JPH05283173A - Road lighting system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To properly illuminate the necessary road range in response to the vehicle speed by constituting a system with a travel state detecting means, an arithmetic means, and a road lighting control means. CONSTITUTION:The necessary illumination distance is calculated by an arithmetic means 2 in response to the vehicle speed detected by a travel state detecting means 1. Road lighting lamps 4 located in the range subtracted with the illumination distance by the headlights of a vehicle from the front portion of the vehicle position in the necessary illumination distance range are lighted by a road lighting control means 3. The road surface in the necessary illumination distance in response to the vehicle speed is continuously illuminated successively to the lighting range of the headlights. The necessary range is sufficiently illuminated without increasing the power consumption and lighting cost, and flickers for a driver can be prevented.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a road lighting system for appropriately controlling the nighttime lighting of a road on which a vehicle runs according to the running condition of the vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art While vehicles have become indispensable to society as means of transportation between points or as means of transporting physical distribution, traffic accidents have become serious with the increase in vehicle traffic and the speeding up of movement. It's becoming a problem. In particular, nighttime accidents are increasing with the recent increase in nighttime activities. As one of the means to reduce this night accident, in addition to the front lighting by the headlights of the vehicle itself, road lighting by road lighting is used as a supplement to it. Is expected to proceed.

[0003]

However, if the road lightings are simply arranged along the road and kept lit during the night, it will be increased due to the illusion of oncoming vehicles, power consumption, lighting costs, etc. Expected to be difficult. Also,
With conventional road lights that remain lit, when the vehicle passes beneath it, the light from the road lights suddenly disappears from the driver's view at the top of the vehicle's front window, which causes flickering due to speed. Next to
There was also a fear that it would make the driver feel uncomfortable.

Therefore, in view of the above problems, the present invention determines the necessary road range according to the vehicle speed during night driving.
An object of the present invention is to provide a road lighting system that appropriately illuminates a driver without causing discomfort and suppressing power consumption.

[0005]

Therefore, the present invention is based on FIG.
As shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of road illumination lights 4 provided along the road, a traveling condition detection unit 1 that detects the position and vehicle speed of the vehicle, and a required illumination distance in front of the vehicle are calculated according to the detected vehicle speed. And a road illumination light control means 3 for turning on a required road illumination light among the plurality of road illumination lights 4 according to the detected vehicle position and the calculated required illumination distance. ..

[0006]

The required illumination distance is calculated by the calculation means 2 in accordance with the vehicle speed detected by the traveling condition detection means 1, and the illumination distance by the headlight of the vehicle is calculated from the front portion of the vehicle position within the required illumination distance range. The road illumination light 4 in the subtracted range is turned on by the road illumination light control means 3. As a result, the road surface having the required illumination distance according to the vehicle speed is continuously illuminated to the point beyond the illumination range of the headlight.

[0007]

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of the present invention. The vehicle-side block 10 includes a headlight 14, a position detector 11 that detects the current vehicle position, a vehicle speed detector 12, and a vehicle speed detector 1.
The headlight control unit 13 and the position detection unit 11 that control the light distribution of the headlight 14 based on the vehicle speed information from 2
From the vehicle speed detector 12 and the vehicle speed information from the vehicle speed detector 12 to the roadside block 20. The position detection unit 11 uses a Loran system, a GPS system, or the like.

The roadside block 20 is provided with road illumination lights H (H1 to Hn) installed along the road, and a road illumination light drive unit 22 provided for each road illumination light to turn on / off the light.
(221 to 22n), a road controller 21 for controlling these road illumination lamp drive units, and a transmission / reception unit 23 for exchanging information with the vehicle-side block 10. The road illumination light H (H1 to Hn) emits illumination light for illuminating the road with an illuminance substantially equal to the illuminance by the headlight 14 of the vehicle.
The road controller 21 and the road illumination light drive unit 22 constitute a calculation means and a road illumination light control means.

The operation in this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.
Will be explained. In the vehicle-side block 10, the position detector 11 and the vehicle speed detector 12 constantly detect the vehicle position and the vehicle speed during traveling, and the position information and the vehicle speed information are transmitted from the transmitter / receiver 15. In the vehicle block 20, in step 100, the position information and the vehicle speed information are input to the road controller 21 via the transmitting / receiving unit 23.

