JPH0950594A - Communication system for vehicle operation management system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce power consumption required for the radio communication of a base station radio equipment by setting up the radio equipment to a power save mode when the necessity of communication is low, and when the necessity is increased, driving the radio equipment in a nomal power mode. SOLUTION: A receiving circuit 9 in a bus stop radio equipment 1 is driven only for relatively short time T2 and receives a radio wave through a receiving antenna 7 (normal operation mode). At the time of receiving a radio wave from an on-vehicle radio equipment, the circuit 9 is driven only for time T4 longer than the time T2 at a time interval T3 shorter than prescribed time T1 and receives the radio wave (continuous receiying mode). When the equipment 1 is in the normal operation mode, a transmitting circuit 13 stops transmission, and when the equipment 1 is turned to the continuous receiving mode, the circuit 13 is driven only for prescribed time T6 at prescribed time interval T5 and transmits a radio wave through a transmitting antenna 15. In this case, the radio wave receiving area of the equipment 1 is set up to a wide area and a radio wave transmitting area is set up narrower than the receiving area.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention provides a radio at a base such as a bus stop or a subway station, and a radio such as a bus or a subway that communicates with the base via radio waves.
The present invention relates to a vehicle operation management system that manages vehicle operation information by performing bidirectional communication between a base and a vehicle, and in particular,
The present invention relates to a communication method of a vehicle operation management system capable of reducing power consumption required for wireless communication between a base and a vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A transportation system such as a bus and a subway has a social mission of transporting a large number of personnel safely and efficiently. However, for example, in the case of a bus, in order to drive on a general road mixed with general vehicles,
It is possible that the bus does not arrive at the bus stop on time determined by the timetable due to traffic congestion on the road. In this case, those who wait for the bus at the bus stop are anxious and continue to wait for the bus that they do not know when to come, which is a great psychological stress, especially for those who are in a hurry.

Therefore, recently, while radios are installed at bases such as bus stops and subway stations, radios for communicating with the bases via radio waves are installed in vehicles such as buses and subways so that the bases and vehicles can communicate with each other. A vehicle operation management system that manages vehicle operation information by performing directional communication is gradually spreading. If this vehicle operation management system is applied to, for example, bus operation management, it is possible to effectively utilize the obtained operation information by managing the operation information about which bus is traveling where. That is, for example, to inform people waiting for the bus at the bus stop with prediction information about how many minutes the bus will arrive at the bus stop,
Bus passengers can be provided with predictive information about how many minutes the bus will arrive at the next stop. Therefore, according to this bus operation management system, the psychological stress of the people waiting for the bus can be removed, and the convenience of the bus user can be significantly improved.

[0004]

In the bus operation management system described above, a radio device provided at a bus stop will be described. The bus stop radio device has a transmitting antenna and a receiving antenna. The bus stop radio receives radio waves transmitted from the vehicle-mounted radio provided in the vehicle via these antennas, and transmits radio waves to the vehicle-mounted radio. With this transmission / reception antenna, it is required for the in-vehicle radio to transmit / receive radio waves reliably and efficiently with low power, and from this fact, various technologies are applied to the transmission / reception antenna. ing. That is, for example, the reception antenna has directivity to limit the reception range of radio waves to a narrow range, or the transmission antenna is installed above the operation route of the bus, and radio waves are radiated radially from the transmission antenna toward the road surface. Technology such as sending.

