JPH0492395A - Road lighting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enhance safety for running as well as to save energy by controlling a lighting means lighting a road in such a way that illumination intensity within a running distance is changed into one required for safe running. CONSTITUTION:A device 51 is equipped with a road surface illumination intensity detecting means 51 measuring the illumination intensity of the road surface, a position detecting means 53 detecting the position of a vehicle, a speed detecting means 55 detecting the speed of the vehicle, a distance computing means computing a distance required to be lighted based on the position and speed of the vehicle detected by both of the position detecting means and the speed detecting means, an illumination intensity comparing means 59 comparing illumination intensity within the distance detected by the road surface illumination intensity detecting means with specified reference illumination intensity, a lighting means 61 provided along the road for lighting the road, and with a control means 63 controlling the aforesaid lighting means in such a way that illumination intensity within the distance is changed into one required for safe running based on the result of the comparison by the illumination intensity comparing means. The lighting means lighting the road is controlled in such a way that illumination intensity within the distance is thereby changed into one necessary and sufficient for safe running based on the result of the comparison.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a road illumination device that provides road illumination necessary for driving a vehicle during night driving.

(Prior Art) At present, the illumination of vehicles when driving at night is mainly provided by the headlights of the vehicle, and is supplemented by roadside lamps. Current headlights are only 1. The lighting capacity is approximately 00 meters in front of the vehicle, and it is currently difficult to sufficiently illuminate the area in front of the vehicle with lighting lights. In addition, vehicle headlights only illuminate the road ahead, but if the vehicle is traveling on a curved road, it is desirable to illuminate along the curved road for safe vehicle driving. It is something.

When considering the safety of vehicles when driving at night, it is important to improve the illumination ability of headlights, but it is difficult to achieve a dramatic improvement by this alone, and it is difficult to achieve a dramatic improvement by just doing so. It would be desirable to achieve this through the enhancement of a comprehensive road management system that includes lighting.

(Problem to be solved by the invention) In order to enhance the lighting in front of the vehicle for driving safety at night, it is necessary to not only improve the headlights but also to improve the lighting in front of the vehicle.
There is a need to improve road monitoring systems that include roadside lighting.

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and its purpose is to provide appropriate road lighting for the distance required for traveling in front of the vehicle in order to ensure safe driving of the vehicle at night. An object of the present invention is to provide a road lighting device that controls road lighting.

[Structure of the invention]

(Means for Solving the Problem) In order to achieve the above object, the road lighting device of the present invention provides a first
As shown in the figure, road surface illuminance detection means 51 that measures the illuminance of the road surface, position detection means 53 that detects the position of the vehicle,
A speed detection means 55 for detecting the speed of the vehicle; a distance calculation means 57 for calculating the distance required for illumination from the position and speed of the vehicle detected by the position detection means and the speed detection means, respectively; and the road surface illuminance detection means. illuminance comparison means 59 for comparing the detected illuminance within the distance with a predetermined reference illuminance;
and lighting means 61 provided along the road to illuminate the road, and controlling the lighting means to change the illuminance within the distance to the illuminance necessary for safe driving based on the comparison result by the illuminance comparison means. The gist thereof is to have a control means 63 that performs the following operations.

(Function) In the road lighting device of the present invention, the distance required for illumination is calculated from the position and speed of the vehicle, the illuminance within the distance is measured by the road illuminance detection means, and is compared with a predetermined reference illuminance. Based on the results, the illumination means for illuminating the road is controlled so as to change the illuminance within the distance to a necessary and sufficient illuminance for safe driving.

(Example) Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail using the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a road lighting device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the road lighting device shown in FIG. 2 installed on a road. As shown in Fig. 2, this road lighting system includes a CPU 1 that controls the overall operation, a vehicle position detection device 3 that detects the position of a vehicle traveling on the road, and a memory that stores information such as road shape and sensor position. The road installation unit 10 includes a storage device 5, a plurality of optical sensors 7, and a plurality of road lighting devices 9, and the CPU of one road installation unit 10 is connected to the CPUI of another road installation unit 10. A plurality of road installation units 10 are connected to each other in this way.

The plurality of optical sensors 7 constitute the road illuminance detection means of the present invention, and as shown in FIG.
They are installed at appropriate intervals on the road surface of the road 110 on which the vehicle 100 travels, and detect the illuminance of the road surface on which the vehicle 100 travels, and supply the detected illuminance of the road surface to the CPUI.

