JP3267155B2 - Communication device and information transmission method between tollgate and vehicle - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a communication between a vehicle equipped with a vehicle-mounted device with a toll gate and automatic toll collection function
The present invention relates to a communication device that performs the communication and an information transmission method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, on a highway or the like, a magnetic card type toll collection system has been introduced. Regarding this collection system, for example, Toshiba Review (40
No.) pp. 189-192, "Magnetic card type fee collection system", or Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Technical Report VOL. 22N
O. 6 (1985-11), pages 127 to 132, "System Technology in Magnetic Card Type Toll Collection Machine".

In such a conventional system, when entering an expressway from a general road or conversely, when exiting from an expressway, the train must be temporarily stopped at a tollgate to receive a toll ticket or pay a toll. Must be carried out, which often results in many cars lining up in front of the toll booth. In order to improve such a problem, a non-stop automatic toll collection system that can collect tolls without stopping at a tollgate for some time has been proposed.

For such a system, for example,
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Technical Report VOL. 32 NO. 4 (1995-7) P
264-267 "Needs and Technical Development in Expressway Traffic Management Systems", NIKKEI BUSINESS
November 13, 1995, pages 155 to 158, "Information from Roads to Cars""Dispute of Initiative in Japan, the United States, and Europe", or Published Patent Publication No. 5-508492, "Electric Vehicle Toll Collection Apparatus and Method". In particular, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 5-508492 discloses a detailed description.

[0005]

The non-stop automatic toll collection system is under joint development by the public and private sectors in Japan, and its practical use is said to be from 1997 onward. On the other hand, in some overseas countries, a system as shown in the above publication is operated.

By the way, in this system, it is necessary to exchange information between a car entering the area of the tollgate and the tollgate using radio waves, but the communication area must be accurate as written by a ruler. is not. That is, although the communication area is determined in advance, due to the nature of radio waves, the communication area is not always completely within the frame, for example, it is out of the communication area for transmitting and receiving information. Therefore, since it is not known at which position information is transmitted / received, the transmission / reception of information may become incomplete. In operation of this system, a vehicle equipped with an on-board device having an automatic toll collection function (hereinafter, referred to as an “ETC vehicle”) is capable of automatic toll collection, but is a vehicle not equipped with the above-described on-board device. (Less than,
"Non-ETC vehicles". ) Is treated the same as the conventional system. In other words, when ETC vehicles and non-ETC vehicles pass on the road in a mixed manner and run toward an automatic tollgate, if the information exchange with the ETC vehicle is not performed accurately, the vehicle is an ETC vehicle. However, it is regarded as a non-ETC vehicle,
You may be subject to the usual fee transfer.

The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and will be described in detail below.

[0008]