However, according to the above-mentioned technique, although radio waves can be reliably transmitted and received to and from the in-vehicle wireless device, it is possible to immediately respond to a bus whose arrival time is unknown. Since the bus stop radio was constantly kept in operation, radio waves were transmitted from the transmission / reception antenna, and the radio waves were waiting to be received, the power consumption required for this radio communication would be considerable, which is against the trend of energy saving in recent years. It was. Moreover, if, for example, a lithium battery having a high energy density and relatively low cost can be adopted as a power source for the bus stop radio, the cost required for maintenance of the bus operation management system can be significantly reduced,
In the current system, it is difficult to adopt a lithium battery from the viewpoint of power consumption, so it is unavoidable to use expensive solar cells or commercial power sources, and this maintenance cost is expensive. It was an obstacle to the spread of the management system.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and reduces the power consumption required for wireless communication between a base station and a vehicle, and also contributes to the spread of the vehicle operation management system. The purpose is to provide a communication method of a system.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the invention of claim 1 provides a plurality of bases on a traveling route of a vehicle at appropriate intervals, and the bases are provided at the respective bases. A vehicle operation that manages vehicle operation information by installing an on-vehicle wireless device that communicates with the base wireless device through radio waves in the vehicle while providing a wireless device and performing bidirectional communication between the base and the vehicle. In the management system, the reception area of the radio wave in the base station radio is set wide, while the transmission area of the radio wave is set narrower than the reception area,
When the base transceiver has not yet received radio waves from the in-vehicle radio, the base transceiver is operated to receive radio waves at a predetermined low frequency and suspend transmission of radio waves, When the base transceiver receives a radio wave from the in-vehicle radio, the base transceiver receives the radio wave at a frequency higher than the predetermined low frequency, and transmits the radio wave between the reception of the radio waves. It is a communication method of a vehicle operation management system characterized by being activated.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, first, the radio wave reception area in the base station radio is set wide, while the radio wave transmission area is set narrower than the reception area. In the transmission / reception area set in this way, phase direction communication is performed between the base station radio and the in-vehicle radio via radio waves. Then, in this communication, if the base transceiver has not yet received the radio wave from the in-vehicle transceiver,
The base station radio is operated so as to receive radio waves at a predetermined low frequency and stop transmission of radio waves. Here, when the base transceiver has not yet received the radio wave from the in-vehicle radio, the vehicle has not yet reached the reception area of the radio in the base transceiver, and the distance between the base and the vehicle is long. Means that Therefore, when the distance between the base and the vehicle is large, the base transceiver is operated so as to receive radio waves at a predetermined low frequency and stop transmission of radio waves. When the base transceiver receives a radio wave from the in-vehicle radio, the base transceiver receives the radio wave at a frequency higher than the predetermined low frequency, and transmits the radio wave between the reception of the radio waves. Activate. Here, the case where the base station radio receives the radio wave from the vehicle-mounted radio means that the vehicle has reached the radio wave reception area of the base station radio and the distance between the base and the vehicle is close. . Therefore, when the distance between the base and the vehicle is close, the base station radio is operated so as to receive radio waves at a frequency higher than the predetermined low frequency and to transmit radio waves between reception of radio waves.

In other words, when the base radio has low communication needs, the base radio operates in the power saving mode and the base radio has high communication needs.
It can be said that the base transceiver is operating in the normal power mode. Therefore, the average power consumption required for wireless communication in the base station radio can be reduced.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, when the base station radio receives the radio wave from the vehicle-mounted radio and does not continuously receive the radio wave for a predetermined time, the base station radio is
The communication method of the vehicle operation management system according to claim 1, wherein the communication method is operated so as to receive radio waves at a predetermined low frequency and suspend transmission of radio waves.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, when the base station radio receives the radio wave from the vehicle-mounted radio and does not continuously receive the radio wave for a predetermined period of time, the base station is set to a predetermined low frequency. Operate so as to receive the radio wave and suspend the transmission of the radio wave. Here, when the base station radio does not receive the radio wave for a predetermined period of time after receiving the radio wave from the vehicle-mounted radio, the case where the vehicle once reaches the radio wave reception area of the base station radio and then the outside of the reception area is received. It means either that the vehicle has gone out or that the transmission of radio waves from the in-vehicle wireless device has been suspended for a predetermined time in the reception area. In such a case, it is determined that the need for communication in the base wireless device has decreased, and the base wireless device is shifted from the normal power mode to the power saving mode. Therefore, the average power consumption required for wireless communication in the base station radio can be reduced.

Further, in the invention of claim 3, a plurality of bases are provided at appropriate intervals on the traveling route of the vehicle, and a base transceiver is provided in each of the bases, while the base radio is provided in the vehicle. A vehicle operation management system that manages vehicle operation information by providing an in-vehicle wireless device that communicates with the aircraft via radio waves and performing bidirectional communication between the base and the vehicle,
In the in-vehicle wireless device, route information relating to the arrangement of each of the plurality of bases in the traveling route of the vehicle and the distance between the bases is stored in advance, and the vehicle is allowed to travel along the traveling route. Of the traveling speed and the accumulated traveling distance are captured at appropriate intervals, the remaining distance between the base and the vehicle is predicted based on the traveling information and the route information, and the remaining distance and the predetermined value are calculated. And when the remaining distance is equal to or less than a predetermined value, the in-vehicle wireless device is operated so as to alternately receive and transmit radio waves at a predetermined frequency. Is.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, first, the in-vehicle wireless device stores in advance the arrangement of each of the plurality of bases in the traveling route of the vehicle and the route information regarding the distance between the bases. Next, when the vehicle travels along the travel route, the travel information about the traveling speed of the vehicle and the accumulated travel distance is fetched at appropriate intervals. Then, based on the operation information and the route information, the remaining distance between the base and the vehicle is predicted, and the remaining distance is compared with a predetermined value. , Operates to alternately receive and transmit radio waves at a predetermined frequency. In other words, if it is determined from the remaining distance between the base and the vehicle that the vehicle is not approaching the base, it is determined that the vehicle is approaching the base while maintaining the sleep mode that suspends the reception and transmission operations of the in-vehicle wireless device. Then, the in-vehicle wireless device is operated in the normal power mode in which radio waves are alternately received and transmitted at a predetermined frequency.

