JP3267053B2 - Road information processing system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a traveling environment detection transmission system for grasping a traveling environment and a road information processing system for controlling road conditions and obtaining road information to be provided to general traveling vehicles.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as one of road management systems including a traveling environment detection transmission system and a road information processing system, there is a road surface condition monitoring system for detecting road surface freezing.
FIG. 27 shows a paper collection (“Road Condition”).
Monitoring For Safety ", 25t
h ISATA, # 920128, RTI / IVHS,
1 is a configuration diagram showing a road surface condition monitoring system described in Florence, Italy, June 1992, pp. 449-456. This road surface condition monitoring system buries a road surface freeze sensor at a limited point and makes a mobile observation vehicle equipped with road surface temperature distribution measurement equipment patrol,
Information on road surface temperature distribution is collected, and a road surface frozen map is estimated from the temperature distribution information and weather forecast information.

[0003] In the drawing, reference numeral 1 denotes a mobile observation vehicle equipped with a road surface temperature distribution measuring means 2 such as an infrared camera, and 3 denotes point information collecting means, which includes a road surface freezing sensor 4 and a meteorological observation means 5 such as a rain gauge. And collects the spot observation information 8b of the spot where the spot information collecting means 3 is installed in real time. Numeral 6 denotes a calculating means, which is a weather predicting means 6 for predicting the weather up to 24 hours ahead based on the collected point observation information 8b.
a, a road surface freezing determination unit 6b for determining whether the road surface is frozen based on the predicted weather information from the weather prediction unit 6a and the road surface temperature distribution measurement information 8a from the mobile observation vehicle 1, and a road surface condition prediction unit 6c. I have. The information generated by the calculating means 6 is road surface frozen map information 7a and road surface frozen map information 7b. 9 is a road heating control means, 10 is a road maintenance plan support means, 11 is a road information control means, and is a calculation means 6, a road heating control means 9, a road maintenance plan support means 10, and a road information control means 11 Is located at the Road Management Center. A load heater 12 is controlled by load heater control information 16 output from the load heating control means 9. Reference numeral 13 denotes a road maintenance command that instructs a road maintenance worker to perform maintenance work such as spraying of a melting agent, which is output from the road maintenance plan support means 10. 14
Is road information providing means for outputting road information 17 from the road information control means 11. Here, the road information providing means 14
Is composed of a road information display board 14a, a road information broadcast 14b, a road information roadside broadcast 14c, a road information telephone consultation 14d, and the like, and provides safety information for a general traveling vehicle 15.

The operation of the road condition monitoring system will be described below. The road surface temperature distribution measurement information 8a from the road surface temperature distribution measurement means 2 collected regularly or irregularly by the mobile observation vehicle 1 is input to the calculation means 6 after the traveling observation vehicle 1 collects the information. Also, the outputs of the road surface freezing sensor 4 and the weather observing means 5 constituting the point information collecting means 3 are collected from each deployment point via the communication means and sent to the calculating means 6 in real time. The weather prediction means 6a performs weather prediction based on the point observation information 8b from each of the discretely arranged points. Furthermore, the road surface temperature distribution measurement information 8a obtained from the mobile observation vehicle 1 and the point observation information 8b are combined to estimate the road surface freezing distribution at the present time, and the road surface frozen map information 7
a is output. This road surface frozen map information 7a is
5 attention information, road heating control of frozen road,
Used to indicate the use of the melting agent. At the same time, the road surface condition predicting means 6c outputs a road surface freezing prediction map 7b for predicting road surface freezing in the future 24 hours, which is also used for forecasting the traveling vehicle 15, preparing a melting agent, and scheduling road maintenance personnel. Used.

[0005]

The conventional road management system is configured as described above. In the traveling environment detection transmission unit, a mobile observation vehicle 1 for collecting road surface information and a road surface temperature distribution measuring means 2 are provided. When measuring the road surface temperature distribution without contact, an infrared camera or the like is used. This infrared camera is expensive not only in terms of initial cost but also in terms of service life and maintainability, which limits the number of mobile observation vehicles 1 and makes it possible to collect information over a wide area in time and space. It was difficult to carry out precisely. The road surface temperature distribution observed by the road surface temperature distribution measuring means 2 reflects the state of the road surface such as dryness, wetness, snow compaction, freezing, and jam snow, but the general traveling vehicle 15 does not actually slip without slipping. In order to run, it is desirable to directly observe the sliding friction coefficient μ. However, the temperature measured by the road surface temperature distribution measuring means 2 was an observation item having a weak correlation with the sliding friction coefficient μ. A road surface freezing sensor 4 for detecting road surface freezing
Can directly obtain information close to the coefficient of sliding friction μ by directly measuring the road surface condition. However, since the road surface freezing sensor 4 is worn due to burial work and road surface wear, it must be replaced and laid at the same cycle as the road surface regeneration work, resulting in high running costs. Further, since the point information collecting means 3 is spatially discretely arranged, the resulting road surface frozen map information 7a and road surface frozen map information 7b are obtained.
Are low in accuracy and reliability and high in cost with respect to spatial spread.

In the road information processing section, road surface temperature distribution measurement information 8a of each point collected by the mobile observation vehicle 1
Is input to the calculating means 6 and processed, so that there is a problem that a time delay from the observed time occurs.

A road heating control means 9 for controlling the road heater 12 based on the road surface freeze map information 7a and the road surface freeze prediction map information 7b of the conventional low accuracy / reliability as described above. In this case, the power cost for unnecessary road heating becomes enormous. Similarly, the road maintenance command 13 instructing the road maintenance staff to perform maintenance work such as spraying of the melting agent from the road maintenance plan support means 10 becomes inaccurate.
Further, the road information providing medium 1
The accuracy of the road information output to the general traveling vehicle 15 via the control unit 4 is also low. Such inaccuracy and lack of reliability of the maintenance command has a problem that ultimately the traveling safety of a general vehicle is reduced.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems , and realizes safe and smooth running of a vehicle.
The purpose is to obtain a road information processing system that can be realized.

[0009]

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Road information processing according to the present invention
The system exchanges information with multiple vehicles,
From the plurality of vehicles, the traveling position of each vehicle and
The driving control means for controlling the driving state of each vehicle
It is calculated from the vehicle state quantity used or the above-mentioned vehicle state quantity.
Roads that collect road environment values as road-related information in real time
Inter-vehicle communication means, collected road-related information by unit road section
Road information tallyer that calculates the average value for each section
By comparing the average value with the reference value.
Judge the frozen or air pollution state of the road in the section, and
It is provided with a road condition judging means for judging the road condition in a wide area .

[0011]

[0012]

[0013]

Further, road information processing system of the present invention, by performing a plurality of vehicles and information exchange, the plurality
From each vehicle, the travel position of each vehicle and the above
Used for traveling control means for controlling the traveling state of the vehicle
Road environment calculated from both state quantities or the above vehicle state quantities
Road-to-vehicle communication that collects values and road-related information in real time
Means, the collected road-related information to the road conditions
Compared with the reference value set accordingly, a value larger than the reference value
, Road environment calculation means that outputs a danger flag, unit road
Aggregate the frequency at which the danger flag is output for each road section
The road information tallying means, and the tallyed frequencies are added to each road.
By comparing with the frequency reference value set for each
It is provided with a road condition judging means for judging a frozen state or an air pollution state of a road in a section and judging a road condition in a wide area .

Further, road information processing system of the present invention, in the above road information processing system, respectively
The time information when the vehicle measures the vehicle state quantity is used as road-related information.
To collect.

Further, road information processing system of the present invention, in the above road information processing system, a determination result of weather information collecting means, and the road state determining means for collecting meteorological information at each point, the weather information collecting means And a road condition predicting means for predicting a road condition based on the weather information collected in step (1).

