JPH0696291A - Moving body discriminating device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the moving body discriminating device which can execute surely a series of operation sequences to a responder moving at a high speed. CONSTITUTION:An interrogator 10 is provided with a first antenna part 1 and a second antenna part 2. These antenna parts 1 and 2 are connected to a controller 3, and the controller 3 is furthermore connected to a higher rank data processing terminal 4 of a personal computer, etc. A first antenna part 1 is provided with an antenna 11 and a transmitting/receiving part 12. A second antenna part 2 is also provided with an antenna 21 and a transmitting/receiving part 22 in the same way. When a responder which goes into its beam area at a high speed and is in a holding state, is actuated, a first antenna part 1 informs the controller 3 of its fact, and an ID code of the responder is registered in a RAM of the controller 3. Subsequently, the controller 3 executes an operation sequence related to an operation command access to the responder which moves into the own beam area in a state of a regular mode through a second antenna part 2.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a moving body identifying apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a moving body identifying apparatus is provided with an interrogator arranged at a fixed position and a responder attached to a moving body or the like.
It is an effective device for managing information such as specifications of individual products, processing, and inspections in processes such as payout. The moving body identification device is used for transportation, distribution, etc. in addition to the production line, and can also be used for a toll road toll collection system.

The transponder of this type of moving body identifying apparatus is also called a data carrier, and usually has a sealed structure in which an antenna, a transmitting / receiving section and the like are built in, and is attached to a moving body.

When the moving body identification device is applied to a toll road toll collection system or a system for accessing data with a responder provided for a high-speed moving object, the responder is placed in the beam area of the interrogator at an arbitrary timing. Since the vehicle enters at high speed, the interrogator repeats the same operation by the continuous auto read / write method.

The continuous auto read / write method will be described below with reference to FIG.

The interrogator transmits an activation command to the transponder that has entered the beam area, and the transponder responds to this by sending an activation response back to the interrogator. When the interrogator receives this activation response, the interrogator knows that the transponder is within the beam area. Next, when the interrogator transmits the operation command, the responder that receives the operation command returns an operation response, which is the execution result after the operation is executed, to the interrogator. When the interrogator receives the operation response, the interrogator knows the end of execution by this, sends an end command to the responder, and ends the series of operation sequences.

Although there is a system provided with an interrogator in which two antenna units each including an antenna and a transmitting / receiving unit are connected, the above operation sequence is executed by each antenna.

[0008]

In a conventional mobile body identification device having two antenna units, each antenna unit performs a different operation, or one antenna unit receives data read from a transponder and the other one. The copy function is used to write to the transponder that passes in front of the antenna section of the.

Therefore, when this type of moving body identification device is applied to a field in which a vehicle moves at high speed such as railroad or transportation, a start command access up to an operation command access or a power save mode in a responder is changed to a normal mode. There is a problem that the responder moves to the outside of the beam area due to the waiting time until it becomes impossible to perform the essential operation.

Therefore, the present invention provides a moving body identifying apparatus capable of reliably performing a series of operation sequences for a transponder moving at a high speed.

[0011]

According to the present invention, there is provided a transponder and first and second antenna units for communicating with the transponder passing through each beam area via a non-contact transmission medium. An interrogator, the interrogator further indicating a means for transmitting a first command via the first antenna unit to activate the waiting responder, and indicating that the responder has been activated. And a means for transmitting a second command via the second antenna unit to instruct the transponder to perform a predetermined operation when the activation response is received.

[0012]

When the transponder enters the beam area of the first antenna section and receives the first command for activation from the first antenna section, it becomes ready for communication from the standby state. Specifically, the power save mode is switched to the normal mode. On the other hand, the normal start response is returned to the first antenna unit and the operation is shifted to the next operation. The second command transmission for activating the predetermined operation is performed from the second antenna unit, and the transponder that has entered the beam area of the second antenna unit receives the second command and performs the predetermined operation. To execute.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing the configuration of an embodiment of a moving body identifying apparatus according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, an interrogator 10 of a moving body identifying apparatus according to the present invention comprises a first antenna unit 1 for activating a transponder in a standby state, that is, a power save mode, and a transponder after activation. And a second antenna unit 2 that executes an operation sequence related to operation command access.
The antenna units 1 and 2 are connected to the controller 3
, And the controller 3 is further connected to a higher-level data processing terminal 4 such as a personal computer.