Therefore, the on-vehicle radio shifts the on-vehicle radio from the sleep mode to the normal power mode when the vehicle approaches the base and the necessity of communication arises. The average power consumption required for can be reduced.

According to a fourth aspect of the invention, when the vehicle-mounted radio receives the radio wave from the base station radio, the vehicle-mounted radio is
The communication method of the vehicle operation management system according to claim 3, wherein the communication method is operated so as to suspend reception and transmission of radio waves continuously for a predetermined time.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, when the onboard radio receives the radio wave from the base station radio, the onboard radio is operated so as to suspend the reception and transmission of the radio wave continuously for a predetermined time. Here, that the vehicle-mounted radio receives the radio wave from the base radio means that the vehicle has reached the radio wave transmission area of the base radio. In such a case, it is determined that the in-vehicle wireless device has become less in need of communication, and the in-vehicle wireless device is shifted from the normal power mode to the sleep mode. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the average power consumption required for wireless communication in the in-vehicle wireless device.

[0017]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION A communication method of a vehicle operation management system according to the present invention will be described below in detail by exemplifying an embodiment in which the system is applied to bus operation management.

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram showing a base station radio of a vehicle operation management system according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block configuration diagram showing an in-vehicle radio of the vehicle operation management system according to the present invention, and FIG. Fig. 4 is an external view of the base station radio.
5 is a conceptual diagram showing an embodiment of a vehicle operation management system according to the present invention, FIG. 5 is an operation flowchart of the vehicle operation management system according to the present invention, and FIGS. 6 to 7 are operations of the vehicle operation management system according to the present invention. Timing chart diagram, FIG.
9 to 9 are diagrams for explaining the operation of the vehicle operation management system according to the present invention. Note that, in the present embodiment, members having the same function are given the same name, and a duplicate description thereof will be partially omitted.

First, the schematic configuration of the vehicle operation management system according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 4. In the road RD, a predetermined travel route of the bus CR is provided with an appropriate interval. A plurality of bus stops BS are installed. Each bus stop BS is provided with a bus stop radio 1 as a base station radio, while the bus CR is provided with an in-vehicle radio 3. The bus operation management system manages the operation information of the bus CR by performing bidirectional wireless communication between the bus stop radio 1 and the vehicle-mounted radio 3 via radio waves. Specifically, this bus operation management system is
By sharing the operation information of R between the two parties, the bus stop BS and the bus CR, for example, those who wait for the bus at the bus stop BS can be informed of the prediction information that the bus CR will soon arrive at the bus stop BS, etc. Also, it is possible to inform the passengers of the bus CR of the prediction information that the bus CR will soon arrive at the next bus stop BS, or the like. For those who wait for the bus at the bus stop BS, in a few minutes, the bus CR will stop at the bus stop B.
It is also possible to give prediction information about whether to arrive at S, or to inform passengers of the bus CR about how many minutes after the bus CR will arrive at the next bus stop BS. Further, if the operation information of the bus CR is taken up to the operation management center from each bus stop BS via a public telephone line, for example, which bus CR runs around which route in the operation management center. It is also possible to know if.

Next, the configuration of each part of the bus operation management system having the above-mentioned functions will be described. First, the external appearance of the bus stop radio 1 provided at the bus stop BS will be described. As shown in FIG. 3, the bus stop radio 1 is provided with a receiving antenna 7 and a transmitting antenna on each of opposite side surfaces of a box-shaped casing 53. The antenna 15 is provided, and a mounting plate 55 used when mounting the wireless device 1 at the bus stop BS is provided on the bottom surface of the housing 53.

Further, the internal configuration of the bus stop radio 1 will be described. As shown in FIG. 1, the bus stop radio 1 includes a receiving circuit 9 to which a receiving antenna 7 is connected and a transmitting circuit to which a transmitting antenna 15 is connected. 13 and a control circuit 11 to which the receiving circuit 9 and the transmitting circuit 13 are connected.