[0017]

Further, road information processing system of the present invention, in the above road information processing system, is characterized in that the road-to-vehicle communication unit and a local intermittent communication means.

Further, road information processing system of the present invention, in the above road information processing system, is characterized in that it has a wide continuous communication unit road-vehicle communication means.

[0020]

According to the road information processing system of the present invention ,
Road-related data transmitted from time to time via road-to-vehicle communication means
Information is compiled for each unit road section, and roads are
Determine the frozen or air pollution condition of the road, and
Judge broadly.

[0021]

[0022]

[0023]

Further, in the road information processing system definitive in this inventions, the road environment calculation means, the road-vehicle communication means
The road-related information collected via the
Compared with the reference value set according to
When the value is set, a danger flag is output. In road information totaling means
The frequency at which the above-mentioned danger flag is output for each unit road section is collected.
Measure. In addition, the frequency calculated by the road condition
The frequency with the frequency reference value set for each road.
Judging whether the road is frozen or air pollution
And determine the road conditions in a wide area .

[0025] In addition, road information processing system that definitive in this inventions are, in each of the above road information processing system, it
The time information at which the vehicle measured the vehicle state quantity was
Collect as information .

[0026] In addition, road information processing system that definitive in this inventions are, in each of the above road information processing system, to collect weather information such as weather observation information and weather forecast information in the weather information collection means. Further, a future road condition is predicted by the road condition prediction means based on the weather information and the road condition.

[0027]

The road information processing system according to the present invention
In each of the above road information processing systems,
The communication unit is a local intermittent communication unit, and transmits road-related information measured by the vehicle when traveling in a communicable range.

The road information processing system according to the present invention
In each of the above road information processing systems,
The communication means is a wide area continuous communication means which is always in a communicable state and transmits road-related information measured by the vehicle.

[0030]

【Example】

Embodiment 1 FIG. Hereinafter, a driving environment detection transmission system according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the first embodiment.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a traveling environment detection transmission system according to a first embodiment. In the figure, 21 is a general vehicle running on a road, 22 is a wheel of the vehicle 21, 23 is an engine, 24
Is a transmission, 30 is a vehicle position identification means for detecting a traveling position of the vehicle 21, 40 is a traveling control means for controlling a traveling state, for example, a brake control device, and 50a to 50d are vehicles 2
A wheel speed sensor for measuring the number of rotations of each wheel 22;
Reference numeral 0e denotes an output shaft rotation speed sensor installed at the last stage of the transmission 24, and 52 denotes an acceleration sensor that measures front, rear, left and right accelerations acting on the vehicle 21. Wheel speed sensors 50a-5
0d, output shaft speed sensor 50e, and acceleration sensor 5
2 constitutes a vehicle state measuring means, and measures a vehicle state quantity used in the brake control device 40. 60 is the vehicle 21
A road-to-vehicle communication unit 61 is mounted on the vehicle, and 61 is a road-to-vehicle communication antenna. The road-vehicle communication means 60 wirelessly transmits road-related information to a user via a road-vehicle communication antenna (not shown) such as a beacon provided outside the vehicle, for example. At this time, the transmitted road-related information corresponds to the vehicle 21 measured by the vehicle position identification means 30.
Travel position information indicating the travel position of the vehicle and the brake control device 4
0 is the vehicle state quantity used.

The operation of each means will be described below. The vehicle position identification means 30 is, for example, a global positioning system (Grob) using an electronic map and a position measurement satellite.
al Positioning System, G
The current traveling position of the vehicle 21 is determined using a navigation system or the like using a device (described as PS). FIG. 2 shows the configuration of the own-vehicle position identification means 30. Hereinafter, the operation of detecting the traveling position of the own vehicle will be described with reference to FIG. In the figure, 31 is a GPS satellite launched in orbit around the earth, 32 is a GPS antenna for receiving radio waves emitted from the GPS satellite 31, 33 is a GPS navigation device composed of computer means such as a microcomputer, and 34 is In electronic map, for example, CD-RO
It is supplied by a medium having a large storage capacity such as M, and is composed of map data such as road alignment, road type, railway, and river. 35 is a CD-ROM drive device, 36 is a display device, and 37 is traveling position information of the own vehicle.

The GPS satellite 31 transmits information on the current position of the satellite and the time at the current position. Radio waves transmitted from a plurality of GPS satellites 31 are received by the GPS antenna 32 simultaneously or divided in time. Based on the received position and time information of the plurality of GPS satellites 31, the GPS
The navigation device 33 calculates the linear distance between each GPS satellite 31 and the GPS antenna 32 and calculates the GPS antenna 3
2 is calculated. On the other hand, the CD-ROM drive device 35 reads map data necessary for calculating and displaying the travel position of the vehicle from the electronic map 34. Further, the GPS navigation device 33 collates both the calculated current position of the GPS antenna 32 and the read map data, displays the current running position of the vehicle and a map of the surroundings on the display device 36, To present. Further, it outputs the travel position information 37 of the own vehicle to the road-vehicle communication means 60.

The traveling position information 37 output here may be, for example, current latitude / longitude data or a format according to road data described on an electronic map. An example of the expression of the travel position information 37 is shown in FIG. In the figure, R1 to R4 indicate road numbers registered in the electronic map, and n1 and n2 indicate intersection (road node) numbers. When the vehicle 21 is traveling at the position shown in the figure, the traveling position can represent the position of the vehicle 21 by, for example, "xx latitude north latitude, ** degree east longitude". Also,"
Intersection number n1 to intersection number n2 on road number R3
In the direction of the distance d ″.

The brake control device 40, which is an example of the travel control means, controls the brake hydraulic pressure so as not to lock the wheels 22 during sudden braking on a slippery road surface or the like, and controls the travel of the vehicle 21. It improves safety. FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a typical configuration example of the brake control device 40. In the figure, 41 is wheel 2
Reference numeral 42 denotes a wheel speed calculator, 42 denotes a speed calculator, 43 denotes a deceleration calculator, 44 denotes an estimated vehicle speed calculator, 45 denotes a slip ratio calculator, and 46 denotes a control oil pressure calculator.

Hereinafter, the operation of the brake control device 40 will be briefly described. The wheel speed calculator 41 receives the pulse signals of the wheel speed sensors 50a to 50d mounted on each wheel 22 and calculates the rotation speed of the wheel 22. The speed calculation unit 42 receives the signal of the output shaft rotation speed sensor 50e and calculates the rotation speed of the drive wheel. The deceleration calculation unit 43 calculates the deceleration state of the vehicle 21 from the signal of the acceleration / deceleration sensor 52. Next, the estimated vehicle speed calculating unit 44 inputs the signals calculated by the wheel speed calculating unit 41, the speed calculating unit 42, and the deceleration calculating unit 43, and calculates the estimated vehicle speed Vref. The slip rate calculator 45 compares the estimated vehicle speed Vref calculated by the estimated vehicle speed calculator 44 with the rotation speed of each wheel 22 calculated by the wheel speed calculator 41 to calculate the slip rate of each wheel 22. I do. The control oil pressure calculation unit 46 calculates the control amount of the brake pressure supplied to each wheel 22 from the calculated slip ratio of each wheel 22. For example, for a wheel in an excessively slip state, the brake oil pressure is reduced. If it is too small, the brake cylinder is controlled to increase the brake oil pressure.

The brake control device 40 as described above is gradually mounted on a general vehicle in recent years. In this embodiment, the wheel speed and the acceleration / deceleration, which are the vehicle state variables measured by this device, are determined. The road environment is detected using these vehicle state quantities.

