JPH0410679B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Technical Field to which the Invention Pertains] The present invention relates to a vehicle type discrimination device that is necessary at motorway toll collection stations, traffic survey locations, etc. The present invention relates to a vehicle type discriminating device for a three-axle vehicle that has different vehicle type classifications on a toll system even though it is a three-axle vehicle.

[Prior art and its problems]

In recent years, expressways have been rapidly constructed as toll roads, and automobiles are playing a major role as a means of transporting goods between cities. On many of these toll roads, for example, the usage fee for each vehicle differs depending on the vehicle type as shown in Figure 1, and toll collection stations set up at the entrance or exit of the toll road are charged according to the vehicle type. Fees are being collected. Currently, these vehicle types are determined visually by toll collectors at toll collection stations. Toll collection offices are open day and night, and require a large amount of manpower and expense to distinguish vehicle types and collect tolls.

Therefore, if the vehicle type classification can be automatically determined, it will be possible to automatically issue tickets accordingly, resulting in labor savings, and various methods for this automatic determination have already been proposed. For example, Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 53-33456 proposes a method of determining the vehicle type by measuring the tread, which is the distance between the centers of both left and right tires, and the number of axles. By the way, as can be seen from the general explanatory diagram of vehicle classification shown in Figure 1, even among three-axle vehicles, there are vehicles classified as ordinary cars and vehicles classified as large cars or extra-large cars. Conventional discriminating devices that only use numbers or the like as a classification principle have had the problem that they may not be able to distinguish the vehicle type classification of these vehicles.

This problem will be specifically explained below.

FIGS. 2 a to 2 e are explanatory diagrams showing the wheel arrangement and body appearance of a single-body three-axle vehicle, respectively. In the figure, a is Japan's first 3-axle passenger vehicle, which was manufactured to improve driving performance and ride comfort as tour buses have become more deluxe and larger in recent years. is a large special vehicle such as a snowplow, and its category is extra-large vehicle; c and d are ordinary freight vehicles, and its category is large vehicle; e is a Japan Ground Self-Defense Force vehicle; its category is ordinary vehicle;
It is classified as

FIGS. 3a to 3f are explanatory diagrams showing the wheel arrangement (shown only by symbols) and the external appearance of the vehicle body of a three-axle vehicle consisting of a towing vehicle and a trailer instead of a single vehicle body. In the same figure, a is (ordinary car + ordinary car),
In other words, a vehicle equivalent to a towing vehicle, if taken alone, would belong to a regular vehicle, and a vehicle equivalent to a trailer, if taken alone, would belong to a regular vehicle, but if a tow vehicle (regular vehicle) pulls a trailer (regular vehicle). Therefore, the entire vehicle is considered to be one vehicle. The vehicle type classification when the vehicle is considered as one vehicle in this way varies depending on the road administrator, and may be classified as a regular car or a large vehicle.

Figure 3 b is exactly the same as a, (ordinary car + ordinary car)
The vehicle type classification is sometimes classified as a regular car or a large car by the road administrator. c is (normal car + large car), d is also (normal car + large car), e is (large car + normal car), f is (large car + large car), and the car type is any of c to f. It is also classified as a large vehicle.

Next, the symbols of the wheel arrangement in FIGS. 2 and 3 will be explained.

The number 2 means 2 wheels, 4 represents dual wheels, ・ represents the distinction between the front axle and rear axle, - represents the distinction between the front or rear two axles, B represents the drive 2 D indicates a wheel, D indicates a drive wheel, 〓 indicates a simple wheel, and 〓 indicates a driving wheel. Further, the (◯) mark used in FIG. 3 indicates a king pin, and indicates that the tow vehicle is towing the trailer by means of the king pin.

For example, in FIG. 2a, an explanatory diagram of the wheel arrangement indicated by the symbol [2.2-D] is shown nearby, so that it will be easily understood. In Fig. 2c, the three wheel arrangement symbols shown indicate that any of them can be used, and therefore the explanatory diagrams of the wheel arrangement are also different. The broken line in the same explanatory diagram indicates.

In FIG. 3, only the symbols are shown for the wheel arrangement, and the explanatory diagram of the wheel arrangement itself is omitted.
Even so, a concrete image of the wheel arrangement can be easily obtained from the above explanation of the symbols.

Now, it is possible to detect a three-axle vehicle from among a large number of vehicles, and to determine whether or not the detected three-axle vehicle has multiple two wheels (four tires per axle) using conventional techniques. Therefore, from among the many types of three-axle vehicles shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, vehicles with multiple two wheels are selected, and their vehicle types are also shown as follows.