As shown in FIG. 6, the receiving circuit 9 operates for a second predetermined time T2, which is a relatively short time at a first predetermined time T1 and, at the time of this operation, via the receiving antenna 7. To receive radio waves. The operation mode of the bus stop radio 1 at this time is called a normal operation mode. On the other hand, once the receiving circuit 9 succeeds in receiving the radio wave from the in-vehicle radio device 3, it is longer than the second predetermined time T2 with an interval of the third predetermined time T3 being shorter than the first predetermined time T1. That is, it is operated for the fourth predetermined time T4, and at the time of this operation, radio waves are received via the receiving antenna 7. The operation mode of the bus stop radio 1 at this time is called a continuous reception mode. The sensitivity of the receiver formed by the receiving antenna 7 and the receiving circuit 9 is, as shown in FIG. 9, the received radio wave which is the upper limit of the distance at which the bus stop radio 1 can receive the radio wave transmitted from the vehicle-mounted radio 3. The sensitivity is set so that the reaching distance D2 is 100 m or more. That is, the reception area of the bus stop radio 1 is set to at least 100 m or more. This enables the bus stop radio 1 to detect the arrival of the bus CR as soon as possible.

Further, the transmission circuit 13 suspends the transmission when the bus stop radio 1 is in the normal operation mode, and when the bus stop radio 1 shifts to the continuous reception mode, the transmission circuit 13 operates for the sixth predetermined time T6 with an interval of the fifth predetermined time T5. During this operation, predetermined radio waves are transmitted via the transmission antenna 15. As shown in FIG. 9, the performance of the transmitter constituted by the transmitting antenna 15 and the transmitting circuit 13 is as follows. The sensitivity is set so that the reaching distance D1 is within 20 m.
That is, the maximum transmission area of the bus stop radio 1 is 20
It is set within m. This allows the bus stop radio 1 to pinpoint the position of the bus CR with high precision.

Further, the control circuit 11 includes a clock circuit 17
A ROM 19 for storing a program and a RAM 19 for storing data, a voltage drop detecting circuit 25 for detecting a terminal voltage of a battery 21 such as a lithium battery via a power supply circuit 23, and a flat cable 28. And an RS-232C circuit 27 formed by connecting a connector 29. If the control circuit 11 is connected to a centralized control device or the like of the operation control center via the connector 29, an appropriate modem, a public telephone line, etc., the operation information of the bus can be centrally controlled in the control center.

The control circuit 11 executes a program stored in the memory 19 and controls various processes by commands. For example, while the bus stop radio 1 is in the normal operation mode, the control circuit 11 instructs the receiving circuit 9 to perform a receiving operation at a predetermined low frequency, while suspending the transmission to the transmitting circuit 13. Command. Further, the control circuit 11 controls the bus stop radio 1 in the continuous reception mode,
The receiving circuit 9 is instructed to perform a receiving operation at a predetermined frequent timing, while the transmitting circuit 13 is instructed to perform a transmitting operation at a predetermined timing. Further, the control circuit 11 has a clock function for displaying the time on a liquid crystal panel (not shown) provided in the bus stop BS, and an ID sending function for sending its own bus stop identification code preset for each name of the bus stop BS to the sending circuit 13. When the voltage drop detection circuit 25 detects that the voltage between the terminals of the battery 21 has dropped to a predetermined value or less, it has a function of displaying a dead battery on the liquid crystal panel or the like. The bus stop identification code is included in a predetermined radio wave transmitted via the transmitting antenna 15 when the transmission circuit 13 is activated, and the vehicle-mounted wireless device 3 that has received the bus stop identification code detects the approaching bus stop BS. Can recognize the name of.

Next, the internal configuration of the vehicle-mounted radio 3 that performs radio communication with the bus stop radio 1 described above will be described. As shown in FIG. 2, the in-vehicle wireless device 3 includes a reception circuit 33 and a transmission circuit 35 to which the transmission / reception antenna 31 is connected, and a control circuit 37 to which the transmission / reception circuits 33 and 35 are connected. The control circuit 37 includes a memory 39, a power supply circuit 43 for supplying electric power from a power supply 41 such as a battery to each part of the control circuit 37, and a connector 47.
Is connected to the RS-232C circuit 45. In the memory 39, information on the travel route of the bus CR, that is, which bus stop BS is the starting point, in which order, through which bus stop BS, to arrive at the final bus stop BS, the respective bus stops BS. The route information about the distance between them and the identification code of the bus stop BS that passed last is stored. This route information is used for a bus stop prediction, which will be described later, executed by the control circuit 37.