The road-to-vehicle communication means 60 communicates the travel position information 37 obtained by the vehicle position identification means 30 with the brake control device 4.
The vehicle-related quantities used in step 0 are input, and the road-related information in a format combining the two is transmitted to the vehicle-to-vehicle external vehicle-to-vehicle communication means installed outside the vehicle 21. Send to FIG. 5 shows an example of the form of the signal to be transmitted. FIG. 5A shows a case where the traveling position information is represented by latitude and longitude, and FIG. 5B shows a case where the traveling position information is represented by road numbers and nodes of the electronic map. The user of the road-related information is transmitted to the road-vehicle communication means 60 on the vehicle side, a road-vehicle communication antenna 61, and a road-vehicle communication means (not shown) such as a beacon provided outside the vehicle. Wireless transmission using electromagnetic wave signals such as light and radio waves.

With this configuration, the vehicle 2
1 and the vehicle 21 affected by the environment in which the vehicle 1 is currently traveling.
Can be transmitted in relation to the traveling position of the vehicle 21 while traveling. Furthermore, if a plurality of such vehicles 21 are provided and information is collected, a traveling environment detection transmission system capable of collecting information on a wide area in real time can be obtained.

Embodiment 2 FIG. Hereinafter, a driving environment detection transmission system according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram showing a driving environment detection transmission system according to a second embodiment by partial blocks. In the figure, reference numeral 70 denotes time generation means, and the same or corresponding parts as those in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals.

The main operation of the traveling environment detection transmission system configured as described above is the same as that of the first embodiment. The time generating means 70 in this embodiment generates an accurate current time. For example, a clock or the like equipped with a crystal oscillator is installed in the vehicle 21. The road-to-vehicle communication means 60 inputs the travel position information obtained by the own vehicle position identification means 30 and various vehicle state quantities used by the brake control device 40, and outputs the current time generated by the time generation means 70 as an event. Is transmitted as an occurrence time, and the road-related information in a format in which the three are combined is transmitted to an external roadside vehicle-to-vehicle communication means installed outside the vehicle 21 and further transmitted to a user of the road-related information.

FIG. 7 shows an example of the form of the road-related information to be transmitted.
Shown in FIG. 7A shows a case where the traveling position information is indicated by latitude and longitude, and FIG. 7B shows a case where the traveling position information is indicated by road numbers and nodes of the electronic map. In this way, the time, minute, and second representing the current time are transmitted via the road-to-vehicle communication means 60 in addition to the traveling position information, the vehicle state quantities such as the left and right front and rear wheel rotational speeds and the acceleration / deceleration.

With this configuration, when processing road information after collection, the influence of the environment in which the vehicle is traveling is related to the traveling position of the vehicle, and the time at which the event occurred can be accurately determined. I can understand. For this reason, even when the communication facilities on the road side are discretely arranged, it is possible to obtain a driving environment detection transmission system that can accurately manage environmental information and collect information in a wide area quickly in real time. .

The time generating means 70 is not limited to a crystal oscillator, but may be based on, for example, time information included in a signal for position calculation transmitted from a GPS satellite.

Embodiment 3 FIG. Hereinafter, a driving environment detection transmission system according to a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 8 is a configuration diagram showing a driving environment detection transmission system according to a third embodiment by partial blocks. In the figure, reference numeral 80 denotes an example of a road environment calculating means, for example, a driving environment calculating means.
In the figure, the same or corresponding parts as in the second embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals. Here, the road environment includes driving safety, damage to the road itself, environmental pollution, and the like.

The main operation of the traveling environment detection transmission system configured as described above is the same as that of the second embodiment. The traveling environment calculating means 80 in this embodiment calculates a road environment value representing a road state from various vehicle state quantities. Various vehicle state quantities used in the brake control device 40 similar to the second embodiment are used. That is, the rotation speed of the wheel 22 output from the wheel speed calculation unit 41 shown in FIG. 4, the rotation speed of the drive wheel output from the speed calculation unit 42,
Using the output information 47 such as the deceleration state of the vehicle 21 output from the deceleration calculation unit 43, a road environment value which is a signal representative of the road environment is calculated.

The road environment value is, for example, a friction coefficient of the road surface. Based on the friction coefficient, the road environment from the viewpoint of running safety that the road surface is frozen or the road surface is extremely slippery is determined. Can be estimated. Regarding the calculation method of the road surface friction coefficient, for example,
There is a method described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 56 “Anti-skid control device”. Using this method, the vehicle travels using the deceleration signal calculated by the deceleration calculation unit 43, the rotation speed of the wheel 22 calculated by the wheel speed calculation unit 41, and the rotation speed of the drive wheel calculated by the speed calculation unit 42. It is estimated whether the middle road surface is in a high friction state or a low friction state. As another method of estimating the road surface friction coefficient, for example, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 3-258650, "Road Surface Friction Coefficient Detecting Apparatus", various vehicle state quantities are measured and the road surface friction is determined by fuzzy inference. As described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 3-258661, "Road surface friction coefficient detecting device", there are a method of estimating a coefficient and an inference method mainly using a signal of a power steering device. Good.

The road-to-vehicle communication means 60 in FIG. 8 inputs the traveling position information obtained by the own-vehicle position identification means 30 and the road surface friction coefficient obtained by the traveling environment calculation means 80 and the time generation means 70. Enter the generated current time as the event occurrence time. The information is transmitted to the external vehicle-to-vehicle communication means provided outside the vehicle 21 in a format in which these three are combined, and further transmitted to the user of the road-related information. FIG. 9 shows an example of the form of the signal to be transmitted. FIG.
(A) is a case where the traveling position information is represented by latitude and longitude,
FIG. 9B shows a case where the traveling position information is indicated by road numbers and nodes on the electronic map. In this way, in addition to the travel position information and the road surface friction coefficient, the hour, minute, and second representing the current time are transmitted as road-related information via the road-vehicle communication means 60.

As described above, in this embodiment, in addition to the second embodiment, the traveling environment calculating means 80 for calculating the road environment value representing the road state from the vehicle state quantity for controlling by the traveling control means 40 is provided by the vehicle 21. It is installed in. As a result, information representing a specific road environment, for example, information on a road surface friction coefficient is calculated from various vehicle state quantities measured by the vehicle 21 and transmitted to a communication device outside the vehicle 21. 9 to FIG. 5 and FIG.
Compared with, the transmission amount is clearly reduced, and the road environment value is calculated in advance by the vehicle 21, so that the subsequent aggregation processing is also simplified. For example, if the coefficient of friction of the road surface is O.
Roads under 3 are considered slippery and dangerous, and are used for road management, such as activating a road heater, spraying sand to reduce sliding friction resistance, and issuing warnings to drivers and road managers. it can. In this manner, the influence of the environment in which the vehicle 21 is currently traveling can be transmitted in relation to the traveling position of the vehicle 21, and information on a wide area can be collected continuously and promptly in time, and the transmission amount can be reduced. A driving environment detection transmission system that can reduce necessary information can be obtained.

Further, the traveling control means in the first to third embodiments is not limited to the anti-skid brake device for controlling the rotation speed of the wheels during braking. The travel control means only needs to electronically control the travel state of the vehicle 21, and a traction control device or the like for controlling the rotation speed of the wheels at the time of starting can be used.

The various vehicle state quantities used in the calculation by the traveling environment calculation means 80 are not limited to the output information from the calculation section of the brake control device 40. For example, by directly inputting information on the traveling state and control state of the vehicle measured by various vehicle state measuring means 50a to 50d, 50e, 52,
You may comprise so that it may calculate.

Embodiment 4 FIG. Hereinafter, a driving environment detection transmission system according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 10 is a configuration diagram showing a driving environment detection transmission system according to a fourth embodiment in partial blocks. In the figure, 81a, 8
Reference numeral 1b denotes a road surface pattern input device, and the same or corresponding portions as those in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals.