(B) Diagram 2 a Passenger vehicle...extra large vehicle (b) c, d Ordinary freight vehicle...large vehicle (c) Diagram 3 b (regular vehicle + ordinary vehicle)...regular or large vehicle (d) Figure 3 c (Regular car + large car)...Large car (E) 〃 d (Up)...Large car (F) 〃 e (Large car + Regular car)...Large car (G) Figure 3 f ( Large vehicle + large vehicle)...Large vehicle Based on the above, by simply selecting a three-axle vehicle with two wheels using conventional technology, it is difficult to determine whether it belongs to an extra-large vehicle or a regular vehicle according to the vehicle classification. It will be understood that people will not be able to tell whether it belongs to a large vehicle or not.

Next, in the same way, a 3-axle vehicle with 2 wheels on all axles (multi-wheel vehicle)
Selecting 3-axle vehicles (which have no wheels at all) and showing their vehicle type classifications, the results are as follows.

(H) Diagram 2 b (Large special vehicle)...Extra large vehicle (li) 〃 e (Self-Defense Forces vehicle)...Ordinary vehicle (n) Diagram 3 a (Ordinary vehicle + Ordinary vehicle)...Ordinary vehicle or large vehicle Like this Even if a three-axle vehicle with two wheels and all axles is detected using the conventional technology, it is not possible to determine whether the vehicle is an extra-large vehicle, a regular vehicle, or a large vehicle.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made in order to solve the problems of the prior art as described above, and therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the problems of the prior art as described above.
To provide a vehicle type discriminating device for a 3-axle vehicle that can classify and discriminate extra-large cars, large-sized cars, and regular cars from among axle-axle vehicles and from among 3-axle vehicles with all axles and two wheels.

[Key points of the invention]

The key points of the present invention are that, in a vehicle type identification device for a three-axle vehicle, when a vehicle passes through the vehicle by applying pressure, A wheel arrangement information detection device capable of determining the wheel arrangement status by measuring one or more of the distance dimensions, and at least two For a three-axle vehicle that is equipped with a beam and at least two counting means for counting the number of intermittent beams, and which cannot be determined solely based on the wheel arrangement information detected by the detection device, the counting means The vehicle type is determined by using both the number of times the beam is interrupted and the wheel arrangement information.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a general configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a light emitting tower, 2 is a light receiving tower, 3 is a wheel arrangement information detection device, 11 and 1
1A is a light beam, 12 is a plurality of beams, 21 is a control unit, S ₀ , SA, S ₁ to _{S o} are light emitters, and R ₀ , RA, R ₁ to _{R o} are light receivers. .

In FIG. 4, a light emitting tower 1 and a light receiving tower 2 face each other across a road surface through which a vehicle passes. A large number of light emitters S ₁ to S _o attached to the light emitting tower 1 and the light receiving tower 2
A large number of light beams 12 are formed by a large number of light receivers R ₁ to _{R o} attached to the vehicle, and serve the function of separating vehicles. That is, the period from when a certain vehicle enters the light beam 12 until it finishes passing is detected by the interruption of the light beam 12, and is separated from the passing of other vehicles (this is called vehicle separation). .
Depending on the shape of the vehicle, the light beam may change from one break to another before it has passed the light beam 12, so the light beam 12 may be composed of a large number of light beams. The number of beams is set to be large so that at least one light beam remains off until the vehicle has completely passed.

The two light beams 11 and 11A formed by the emitters S ₀ and SA and the receivers R ₀ and RA are used to distinguish between multiple vehicles belonging to different vehicle classifications even though they have the same number of three axles. In one embodiment of the present invention, the distance is set at approximately 1500 mm and 1000 mm above the road surface.
The height of each is set.

The wheel arrangement information detection device 3 is a conventionally known device buried in the road surface between the light emitting tower 1 and the light receiving tower 2, and is composed of pressure-sensitive conductive rubber, resistors, etc., and detects the number of wheels and axles of passing vehicles. , one that can measure the tread, which is the distance between the centers of both left and right tires, and the width dimension, which is the distance between the outsides of both left and right tires (as an example, please refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1987-19051 if necessary) It is.

In this embodiment, a vehicle separator consisting of a light emitting tower 1 and a light receiving tower 2 separates and detects passing vehicles one by one, and detects the number of axles, number of wheels, tread, slope dimensions, etc. of the vehicle. It is measured by the wheel arrangement information detection device 3, and depending on the shape of the vehicle body, the light beam 1 is
Count the number of times 1 and 11A are intermittent,
Vehicle discrimination is performed based on this information, and it is now possible to discriminate the vehicle types of multiple vehicles, which was previously impossible to identify because the same three-axle vehicle belongs to different vehicle model categories.

