JPH0660292A - Traffic flow measurement device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the traffic flow measurement device capable of accurately measuring the number of staying cars. CONSTITUTION:The device is provided with detection sections 3 and 4 detecting the cars flowing in, detection sections 7, 8 detecting the cars flowing out, and counting means 9 increasing and decreasing the counted number of staying cars corresponding to the detection of the cars flowing in and flowing out. The device is provided with an entrance side initialization processing means 1,2,3,4,9 storing car numbers of vehicles flowing in from a vehicle flow-in port TUi when the operation of the device is started and counting the number of flowing-in cars after the car number data are stored for the first time and an exit-side initialization processing means 5,6,7,8,9 comparing the car number data of the flowing-out vehicles in an vehicle flowing-out port TUo with the first car number data stored in the entrance side, and when both the data are equal to each other, sending the initializing counter value to a staying number counter to start the normal operation.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for measuring road traffic flow of an automobile, and more particularly to a traffic flow measurement apparatus capable of reliably measuring the number of vehicles staying in a closed section such as a tunnel.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art One tunnel or bridge, or one entrance and one exit
In a closed section on a road where there are places, in order to measure the number of vehicles staying in the closed section from moment to moment, a conventional traffic flow measuring device has adopted, for example, the following method. That is, vehicle detection devices are installed on the entrance side and the exit side of the closed section on the road, respectively, and when the vehicle detection device on the entrance side detects a vehicle, the staying number counter is incremented by one, while
When the vehicle detection device on the exit side detects a vehicle, the staying vehicle number counter changes the time by measuring the staying vehicle number counter by -1.

[0003]

However, in the conventional traffic flow measuring apparatus, there is no effective means for setting the initial value of the staying vehicle number counter, so that a vehicle that has already stayed in a tunnel or the like when the system is started up. If there is
There is a problem that the number of staying vehicles obtained by the staying number counter lacks reliability.

If it is not possible to accurately grasp the number of staying vehicles in the closed section that changes from moment to moment, for example, the number of staying vehicles may be displayed as road information, or the air conditioning control in the tunnel may be performed according to the number of staying vehicles. As a result, it is impossible to effectively use the obtained data on the number of staying vehicles. The present invention has been made in view of this problem, and an object thereof is to provide a traffic flow measuring device capable of accurately measuring the number of vehicles staying in a closed section.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, a traffic flow measuring device according to claim 1 is installed at a vehicle inflow side entrance, and an inflow vehicle detecting means for detecting an inflow of the vehicle, and a vehicle. An outflow vehicle detection means installed at the outflow side exit for detecting outflow of a vehicle, and a staying vehicle number counter +1 corresponding to the inflow vehicle detection by the inflow vehicle detection means
And a counting unit that decrements the staying vehicle number counter by -1 in response to the detection of the outflow vehicle by the outflow vehicle detection unit,
In a traffic flow measuring device for determining the number of retained vehicles between the vehicle inflow side entrance and the vehicle outflow side exit, the characteristic data of the vehicle operating from the vehicle inflow side entrance is sequentially stored by operating at the start of the operation of this device. In addition, the entrance side initial processing means for sequentially counting the number of inflowing vehicles after the initial storage of the characteristic data by the initialization counter, and the characteristic data of each outflowing vehicle installed at the vehicle outflow side exit. And sequentially compares this characteristic data with the characteristic data initially stored by the inlet side initial processing means, and when both data match, the count result of the initialization counter at that time is calculated as the number of staying units. It is provided with an exit side initial processing means that transfers to a counter and starts the operation of the inflow vehicle detection means, the outflow vehicle detection means, and the counting means.

The traffic flow measuring device according to claim 2 is
If the characteristic data of each outflow vehicle matches characteristic data other than the characteristic data initially stored by the entrance-side initial processing means, the exit-side initial processing means:
It is characterized in that processing for decrementing the initialization counter is added.

[0007]

[Action]

[Traffic Flow Measuring Device According to Claim 1] The entrance-side initial processing means operates at the start of the operation of this device, and sequentially stores the characteristic data of the vehicle flowing in from the vehicle inflow-side entrance. Here, the characteristic data is not particularly limited, but corresponds to, for example, the vehicle number of each vehicle.

Then, the number of inflowing vehicles after the characteristic data is first stored is sequentially counted by the initialization counter. That is, the first vehicle that has recognized and stored the characteristic data for the first time is set as the first vehicle, and the number of vehicles that sequentially flow in thereafter is counted using the initialization counter. The exit side initial processing means is installed at the exit side of the vehicle, recognizes the characteristic data of each outflow vehicle, and sequentially compares the characteristic data with the characteristic data initially stored by the entrance side initial processing means. . That is, it waits for the first inflow vehicle to flow out to the vehicle outflow side exit side.

Then, when the characteristic data of the vehicle recognized at the vehicle outflow side exit coincides with the characteristic data of the first vehicle (that is, when the first inflowing vehicle has flowed out), then The count result of the initialization counter is transferred to the staying vehicle number counter, and the operations of the inflow vehicle detection means, the outflow vehicle detection means, and the counting means are started.