Next, the operation will be described. The processing operation of the traveling environment calculation means 80 is shown in the flowchart of FIG. 11, and an example of the processing operation of the traveling environment calculation means 80 will be described with reference to FIG. First, in step ST21, the wheel rotation speed of each wheel 22 is input from the wheel speed sensors 50a to 50d, and the wheel rotation speed is calculated based on the wheel rotation speed in step ST22.
Calculates the vehicle speed (hereinafter, wheel speed). The wheel speed Vw is calculated by, for example, the following formula assuming that the average value of the rotation speeds of the wheels 22 is ω and the wheel radius r. Vw = ω × r (1)

Next, the ground speed is calculated in steps ST23 to ST25. The method of calculating the ground speed is, for example,
Transactions of the Society of Instrument and Control Engineers, Vol. 11, No. 4, No. 473
Pp. 478, "Vehicle Speed Measurement Using Correlation", a method of applying a correlation method to irregular signals obtained from fine shading and unevenness naturally existing on the road surface, and a method of automatic measurement. Transactions of the Society of Control Engineers, Vol. 26, No. 5, No. 5
44 to 549, 1990, "Estimation of absolute vehicle speed from wheel speed including error and acceleration disturbed by noise"
And the ground speed measurement method described in Japanese Patent Application No. 5-126021, "Speed Measurement Device". Here, the method described in "Vehicle Speed Measurement Using Correlation" is used as an example. To explain.

As shown in FIG. 10, the road surface pattern input devices 81a and 81b are installed at two positions along the traveling direction with respect to the vehicle body and at an interval d. FIG. 12 shows a more detailed configuration of the road surface pattern input devices 81a and 81b. In the figure, 82 is a phototransistor, 83 is a lens barrel, 8
4 is an optical lens, and 85 is a diaphragm. This road surface pattern input device observes an irregular signal (reflected light) obtained from the unevenness of the road surface, and
2, and outputs the reflected light observed by the phototransistor 82 as one-dimensional road surface luminance information.

In step ST23, road surface luminance information is input from the road surface pattern input devices 81a and 81b. In step ST24, a cross-correlation function of the two road surface luminance information obtained at these two locations is calculated, and the cross-correlation function is calculated. Calculate the time delay L when it becomes the maximum. In step ST25, based on the time delay L obtained in step ST24 and the value of the installation interval d of the road surface pattern input devices 81a and 81b,
The ground speed Vt is calculated by the following equation. Vt = d / L (2)

Next, in step ST26, the slip ratio λ is calculated by the following equation. λ = {(Vt−Vw) / Vt} × 100% (3) In the above description, for simplicity, the wheel rotation speed is represented by an average value ω of the wheel rotation speed obtained from the wheel speed sensor of each wheel 22. However, λ may be calculated as individual quantities.

The road-to-vehicle communication means 60 includes the traveling position information obtained by the vehicle position identification means 30 and the traveling environment calculating means 8.
The information of the slip ratio calculated in step 0 is input, and the road-related information in a format in which the two are integrated is transmitted to the off-vehicle road-to-vehicle communication means installed outside the vehicle 21, and further to the road-related information user. Send. The signal format to be transmitted is
For example, a form similar to that of FIG. 9 is conceivable, and a configuration is adopted in which the slip ratio is transmitted instead of the road surface friction coefficient in FIG. The road information user makes a judgment based on, for example, the slip rate of the road surface, and operates the road heater, sprays sand to increase the coefficient of friction, or issues a warning to the driver or a road manager. Can be used for management.

As described above, in this embodiment, as in the third embodiment, the running environment calculating means 80 for calculating the slip ratio as the road environment value representing the road state from the vehicle state quantity is mounted on the vehicle 21. As a result, the slip ratio of the road surface is calculated from various vehicle state quantities measured by the vehicle 21 and transmitted to a communication device external to the vehicle 21. Therefore, Embodiment 3
In the same manner as described above, the influence of the environment in which the vehicle 21 is currently traveling can be transmitted in relation to the traveling position of the vehicle 21, and information on a wide area can be collected continuously and promptly in time, and the transmission amount is required. A driving environment detection transmission system that can reduce the amount of information required can be obtained.

Further, in the third and fourth embodiments, means for judging the numerical value of the calculated road environment value is provided, and only information necessary for performing road management is transmitted to the outside of the vehicle as road-related information. If the configuration is such that the information is collected as road management information, a traveling environment detection transmission system that can further reduce the amount of transmission to necessary information can be obtained.

Embodiment 5 FIG. Hereinafter, a driving environment detection transmission system according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 13 is a configuration diagram illustrating a traveling control unit according to the traveling environment detection transmission system according to the fifth embodiment. In the figure, 25 is an intake pipe connected to the engine 23, 26 is the engine 23
Reference numeral 27 denotes an output shaft of the engine 23, and reference numeral 90 denotes an engine control device which is an example of travel control means. The engine control device 90 controls the engine 23 with the transmission 24 connected to the output shaft 27 changing the reduction ratio in accordance with the traveling state. Reference numeral 91a denotes an output shaft speed sensor installed on the final output shaft of the transmission 24, and obtains a signal corresponding to the traveling speed of the vehicle 21. 91b
Is an intake sensor that measures the state of air taken into the engine 23, and 91c is a rotation speed sensor of the engine 23. Further, reference numeral 91d denotes an exhaust sensor for measuring the state of exhaust gas discharged from the engine 23, and reference numeral 91e denotes a fuel injection valve driven by the engine control device 90, and adjusts the amount of fuel supplied to the engine 23. Each sensor 9
1a to 91d constitute a vehicle state measuring means, and measures a vehicle state quantity used in the engine control device 90. Also,
The road environment value detected in this embodiment is, for example, the concentration of harmful gas contained in the intake and exhaust gas, and the other parts are the same as those in the first embodiment.

More specifically, the engine control device 90 is constituted by a computer such as a microcomputer,
Input various vehicle state quantities measured in 1a to 91d,
A fuel amount suitable for the operation state of the engine 23 is determined. By operating the fuel control valve 91e according to the combustion amount, an appropriate combustion state and output state are realized. As a numerical value representing the road environment, a representative state quantity that can be measured by the intake sensor 91b or the exhaust sensor 91d is used to determine, for example, the intake temperature, the intake air amount to the engine 23, the atmospheric pressure, the oxygen concentration, the residual air concentration, and the nitrogen oxide. (Nox) concentration, carbon monoxide (C
O) Various quantities related to environmental pollution such as concentration can be detected.

The road-to-vehicle communication means 60 is the same as in the first embodiment.
Traveling position information 37 obtained by the vehicle position identification means 30;
The output information 48 representing the road environment such as the NOx concentration obtained when measuring the vehicle state quantity used by the engine control device 90 is input, and the vehicle 2 is output in a format combining both.
The information is transmitted to the vehicle-to-vehicle external vehicle-to-vehicle communication means provided outside the vehicle 1 and further transmitted to the user of the road-related information.

In this manner, the intake / exhaust state quantities are obtained by the engine control unit 90 of the engine, which is the power source for traveling, and information on environmental pollution can be estimated from the intake / exhaust state quantities. That is, the state quantity of the intake / exhaust air of the traveling vehicle 21 is associated with the traveling position of the vehicle and transmitted to the user of the road-related information in real time. From the intake / exhaust state quantities, it is possible to grasp the pollution state of the environment in which the vehicle 21 is currently traveling and the influence of the traveling of the vehicle 21 on environmental pollution. For example, the NOx concentration is tabulated from the exhaust state quantity, and the NOx concentration is represented on a road map,
Road management can be performed according to various situations, such as alerting a road manager at about m or more. In this example,
It is configured to transmit the vehicle state quantity measured by the sensor provided in the vehicle in real time, and without providing a special sensor for state quantity measurement in the vehicle, information on a wide area,
A running environment detection transmission system that collects data continuously and promptly in time is obtained.

