication performed by the vehicle 10 may be performed via a communication device mounted on or existing in the vehicle 10.

  For example, the communication device (communication device) may be a mobile terminal (mobile communication terminal) such as a mobile phone, a smartphone, or a tablet terminal, a car navigation system, a personal computer (PC), a television (TV). :), a fixed communication terminal such as a multi-function TV and a smart TV. The communication device may be referred to as a user terminal.

  The vehicle 10 can communicate with the base station 20 using radio (for example, LTE (Long Term Evolution), Wi-Fi (registered trademark), etc.). The vehicle 10 may communicate directly with other vehicles 10 (vehicle-to-vehicle communication), or may communicate indirectly via the base station 20 or the like. For example, V2X (Vehicle-to-Everything) may be used for inter-vehicle communication.

  It is preferable that the vehicle 10 can acquire position information of the vehicle. For example, the vehicle 10 may acquire the position information based on GPS (Global Positioning System), an acceleration sensor, a gyro, vehicle speed information of the vehicle, and the like.

  The base station 20 is a base station (BS) that provides a predetermined communication service to the vehicle 10. The base station 20 may transmit information received from the vehicle 10 to the vehicle group determination server 30. The base station 20 may transmit the information received from the vehicle group determination server 30 to the vehicle 10, the traffic signal 40, and the like.

  The base station 20 includes “roadside communication device”, “radio base station”, “fixed station”, “NodeB”, “eNodeB (eNB)”, “gNodeB (gNB)”, “access point ( “access point”, “transmission point”, “reception point”, “transmission / reception point”, “cell”, “sector”, and the like.

  The vehicle group determination server 30 is a device that determines a vehicle group including one or more vehicles 10 (may be referred to as a vehicle group determination device). A method for determining the vehicle group will be described later. The vehicle group determination server 30 may perform traffic control based on the vehicle group, and may transmit control information (control signal) to the vehicle 10, the traffic light 40, and the like. The vehicle group determination server 30 may adjust traffic information (congestion information, a map, etc.) transmitted to the vehicle 10.

  The vehicle group may be read as a vehicle group, a vehicle group, a moving body group, or the like.

  The traffic light 40 is a device that turns on and off lights for controlling traffic. The traffic light 40 may control lighting and extinguishing of lights based on control information notified from the vehicle group determination server 30.

  The traffic signal 40 may include a device for acquiring information on the surrounding environment such as a camera and a sensor, and information (for example, information on at least one of the vehicle 10 and the vehicle group determination server 30 based on the acquired information on the surrounding environment) Vehicle 10 may have entered the intersection despite the red signal).

  An example of the functional configuration and hardware configuration of each device such as the vehicle 10 will be described later.

  Note that the system configuration is an example and is not limited thereto. For example, each device is configured to include one device in FIG. 1, but the number of devices is not limited to this, and a plurality of devices may exist.

  The vehicle group determination system 1 may have a configuration that does not include some devices, or may have a configuration in which the function of one device is realized by a plurality of devices. For example, the vehicle group determination server 30 may be a cloud server or an on-premises server.

  It is good also as a structure by which the function of a some apparatus is implement | achieved by one apparatus. For example, the base station 20 and the vehicle group determination server 30 may be mounted on one server.

(Vehicle group determination method)
A vehicle group determination method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described below. Each vehicle group determination method may be applied to the vehicle group determination system described above.

<Car group decision flow>
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a flowchart for determining a vehicle group according to an embodiment. Note that determining a vehicle group may mean classifying one or more vehicles into one or more vehicle groups.

  The vehicle group determination server 30 acquires position information and speed information of each vehicle 10 (step S11).

  For example, the vehicle 10 may transmit at least one of position information and speed information of the own vehicle to the vehicle group determination server 30. The position information may be any one of the latitude, longitude, altitude, or the like of the vehicle 10 or a combination thereof. The vehicle 10 may transmit the time (time stamp) at which the information is acquired or transmitted. The vehicle group determination server 30 may calculate the speed of the vehicle 10 based on the position information received from the vehicle 10.

  The speed information may include at least one of the speed and acceleration of the vehicle 10 and the distance moved from the previous information transmission.

  The vehicle group determination server 30 may specify the traveling lane of the vehicle 10 using a moving direction (moving direction) calculated based on at least one of the position of the vehicle 10 and a change in the position.

  Next, the vehicle group determination server 30 acquires the vehicle size of each vehicle 10 (step S12).

  The vehicle group determination server 30 may calculate the vehicle length (may be referred to as a vehicle size) of the vehicle 10 based on the vehicle information received from the vehicle 10. The vehicle information may include at least one of a vehicle size, a vehicle type, a vehicle name, and the like. The vehicle length may mean the entire length of the vehicle.

  The vehicle size acquired in step S12 may be an estimated value. For example, the vehicle group determination server 30 may estimate the vehicle size of the vehicle 10 based on the amount of change related to the speed of the vehicle 10. The amount of change related to the speed may be, for example, a speed change amount (acceleration), an acceleration change amount, and the like, based on a value obtained by differentiating the position (or moving distance) n times (n> 0) in time or the value. It may be a determined value. The amount may be read as a rate, a ratio, a value, or the like.