As described above, when the inflow vehicle detection means, the outflow vehicle detection means, and the counting means start their operations, the staying vehicle number counter is correctly initialized.
It is possible to accurately grasp the number of vehicles staying in a tunnel. [Traffic flow measuring device according to claim 2] In addition to the above-mentioned operation, the exit side initial processing means matches the feature data of each outflow vehicle with the feature data other than the feature data initially stored by the entrance side initial processing means. If so, the initialization counter is decremented by one. In other words, when a vehicle other than the first vehicle that first flows in passes the first vehicle and first flows out, the initialization counter is set to -1.
Then, the initial value of the staying number counter is set to a more accurate value.

[0011]

The present invention will be described in more detail based on the following examples. FIG. 1 shows a traffic flow measuring apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which an entrance side TU _i and an exit side T _i of a tunnel TU are arranged.
It shows the case where it is installed in U _O. This traffic flow measuring device includes an inflow camera head 1 for reading the vehicle number of an inflow vehicle, an inflow image processing device 2 for receiving a video signal from the camera head 1, and an inflow ultrasonic head 3 for detecting the inflow of a vehicle. An inflow-side vehicle detection device 4 that receives a detection output from the ultrasonic head 3, an outflow-side camera head 5 that reads the vehicle number of the outflow vehicle, and an outflow-side image processing device 6 that receives a video signal from the outflow-side camera head 5. An outflow side ultrasonic head 7 for detecting the outflow of a vehicle; an outflow side vehicle detection device 8 for receiving a detection output from the ultrasonic head 7; a central processing unit 9 for performing various processes described later; and a central processing unit 9 And an inflow side communication line 10 for connecting the inflow side device and an outflow side communication line 11 for connecting the central processing unit 9 and the outflow side device.
It consists of and.

The central processing unit 9 has a communication line 1
Incoming and outgoing vehicle detection information and incoming and outgoing
The vehicle number of the leaking vehicle is transmitted. 2 to 5 are flowcharts for explaining the operation contents of the traffic flow measuring device shown in FIG. 2 and 3 show the initialization process at the vehicle inlet side inlet TU _i , FIG. 4 shows the initialization process at the vehicle outlet side outlet TU _o , and FIG. 5 shows the initialization process at the vehicle inlet side inlet TU _i and outlet side TU _o . Always showing the process.

The initialization process at the vehicle inflow side entrance TU _i will be described below. This initialization process is realized by separately operating task 1 shown in FIG. 2 and task 2 shown in FIG. That is, when the traffic flow measuring device is turned on, the central processing unit 9 first resets the active flag, the initialization counter, the vehicle number storage area, etc. [step ST (hereinafter abbreviated as ST) 1 ]. The active flag is a flag for notifying the task 2 that the task 1 has recognized the first vehicle number, and the initialization counter is the staying vehicle in the tunnel TU immediately after the operation of the traffic flow measuring device starts. Is a counter for calculating.

When the inflow camera head 1 recognizes the vehicle number of the inflow vehicle, the central processing unit 9 stores the vehicle number in its own vehicle number storage area (ST2). Then, it is determined whether or not the active flag is in the ON state, and if the active flag is already in the ON state, the process returns to ST2, and if the active flag remains in the OFF state, ST
Then, the process proceeds to 4 (ST3).

When the process proceeds to ST4, the active flag is set to the ON state (ST4), and after the active flag is turned to the ON state, the count-up process described later is started (ST5). To explain the processing of task 1 shown in FIG. 2 again, first, since the active flag is reset to the OFF state by the processing of ST1,
The vehicle that first flows into the vehicle inflow side entrance TU _i (hereinafter,
When the vehicle number (referred to as the initialization reference vehicle) is recognized, the process proceeds from ST3 to ST4, and when the second and subsequent inflowing vehicles are recognized, the process from ST3 to ST2 is performed. Returning to the process, the vehicle number is simply stored (ST3).

In parallel with the processing of task 1 described above,
At the vehicle inflow entrance TU _i , the processing of task 2 shown in FIG. 3 is performed. That is, when the inflow ultrasonic head 3 detects the presence of an inflow vehicle (ST10), the central processing unit 9 determines whether the active flag is in the ON state (ST1).
1). If the active flag is still in the OFF state, the process returns from ST11 to ST10.
If the active flag is changed to the ON state by the process of 4, the process proceeds from ST11 to ST12.

Then, in ST12, the initialization counter is incremented by 1, and the number of detected vehicles after the active flag is turned on is counted (ST12). in this way,
The initialization counter sequentially counts up how many vehicles are present in the tunnel from the initialization reference vehicle. In parallel with the above processing at the inlet side inlet TU _i , the processing shown in FIG. 4 is performed at the outlet side outlet TU _o .