The vehicle state measuring means may be constructed such that a sensor capable of measuring various vehicle state quantities as described above is installed in the vehicle. For example, it is possible to measure nitrogen oxide alone. A simple sensor (Nox sensor) may be used. Further, a sensor capable of measuring information on the atmospheric environment such as the CO concentration may be provided, and the information may be transmitted to the outside of the vehicle to detect the road environment.

In the fifth embodiment, if the time generating means 70 shown in the second embodiment is provided, and the time information is added by the road-to-vehicle communication means 60 and transmitted to the outside of the vehicle, the vehicle is running. To be able to correlate the influence from the environment and the effect of the vehicle on the environment with the traveling position of the vehicle and transmit it in conjunction with the time at which the event occurred, and to accurately manage the time at which the event occurred Will be able to
Furthermore, even when the communication facilities on the road are discretely arranged, a traveling environment detection transmission system that can manage accurate environmental information can be obtained.

Further, as shown in the third and fourth embodiments, the driving environment calculating means 80 is provided in the fifth embodiment, and the road environment is calculated in each vehicle 21, and the result of the judgment is transmitted to the vehicle by the road-vehicle communication means 60. It may be transmitted to an external communication device. With this configuration, the influence of the environment in which the vehicle 21 is currently traveling and the effect of the vehicle on the environment can be transmitted in relation to the traveling position of the vehicle 21, and information on a wide area can be transmitted continuously in time. In addition, it is possible to obtain a traveling environment detection transmission system that can collect data quickly and reduce the amount of transmission to necessary information.

Although the vehicle 21 in the first to fifth embodiments is a general vehicle, it is not limited to this.
Although this vehicle can be used alone, a plurality of vehicles 2
By driving different points on each map at the same time as a group of vehicles 1 and detecting the vehicle state quantity at each point at the same time, it is possible to measure and transmit road-related information in a wide range and with high resolution. The vehicle includes a part of travel control means, own vehicle position identification means, vehicle state measurement means, and road-vehicle communication means. In consideration of the feasibility of such a vehicle, the traveling control means is inexpensive and has an anti-skid brake device and a GPS.
Since the navigation device has entered the popularization period, it is possible to use a general vehicle without having a special device.

The road-to-vehicle communication means 6 mounted on the vehicle
As 0, vehicles having an information uplink from the vehicle to the road, for example, a road manager patrol car, a police police car, a radio taxi, a route bus, and the like do not require any special device. Uplink communication means for traffic information services for general drivers to be provided in the future are also being provided. In addition, it can be easily mounted on ordinary vehicles through the on-vehicle telephone service, which has already entered the popularization period, and improvement in the time and space density of information collection can be expected.

Further, the vehicle position identification means 30 in the first to fifth embodiments is not limited to the GPS device, but may be combined with a gyro, a speedometer, a direction sensor and the like to receive no external assistance signal. It may be configured to calculate, or may be a hybrid type of these.

Embodiment 6 FIG. Hereinafter, a road information processing system according to a sixth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG.
FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating a road information processing system according to a sixth embodiment. In the figure, 100 is road-related information detected by a sensor installed in the vehicle 21 and transmitted in real time, 101 is a road-to-vehicle provided on the road-related information collection side and having an interface for transmitting and receiving information. Communication means; 102, road information totalizing means for totalizing the collected road-related information in accordance with the content; 103, road condition determining means for estimating the state of the road based on the road-related information totaled by the road information totaling means; 104 is a road condition determining means 104
Is the road information output from.

Next, the operation will be described. The road-related information 100 transmitted to the road information processing system includes, for example, information relating to vehicle traveling safety such as a slip rate of a tire of a vehicle, a coefficient of friction of a road surface, road surface cracks, rutting, and the like.
Information on road properties such as unevenness, CO concentration, NOx
The information on the atmospheric environment such as the concentration is integrated with the position at which the information is detected, for example, the longitude and latitude information. The road-related information is received by the road-to-vehicle communication unit 101. The road-to-vehicle communication means 101 may have any configuration of, for example, wireless communication using an electromagnetic wave signal such as light or radio wave as a medium, or wired communication using a telephone line or a dedicated line.

The road information totalizing means 102 totalizes the road-related information received by the road-to-vehicle communication means 101 for each type of information such as a friction coefficient and a tire slip rate, for each unit road section and for each unit time. . For example, in this tallying process, the frequency at which information is transmitted and the average value such as density are calculated. An appropriate value may be selected for the unit road section and the length of the unit time according to the required accuracy. FIG. 15 shows a concept of an example of the operation of the road information totalizing means 102.
In the case of FIG. 15, it is assumed that the vehicle 21 is traveling on the national highway x, and the friction coefficient and the NOx concentration are measured while sequentially passing from the point a to the sections i, b, j, c, k, and d. And transmit it in real time along with the point and time. The friction coefficient and the NOx concentration received by the road-to-vehicle communication means 101 are collected and classified for each section. For example, the friction coefficient and the NOx concentration transmitted from the section i are calculated at times t1 to t2, t2 to t3,
The data is classified into t3 and t4, totalized, and the average value is calculated.

The road condition judging means 103 judges the freezing of the road and the air pollution state based on the counting result outputted from the road information counting means 102. For example, to determine the state of road surface freezing, if the average value of the friction coefficient within a unit time is smaller than a certain reference value, it is determined that the road section has road surface freezing. For example, the reference value is set to about 0.3 and the coefficient of friction of Roads under 3 are considered slippery and dangerous, and are used for road management, such as activating a road heater, spraying sand to reduce sliding friction resistance, and issuing warnings to drivers and road managers. it can. NOx
The same applies when determining the status of air pollution based on the concentration. The reference value is set to about 0.06 ppm, and road management can be performed according to various situations, such as warning a road manager when the NOx concentration is equal to or higher than the reference value. Similarly, for other types of information, reference values are set according to the respective information to determine the road condition. As shown in FIG. 16, for example, the road condition estimation result also outputs display road condition map information in which the estimation result is associated with a road map. FIG. 16 shows, for example, CR
An example of display on a display device such as T is shown, where straight lines indicate roads, and information on road surface freezing (T), air pollution (0), and road surface cracks (H) are shown on each road.

As described above, the road information processing system according to the sixth embodiment processes the road-related information transmitted from time to time in real time to estimate and output the current state of the road. Related information can be collected and processed in real time, and a road information processing system that can realize safe and smooth running of the vehicle can be obtained.

Embodiment 7 FIG. Hereinafter, a road information processing system according to a seventh embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG.
FIG. 19 is a block diagram illustrating a road information processing system according to a seventh embodiment. In the figure, reference numeral 105 denotes a road environment calculating means for estimating a specific road condition from the received road-related information 100, and a road information totalizing means 102 totalizes road-related information based on the estimated road state. In other parts, the same reference numerals as those of the sixth embodiment are the same as or equivalent to those of the seventh embodiment.

Next, the operation will be described. Road-related information 100, road-to-vehicle communication means 101, road-related information totaling means 102, road condition determining means 103, road condition information 104
Are the same as those described in the sixth embodiment. The processing operation of the road environment calculation means 105 is shown in the flowchart of FIG.
An example of the processing operation 5 will be described. Here, the case where the friction coefficient of the road surface is transmitted from the vehicle 21 in real time will be described. First, in step ST1, it is determined whether or not the value of the road surface friction coefficient, which is an index of the road surface freezing determination of the received road-related information 100, is larger than a preset reference value. In this determination, if the friction coefficient is smaller than the reference value, 1 is set to the danger flag in step ST2,
If the friction coefficient is larger than the reference value, step ST3
To set the danger flag to 0. The reference value used by the road environment calculation means 105 is set in advance based on whether or not the vehicle 21 is in a dangerous state when traveling, taking into account the gradient of the road on which the vehicle is traveling and the properties of the pavement surface. In the case of the road surface friction coefficient, for example, about 0.3 is set as a reference value. The road on which the vehicle 21 is traveling can be determined by the position information transmitted from the vehicle 21.