The antenna unit 1 includes an antenna unit 11 and a transmission / reception unit 12. Similarly, the antenna unit 2 includes an antenna unit 21 and a transmitting / receiving unit 22.

The transmission / reception units 11 and 22 have a function of transmitting various commands via the antenna units 11 and 21, respectively, and then transmitting unmodulated microwave to read a response and data from the responder 5. That is, the modulated wave including the response and data returned from the responder 5 is received and demodulated. Further, the transmission / reception units 12 and 22 each have a function of modulating the microwave according to the information transmitted to the responder 5. As the antenna units 11 and 21, an array antenna unit in which a plurality of rectangular patch antenna units are arranged is usually used for improving directivity and supporting long-distance communication.

The interrogator 10 also includes a controller 3, which is a CPU (central processing unit).
31, interface 32, ROM (read only memory) 33, RAM (random access memory) 34, I
The I / O interface 35 and the power supply 36 are provided. The controller 3 is also connected to a data processing terminal 4 such as a personal computer or a programmable controller via the I / O interface 35. Antenna part 1
And a system program for controlling the operation of the antenna unit 2 is stored in the ROM 34 of the controller 3,
Data and the like are stored in the RAM 34. The ID code added to the activation response from the responder 5 is the RAM 3
Stored in 4. The interface 32 is an interface between the antenna units 1 and 2 each including an antenna unit and a transmission / reception unit and the controller 3, and has a signal parallel / serial conversion function.

The transponder 5 includes an antenna unit 51 and a CPU 5
2, the transmission / reception unit 53, the ROM 54, the RAM 55, and the power supply 56, and the antenna unit 51 is connected to the CPU 52 via the transmission / reception unit 53.
55, the power supply 56, and the CPU 52 are connected to each other. As the antenna unit 51, for example, a rectangular patch antenna unit that also serves as transmission and reception is used.

The transmission / reception unit 53 demodulates the modulated microwaves transmitted from the interrogator 10 received via the antenna unit 51, and digitally transmits the unmodulated waves received from the interrogator 10 according to the data to be transmitted. It has the function of modulating. In general, the ROM 54 stores a system program for controlling the operation of the responder 5, and the RAM 55 stores data such as an ID code for distinguishing the responder 5 from others.

FIGS. 2 and 3 are explanatory views showing a start command access and an operation command access of an embodiment of the moving body identifying apparatus according to the present invention, respectively.

As shown in FIG. 2, the operation sequence relating to the activation command access is executed in the first antenna section of the interrogator, and the transponder in the beam area of the antenna section receives the activation command from the interrogator and is powered up. It shifts from the save mode to the normal mode and returns a start response. Further, in the operation sequence relating to the operation command access in the second antenna unit, the responder responds to the transmission of the operation command by returning the operation response.

Next, the operation sequence relating to the activation command access and the operation command access will be described in detail.

FIGS. 4 and 5 are flow charts showing an example of an operation sequence on the interrogator side of an embodiment of the moving body identifying apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 6 is an operation on the responder side corresponding to FIGS. 4 and 5. It is a flowchart figure which shows an example of a sequence.

Next, the flow of an example of the operation sequence between the responder and the interrogator will be described with reference to FIGS.

As shown in FIG. 4, the first antenna section is
In order to access a transponder that rapidly enters the beam area at an arbitrary timing, a start command is repeatedly transmitted to the transponder (step S10). Next, the transponder receiving this activation command transitions from the power save mode to the normal mode after a certain period of time, reads the ID code stored in the RAM after command analysis, and activates by adding this ID code. Send a response. First
The antenna unit determines whether the activation response is received (step S11). If the determination result is negative, the step S10 is performed until the activation response is received.
repeat. When the activation response is received in step S11, it is determined whether there is a transmission error by the transmission error detection such as the sum check and the parity check, that is, the validity of the command is determined (step S12), and the transmission error is determined. If there is, step S10 is executed again.

If there is no transmission error and normal communication is performed, the first antenna unit transmits to the controller the ID code added to the activation response transmitted from the approaching transponder. Registers this in RAM (step S13). Then, the controller issues an operation start instruction via the second antenna unit (step S14), and determines whether or not there is a stop instruction (step S15). If there is a stop instruction and the activation command transmission process is not continuously performed, the operation is stopped. On the other hand, if there is no stop instruction, the process returns to step S10, and a start command is transmitted to detect the transponder to enter next.