In the in-vehicle wireless device 3 configured as described above,
The vehicle information monitoring device 5 is connected via the RS-232C cable 48 and the connector 49. The vehicle information monitoring device 5 is configured by connecting a connector 49 to a vehicle operation recording device 51. The vehicle operation recording device 51 is input with operation information such as an accumulated traveling distance of the bus CR starting from a certain bus stop BS, a current traveling speed, a current time, and the like. It is supplied to the control circuit 37 of the machine 3. In response to this, the control circuit 37 executes the bus stop prediction process. That is, the control circuit 37
The route information of the bus CR is read from the memory 39, the remaining distance from the current position to the next bus stop BS is calculated based on the route information and the operation information, and the next distance is calculated from the remaining distance and the current speed of the bus CR. The remaining time required to reach the bus stop BS is calculated. This remaining time is used when determining the transmission / reception timing of radio waves in the receiving circuit 33 and the transmitting circuit 35, which will be described later in detail. To give the role of the bus stop prediction function described above, firstly, by avoiding unnecessary transmission of radio waves by the bus CR, adverse effects on other systems using frequencies close to this communication radio wave To prevent power consumption by eliminating unnecessary radio wave transmission, and second, bus stop CR
Depending on the conditions such as the environment of the installation location, the reception distance D2 may be considerably long, and if the radio wave is transmitted from the in-vehicle radio 3 early without predicting the bus stop, the radio in the bus stop 3 Thirdly, the communication operation timing is advanced, and as a result, the power consumption is increased by the amount of the advance of the communication operation timing and the life of the battery 21 of the bus stop radio 3 is shortened. Fourthly, in order to determine the code, the fourth function is to secure a large number of times of communication between the bus stop BS and the bus CR even when the communication state with the bus stop radio 3 is bad, and to avoid the result that the bus stop BS could not be located. I have In addition, the control circuit 37
In addition to the bus stop prediction function described above, the memory 39 stores an error detection function for detecting a communication error with the bus stop radio 1 and a time when the bus CR passes or arrives at the bus stop BS.
It further has a bus stop passing time recording function, etc.

Next, the operations of the bus stop radio 1 and the in-vehicle radio 3 of the bus operation management system described above will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 to 9.

First, on the bus CR side, the in-vehicle radio 3
The control circuit 37 reads the route information of the bus CR from the memory 39, calculates the remaining distance from the current position to the next bus stop BS based on the route information and the operation information, and at the same time, calculates the remaining distance and the bus CR. The remaining time required to reach the next bus stop BS is calculated from the current speed. With reference to the calculated remaining distance, the control circuit 37 determines whether or not the distance between the bus CR and the next bus stop BS is less than or equal to the predetermined distance DS. This determination is repeated until the distance between the bus CR and the next bus stop BS becomes less than or equal to the predetermined distance DS. As a result of this determination, when it is determined that the interval between the bus CR and the next bus stop BS has become equal to or less than the predetermined distance DS, the control circuit 37 executes a predetermined process based on the program stored in the memory 39. . That is, the control circuit 37 first activates the reception circuit 33 and executes so-called carrier sensing to check whether or not the in-vehicle wireless device 3 is receiving a radio wave (step 1, hereinafter referred to as S1).
Note that this carrier sense is executed with the intention of preventing communication errors in advance by avoiding overlapping transmission timings between the other party and this party. When it is determined by the carrier sense that the in-vehicle wireless device 3 does not receive the radio wave, the control circuit 37 activates the transmission circuit 35, executes a command to transmit the radio wave at a predetermined timing, and stops the bus. The wireless device 1 is called (S3). On the other hand, when it is determined by the carrier sense that the vehicle-mounted wireless device 3 is receiving the radio wave, the control circuit 37 continues the carrier sense and transmits until it is determined that the vehicle-mounted wireless device 3 is not receiving the radio wave. Do not start the circuit 35.

Here, the processing of steps S1 and S3 will be described with reference to FIGS. Before this explanation, as shown in FIG. 8, the bus CR is currently located at the point A and is traveling at 40 km / h, and the distance between the point A and the bus stop BS is 200 m. It is assumed that this corresponds to the above-mentioned predetermined distance DS. Further, assuming that the reception radio wave reach distance D2 is set to 100 m, the position where the bus CR reaches the reception area of the bus stop radio 1 is set to point B, while the transmission radio wave reach distance D1 is set to 10 m. Assuming that the bus CR is present, the position where the bus CR reaches the transmission area of the bus stop radio 1 is set as point C.