Next, FIG. 5 shows a detailed block diagram of the control section 21 in FIG. 4. In the figure, 211 is a separation detection circuit, 212 is a counter A, 213 is a counter B, 214 is an axle number measurement circuit, 215 is a wheel number measurement circuit, 216 is a tread and skid dimension measurement circuit, and 221 to 225 are each memory, 230
is a discrimination circuit.

The operation of one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. When a passing vehicle (not shown) blocks the light beams 11, 11A, or 12, the presence of the vehicle is detected by the separation detection circuit 211.
In addition, each time a wheel presses the wheel arrangement information detection device 3, the measurement circuits 214 to 216 determine the number of axles, the number of wheels, and the number of wheels.
The dimensions of the tread and thickness are measured, and this information is stored as data in the memories 223 to 225.
is memorized.

On the other hand, the control unit 21 measures the number of times the light beams 11 and 11A are interrupted by a counter. Here, the A counter 212 is the number of times the light beam 11 is interrupted between the first and second axes of the passing vehicle;
The B counter 213 counts the number of times the light beam 11A is interrupted between the second and third axes of the passing vehicle. Once the vehicle has passed through the light beams 11, 11A or the light screen 12, the separation detection circuit 211 detects the "absence" of the vehicle, thus separating each vehicle from the others.

Based on the various information obtained as described above, the discrimination circuit 230 in the control unit 21 discriminates the vehicle type of the passing vehicle, and transmits the result to, for example, a ticket issuing machine at a toll gate (not shown) or a toll ticket processing machine. Send to etc.

FIG. 6 shows a discrimination circuit 230 in the control section 21.
3 is a flowchart showing the determination operation of FIG. Refer to the same figure. First, in step 1, it is checked whether the number of axles of the vehicle in question is 3 based on the various information obtained as described above, and if YES, step 2 is performed.
However, in the case of NO, the subsequent operations are not directly related to the present invention, so the explanation will be omitted.

In this way, first, the presence or absence of multiple four wheels (including multiple driving four wheels) is checked for the vehicle determined to have three axles. In this step 2, Figures 2b, e and 3
Each of the vehicles shown in Figure a becomes NO and proceeds to step 6. For the remaining vehicles that answered YES, proceed to step 3.
Proceed to , and set the torrent for each axis to the set value (for example, 1800).
You can check whether it is larger or smaller than mm).

As a result of experiments conducted by the present inventors on two-axle vehicles, it has been found that it is possible to distinguish between a regular two-axle vehicle and a large-sized two-axle vehicle by comparing the size of the tread. Therefore, in step 3, the trailer (FIGS. 3 b to 3 e), which is a combination of a two-axle regular vehicle and a two-axle large vehicle as a towing vehicle, is determined to be YES and is determined to be a large vehicle. Vehicles with a NO result proceed to step 4, where the wheel arrangement is examined. In this step 4, the wheel arrangement (2-2.D or 2.2-D) of a tourist bus (Fig. 2a) and some freight vehicles (part of Fig. 2c) is different from that of a vehicle (Fig. 2). The remaining part of vehicle c and the vehicle shown in FIG. 3 f) are determined to be large vehicles. in step 4
If the result is YES, the vehicle proceeds to step 5, where the contents of counter A are checked.

The vehicles that proceed to step 5 have no significant difference in track and wheel arrangement, and it is not possible to distinguish between the target sightseeing bus and a regular freight vehicle based only on the number of axles, number of wheels, track information, etc.

Therefore, in the present invention, we focused on the difference in the shape of the vehicle body between the first and second axes (there is a space S in Figures 2c and d), and the above-mentioned light beam 11 (Figure 4) This is determined by detecting whether it remains disconnected or continues. Specifically, how many times does the light beam 11 pass between the first and second axes of the passing vehicle?
Measure whether it is ON or OFF with counter A, and compare the contents of this counter A with the set value. If it is less than the set value, it is a sightseeing bus (extra large vehicle), and if it is more than the set value, it is a regular freight vehicle (large vehicle). It is determined that

Next, the determination method from step 6 will be explained.

The vehicles that proceed to step 6 (FIGS. 2b, e, and 3a) have no significant difference in tread and wheel arrangement, and these vehicles cannot be distinguished from each other only from conventional information such as the number of axles, the number of wheels, and the tread. Therefore, in the present invention, as in the case of distinguishing between a sightseeing bus and a truck, we focus on the difference in vehicle body shape, and use the light beam 11A (fourth
Discrimination is made by measuring the number of ON and OFF times of (Figure).