That is, the outflow side camera head 5 reads the vehicle number of the outflow vehicle (ST20), and the central processing unit 9
Determines whether the same vehicle number as the vehicle number just recognized is stored in the vehicle number storage area (ST21). If the corresponding vehicle number is not stored in the vehicle number storage area, the process returns to ST20, and if the corresponding vehicle number is stored, the process proceeds to ST22.

In ST22, it is determined whether or not the vehicle number just recognized is the vehicle number of the above-mentioned initialization reference vehicle (S).
T22). Such a determination is necessary because the initialized reference vehicle may be overtaken by a following vehicle in the tunnel. When a succeeding vehicle other than the initialization reference vehicle is first recognized, the process proceeds from ST22 to ST24, decrements the value of the initialization counter by -1, and returns to the process of ST20 (ST24). In this case, since the following vehicle has overtaken the initialization reference vehicle, the number of vehicles to be transferred to the initialization reference vehicle has decreased by one, and the initialization counter value has been reduced accordingly.

On the other hand, when the initialization reference vehicle is recognized, the process proceeds from ST22 to ST23, and the value of the initial value counter at this time is transferred to the staying vehicle number counter described later (S).
T23). The initialization process is completed by the above processing, and thereafter, the steady-state process is started based on the initially set initial value of the number of staying vehicles. 5A and 5B are flowcharts for explaining the steady-state process. FIG. 5A shows processing of the vehicle inflow side entrance TU _i , and FIG. 5B shows processing of the vehicle outflow side exit TU _o. ing.

At the vehicle inflow side entrance TU _i , every time the ultrasonic head 3 detects an inflowing vehicle (ST30), the central processing unit 9 increments the staying vehicle number counter by 1 (ST31), and this value is retained in the tunnel. Determined as the number of vehicles (ST3
2). The same applies to the vehicle outflow side exit TU _o , and every time the ultrasonic head 5 detects an outflowing vehicle (ST40), the central processing unit 9 decrements the staying number counter (ST41),
This value is determined as the number of staying vehicles in the tunnel (ST4
2). It is possible to display the number of staying vehicles determined in this way, or to control the air conditioning in the tunnel based on the number of staying vehicles to suppress the exhaust gas concentration to a predetermined value.

In the above description, the ultrasonic head for detecting the inflow / outflow of the vehicle is provided separately from the camera head for recognizing the vehicle number. However, the ultrasonic head is omitted and the output from the camera head is omitted. It goes without saying that the vehicle may be detected based on this. Further, instead of the ultrasonic head, a loop type or other vehicle detection sensor may be used.

[0023]

As described above, according to the traffic flow measuring apparatus of the present invention, the initial value of the number of vehicles staying between the vehicle inflow side entrance and the vehicle outflow side exit at the start of operation of the apparatus is accurately obtained. The subsequent steady processing is performed based on this initial value. Therefore, the data on the number of staying vehicles that is required every moment is reliable, and, for example, the number of vehicles staying displayed and the air conditioning control in the tunnel can be appropriately performed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a traffic flow measuring apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a part of processing at an inflow side inlet part in the initialization process.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing another part of the processing at the inlet side inlet part of the initialization process.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a process at an outlet side of the outflow side in the initialization process.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart in which the steady-state process is divided into a process at the inlet side inlet part and a process at the outlet side outlet part.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Inflow side camera head 2 Inflow side image processing device 3 Inflow side ultrasonic head 4 Inflow side vehicle detection device 5 Outflow side camera head 6 Outflow side image processing device 7 Outflow side ultrasonic head 8 Outflow side vehicle detection device 9 Central processing unit 10,11 communication line

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An inflow vehicle detection means installed at a vehicle inflow side entrance to detect an inflow of a vehicle, and an outflow vehicle detection means installed at a vehicle outflow side exit to detect a vehicle outflow, The vehicle inflow side is provided with counting means for incrementing the staying vehicle number counter by +1 in response to the detection of the inflowing vehicle by the detection means and for decrementing the staying vehicle number counter by -1 in response to the outflowing vehicle detection by the outflow vehicle detecting means. In a traffic flow measuring device for determining the number of staying vehicles between an entrance and a vehicle exit, the device operates at the start of the operation of the device and sequentially stores the characteristic data of the vehicle flowed in from the vehicle entrance. An entrance side initial processing means for sequentially counting the number of inflowing vehicles after the characteristic data is first stored by the initialization counter, and the feature data of each outflowing vehicle installed at the vehicle outflow side exit. Data is recognized, the characteristic data is sequentially compared with the characteristic data initially stored by the entrance side initial processing means, and when the two data match, the count result of the initialization counter at that time is calculated as described above. A traffic flow measuring device comprising: an inflowing vehicle detection means, an outflowing vehicle detection means, and an exit side initial processing means for starting the operation of the counting means. 2. The traffic flow measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the characteristic data of each outflow vehicle is first stored in the exit side initial processing means by the entrance side initial processing means. If it matches the feature data other than the data,
A traffic flow measuring device, wherein a process of decrementing the initialization counter is added.