At the point A, the control circuit 37 of the in-vehicle wireless device 3
As described above, while calculating the remaining distance from the current position to the next bus stop BS, the remaining distance and the bus C are calculated.
From the current speed of R, the remaining time required to reach the next bus stop BS is calculated. The remaining distance calculated at this time is 2
The remaining time is 18 seconds. Further, the control circuit 37 determines whether or not the calculated remaining distance is less than or equal to the predetermined distance DS. As a result of this determination, since the remaining distance of 200 m is equal to the predetermined distance DS as described above, it is determined that the remaining distance is less than or equal to the predetermined distance DS. Then, the control circuit 37 activates the receiving circuit 33, and
While performing the carrier sense shown in (1), the predicted time at which the bus CR will reach the point B is calculated. This calculation result shows that the distance from the point A to the point B is 40 m
Since the vehicle travels at km / h, the time to reach point B is calculated to be 9 seconds later. The estimated time to reach point B is the bus CR
Therefore, the predicted time is repeatedly calculated, and the amount of change in the predicted arrival time is increased / decreased, for example, in units of seconds to appropriately compensate. If it is determined by the above carrier sense that the in-vehicle wireless device 3 is not receiving the radio wave, the control circuit 37 starts up the transmission circuit 35 at point B shown in FIGS. Is executed and the bus stop radio 1 is called. In this call, the control circuit 37 reads the bus stop identification code of the next bus stop BS from the memory 39, and causes the transmission circuit 35 to transmit a radio wave including this identification code.

In response to the call from the onboard radio 3, the control circuit 11 of the bus stop radio 1 continues the operation of the reception circuit 9 so that the operation mode becomes the reception timing in the normal operation mode (S9). It is determined whether the receiving circuit 9 has received an incoming radio wave (S11). Here, the operation in the normal operation mode will be described. As shown in FIG. 6, the receiving circuit 9 operates for a second predetermined time T2 which is a relatively short time with an interval of the first predetermined time T1. Then, during this operation, radio waves are received via the receiving antenna 7. On the other hand, in the normal operation mode, the transmission circuit 13
Has stopped transmitting radio waves. In this way, by limiting the operation of the receiving circuit 9 and the transmitting circuit 13 to the necessary minimum in the normal operation mode, the power consumption required for wireless communication in the bus stop radio 1 is suppressed to the utmost limit.

As a result of the incoming call determination in step S11,
If it is determined that the incoming radio wave has not been received, the control circuit 1
1, while continuing the operation of the receiving circuit 9 in the normal operation mode, when it is determined that an incoming radio wave is received, it is determined whether the operation mode of the bus stop radio 1 is the continuous reception mode (S13). . As a result of this mode determination, if it is determined that the operation mode is not the continuous reception mode, a process of setting the operation mode to the continuous reception mode is executed (S1).
5). Here, the operation in the continuous reception mode will be described. As shown in FIG. 6, once the receiving circuit 9 succeeds in receiving the radio wave from the in-vehicle wireless device 3, it is a time shorter than the first predetermined time T1. It operates for a fourth predetermined time T4, which is longer than the second predetermined time T2, with an interval of 3 predetermined times T3, and at the time of this operation, it receives radio waves via the receiving antenna 7. On the other hand, in the continuous reception mode, the transmission circuit 13 operates for the sixth predetermined time T6 with the interval of the fifth predetermined time T5, and during this operation, the transmission antenna 15
A predetermined radio wave is transmitted via. In-vehicle wireless device 3
Is successfully received by the bus CR when the bus stop B
It means that the receiving circuit 9 and the transmitting circuit 13 are in an appropriate timing at such a time.
The communication with the in-vehicle wireless device 3 is ensured by operating the.

When the operation mode is determined to be the continuous reception mode as a result of the mode determination in step S13, the control circuit 11 causes the reception circuit 9 to perform carrier sense (S17), and the carrier sense is performed. While observing the transmission / reception timing of the radio wave in the vehicle-mounted wireless device 3, the transmission circuit 13 is operated in conformity with the timing that the vehicle-mounted wireless device 3 may be receiving, and the radio wave is transmitted to respond to the vehicle-mounted wireless device 3. (S19). That is, in the continuous reception mode, the control circuit 11 activates the transmission circuit 13 every time an incoming radio wave is received from the in-vehicle wireless device 3, transmits an electromagnetic wave, and responds to the in-vehicle wireless device 3. As a result of this response, if the vehicle-mounted wireless device 3 succeeds in receiving, the control circuit 11 continuously operates the reception circuit 9 for a predetermined time, for example, 10 seconds to monitor the transmission of the vehicle-mounted wireless device 3, and within this monitoring time. If there is no reception, the operation mode of the bus stop radio 1 is returned to the normal operation mode (S21).