In step 6, first, the vehicle shown in FIG. 3a is extracted. Specifically, the number of ON and OFF times of the light beam 11A between the second and third axes is measured by a counter B, and the contents of this counter B are compared with the set value.
If the value is greater than or equal to the set value, the vehicle shown in FIG. 3a is assumed and is determined to be an ordinary vehicle. Some road administrators classify this vehicle as a large vehicle, but in this case, the determination result is determined as a large vehicle as shown by the broken arrow.

The process proceeds to step 7 for vehicles for which the counter B becomes less than the set value in step 6, and the vehicles shown in FIGS. 2b and 2e are again distinguished from each other based on the difference in body shape. That is, the light beam 11 between the first and second axes of the passing vehicle
Counter A measures the number of ON and OFF times of A, and compares the contents of counter A with the set value. If it is less than the set value, it is treated as the vehicle shown in Figure 2 e, and it is determined to be a regular car. If it is more than the set value, it is The vehicle shown in FIG. 2b is determined to be an oversized vehicle.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, there is an advantage that vehicles that are the same three-axle vehicle but have different toll classifications can be automatically discriminated with high accuracy according to the vehicle type classification that matches the toll system.

The vehicle type discrimination device according to the present invention automatically discriminates the vehicle type with high accuracy according to the vehicle type classification that matches the toll system, so it can be used not only at toll road toll collection stations but also at toll parking lots and traffic volume surveys. It can be installed at any location and used for a wide range of purposes.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is an explanatory diagram of vehicle type classification, Figure 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the vehicle type arrangement and body appearance of a single-vehicle three-axle vehicle, and Figure 3 is an explanatory diagram of a three-axle vehicle consisting of a towing vehicle and a trailer.
An explanatory diagram showing the wheel arrangement (symbols) and the external appearance of the vehicle body for an axle vehicle, FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the outline of the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 5 shows details of the control unit 21 in FIG. 4. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the discrimination operation of the discrimination circuit in the control section. Code explanation, 1...Lighting tower, 2...Light receiving tower, 3...
...Wheel arrangement information detection device, 11, 11A...Light beam, 12...Plural light beams, 21...Control unit, 211...Separation detection circuit, 212, 213...
...Counter, 214...Axes number measurement circuit, 215...
...wheel number measurement circuit, 216...tread measurement circuit,
221-225...Memory, 230...Discrimination circuit, _S0 , SA, _S1 -S0 _... Light emitter, _R0 , RA, _R1
~R _o ...Receiver.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A vehicle type identification device for a three-axle vehicle, which, when a vehicle passes with pressure, detects the number of wheels, the number of axles, the distance between the centers of both left and right tires, and the tread of the vehicle. A wheel arrangement information detection device 3 capable of determining the wheel arrangement condition by measuring the distance between the outer sides of tires, and at least two sensors connected intermittently according to the characteristics of the external shape of a passing vehicle. A beam forming means consisting of at least two sets of light emitters S0, SA and light receivers R0, RA provided at different height positions with respect to the road surface so as to form beams 11, 11A; at least two counting means 212, 213 for respectively counting the number of intermittent beams 11, 11A during a predetermined period from when they enter the discrimination device until they finish passing through; and a wheel arrangement detected by the detection device 3. For a three-axle vehicle that cannot be determined based on the information alone, a determining means 230 that determines the vehicle type by using the number of intermittent beams counted by the counting means 212, 213 together with the wheel arrangement information; A vehicle type identification device for a 3-axle vehicle, which is characterized by: 2. In the vehicle type discriminating device for a three-axle vehicle as set forth in claim 1, the discriminating means 230: A: has multiple four wheels (including multiple driving multiple wheels); B: setting the tread for each axis; The value is smaller than the predetermined tread setting value, C: The third axis is driven by two or more wheels, D: The number of intermittent beams on the high position side is counted between the first and second axes. The count value of the counting means is 0. E: The count value of the counting means that counts the number of intermittent beams on the low position side during the period from when the vehicle enters to when the vehicle finishes passing is 0. F: If A to F are defined such that the count value of one of the counting means that counts the number of interruptions of the beam on the high position side is 1 or more between the first axis and the second axis, then a) × , or when the logical product condition ×E× is satisfied, it is a regular car, b) A × B, A × ×, or A × × C
It is characterized by outputting a discrimination signal indicating that the vehicle is a large car when the logical product condition of x is satisfied, and the vehicle is an extra-large car when the logical product condition of AXXC×D or ×E×F is satisfied. Vehicle type identification device for axle vehicles.