Next, as shown in FIG. 5, the controller determines whether or not the activation sequence has been executed by the first antenna section and an operation start instruction has been issued (step S20).
If there is no instruction, this step S20 is repeated until an instruction is given. If there is an instruction, the controller reads the ID code for identifying the transponder from the RAM, and transmits the operation command with the ID code to the transponder via the second antenna unit (step S21). On the other hand, the transponder that has entered the beam area of the second antenna section in the normal mode is I
When the D-coded command is received, the ID code registered in the RAM and the received ID code are checked, and if they match, the operation is executed. After performing the operation, the transponder transmits the result to the second antenna unit as an operation response to which the ID code is added. The controller determines whether or not the operation response is received via the second antenna unit (step S22). If the operation response, which is the execution result after the operation is executed, is received from the responder, a transmission error is detected. It is determined whether or not it is detected (step S
23) If there is a transmission error, execute step S21 again.

If there is no transmission error and normal communication is performed, the controller further compares the ID command added to the operation response with the registered ID command (step S24), and the ID codes do not match. If so, the process returns to step S21 and the operation command with the ID code is retransmitted via the second antenna unit.

If the ID codes match in step S24, it is determined whether or not there is a stop instruction (step S25). If there is no stop instruction, the process returns to step S20 and a repeat operation start instruction is given. Determine whether or not. On the other hand, if there is a stop instruction, the process is stopped.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 6, the transponder determines whether or not the activation command is received from the first antenna section of the interrogator (step S30). If the transponder is within the beam area of the first antenna unit, the start command is received. Therefore, it is determined whether or not the standby state is released and a transmission error is detected (step S31), and the transmission error is detected. For example, step S30 is executed again. If there is no transmission error, read out its own ID code (step S32),
The ID code is added and the activation response is transmitted to the first antenna unit (step S33).

Next, the transponder having entered the beam area of the second antenna section of the interrogator determines whether or not an operation command has been received from the second antenna section (step S34). If the operation command is not received, step S34 is repeated until the operation command is received. When the operation command is received, it is judged whether or not a transmission error is detected (step S35), and if there is a transmission error, step S34 is executed again.

As a result of the step S35, if it is clear that the transmission is normally performed, the ID code added to the operation command is compared with its own ID code (step S36), and if they match, For example, the transponder executes the designated operation and transmits the operation response with the ID code to the second antenna unit of the interrogator (step S37). next,
It is determined whether or not an end command indicating that a series of operation sequence processing has ended is received from the interrogator (step S38). When this is received, the processing is terminated assuming that the normal communication is terminated. If the end command is not received, step S38 is repeated until the end command is received. However, the end command is not always received, and it is determined whether or not a predetermined fixed time has elapsed (timed out). In step S39), if a certain period of time has elapsed, termination processing is performed.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the start command access and the operation command access can be shared by the two antenna units, and the operation with the transponder moving at high speed is realized. can do. As a result, a transportation and railway operation management system and a toll road toll collection system using a mobile body identification device become possible.

In the above embodiments, the microwave system was used as the transmission medium system, but the transmission medium system is not limited to this, and an electromagnetic coupling system, an electromagnetic induction system, an optical communication system or the like may be used.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, each antenna section is composed of the transmitting / receiving section and the antenna, but it may include a CPU, a RAM, a ROM and the like. In this case, various controls can be performed without going through the controller. For example, the operation start instruction can be directly given to the second antenna unit from the first antenna unit.

Next, an embodiment will be described in which the moving body identifying apparatus according to the present invention is applied to a system for collecting toll road charges by the host pay system.

FIG. 7 is a route diagram for explaining toll road charge collection to which the moving body identifying apparatus according to the present invention is applied. In FIG. 7, route A50 (entrance IC51 → point A via point 52 → exit IC53) and route B are routes from the entrance IC (interchange) 51 to the exit IC53.
54 (entrance IC51 → B waypoint 55 → exit IC53)
There are two ways.