At step 110, the required illumination distance L1 as shown in FIG. 5 is calculated based on the vehicle speed information. This required illumination distance L1 is, for example, a free running distance of about 3 seconds as a vehicle stop distance at a normal deceleration of about 0.2 G so that it can be avoided with a margin when an obstacle is recognized on the road. Is added.

In the next step 120, a command is sent to the road illumination lamp driving units 222 to 224 which cover the section L2 of the required illumination distance L1 excluding the illumination range I of the basic beam of the vehicle headlights. H2 ~ H
4 is illuminated. In addition, in step 130, the section L2
Before, i.e., the illuminance of the road illumination light H1 covering the portion of the vehicle headlight which has reached the illumination range is dimmed, and then in step 140, the vehicle is illuminated by the road illumination light H1.
It goes out by the time it passes under 1.

On the other hand, in the meantime, in the vehicle-side block 10, the headlight controller 13 receives the vehicle speed information from the vehicle speed detector 12 in step 200, and in step 210,
The required illumination distance L1 is calculated based on the vehicle speed information. In step 220, the required illumination distance L1 is compared with the predetermined distance LS, and the required illumination distance L1 is determined by the predetermined distance L.
When it becomes shorter than S, the routine proceeds to step 230.

In step 230, the headlight controller 13 controls the headlight 14 so that, as shown in FIG. 6, in addition to the illumination range I illuminated by the basic beam, at least the required illumination distance L1 Under the control of the road controller 21, the light distribution characteristic is changed so as to illuminate the range including the illumination range J of the road illumination lamp H3 which is about to be newly illuminated. This predetermined distance L
S is preset as a distance that gives the driver a feeling of strangeness when the road lighting within the range is suddenly turned on.

When the required illumination distance L1 is larger than the distance LS in the comparison in step 220, the process proceeds to step 240, and the headlight 14 is controlled to illuminate the road with only the basic beam.

Since this embodiment is constructed as described above, of the necessary illumination distance depending on the traveling speed of the vehicle, a section exceeding the illumination range of the basic beam of the headlight 14 is successively roaded as the vehicle advances. It is illuminated by the illumination lamp H, and driving at night becomes easy. On the other hand, by the time the vehicle passes under the foremost road lighting, the road lighting is turned off, so for the driver, the road lighting suddenly disappears from the upper part of the front window to the tip of the roof. , It does not give a flicker feeling as it becomes continuous.

When the vehicle travels at a low speed, the required illumination distance shorter than the predetermined distance LS is not limited to the illumination range I by the basic beam, but also the road illumination lamp which is about to be turned on by the headlight 14 of the vehicle. Since the illumination range is also illuminated by the headlight 14 whose light distribution is controlled, the driver who is looking at the road surface does not feel uncomfortable when the short-distance road surface is suddenly illuminated by the road illumination lamp.

[0017]

As described above, the present invention calculates the required illumination distance according to the traveling speed of the vehicle, and determines the road illumination light of the section excluding the illumination range by the headlights from the required illumination distance of the vehicle. The road illumination lights in front of the vehicle are turned off as the vehicle progresses, and by the time the vehicle passes by, the necessary range is sufficiently illuminated without increasing power consumption and lighting costs, Flickering can be prevented.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the operation in the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the operation in the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing the operation of the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing the operation of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Running condition detection means 2 Calculation means 3 Road lighting control means 4 Road lighting 10 Vehicle side block 11 Position detection section 12 Vehicle speed detection section 13 Headlight control section 14 Headlights 15 and 23 Transmission / reception section 20 Roadside block 21 Road controller 22 Road illumination light drive H Road illumination light L1 Required illumination distance

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of road illumination lights provided along a road, a traveling condition detecting means for detecting a position and a vehicle speed of the vehicle, and a calculation for calculating a necessary illumination distance in front of the vehicle according to the detected vehicle speed. A road lighting system comprising: means and a road lighting control means for lighting a required road lighting among the plurality of road lightings according to the detected vehicle position and the calculated required lighting distance. ..