In the road information totalizing means 102, instead of totaling the average value of the friction coefficient in the sixth embodiment for each time,
The frequency at which the danger flag is 1 is totaled. For example, as shown in FIG. 19, information such as the coefficient of friction and the like, the danger frequency thereof, and the time zone of detection are superimposed on the corresponding road map, and the totaled result is displayed on a display device such as a CRT screen. Display and present to road manager. The road manager performs road management based on the result of the aggregation. The detection result indicating the dangerous state differs depending on whether the result of counting the dangerous frequency is a road in a mountain or an urban area, a season, a day of the week, a time zone, and the like. However, since the information indicating these is superimposed and displayed on the road map, the road manager can flexibly determine according to the situation such as an urban area or a mountain area. For example, an accident in a mountainous area is highly likely to lead to a fatal accident. Further, when the danger frequency exceeds a certain reference value, road management can be automated, such as by activating a road heater or spraying sand to reduce sliding friction resistance. To set a reference value for automation, for example, survey the statistical traffic volume of each road (seasonal, day of the week, time zone, etc.),
A frequency reference value is set in advance for each road according to the magnitude of the traffic volume and the position of the city area or the mountain area.

The road-related information measured by a plurality of vehicles 21 and transmitted in real time is large. Therefore, in this embodiment, the road environment calculating means 105 determines a specific road condition that affects road safety, maintenance, environment, and the like required by the road information processing system in a large amount of road-related information. Is calculated. For this reason, the amount of information processed by the road information totalizing means 102 can be reduced, and the processing content can be simplified. In a system that does not include the road environment calculation unit 105 as in the sixth embodiment, the sensor side of the vehicle 21 or the communication unit installed on the road side determines whether to transmit or reject the detection information, If only necessary information is transmitted via the road-to-vehicle communication means 101, the road information totalizing means 102 is transmitted as in this embodiment.
The amount of information to be processed can be reduced, and the processing content can be simplified.

The vehicles according to the sixth and seventh embodiments include, as the road-related information 100, information relating to the safety of the vehicle, such as the slip ratio of the tires of the vehicle and the coefficient of friction of the road surface; In the information related to the atmospheric environment such as the NOx concentration, the position where the information is detected, for example,
The company will transmit the integrated information of longitude and latitude.
Specifically, as described in detail in the first embodiment, the vehicle state quantity used by the travel control means such as the brake control device and the position information obtained by the own vehicle position identification means are transmitted as road-related information. In addition, as in the vehicle described in the second embodiment, the vehicle includes a time generation unit, and is configured to transmit the time information as road-related information in addition to the vehicle state quantity and the traveling position information. It is possible to relate the influence of the environment in which the vehicle is traveling to the traveling position of the vehicle, and to accurately grasp the time at which the event occurred. Therefore, even when the roadside vehicle-to-vehicle communication means 101 on the roadside is discretely arranged, accurate environmental information can be managed. In addition to the above, a driving environment calculating means such as the vehicle shown in the third and fourth embodiments is provided, a numerical value representing the road environment is calculated from the vehicle state quantity, and the road environment value and the driving position information are converted into the road-related information. If it is configured to transmit, the amount of transmission information can be significantly reduced, and the load on the road information totaling unit 102 can be reduced.

Embodiment 8 FIG. Hereinafter, vehicles and road-related information according to the road information processing system according to the eighth embodiment of the present invention will be described. This embodiment shows another embodiment of the road-related information measured by the vehicle 21. The road-related information 100 according to the first to seventh embodiments is, for example, information relating to vehicle traveling safety such as a slip rate of a tire of a vehicle and a friction coefficient of a road surface, and information relating to an atmospheric environment such as a CO concentration and a NOx concentration. Then, the position where these pieces of information are detected, for example, information on latitude and longitude is integrated. On the other hand, in this embodiment, as the road-related information, for example, information related to the road properties such as vertical unevenness and cross-sectional unevenness (rutted road) indicating the properties of the road, and the position where these information is detected, for example, It is assumed that the degree information is integrated. The vehicle 21 is provided with a sensor for measuring information information relating to the properties of the road. The sensor for detecting the property of the road is described in detail, for example, in Laser Research, Vol. 18, No. 12, pp. 13-17, "Road Surface Property Measuring System".

FIG. 20 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the operation for measuring the vertical unevenness, and shows a part of the vehicle 21 and the road.
In the figure, reference numerals 92a, 92b, and 92c denote laser displacement meters that project a laser beam onto a road surface and non-contactly measure a distance to an object based on the principle of triangulation.
For example, three laser displacement meters 92a, 92b, 92c
Are attached to the base frame of the vehicle body 21 at intervals of about 1.5 m. These laser displacement meters 92a, 92b, 92
The basic principle of the measurement of the vertical unevenness by c will be described. The laser displacement meters 92a, 92b, and 92c measure the distances to the road surface at the three installed points, respectively. Assuming that the measured values are L1, L2, and L3, the unevenness amount (d) can be obtained by Expression 4. d = (L1 + L3) / 2−L2 (4) This value is obtained over the entire length of the survey line, its standard deviation is calculated, and this value is defined as the amount of longitudinal unevenness in the section.

FIG. 21 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the operation of measuring the crossing unevenness, and shows a part of the vehicle 21 and the road. In the figure, 93a and 93b are fan beam projectors that form a laser beam into a fan shape (fan beam) and project the laser beam on a road surface, and 93c and 93d are CCD cameras. The fan beam projectors 93a and 93b are configured to project the fan beam at an incident angle of, for example, about 63.5 degrees with respect to the road surface, and two are mounted on the left and right sides of the vehicle body to secure a combined irradiation width of about 5 m. The two CCD cameras 93c and 93d are mounted to capture the irradiation light (bright lines) of the fan beam projectors 93a and 93b, respectively, and capture the bright lines from a direction different from the projected fan beam. The two images obtained in this way are aligned with one image and synthesized,
An image showing the crossing unevenness of the road surface as shown in FIG. 22 is obtained. FIG.
2, the horizontal axis indicates the distance (m) in the cross direction of the road, and the vertical axis indicates the depth direction (mm). The depth of the rutting is measured by analyzing this image.

The amount of vertical unevenness and the amount of transverse unevenness obtained as described above are collected via the road-to-vehicle communication means 101 and collected by the road environment totalizing means 102 in the same manner as in the sixth or seventh embodiment. The condition determining means 103 determines the properties of the road. For example, if the amount of vertical unevenness or the amount of transverse unevenness is larger than a predetermined reference value, it is determined that road repair is necessary, and a road manager is warned. Further, the magnitude of the vertical unevenness amount or the transverse unevenness amount may be displayed on a road map, and may be used as a judgment material for safety maintenance.

As described above, in this embodiment, the road management is performed by collecting and totaling various kinds of information indicating the properties of the road, and the safe and smooth running of the vehicle can be realized. In this embodiment, as the road-related information measured by the vehicle 21, the amount of longitudinal unevenness or the amount of transverse unevenness indicating the property of the road is measured, collected, and totaled, but as the road-related information, The present invention is not limited to this, and may be another one.