As shown in Table 1, the data stored in the RAM of the transponder provided in the vehicle using the toll road is the unique data (ID code, expiration date) registered when the transponder issues a ticket, They are entrance data (interchange code, vehicle type code) registered at the entrance IC, transit data (transit point data) registered at the transit point, and exit data (interchange code, vehicle type, usage amount) registered at the exit IC. Table 1 is an example of processing at the exit IC of the vehicle that has passed the route B54.

The interrogator and its controller according to the above-described embodiments are applied to, for example, an exit IC that requires high-speed support.

As described above, the first antenna unit repeatedly transmits the activation command in order to detect that the transponder attached to the vehicle approaching at high speed at an arbitrary timing exists in the beam area. The transponder receiving the start command knows that it has entered the beam area, and after a certain period of time, changes from the power save mode to the normal mode, and after the command analysis, the unique data (ID code: 123456) registered in RAM , Expiration date: 199
(February 2, 6), the interchange code: A111 which is the entrance data, the vehicle type: 01 (meaning a normal vehicle), and the waypoint code: C222 which is the transit data are returned as the activation response.

[0042]

[Table 1]

Next, the first antenna section, which has received the activation response consisting of the unique data, the entrance data, and the transit data, judges that the new vehicle is passing through the exit toll gate, and expires (1996). February 2) and ID code (1
23456) is determined to be valid, and then the unique data, entrance data, and transit data are transferred to the RAM of the controller.
The controller starts the operation via the second antenna unit. On the other hand, the activation command is repeatedly transmitted via the first antenna unit in order to detect the next vehicle approaching.

The controller of the interrogator is the interchange code of the entrance IC: A111, the waypoint: C222,
And vehicle type: The usage fee is calculated as 2200 yen from 01 (normal car). Then, the interchange code: D444, the vehicle type: 01, the usage amount: 2200 yen, which is the exit data, and the ID code for specifying the transponder are transmitted to the transponder via the second antenna unit as operation commands.

The transponder that has entered the beam area of the second antenna section from the first antenna section in the normal mode is
Received operation command and received ID code: 1234
If 56 and its own ID code match, and if they match, the exit data (interchange code: D444, vehicle type: 01, usage amount: 2200 yen) is R
After registering in the AM and returning an operation response, the power save mode is entered again in order to suppress the power consumption after a certain period of time, and the standby state is entered.

The second antenna section receives the operation response, knows that the operation sequence with the vehicle with the ID code: 123456 is completed, and waits for the next operation start instruction.

As described above, the two antenna units divide the operations into roles, so that it becomes possible to communicate with a vehicle traveling at a high speed, which has been impossible in the conventional series of operation sequences.

[0048]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, the first and second antennas for communicating with the transponders and the transponders passing through the respective beam areas via the non-contact transmission medium. The interrogator further comprises means for transmitting a first command via the first antenna part to activate the waiting responder, and the responder is activated. Means for transmitting a second command via the second antenna unit to command the transponder to perform a predetermined operation when receiving a start response indicating that the start command access and the operation command access are performed. Can be shared by the two antenna units, and operation with a transponder that moves at high speed can be realized. As a result, a transportation and railway operation management system and a toll road toll collection system using a mobile body identification device become possible.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an embodiment of a moving body identifying apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an outline of activation command access of the mobile unit identification device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an outline of operation command access of the mobile unit identification device according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart diagram showing an example of an operation sequence relating to a start command access on the side of a first antenna section of an embodiment of a mobile unit identifying apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart diagram showing an example of an operation sequence relating to operation command access on the second antenna section side of the embodiment of the mobile unit identification apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an example of an operation sequence on the responder side of the embodiment of the moving object identifying apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory view showing an embodiment in which the moving body identifying apparatus according to the present invention is applied to a toll road.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing an outline of an operation sequence of a conventional mobile body identification device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 2 Antenna part 3 Controller 4 Data processing terminal 5 Responder 10 Interrogator 11, 21, 51 Antenna 12, 22, 53 Transmitter / receiver 31, 52 CPU 32 Interface 33, 54 ROM 34, 55 RAM 35 I / O interface 36 , 56 power

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A transponder, and an interrogator including first and second antenna units that communicate with the transponders that pass through the respective beam areas via a non-contact transmission medium. And a means for transmitting a first command via the first antenna unit to activate the waiting responder, and an activation response indicating that the responder has been activated. And a means for transmitting a second command via the second antenna unit to instruct the transponder to perform a predetermined operation.