  The vehicle group determination server 30 may derive (estimate) the vehicle size of the vehicle 10 based on characteristics of the amount of variation regarding the speed according to the vehicle size (for example, acceleration characteristics, deceleration characteristics, how to stop, etc.). . The characteristics may be extracted and analyzed in advance and stored in the vehicle group determination server 30.

  By step S12, the vehicle group determination server 30 can distinguish whether each vehicle 10 is a small vehicle or a large vehicle.

  Note that the position information, speed information, vehicle information, and the like of the vehicle 10 in steps S11 and / or S12 may be acquired by the base station 20 and the traffic light 40 and notified to the vehicle group determination server 30. For example, when at least one of the base station 20 and the traffic signal 40 detects the vehicle 10 that has passed nearby by a camera, a sensor, or the like, the vehicle group is determined by acquiring position information, speed information, vehicle information, and the like regarding the vehicle 10. You may transmit to the server 30.

  The vehicle group determination server 30 creates a directed graph based on the position information and vehicle size of each vehicle 10 (step S13). Note that creating a directed graph may mean generating and / or storing data representing the directed graph.

  Other graphs (such as an undirected graph) may be created instead of the directed graph, but it is preferable that the vehicle position can be specified. In the present disclosure, “directed graph” may be read as “graph”.

  In addition, the directed graph is preferably configured so that the moving direction of the vehicle can be specified. For example, when the directed graph is drawn on a display or the like, it is preferably drawn so that east, west, south, and north on the earth respectively correspond to the upper right and lower left.

  The directed graph is preferably configured so that the vehicle length can be recognized. For example, the vertex (node) of the directed graph may represent a vehicle, and the size of the vertex may correspond to the length of the vehicle. Moreover, the edge (or branch) of the directed graph may represent the length of at least one vehicle connected to the edge. The length of the vehicle may be expressed as a weight applied to at least one of the vertex and the side.

  The directed graph in the present disclosure may mean a lane (lane) that can move by going straight. For example, four directed graphs corresponding to each lane may be generated for a total of four lanes of roads with two lanes on one side.

  The directed graph may represent one or more vehicles 10 on the roadway of a specific road section. Here, the specific road section may correspond to, for example, a road from one intersection to another intersection, or may correspond to a road in a certain intersection. That is, when the vehicle 10 moving on a road on a certain directed graph makes a right or left turn or goes straight beyond an intersection, the vehicle 10 may be expressed as moving on another directed graph.

  The directed graph in the present disclosure may be a graph different from the definition of the directed graph in graph theory. For example, a road section in which the vehicle 10 does not exist may be indicated by a directed graph that does not include a node. In this case, the length of the side may correspond to the length of the road section.

The vehicle group determination server 30 determines a vehicle group including one or more vehicles 10 based on the directed graph created in step S13 (step S14). The vehicle group determination server 30 may determine one or more vehicles 10 that satisfy any one or combination of the following conditions as one vehicle group:
(1) The vehicle 10 on the same directed graph.
(2) The vehicle 10 moves in the same direction.
(3) The inter-vehicle distance with the other vehicle 10 is equal to or less than the threshold value.
(4) The difference in speed with the other vehicle 10 is equal to or less than a threshold value.
(5) The vehicle 10 on the adjacent directed graph.

  Here, the speed difference may be expressed by a speed difference or a speed ratio. The threshold value in (3) and the threshold value in (4) may be different values.

  At least one of the threshold value of (3) and the threshold value of (4) may be a value that varies according to the speed or acceleration of the vehicle 10, or may be determined based on the speed or acceleration of the vehicle 10. . For example, the vehicle group determination server 30 may determine that the higher the speed of the vehicle 10, the larger the threshold value of the inter-vehicle distance from other vehicles 10 included in the same vehicle group as the vehicle 10. According to this configuration, it is possible to appropriately consider that the inter-vehicle distance during traveling increases as the speed increases.

  According to the configuration of the present disclosure, the inter-vehicle distance in (3) is determined in consideration of not only the position of the vehicle (for example, the coordinates of the vertex in the directed graph) but also the vehicle length (for example, the size of the vertex in the directed graph). Is the distance to be.

  The vehicle group determination server 30 may start searching for a vehicle group from a certain vehicle 10 on a certain directed graph. The search for the vehicle group may be performed along at least one of the traveling direction and the reverse direction of the vehicle 10.

  When the vehicle 10 is near the end of the directed graph, the vehicle group determination server 30 searches for an adjacent (for example, one ahead) directed graph, and another vehicle 10 on the adjacent directed graph satisfies the above condition. When at least one is satisfied, the vehicle 10 and the other vehicle 10 may be determined to be included in one vehicle group.

  That is, in the present disclosure, the vehicle 10 located in front of a certain intersection is in the same vehicle group as the vehicle 10 in the intersection and at least one of the vehicles 10 sandwiching the intersection (going straight at the intersection, turning right or turning left). May belong.