Embodiment 9 FIG. Hereinafter, a road information processing system according to a ninth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG.
FIG. 19 is a block diagram illustrating a road information processing system according to a ninth embodiment. In the figure, reference numeral 106 denotes the temperature, humidity,
Weather observation information / weather forecast information, such as atmospheric pressure and weather, 107
Is a weather / road condition database such as past weather conditions and road surface conditions according to the weather; 108 is a weather information collecting means for obtaining weather observation information / weather forecast information 106 and weather / road condition database 107 information; The prediction unit predicts a future road condition by using the weather information of each point collected by the weather information collection unit 108 and the determination result of the road status determination unit 103. Reference numeral 110 denotes output information of the road condition prediction means 109, for example, a road condition prediction map. In the other parts, the same reference numerals as those in the sixth embodiment denote the same or corresponding parts as in the sixth embodiment.

Next, the operation will be described. The meteorological observation information / meteorological forecast information 106 is local meteorological observation information / meteorological forecast information such as temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind power, wind direction, and precipitation obtained from various sensors installed at each point. Also,
The weather condition in the weather / road condition database 107 is made into a database according to statistical data of past time, season, and weather. Weather and road condition database 1
07 further stores road conditions, which are statistical information such as road conditions such as wet, dry, frozen, and snowy according to the past season, time, and weather. Weather observation information / meteorological forecast information 106 and past weather information database 107
Uses information obtained from, for example, the Japan Meteorological Association. The meteorological information collecting means 108 inputs meteorological information such as meteorological observation information / meteorological forecast information 106 and weather / road condition database 107 online.

The road condition predicting means 109 uses the weather information obtained by the weather information collecting means 108 and the road condition information 104 which is output information of the road condition determining means 103,
For example, prediction is made on which road surface will be frozen in the future. The prediction of road surface freezing is performed by, for example, a statistical freezing prediction method using multiple regression analysis. Specifically, “Honshi Giho”, Vol. 15, No. 57, pages 14 to 17
1991, there is a temperature prediction using a linear multiple regression equation. The road condition prediction map 110 is, for example, as shown in FIG.
The output format may be the same as the display example of the output information of the road condition determination means 103 shown in FIG. That is, for example, the future road condition prediction map 110 is output for about 24 hours, by associating the location on the road map where freezing is predicted with the time.

FIG. 24 is a flow chart showing the processing of the part for creating the road condition prediction map 110 in the road condition prediction means 109. The road map is represented by a plurality of map constituent points, and a road situation at each constituent point is predicted to create a road situation predicted map 110. First, step ST11
Then, it is determined whether or not the scanning of the map constituent points has been completed. If the scanning has not been completed, the process of step ST12 is performed. In step ST12, information on the frozen point at the current point in the map composing points is input from the road condition determining means 103. Next, in step ST13, the current and past weather information at the map composing points is input from the weather information collecting means 108. Using these input information, step S
At T14, the frozen state of the road is statistically predicted by multiple regression analysis based on the past road state and weather state according to the time, season, and weather state. Therefore, the map constituent points are updated in step ST15, and the process returns to step ST11. Step ST
If it is determined in step 11 that the prediction has been completed for all the map constituent points, in step ST16, the road situation prediction map 110 is output as an image.

As described above, in this embodiment, the future road condition is predicted and output by referring to the weather information in addition to the estimation result of the current road condition, so that the safe and smooth running of the vehicle is realized. A possible road information processing system is obtained.

In the above embodiment, the weather observation information, the weather forecast information, the past weather information database 107 provided by the Japan Meteorological Association and the like, and the information of the road condition database according to the past weather, season, and time are stored. The road condition of the future is predicted with reference to the road condition, and a highly reliable road condition prediction can be obtained. Further, the road condition prediction is not limited to the method of predicting using the current and past road conditions, and weather observation information and weather prediction information, and any method capable of predicting the road condition may be used. . However, the prediction is made based on at least the current road conditions and weather observation information.

Embodiment 10 FIG. Hereinafter, a tenth embodiment of the present invention will be described.
The road-to-vehicle communication means according to the present invention will be described. FIG. 25 is an explanatory diagram showing road-to-vehicle communication means according to the tenth embodiment.
In the figure, reference numeral 120 denotes a vehicle equipped with various sensors for measuring various vehicle state quantities, and a device having a device for transmitting detection information by the sensors. Reference numeral 121 denotes information that is transmitted from the vehicle 120 and receives road-related information. Road-to-vehicle communication means for transmitting to the user of the vehicle, for example, bidirectional local intermittent communication means. The road-to-vehicle communication means 121 is provided outside the vehicle 120, and is provided inside the vehicle 120 as shown in FIG.
The vehicle-to-roadside vehicle-to-vehicle communication means 60 shown in FIG.

Next, the operation will be described. The bidirectional local intermittent communication means 121 is provided locally, for example, on the roadside, and can be realized by a beacon using light or radio waves as a medium.
For example, when the vehicle 120 detects the information of the tire slip rate, the vehicle
Position information of 0, time information, and the like are added, and the information is held until the communication range with the bidirectional local intermittent communication unit 121 is reached. The above-described position information and time information can be obtained by, for example, a GPS device as described in the above embodiment. The timing of communication between the beacon 121 and the vehicle 120 is performed, for example, when the vehicle receives a signal indicating that the vehicle has reached the communication range from the beacon 121.

If a beacon is used as the road-to-vehicle communication means as in this embodiment, the road-related information detected by the vehicle 120 can be promptly transmitted in real time to the user of the road-related information outside the vehicle 120. it can. In addition, since facilities such as beacons that are being installed can be used now and in the future, new capital investment is not required, and the economic effect is large.

As described above, the vehicle 120 can be deployed from a road manager patrol car, a police patrol car, a radio taxi, a route bus, or the like having an information uplink from the vehicle to the road. It is possible to expand to general vehicles through the uplink communication means for traffic information service to general drivers to be developed in the future, or through the on-board telephone service which has already spread.
By configuring the general vehicle to transmit road-related information,
It can be expected to improve the time and space density of the information collection. Further, when the bidirectional local intermittent communication means 121 is configured by a beacon, it is necessary to mount on-vehicle road-to-vehicle communication means for communicating with the beacon on the vehicle. It is also possible to exchange,
A dramatic improvement in safety can be expected.

Embodiment 11 FIG. Hereinafter, an eleventh embodiment of the present invention will be described.
The road-to-vehicle communication means according to the present invention will be described. FIG. 26 is an explanatory diagram showing road-to-vehicle communication means according to the eleventh embodiment.
In the figure, reference numeral 122 denotes a road-to-vehicle communication means, for example, a bidirectional wide area continuous communication means. Specifically, it is constituted by a business radio used by the Road Public Corporation, and continuously receives information transmitted from the vehicle 120 in real time and transmits it to the user of the road-related information.

Next, the operation will be described. For example, when the vehicle 120 detects information on the tire slip ratio, the vehicle 120 equipped with the sensor adds position information, time information, and the like of the vehicle 120. After that, the commercial radio 12
2, and continuously transmits to the user of the road-related information. The business radio 122 is in a state where transmission and reception can be continuously performed, and the obtained information can be transmitted in real time. In addition, the communication means already installed for other uses can be used like the above-mentioned business radio, so that new capital investment is not required and the economic effect is great.

The wide area continuous communication means 122 may use a magnetic flux leakage cable, a mobile telephone, a satellite communication, or the like, in addition to the commercial radio.

In the tenth and eleventh embodiments, other components may be the same as those in the first to ninth embodiments.
Other configurations may be used. For example, as shown in a third embodiment, after detecting road-related information in a vehicle, information necessary for road information processing is calculated in advance, and position information and time information are added.
If it is configured to transmit, it is sorted out, the location information and the time information are added to this information, and if it is configured to be transmitted, the transmission amount of road-related information can be reduced to necessary information, and Statistical processing can be simplified. Further, this information can be further selected to reduce the amount of transmission.