Returning to the control on the bus CR side again, after the bus stop call processing in step S3, the control circuit 37 of the vehicle-mounted wireless device 3 operates the receiving circuit 33 to receive at a predetermined timing as shown in FIG. When the radio wave from the bus stop radio 1 is successfully received, the transmission and reception of the radio wave is suspended for a predetermined period. More specifically, step S3
Control circuit 37 of the on-vehicle wireless device 3 after the bus stop calling process of
Operates the reception circuit 33 to perform reception at a predetermined timing, and in this reception, it is determined whether or not an incoming radio wave from the bus stop radio 1 has been received (S5). As a result of this incoming call determination, when it is determined that the incoming of the radio wave from the bus stop radio 1 has not been received, the control circuit 37 returns the processing to step S1 and repeats the processing after the carrier sense. In the processing of steps S1 to S5,
If the transmission / reception timing is determined based only on the travel distance of the bus CR when the bus CR approaches the bus stop BS, the communication time between the bus CR and the bus stop BS may be insufficient due to an accumulated error of the travel distance or the like. For bus CR
It is desirable to determine the transmission / reception timing with reference to both the traveling distance and the traveling speed of.

On the other hand, if the result of the incoming call determination in step S5 is that it has received an incoming radio wave from the bus stop radio 1, the control circuit 37 considers that the bus CR has arrived at the bus stop BS at this time, The time at this time is read from the vehicle operation recording device 51, and this arrival time is stored in a predetermined address of the memory 39 in association with the identification code of the bus stop BS that has arrived. At this time, the control circuit 37 further controls the receiving circuit 33 and the transmitting circuit 35 for a predetermined time, for example, 10 seconds.
The operation of is stopped (S7). When the predetermined pause time ends, the control circuit 37 returns the operation mode of the vehicle-mounted wireless device 3 to the normal operation mode and waits for the next bus stop BS to approach. Note that, following the pause time in step S7, the operation of the reception circuit 33 and the transmission circuit 35 can be paused until the bus stop BS approaches to some extent by the bus stop prediction.

In the bus operation management system which operates as described above, the power consumption of the bus stop radio 1 will be described. First, as a calculation condition, the current consumption during reception is 4 mA.
The operating current at rest is 20 μA, the current consumption at transmission is 30 mA, and the continuous reception mode occurs at a frequency of 100 times / month. This continuous reception mode lasts for 1 minute each time. 3.6V / capacity 8000
When using mAh lithium battery, bus stop radio 1
The average current consumption of is 560 μA. The battery life when assuming that the capacity of the lithium battery can be used up to 70% with this average current consumption is about one year. Therefore, the above lithium battery is used as the battery of the bus stop radio 1 of the bus operation management system. I see that it is possible.

In the embodiment of the present invention, an appropriate frequency band can be selected and used as the frequency band of the radio waves used by the bus stop wireless device 1 and the in-vehicle wireless device 3. Further, the frequencies of the radio waves used by the bus stop wireless device 1 and the in-vehicle wireless device 3 can be appropriately changed even during communication. By doing so, for example, even when there is a radio device or the like that uses a radio wave frequency similar to that of the bus stop radio 1 near the bus stop BS, by appropriately changing the radio wave frequency during communication. Therefore, it is possible to surely avoid interference due to the wireless device.

Further, in the embodiment of the present invention, the bus is exemplified as the vehicle and the bus stop is exemplified as the base, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, as the vehicle, a subway, a snow plow, It goes without saying that the present invention can be implemented by providing an on-vehicle radio device in a watering truck, a garbage cleaning vehicle, or the like, and setting a base station radio device in a subway station as a base, a radio station appropriately provided in the traveling route of the vehicle, or the like .

[0040]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when there is a low need for communication in the base station radio, the base station operates in the power saving mode and the need for communication in the base station becomes high. By operating the base transceiver in the normal power mode, the average power consumption required for wireless communication in the base transceiver can be reduced.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, after the vehicle has once reached the reception area of the radio wave in the base station radio, the vehicle has gone out of the reception area, or within the reception area, the vehicle-mounted radio apparatus If the transmission of the radio wave is continuously stopped for a predetermined period of time, it is judged that the need for communication in the base transceiver has become low, and the base transceiver is switched from the normal power mode to the power saving mode. I am letting you. Therefore, the average power consumption required for wireless communication in the base station radio can be reduced.