  Note that at least one of the threshold value of (3) and the threshold value of (4) used for adjacent directed graph vehicles may be different or the same as those used for the same directed graph vehicle. . For example, the threshold value applied to adjacent directed graphs may be greater than the threshold value applied to the same directed graph. Thereby, even if the inter-vehicle distance between two vehicles increases across the intersection, these vehicles can be handled as one vehicle group.

  FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram for explaining an example of application of vehicle group determination according to an embodiment. This example shows the vicinity of an intersection I1 between a four-lane road extending in the horizontal direction in the figure and a two-lane road extending in the vertical direction in the figure. The former road consists of two lanes R1 and R2 and two lanes R3 and R4. The latter road consists of one lane R5 and one lane R6. FIG. 3 is an example of left-hand traffic.

  Vehicles C1-C5 are traveling on R1, vehicles C6-C8 are traveling on R2, and vehicles C9-C10 are traveling on R6. C2, C4 and C8 are small vehicles, C6 is a large vehicle, and the others are medium vehicles.

  FIG. 3 is merely an example. The invention described in the present disclosure is applicable to any road configuration and vehicle configuration.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a first step of directed graph generation corresponding to FIG. Each arrow in FIG. 4 corresponds to each lane (R1-R6). As shown in FIG. 4, the lanes in the region shown in FIG. 3 may be represented by three directed graphs corresponding to the intersection I1 before entering the intersection I1, and after exiting the intersection I1. For example, the directed graph corresponding to R1 may be L1-L3. Similarly, the directed graphs corresponding to R2-R6 may be L4-L6, L7-L9, L10-L12, L13-L15, and L16-L18, respectively.

  In the first step (the first step of step S13 described above), the vehicle group determination server 30 arranges nodes corresponding to the vehicles C1 to C10 on each directed graph. The vehicle group determination server 30 may arrange each node based on the position information of each vehicle.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a second step of directed graph generation corresponding to FIG. The vehicle group determination server 30 may determine the length of each node along the directed graph based on the size of each vehicle after the first step described above.

  The vehicle group determination server 30 uses the position of a certain node based on the position information as a reference, so that the length corresponding to the vehicle size is expressed in total in either or both of the direction and / or the reverse direction of the directed graph. You may control the thickness. In FIG. 5, the length of each node is set corresponding to the vehicle size of FIG.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of vehicle group determination based on the directed graph corresponding to FIG. 3. The vehicle group determination server 30 may determine a vehicle group based on a directed graph reflecting the size of each vehicle after the second step described above.

  The vehicle group may be composed of vehicles on a single directed graph, or may be composed of vehicles on a plurality of adjacent directed graphs. In addition, the 2nd directed graph adjacent to a 1st directed graph may show the lane which can move in an intersection from the lane corresponding to a 1st directed graph. The “movable” preferably means that the vehicle can be moved according to the road traffic law in the country or region to which the vehicle group determination is applied.

  For example, since it is possible to move from R1 in FIG. 3 to R5 (the left lane can go straight and turn left at the intersection), the directed graph adjacent to L1 in FIG. 6 (FIG. 4) is the intersection of L2 and L14 in the intersection I1. It may be L3 and L13 after I1. The directed graph adjacent to L1 is L2 and L14 in the intersection I1, and does not need to include L3 and L13.

  In order to determine the vehicle group in more detail, it is preferable that the directed graphs (for example, L1 and L4) in the same direction are not adjacent directed graphs, but may be assumed to be adjacent directed graphs.

  In FIG. 6, vehicle group G1 includes C1-C3, vehicle group G2 includes C4-C5, vehicle group G3 includes C6, vehicle group G4 includes C7-C8, vehicle group G5 includes C9, The vehicle group G6 is determined to include C10.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram showing another example of vehicle group determination based on the directed graph corresponding to FIG. In this example, it is assumed that the speed of C1-C5 is higher than that in the example of FIG. Due to the high speed, the threshold of the inter-vehicle distance recognized as the vehicle group in L1 is larger than the example of FIG. Therefore, G1 and G2 in FIG. 6 are determined as one vehicle group G12 in FIG.

<Determination of car group breaks>
The vehicle 10 may transmit to the vehicle group determination server 30 information that can be used to determine the break of the vehicle group (the boundary between the first vehicle group and the second vehicle group). Information that can be used to determine the break of a vehicle group may be referred to as information that can be used to determine which vehicle group a certain vehicle is included in.

  Information that can be used to determine the break in the vehicle group includes, for example, whether there is another vehicle in a specific direction (front, back, etc.), the distance to the other vehicle (if the other vehicle exists), It may include at least one of whether or not the other vehicle can communicate with the own vehicle.

  The vehicle 10 knows the conditions satisfied by the vehicles constituting the vehicle group as described above, and the own vehicle corresponds to a vehicle at a specific position in the vehicle group (for example, the first vehicle, the last vehicle, etc.). The position information or the like may be transmitted to the vehicle group determination server 30. Note that the vehicle 10 may collectively transmit position information of other vehicles 10 included in the same vehicle group. The vehicle group determination server 30 may determine that the vehicle 10 that transmitted the position information or the like exists at a specific position in the vehicle group.