[0099]

As in the above, according to the present invention, according to the inventions, multiple
By exchanging information with other vehicles,
From the running position of each vehicle,
Of vehicle state used for traveling control means for controlling traveling state of vehicle
Alternatively, the road environment value calculated from the vehicle state quantity is
Road-to-vehicle communication means collected in real time as road-related information,
Aggregated road-related information is collected for each unit road section, and each section
Road information totaling means for calculating an average value for each,
Freezing of roads in each section by comparing the value with the reference value
The state of the road or the state of air pollution,
Equipped with road condition judgment means to judge
Collects road-related information for the area in real time and
Condition of the vehicle or air pollution, and
A road information processing system that can realize smooth running is obtained.
effective.

[0100]

[0101]

[0102]

According to the present invention, a plurality of vehicles and information
By exchanging information, each of the vehicles
Traveling position of each vehicle and the traveling state of each vehicle
The vehicle state quantity used for the travel control means for controlling
The road environment value calculated from the vehicle state quantity and the road-related information
Road-to-vehicle communication means to collect in real time, collected roads
Related information is stored in a base set according to the road conditions
Compared to the reference value, if the value is greater than the reference value, the danger flag
Road environment calculation means to output, the above danger per unit road section
Road information tallying means for tallying the frequency at which the flag is output,
And the frequency calculated above is the frequency set for each road.
By comparing with the reference value of
It determines state or air pollution conditions, by providing a globally determine <br/> cross road state determining means road conditions, a wide road-related information area, frozen state of the collection to the road in real-time Ma
Or determine the state of air pollution, so that the vehicle is safe and smooth.
While driving can be realized, the amount of information can be reduced
There is an effect that a road information processing system whose contents can be simplified can be obtained.

According to the present invention, each of the above road information
In the processing system, each vehicle
Collecting measured time information as road-related information
The vehicle's travel position and the time at which the event occurred
Thus, there is an effect that a driving environment detection transmission system that can collect and process road-related information in a wide area in real time can be obtained.

According to the present invention, each of the above road information
In the processing system, the weather information collecting means for collecting weather information of each point, and the determination result of the road condition determining means,
By having a road condition prediction means for performing road conditions predicted on the basis of the collected weather information in the weather information collecting means, the upper
In addition to the effects of each road information processing system , there is an effect that a road information system capable of predicting road conditions and realizing safe and smooth running of the vehicle is obtained.

[0106]

Further, according to the present invention, each of the above road information
In the processing system, by using the road-vehicle communication means as the local intermittent communication means, in addition to the effects of the above road information processing systems , equipment for other uses is used without providing dedicated equipment for this system. There is an effect that a road information processing system which is improved can be obtained.

Further, according to the present invention, each of the above road information
In the processing system, since the road-to-vehicle communication means is a wide-area continuous communication means, in addition to the effects of the above road information processing systems , it is possible to continuously transmit and receive using equipment for other uses, There is an effect that a road information processing system capable of transmitting the measured road-related information in real time is obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a driving environment detection transmission system according to a first embodiment of the present invention in partial blocks.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram illustrating a vehicle position identification unit according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of expression of travel position information according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a typical configuration example of a brake control device according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a form of a transmission signal according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram showing a driving environment detection transmission system according to a second embodiment of the present invention in partial blocks.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a form of a transmission signal according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a driving environment detection transmission system according to a third embodiment of the present invention in partial blocks.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a form of a transmission signal according to the third embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a driving environment detection transmission system according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention in partial blocks.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a processing operation of a traveling environment calculation unit according to the fourth embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a configuration diagram illustrating a road surface pattern input device according to a fourth embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a configuration diagram showing traveling control means according to a traveling environment detection transmission system according to Embodiment 5 of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram showing a road information processing system according to Embodiment 6 of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a concept of an example of an operation of a road information totalizing unit according to the sixth embodiment.

FIG. 16 is an explanatory diagram showing, for example, road situation map information in which an estimation result is associated with a road map according to the sixth embodiment.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram showing a road information processing system according to Embodiment 7 of the present invention.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart illustrating a processing operation of a road environment calculation unit according to the seventh embodiment.

FIG. 19 is an explanatory diagram showing, for example, road situation map information in which an estimation result is associated with a road map according to the seventh embodiment.

FIG. 20 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an operation of measuring longitudinal unevenness according to the eighth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 21 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an operation of measuring transverse unevenness according to the eighth embodiment.

FIG. 22 is a graph showing an example of a measurement result of transverse unevenness according to Example 8.

FIG. 23 is a block diagram showing a road information processing system according to Embodiment 9 of the present invention.

FIG. 24 is a flowchart illustrating a processing operation of a weather information collecting unit according to the ninth embodiment.

FIG. 25 is an explanatory diagram showing road-to-vehicle communication means according to Embodiment 10 of the present invention.

FIG. 26 is an explanatory diagram showing road-to-vehicle communication means according to Embodiment 11 of the present invention.

FIG. 27 is a configuration diagram illustrating a conventional road surface condition monitoring system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 21 vehicle 30 own vehicle position identification means 40 travel control means 47 vehicle state quantity 48 vehicle state quantity 50a to 50d, 50e, 52 vehicle state measurement means 60 road-to-vehicle communication means 70 time generation means 80 road environment calculation means 90 travel control means 100 Road-related information 101 Road-to-vehicle communication means 102 Road information totaling means 103 Road condition determination means 105 Road environment calculation means 108 Weather information collection means 109 Road situation prediction means 120 Vehicles 121, 122 Road-to-vehicle communication means

Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Yoshihiko Utsui 8-1-1 Tsukaguchi Honcho, Amagasaki City Mitsubishi Electric Corporation Industrial System Research Laboratory (56) References JP-A-5-266399 (JP, A) JP-A Sho58 JP-A-169700 (JP, A) JP-A-5-79847 (JP, A) JP-A-61-256500 (JP, A) JP-A-6-102339 (JP, A) JP-A-52-134989 (JP, A) JP-A-5-282595 (JP, A) JP-A-6-36187 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G08G 1/00-1/16

Claims (6)

(57) [Claims] 1. An information exchange with a plurality of vehicles.
From the plurality of vehicles, the traveling position of each vehicle
And travel control for controlling the travel state of each of the above vehicles
Calculated from the vehicle state quantity used for the means or the above vehicle state quantity
Collected road environment values as road-related information in real time
Road-to-vehicle communication means and collected road-related information
Road information that aggregates by section and calculates the average value for each section
Counting means, and comparing the average value with a reference value.
To determine whether the road is frozen or air pollution in each section
And has road condition judgment means to judge the road condition in a wide area.
Road information processing system. 2. An information exchange with a plurality of vehicles.
From the plurality of vehicles, the traveling position of each vehicle
And travel control for controlling the travel state of each of the above vehicles
Calculated from the vehicle state quantity used for the means or the above vehicle state quantity
Collected road environment values as road-related information in real time
Road-to-vehicle communication means and collected road-related information
Comparison with reference values set according to road conditions
Road environment calculation that outputs a danger flag when the value is larger than the value
The above-mentioned danger flag is output for each output means and unit road section
Road information tallying means for tallying the frequency, and the tallyed
Compare the frequency with the frequency reference value set for each road
This can lead to frozen roads or air pollution
Road condition judgment to judge road condition and to judge road condition in a wide area
Road information processing system comprising means. 3. Each vehicle measures a vehicle state quantity.
Time information is collected as road-related information.
The road information processing system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein 4. A road condition for predicting a road condition based on a result of the weather information collecting means for collecting weather information of each point and a result of the road condition determining means and the weather information collected by the weather information collecting means. The road information processing system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising a prediction unit. 5. A road-to-vehicle communication unit road information processing system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that a local intermittent communication means. 6. A road-to-vehicle communication unit road information processing system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that a broad continuous communication means.