Further, according to the invention of claim 3, the in-vehicle wireless device shifts from the hibernation mode to the normal power mode when the vehicle approaches the base and communication is required. Therefore, the average power consumption required for wireless communication in the vehicle-mounted wireless device can be reduced.

Further, according to the invention of claim 4, when the vehicle reaches the transmission area of the radio wave in the base station radio, it is judged that the necessity of communication is reduced in the vehicle radio, and the vehicle radio is determined. The machine is transitioning from normal power mode to hibernate mode. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the average power consumption required for wireless communication in the in-vehicle wireless device.

As described above, claims 1 to 4
According to the invention, the average power consumption required for wireless communication between the base of the vehicle operation management system and the vehicle can be reduced, and the maintenance cost of this system can be significantly reduced by the reduction of this power consumption. It has an extremely excellent effect of contributing to the spread of the operation management system.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a base station radio of a vehicle operation management system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an in-vehicle wireless device of a vehicle operation management system according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an external configuration diagram of a base station radio.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram showing an embodiment of a vehicle operation management system according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an operation flowchart of the vehicle operation management system according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an operation timing chart of the vehicle operation management system according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an operation timing chart of the vehicle operation management system according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the vehicle operation management system according to the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the vehicle operation management system according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 bus stop radio (base radio) 3 vehicle-mounted radio 5 vehicle information monitoring device 7 reception antenna 9 reception circuit 11 control circuit 13 transmission circuit 15 transmission antenna 17 clock circuit 19 memory 21 battery 23 power supply circuit 25 voltage drop detection circuit 27 RS 232C circuit 28 flat cable 29 connector 31 transmission / reception antenna 31 33 reception circuit 35 transmission circuit 37 control circuit 39 memory 41 power supply 43 power supply circuit 45 RS-232C circuit 47 connector 48 RS-232C cable 49 connector 51 vehicle operation recording device 53 housing 55 Mounting Plate BS Bus Stop CR Bus RD Road

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Zhang Yi 1500, Onjuku, Susono-shi, Shizuoka Prefecture Yazaki Corporation

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of bases are provided on a traveling route of a vehicle at appropriate intervals, and base radios are provided at the bases, respectively, and radio waves are mediated by the base radios to the vehicle. A vehicle operation management system for managing vehicle operation information by providing an in-vehicle wireless device for communication and performing bidirectional communication between a base and a vehicle, wherein a wide area for receiving radio waves in the base wireless device is set. , The radio wave transmission area is set to be narrower than the reception area, and if the base radio device has not yet received the radio wave from the vehicle-mounted radio device, the base radio device is set to a predetermined low level. When the base radio receives radio waves from the on-board radio, the base radio is set to be higher than the predetermined low frequency. Receive radio waves at a frequency A communication method of a vehicle operation management system, characterized in that it is operated so as to transmit a radio wave during reception of one radio wave. 2. If the base station radio does not receive radio waves for a predetermined period of time after receiving radio waves from the vehicle radio, the base station receives radio waves at a predetermined low frequency. The communication method of the vehicle operation management system according to claim 1, wherein the communication operation is performed so as to suspend transmission of radio waves. 3. A plurality of bases are provided on a traveling route of a vehicle at appropriate intervals, and base radios are provided at the bases, respectively, while radio waves are mediated by the base radios to the vehicle. A vehicle operation management system for managing vehicle operation information by providing an in-vehicle wireless device for communication and performing bidirectional communication between a base and a vehicle, wherein: The location information of each of the bases and the route information regarding the distance between the bases are stored in advance, and when the vehicle travels along the travel route, the travel information about the traveling speed of the vehicle and the accumulated travel distance are appropriately stored. Capture at intervals, based on the operation information and the route information, predict the remaining distance between the base and the vehicle, compare the remaining distance with a predetermined value, when the remaining distance is less than a predetermined value, The above The placing radio receives radio waves alternating at a predetermined frequency, and a communication method for a vehicle operation management system, characterized in that to operate to transmit. 4. When the onboard radio receives a radio wave from the base radio, the onboard radio is operated so as to suspend reception and transmission of the radio wave for a predetermined period of time. The communication method of the vehicle operation management system according to Item 3.