  The vehicle 10 grasps that the host vehicle is a vehicle at a specific position in the vehicle group by using a camera, a sensor, a radar, wireless communication with other vehicles, and the like, and can use information that can be used for determining the break of the vehicle group. It may be generated.

  The vehicle 10 may transmit position information or the like periodically or when a change occurs in the vehicle group.

  Note that the vehicle 10 included in the first vehicle group and the vehicle 10 included in the second vehicle group may travel within a communicable range. That is, even if it is a vehicle which can communicate, you may be allocated to another vehicle group.

<Non-connected car complement>
The inventors examined the case where there is a space between the two vehicles when the average speed of each of the two vehicles is zero. When the speed of the vehicle is zero on the roadway, the present inventors pay attention to the fact that the vehicle usually stops at a distance close to the previous vehicle, and determines the vehicle group based on the directed graph The idea was to consider the speed of each vehicle.

  The vehicle group determination server 30 is configured such that when each vehicle has a speed equal to or less than a predetermined threshold and there is a certain space between these vehicles, one or more unconnected devices are provided in the space. You may consider that a car exists. Here, “a certain amount of available space” may correspond to a specific vehicle size.

  As a result, in a situation where each vehicle 10 should be adjacent to each other with a small vehicle interval when the speed is zero (for example, when the signal is stopped), it is assumed that there is an unconnected car in an unnatural empty space. The front car group and the rear car group can be determined as one car group. Even when the information that can be used to determine the break of the vehicle group is not received, the vehicle group determination server 30 can integrate a plurality of vehicle groups when the signal is stopped.

  The unconnected car may be replaced with a vehicle that cannot acquire at least one of position information, speed information, vehicle information, and the like. For example, if the vehicle 10 can communicate only with the base station 20 that cannot communicate with the vehicle group determination server 30, the vehicle group determination server 30 cannot receive information from the vehicle 10. This may correspond to a case where the vehicle 10 uses a wireless communication service of another communication carrier when the service of the vehicle group determination server 30 is provided via a predetermined communication carrier.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of the estimation of the presence of an unconnected car at zero speed. The vehicle group determination server 30 complements the virtual vehicle 10 (dotted line portion) in the vacant portion when there is a certain space or more between the vehicles whose speeds are zero on a certain directed graph (upper part of FIG. 8). (Lower part of FIG. 8).

  The vehicle group determination server 30 causes a logical contradiction for the virtual vehicle once supplemented (for example, the inter-vehicle distance between the vehicle in front of the virtual vehicle and the vehicle behind the virtual vehicle is a distance at which the virtual vehicle cannot exist (constant). Until the above vacancy disappears)), the presence of the virtual vehicle may be maintained based on the information of the preceding and following vehicles and used for vehicle group recognition.

<Advertising method specialized for vehicle groups>
The vehicle group determination server 30 may control one or a plurality of traffic lights 40 so that the vehicle group can move smoothly in units of vehicle groups, or may transmit information specifying the traveling direction to the vehicle 10. The vehicle 10 may travel autonomously based on the information.

  The vehicle group determination server 30 may transmit (distribute) an advertisement (for example, a moving image advertisement) in consideration of the vehicle group to the vehicle 10. For example, the vehicle group determination server 30 may transmit a different advertisement for each vehicle group.

  For example, the vehicle group determination server 30 increases the preference of more passengers with respect to a specific vehicle group based on the passenger's preference (hobby, food preference, etc.) of each vehicle included in the vehicle group. Control that guides to a matched detour (for example, a detour with many family members if there are many people who like the family restaurant) may be performed. In this case, the vehicle group determination server 30 may transmit, to each vehicle included in the vehicle group, an advertisement that matches the palatability (for example, a family restaurant advertisement located in the detour).

  The vehicle 10 may transmit to the vehicle group determination server 30 information related to the passenger (driver, occupant, etc.), information related to the departure place and / or destination, vehicle information of the vehicle 10, and the like. The vehicle group determination server 30 may determine an advertisement to be distributed to the vehicle 10 based on the received information about the passenger of the vehicle 10, information about the departure place and / or destination, information about the vehicle itself, and the like. .

  The information related to the passenger may include at least one of the contractor information of the vehicle 10 and the contractor information of the wireless communication service used by the vehicle 10. The contractor information may include information such as passenger demographic data (age, gender, place of residence, etc.) and palatability.

  The information regarding the departure place and / or the destination may include information on how urgent it is to reach the destination (how fast).

  When the vehicle group determination server 30 receives the information as described above from a plurality of vehicles 10, the vehicle 10 having the same or similar attribute among the nearby vehicles 10 (for example, high-class vehicles, rushing vehicles, destinations, The traffic lights 40 may be controlled so that a vehicle group is formed by the same vehicle or the like, or information specifying the traveling direction may be transmitted to the vehicle 10.

  The vehicle group determination server 30 may transmit an advertisement of a corresponding attribute to a vehicle group including vehicles 10 having the same or similar attributes.