According to the present invention, a first sensor and a second sensor are arranged in a communication area so as to be separated from each other (for example, at an interval of 3 m) in a traveling direction of a vehicle, and the first sensor is turned on. If so, communication is performed between the tollgate and the car, and the communication is stopped when the second sensor is turned on next time due to the movement of the car. That is, the communication device according to the first invention transmits and receives information to and from a vehicle equipped with an in-vehicle device.
A receiving antenna, a first vehicle detection sensor, and the first
From the vehicle detection sensor, the communication area of the transmitting / receiving antenna
At predetermined intervals in the traveling direction of the vehicle along
Vehicle detection sensor and the first vehicle detection sensor
Depending on the detection of the tip of the vehicle,
Start sending and receiving information to and from the vehicle equipped with the onboard
The second vehicle detection sensor detects the front end of the vehicle.
In response, stop sending and receiving the information in the communication area.
Communication controller . Further, in the communication device according to the second invention, the communication controller is configured to control the first vehicle
According to the detection of the leading end of the vehicle by the detection sensor,
The above-mentioned onboard equipment is mounted at the rear end of the
To start transmitting and receiving information to and from the second vehicle,
According to the detection of the front end of the vehicle by the sensor,
Transfer of the above information is stopped at the front end of the communication area in the vehicle traveling direction.
Is to stop it. Also, in the communication device according to the third invention, the first and second vehicle detection sensors are located in a communication area.
The area where information can be exchanged accurately in
Things. Further, in the communication device according to a fourth aspect, the first and second vehicle detection sensors are arranged at a distance of 3 m from each other.
It was placed. Further, in a communication device according to a fifth aspect, the first and second vehicle detection sensors are provided on a plurality of toll roads, respectively. Also, the sixth
The information transmission method between the toll station and the vehicle according to the invention of, postal
Vehicles equipped with in-vehicle devices that have an automatic toll collection function with gold spots
Vehicle in an automatic toll collection system, the communication area of the transmitting and receiving antennas provided in the tollgate for exchanging information with the
First, the sensor for the second vehicle detection, arranged at predetermined intervals in the traveling direction of the vehicles along the communication area of the vehicle has been traveling towards the tollgate tip for detecting the tip portion When the unit is detected by the first sensor, the communication
Fee between a vehicle equipped with a toll gate and the vehicle-mounted device in the area
Transfer of information for collecting money starts, and when the second sensor detects the front end of the vehicle , the communication area
The transmission and reception of the above information is stopped within a.

[0009]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Embodiment 1 FIG. FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a tollgate. The tollgate 1 is provided with various facilities. Except for the unnecessary ones, they are omitted.
Reference numeral 2 denotes a passage separation zone for separating from an adjacent passage, reference numeral 3 denotes a car that travels along the passage 4 in the direction of the arrow and enters the area of the tollgate, and reference numeral 5 denotes a passage 4
A beam 6 is irradiated on the upper part of the support 5 toward the lower passage, and the range indicated by the mesh ellipse on the passage 4 is shown in FIG. An antenna 8 serving as a communication area 7 is mounted downward. 9
a, 9b are the first, provided along the communication area 7;
A second vehicle detection sensor, in which the first sensor 9a and the second sensor 9b are arranged apart from each other in the traveling direction of the vehicle. The interval between the two is, for example, 3 m in width. In this case, information is exchanged between the tollgate and the car 3 at the white portion 10 of the mesh ellipse. If the communication area is unnecessarily large, it is not possible to distinguish individual vehicles, and if the communication area is too small, the time required to exchange information cannot be secured.

Therefore, when the tip of the car 3 is detected by the first sensor 9a, communication for toll collection starts, and when the tip of the car 3 is detected by the second sensor 9b, communication starts. To stop. That is, if the car that has traveled is an ETC car, the car and the
Information for performing toll collection in a non-stop state is exchanged with the C car.

By the way, in FIG. 1, the outline portion 10 in the communication area 7 is emphasized because information may be transmitted and received even in the portions 11 and 12 of the communication area 7, but the uncertainty is also increased. I can't deny it. Therefore, it is the gist of the present invention that the information is transmitted and received in the area 10 in the communication area 7 where the information can be transmitted and received most accurately, and the area setting for that is set by the sensor 9a of the first sensor.
And the second sensor 9b.

FIG. 2 schematically shows the relationship between the sensor signals of the first and second sensors 9a and 9b and the transfer of information.
3a is a sensor signal of the first sensor 9a, 13b is a sensor signal of the second sensor 9b, 14 is a 1-bit memory, and this memory 14 is composed of two cross-connected inversion gates 15a and 15b. ing. The sensor signal 13a becomes one input signal of the inverting gate 15a, while the sensor signal 13b becomes one input signal of the inverting gate 15b. Such sensor signals 13a, 13b
And the memory 14, first the first sensor 9a
When the sensor signal 13a is generated, an output of "1" is generated from the inverting gate 15b. Next, when the sensor signal 13b is generated from the second sensor 9b by the movement of the vehicle, the output of the inversion gate 15b changes from "1" to "0".