Further, the plurality of road illumination devices 9 constitute illumination means of the present invention, and as shown in FIG.
0 at appropriate intervals to illuminate the road 110. Note that the road lighting device 9 is a CPU
I can control the illuminance by increasing or decreasing the illuminance, so that if the illuminance in front of the vehicle 100 from the headlights is insufficient, the illuminance of the road illumination device 9 is increased and the illuminance in front of the vehicle is adjusted to an appropriate level. It is designed to be controlled by a value.

By the way, the safe lighting range for a vehicle to drive, that is, the distance in front of the vehicle that requires lighting, varies depending on the speed of the vehicle.When the speed is slow, the required distance for lighting is relatively short, but when the speed is fast, the distance required for lighting is relatively short. , the distance required for illumination becomes longer.

Therefore, the distance required for illumination must be changed depending on the speed of the vehicle.

Note that the distance required for this illumination will be referred to as the required illumination distance.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the relationship between illumination by the vehicle and areas with insufficient illuminance, with the horizontal axis representing the distance from the vehicle position to the road ahead, and the vertical axis representing the road surface illuminance. Since the road surface illuminance due to the illumination of the vehicle's headlights decreases as the distance increases, as shown by the solid line, the road illumination bag W provided on the road has a diagonal portion with respect to the required road surface illuminance shown by the dotted line.
9 is shown in FIG. In FIG. 5, reference numerals 91 to 94 indicate illumination by the road illumination device 9. Since the illumination of the vehicle's sodolight is relatively large at a distance close to the vehicle, the illuminance by the road illumination device 9 is reduced as shown by 91. On the other hand, since the illumination from the vehicle's headlights is small at a distance from the vehicle, the illuminance from the road illumination device 9 is increased as shown by 93.94, etc.

Figure 6 shows the overall illumination that combines the vehicle illumination shown in Figure 4 and the illumination by the road illumination device 9 shown in Figure 5. By adding both types of illumination, the required road surface illuminance is achieved within the required illumination distance. can do.

Next, the operation will be explained with reference to FIG.

When a vehicle is running on the road, the vehicle position detection device 3 of the road installation unit 10 of the road lighting device installed on the road detects the vehicle position (step 21o), and further calculates the speed of the vehicle (step 21o). 220). The distance area in front of the vehicle that requires illumination, that is, the required illumination distance, is calculated from the vehicle position and speed detected in this way and the road shape stored in the storage device 5 (step 23).
(] Next, based on the calculated required illumination distance, the illuminance of each part of the road within the area is detected by the optical sensor 7 in the area (step 240).Then, the illuminance of each part of the detected area is step 250). Based on this determination, the light distribution of each road lighting device 9 is controlled (step 26
(, 1) The illuminance at each part within the required illumination distance in front of the vehicle is controlled to a necessary and sufficient road illuminance, thereby ensuring driving safety.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, the distance required for illumination is calculated from the position and speed of the vehicle, the illuminance within the distance is measured by the road surface illuminance detection means, and is compared with a predetermined reference illuminance. Based on the comparison result, the lighting means that illuminates the road is controlled to change the illuminance within the distance to the illuminance necessary for safe driving, so that the area in front of the vehicle is illuminated with the appropriate illuminance necessary for driving the vehicle. It is possible to improve driving safety, and to save energy by supplementing the insufficient amount of vehicle illumination with road illumination.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram corresponding to the claims of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a road lighting device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the road illumination device of Fig. 2 installed on a road, Fig. 4 is a graph showing road illuminance due to only vehicle lighting, Fig. 5 is a graph showing road illuminance due to road lighting only, FIG. 6 is a graph showing the road illuminance due to both vehicle lighting and road lighting, and FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the operation of the road lighting device of FIG. 2. --CPU.・Vehicle position detection device, ・Light sensor, ・Road lighting device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] road illuminance detection means for measuring the illuminance of the road surface; position detection means for detecting the position of the vehicle; speed detection means for detecting the speed of the vehicle; distance calculation means for calculating the distance where illumination is required from the speed; illumination comparison means for comparing the illuminance within the distance detected by the road illuminance detection means with a predetermined reference illuminance; A road characterized by having a lighting means provided therein, and a control means for controlling the lighting means to change the illuminance within the distance to the illuminance necessary for safe driving based on the comparison result by the illuminance comparison means. lighting equipment.