  According to one embodiment described above, vehicle group estimation can be appropriately performed using a directed graph.

(Device configuration)
FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of a functional configuration of the vehicle according to the embodiment. As shown in this example, the vehicle 10 includes a control unit 110, a storage unit 120, a communication unit 130, an input unit 140, and an output unit 150. Note that FIG. 9 mainly shows functional blocks of characteristic portions in the present embodiment, and the vehicle 10 may also have other functional blocks necessary for other processing. Moreover, it is good also as a structure which does not include one part functional block.

  The control unit 110 controls the vehicle 10. The control unit 110 can be configured by a controller, a control circuit, or a control device described based on common recognition in the technical field according to the present disclosure.

  The storage unit 120 stores (holds) information used in the vehicle 10. The storage unit 120 can be configured with, for example, a memory, a storage, a storage device, and the like described based on common recognition in the technical field according to the present disclosure.

  The communication unit 130 communicates with other communication devices (base station, server, etc.) via the network. The communication unit 13 may output various received information to the control unit 110.

  The communication unit 130 can be configured by a transmitter / receiver, a transmission / reception circuit, or a transmission / reception device described based on common recognition in the technical field according to the present disclosure. Note that the communication unit 130 may include a transmission unit and a reception unit.

  The input unit 140 receives an input by an operation from the user. The input unit 140 may be connected to a predetermined device, storage medium, or the like, and accept data input. The input unit 140 may output the input result to the control unit 110, for example.

  The input unit 140 can be configured by an input device such as a keyboard, a mouse, and a button, an input / output terminal, an input / output circuit, and the like described based on common recognition in the technical field according to the present disclosure. Further, the input unit 140 may be configured to be integrated with the display unit (for example, a touch panel).

  The output unit 150 outputs data, content, and the like in a format that can be perceived by the user. For example, the output unit 150 may include a display unit that displays an image, an audio output unit that outputs audio, and the like.

  The display unit can be configured by a display device such as a display and a monitor described based on common recognition in the technical field according to the present disclosure, for example. In addition, the audio output unit can be configured by an output device such as a speaker described based on common recognition in the technical field according to the present disclosure.

  The output unit 150 includes, for example, an arithmetic unit, an arithmetic circuit, an arithmetic device, a player, an image / video / audio processing circuit, an image / video / audio processing device, which are described based on common recognition in the technical field according to the present disclosure, An amplifier or the like can be included.

  At least one of the communication unit 130, the input unit 140, and the output unit 150 may function as a measurement unit that performs measurement of an external environment or the like. The said measurement part can be comprised from the measuring device, the measurement circuit, or measurement apparatus demonstrated based on the common recognition in the technical field which concerns on this indication.

  Note that the communication unit (reception unit) 130 may transmit position information, speed information, vehicle information, and the like of the vehicle 10 to the base station 20 and / or the vehicle group determination server 30.

  The base station 20, the vehicle group determination server 30, the traffic signal 40, and the like may have the same configuration as that in FIG. A person skilled in the art can understand the description related to the vehicle 10 in the description of FIG.

  Hereinafter, some parts will be described as examples. In addition, the code | symbol corresponding to each functional block of FIG. 9 of each apparatus is the first one-digit number of the code | symbol which shows each apparatus (For example, in the case of the vehicle 10, the first one-digit "1" of "10"). Is applied to the first digit of the code in FIG.

  The communication unit 330 of the vehicle group determination server 30 may receive at least one of position information and speed information of the vehicle 10. The control unit 310 of the vehicle group determination server 30 generates a directed graph based on the position information of the vehicle 10 and the vehicle length of the vehicle 10, and determines a vehicle group including one or more vehicles 10 using the directed graph. May be.

  The control unit 310 of the vehicle group determination server 30 may estimate the vehicle length of the vehicle 10 based on a variation amount (for example, acceleration) related to the speed of the vehicle 10.

  When the distance between the first vehicle and the second vehicle is equal to or less than the first threshold and the speed difference between these vehicles is equal to or less than the second threshold, A vehicle group including these vehicles may be determined (these vehicles may be included in one vehicle group).

  The control unit 310 of the vehicle group determination server 30 may determine at least one of the first threshold and the second threshold based on the speed or acceleration of the first vehicle and the second vehicle. .

  The control unit 310 of the vehicle group determination server 30 determines that the inter-vehicle distance between the vehicle 10 corresponding to the vicinity of the end of a certain directed graph and another vehicle 10 on the directed graph adjacent to the directed graph is a predetermined threshold value (third threshold value). In the following cases, a vehicle group including these vehicles may be determined.

  The control unit 310 of the vehicle group determination server 30 has a speed of each of two vehicles (for example, a third vehicle and a fourth vehicle) that is equal to or lower than a fourth threshold value (for example, zero), and between these vehicles. If there is more than a certain amount of vacancy (vacant space), it may be considered that one or more vehicles (for example, unconnected cars) exist in the vacant portion.

  The communication unit 230 of the base station 20 may transmit vehicle position information, speed information, vehicle information, and the like transmitted from the vehicle 10 to the vehicle group determination server 30.