That is, the tip of the vehicle is connected to the first sensor 9a.
, And then reaches the second sensor 9b, the output of the memory 14 changes from “1” to “0”. Therefore, the output
If the communication is started at "1" and stopped at "0", information is exchanged between the toll booth and the ETC vehicle in the range of the white portion 10 in FIG. The communication controller to be controlled, the information 17 to be sent to the ETC vehicle
And information 18 sent from the ETC vehicle. 1
Reference numeral 9 denotes a transmitter / receiver interposed between the communication controller 16 and the antenna 8, and reference numeral 20 denotes a transmitter / receiver antenna of the car 3 provided with the ETC 21.

In the above-described embodiment, the first and second
Although the case where the sensor is provided on one traffic path is shown, it is needless to say that the sensors are provided on a plurality of traffic paths at a tollgate.

[0015]

According to the present invention, the first of communication areas,
Since accurate information is exchanged between the tollgate and the ETC vehicle within the range specified by the second vehicle detector sensor, it is possible to prevent the ETC vehicle from being determined as a non-ETC vehicle due to a communication error. be able to.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for describing an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Toll booth, 2 aisle divider, 3 cars, 4 aisles, 5
Support, 6 beam, 7 communication area, 8 antenna,
9 sensor, 10 open area of communication area, 11 mesh area of communication area, 12 mesh area of communication area, 1
3 sensor signals, 14 memories, 15 inversion gates, 1
6 communication controller, 17 information, 18 information, 19 transceiver, 20 transceiver antenna, 21 ETC.

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-8-221616 (JP, A) JP-A 8-180223 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G07B 15/00

Claims (6)

(57) [Claims] 1. Transmission of information with a vehicle equipped with a vehicle-mounted device.
Receiving and transmitting antennas, a first vehicle detection sensor, and the first vehicle detection sensor,
Arranged at predetermined intervals in the direction of vehicle travel along the communication area
The detected second vehicle detection sensor and the first vehicle detection sensor detect the leading end of the vehicle.
Accordingly, a vehicle equipped with the on-vehicle device in the communication area
Of information on the front end of the vehicle by the second vehicle detection sensor.
Stop sending and receiving the information in the communication area according to
And a communication controller for causing the communication device to perform communication. 2. The communication controller according to claim 1, wherein the communication controller detects the first vehicle.
In response to the detection of the tip of the vehicle by the sensor, the communication
A vehicle equipped with the above-mentioned in-vehicle device at the rear end in the rear vehicle traveling direction
The transmission and reception of information between the two vehicles is started, and the second vehicle detection sensor is started.
In response to the detection of the front end of the vehicle by the
The transmission and reception of the above information is stopped at the front end of the rear vehicle in the traveling direction.
The communication device according to claim 1, wherein the communication is performed. Wherein said first, second vehicle detection sensor, the area capable of performing the exchange of information accurately in the communication area
The communication apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that to set the. 4. The first and second vehicle detection sensors are mutually connected.
2. The device according to claim 1, wherein the devices are arranged at a distance of 3 m.
Or the communication device according to 2 . 5. The communication device according to claim 1, wherein the first and second vehicle detection sensors are provided on a plurality of toll roads, respectively. 6. A vehicle equipped with a tollgate and an automatic toll collection function
In the automatic toll collection system that exchanges information with the vehicle equipped with the machine, vehicle earlier in the communication area of the transmitting and receiving antennas provided in the tollgate
First, the sensor for the second vehicle detection, on the detection of the end
Along the serial communication area and arranged at predetermined intervals in the traveling direction of the vehicle, the distal end portion of the vehicle has been traveling towards the tollgate first
When the sensor is detected by the first sensor, transmission and reception of information for toll collection between the toll booth and the vehicle equipped with the in-vehicle device are started in the communication area. When the tip of the vehicle is detected,
An information transmission method between a tollgate and a vehicle, wherein the transmission and reception of the information is stopped in the communication area .