  The communication unit 430 of the traffic light 40 may receive signal control information from the vehicle group determination server 30. The control unit 410 of the traffic light 40 may control the lighting of the output unit 450 based on the control information.

(Hardware configuration)
In addition, the block diagram used for description of the said embodiment has shown the block of the functional unit. These functional blocks (components) are realized by any combination of at least one of hardware and software. Further, the method for realizing each functional block is not particularly limited. That is, each functional block may be realized using one device physically or logically coupled, or two or more devices physically or logically separated may be directly or indirectly (for example, (Using wired, wireless, etc.) and may be implemented using these multiple devices.

  For example, a vehicle, a server, or the like according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may function as a computer that performs processing of the wireless communication method of the present disclosure. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of a vehicle, a server, and the like according to an embodiment. The vehicle 10, the base station 20, the vehicle group determination server 30, and the like described above physically include a computer device including a processor 1001, a memory 1002, a storage 1003, a communication device 1004, an input device 1005, an output device 1006, a bus 1007, and the like. It may be configured as.

  In the following description, the term “apparatus” can be read as a circuit, a device, a unit, or the like. The hardware configuration of the vehicle 10, the base station 20, the vehicle group determination server 30, etc. may be configured to include one or a plurality of each device shown in the figure, or may be configured not to include some devices. May be.

  For example, although only one processor 1001 is shown, there may be a plurality of processors. Further, the processing may be executed by one processor, or the processing may be executed by two or more processors simultaneously, sequentially, or using other methods. Note that the processor 1001 may be implemented by one or more chips.

  Each function in the vehicle 10 or the like is performed by, for example, reading predetermined software (program) on hardware such as the processor 1001 and the memory 1002, so that the processor 1001 performs computation and controls communication via the communication device 1004. It may be realized by controlling at least one of reading and writing of data in the memory 1002 and the storage 1003.

  For example, the processor 1001 controls the entire computer by operating an operating system. The processor 1001 may be configured by a central processing unit (CPU) including an interface with peripheral devices, a control device, an arithmetic device, a register, and the like.

  In addition, the processor 1001 reads a program (program code), a software module, data, and the like from at least one of the storage 1003 and the communication device 1004 to the memory 1002, and executes various processes according to these. As the program, a program that causes a computer to execute at least a part of the operations described in the above embodiments is used. For example, the control unit 110 may be realized by a control program stored in the memory 1002 and operating in the processor 1001, and may be realized similarly for other functional blocks.

  The memory 1002 is a computer-readable recording medium. For example, the memory 1002 includes at least a ROM (Read Only Memory), an EPROM (Erasable Programmable ROM), an EEPROM (Electrically EPROM), a RAM (Random Access Memory), and other suitable storage media. It may be configured by one. The memory 1002 may be called a register, a cache, a main memory (main storage device), or the like. The memory 1002 can store a program (program code), a software module, and the like that can be executed to perform the wireless communication method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

  The storage 1003 is a computer-readable recording medium such as a flexible disk, a floppy (registered trademark) disk, a magneto-optical disk (for example, a compact disk (CD-ROM (Compact Disc ROM), etc.)), a digital versatile disk, Blu-ray (registered trademark) disk, removable disk, hard disk drive, smart card, flash memory device (eg, card, stick, key drive), magnetic stripe, database, server, or other suitable storage medium It may be constituted by. The storage 1003 may be referred to as an auxiliary storage device. Note that the storage unit 120 described above may be realized by the memory 1002 and / or the storage 1003.

  The communication device 1004 is hardware (transmission / reception device) for performing communication between computers via at least one of a wired network and a wireless network, and is also referred to as a network device, a network controller, a network card, a communication module, or the like. The communication device 1004 may include a high frequency switch, a duplexer, a filter, a frequency synthesizer, and the like. Note that the communication unit 130 described above may be realized by the communication device 1004.

  The input device 1005 is an input device (for example, a keyboard, a mouse, a microphone, a switch, a button, a sensor, etc.) that accepts an input from the outside. The output device 1006 is an output device (for example, a display, a speaker, an LED (Light Emitting Diode) lamp) that performs output to the outside. The input device 1005 and the output device 1006 may have an integrated configuration (for example, a touch panel). The input unit 140 and the output unit 150 described above may be realized by the input device 1005 and the output device 1006, respectively.

  At least one of the communication device 1004, the input device 1005, and the output device 1006 includes a camera that acquires an image (still image and / or moving image), a microphone that acquires sound, and various sensors (pressure sensor, acceleration sensor, gyro sensor, Touch sensor, ground sensor, proximity sensor, tilt sensor, magnetic sensor, temperature sensor (thermography), ultrasonic sensor, infrared sensor, range sensor (laser scan sensor), radio beam (radar), etc. Combinations of these may also be included.

  Each device such as the processor 1001 and the memory 1002 is connected by a bus 1007 for communicating information. The bus 1007 may be configured using a single bus, or may be configured using a different bus for each device.

  The vehicle 10 includes hardware such as a microprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a programmable logic device (PLD), and a field programmable gate array (FPGA). It may be configured, and some or all of the functional blocks may be realized using the hardware. For example, the processor 1001 may be implemented using at least one of these hardware.

(Modification)
Note that the terms described in the present disclosure and the terms necessary for understanding the present disclosure may be replaced with terms having the same or similar meaning.

  In addition, the information, parameters, and the like described in this disclosure may be expressed using absolute values, may be expressed using relative values from predetermined values, or may be expressed using other corresponding information. May be represented. For example, the radio resource may be indicated by a predetermined index.

  The names used for parameters and the like in the present disclosure are not limited names in any respect. Further, mathematical formulas and the like that use these parameters may differ from those explicitly disclosed in this disclosure.

  Information, signals, etc. described in this disclosure may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies. For example, data, commands, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, chips, etc. that may be referred to throughout the above description are voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or magnetic particles, light fields or photons, or any of these May be represented by a combination of

  Information, signals, and the like may be input / output via a plurality of network nodes. Input / output information, signals, and the like may be stored in a specific location (for example, a memory) or may be managed using a management table. Input / output information, signals, and the like can be overwritten, updated, or added. The output information, signals, etc. may be deleted. Input information, signals, and the like may be transmitted to other devices.

  The notification of information is not limited to the aspect / embodiment described in the present disclosure, and may be performed using other methods.

  In addition, notification of predetermined information (for example, notification of “being X”) is not limited to explicit notification, but implicitly (for example, by not performing notification of the predetermined information or other information) May be performed).

  The determination may be made by a value represented by 1 bit (0 or 1), or may be made by a boolean value represented by true or false. The comparison may be performed by numerical comparison (for example, comparison with a predetermined value).

  Software, whether it is called software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or other names, instructions, instruction sets, code, code segments, program codes, programs, subprograms, software modules , Applications, software applications, software packages, routines, subroutines, objects, executable files, execution threads, procedures, functions, etc. should be interpreted broadly.

  Further, software, instructions, information, and the like may be transmitted / received via a transmission medium. For example, the software uses a website using coaxial technology (coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), etc.) and wireless technology (infrared, microwave, etc.), When transmitted from a server or other remote source, at least one of these wired and wireless technologies is included within the definition of a transmission medium.

  The terms “system” and “network” as used in this disclosure may be used interchangeably.

  In the present disclosure, “base station (BS)”, “radio base station”, “fixed station”, “NodeB”, “eNodeB (eNB)”, “gNodeB (gNB)”, “ "Access point", "transmission point", "reception point", "transmission / reception point", "cell", "sector", "cell group", Terms such as “carrier”, “component carrier”, “Bandwidth Part (BWP)” may be used interchangeably. A base station may also be called terms such as a macro cell, a small cell, a femto cell, and a pico cell.

  A base station may accommodate one or more (eg, three) cells (also referred to as sectors). When the base station accommodates multiple cells, the entire coverage area of the base station can be partitioned into multiple smaller areas, each smaller area being a base station subsystem (eg, a small indoor base station (RRH: Remote Radio Head)) can also provide communication services. The terms “cell” or “sector” refer to part or all of the coverage area of at least one of a base station and a base station subsystem that provides communication services in this coverage.

  In the present disclosure, terms such as “Mobile Station (MS)”, “user terminal”, “User Equipment (UE)”, and “terminal” may be used interchangeably. .

  Mobile station, subscriber station, mobile unit, subscriber unit, wireless unit, remote unit, mobile device, wireless device, wireless communication device, remote device, mobile subscriber station, access terminal, mobile terminal, wireless terminal, remote terminal , Handset, user agent, mobile client, client or some other suitable term.

  At least one of the base station and the mobile station may be referred to as a transmission device, a reception device, or the like. Note that at least one of the base station and the mobile station may be a device mounted on the mobile body, the mobile body itself, or the like. The moving body may be a vehicle (for example, a car, an airplane, etc.), an unattended moving body (for example, a drone, an autonomous driving vehicle, etc.), or a robot (manned or unmanned). ). Note that at least one of the base station and the mobile station includes a device that does not necessarily move during a communication operation.

  Further, the radio base station in the present disclosure may be read by a user terminal. For example, the communication between the radio base station and the user terminal is replaced with communication between a plurality of user terminals (for example, D2D (Device-to-Device), V2X (Vehicle-to-Everything), etc. may be called)) For each configuration, each aspect / embodiment of the present disclosure may be applied. In this case, the user terminal may have a function that the radio base station has.

  In the present disclosure, the operation performed by the base station may be performed by the upper node in some cases. In a network including one or more network nodes having a base station, various operations performed for communication with a terminal may include a base station, one or more network nodes other than the base station (e.g., It is obvious that this can be performed by MME (Mobility Management Entity), S-GW (Serving-Gateway), etc., but not limited thereto) or a combination thereof.

  Each aspect / embodiment described in the present disclosure may be used alone, may be used in combination, or may be switched according to execution. Further, the order of the processing procedures, sequences, flowcharts, and the like of each aspect / embodiment described in the present disclosure may be changed as long as there is no contradiction. For example, the methods described in this disclosure present elements of the various steps using an exemplary order and are not limited to the specific order presented.

  Each aspect / embodiment described in the present disclosure includes LTE (Long Term Evolution), LTE-A (LTE-Advanced), LTE-B (LTE-Beyond), SUPER 3G, IMT-Advanced, 4G (4th generation mobile communication). system), 5G (5th generation mobile communication system), FRA (Future Radio Access), New-RAT (Radio Access Technology), NR (New Radio), NX (New radio access), FX (Future generation radio access), GSM (Registered trademark) (Global System for Mobile communications), CDMA2000, UMB (Ultra Mobile Broadband), IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi (registered trademark)), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX (registered trademark)), IEEE 802. 20, UWB (Ultra-WideBand), Bluetooth (registered trademark), and other suitable wireless communication The present invention may be applied to a system using a communication method, a next-generation system extended based on these, and the like. A plurality of systems may be combined (for example, a combination of LTE or LTE-A and 5G).

  As used in this disclosure, the phrase “based on” does not mean “based only on,” unless expressly specified otherwise. In other words, the phrase “based on” means both “based only on” and “based at least on.”

  Any reference to elements using designations such as “first”, “second”, etc. as used in this disclosure does not generally limit the amount or order of those elements. These designations can be used in this disclosure as a convenient way to distinguish between two or more elements. Thus, reference to the first and second elements does not mean that only two elements can be employed or that the first element must precede the second element in some way.

  As used in this disclosure, the term “determining” may encompass a wide variety of actions. For example, “determination (decision)” includes judgment, calculation, calculation, processing, derivation, investigating, looking up (eg, table, (Searching in a database or another data structure), ascertaining, etc. may be considered to be “determining”.

  In addition, “determination (decision)” includes receiving (for example, receiving information), transmitting (for example, transmitting information), input (input), output (output), access ( accessing) (e.g., accessing data in memory), etc. may be considered to be "determining".

  Also, “determination” is considered to be “determination (resolving)”, “selecting”, “choosing”, “establishing”, “comparing”, etc. Also good. That is, “determination (determination)” may be regarded as “determination (determination)” of some operation.

  “Judgment (decision)” may be read as “assuming”, “expecting”, “considering”, and the like.

  As used in this disclosure, the terms “connected”, “coupled”, or any variation thereof, is any direct or indirect connection or coupling between two or more elements. And may include the presence of one or more intermediate elements between two elements “connected” or “coupled” to each other. The coupling or connection between the elements may be physical, logical, or a combination thereof. For example, “connection” may be read as “access”.

  In the present disclosure, when two elements are connected, using one or more wires, cables, printed electrical connections, etc., as well as some non-limiting and non-inclusive examples, radio frequency domain, microwave It can be considered to be “connected” or “coupled” to each other using electromagnetic energy having a wavelength in the region, light (both visible and invisible) region, and the like.

  In the present disclosure, the term “A and B are different” may mean “A and B are different from each other”. Terms such as “leave” and “coupled” may be interpreted in a similar manner.

  In this disclosure, where “include”, “including” and variations thereof are used, these terms are inclusive, as are the terms “comprising”. Is intended. Further, the term “or” as used in this disclosure is not intended to be an exclusive OR.

  In the present disclosure, where articles are added by translation, for example, a, an and the in English, the present disclosure may include plurals of nouns following these articles.

  Although the invention according to the present disclosure has been described in detail above, it is obvious for those skilled in the art that the invention according to the present disclosure is not limited to the embodiments described in the present disclosure. The invention according to the present disclosure can be implemented as modifications and changes without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention determined based on the description of the scope of claims. Therefore, the description of the present disclosure is for illustrative purposes and does not give any restrictive meaning to the invention according to the present disclosure.

Claims (7)

A receiving unit for receiving at least one of vehicle position information and speed information;
A vehicle group comprising: a controller that generates a directed graph based on the position information of the vehicle and a vehicle length of the vehicle, and determines a vehicle group including the one or more vehicles using the directed graph. Decision device.   The vehicle group determination device according to claim 1, wherein the control unit estimates a vehicle length of the vehicle based on a fluctuation amount related to a speed of the vehicle.   When the inter-vehicle distance between the first vehicle and the second vehicle is equal to or less than a first threshold and the speed difference between these vehicles is equal to or less than a second threshold, the control unit includes these vehicles. The vehicle group determination device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a vehicle group is determined.   The control unit determines at least one of the first threshold and the second threshold based on a speed or acceleration of the first vehicle and the second vehicle. The vehicle group determination device described.   When the inter-vehicle distance between a vehicle corresponding to the vicinity of an end of a certain directed graph and another vehicle on the directed graph adjacent to the directed graph is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold, the control unit includes the vehicle group including these vehicles. The vehicle group determination device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the vehicle group determination device is determined.   When the speed of each of the two vehicles is zero and there is a certain space or more between these vehicles, the control unit considers that one or more vehicles exist in the space portion. The vehicle group determination device according to any one of claims 1 to 5.   A vehicle group determination system comprising the vehicle group determination device according to any one of claims 1 to 6.

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