WO2007099574A2

WO2007099574A2 - Lighting and driving device (energy saving) in fog and low visibility circumstance

Info

Publication number: WO2007099574A2
Application number: PCT/IT2007/000141
Authority: WO
Inventors: Francolini Ermanno
Original assignee: Francolini Ermanno
Priority date: 2006-03-01
Filing date: 2007-02-27
Publication date: 2007-09-07
Also published as: ITRM20060103A1; WO2007099574B1; WO2007099574A3

Abstract

System device realized by one series of impulse discharge lamps installed along the road that in case of fog illuminate the vehicular path by means of sequence ignition.

Description

DESCRIPTION

LIGHTING AND DRIVING DEVICE (ENERGY SAVING) IN FOG AND LOW VISIBILITY CIRCUMSTANCE

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Currently the roads and the freeways and any kinds of roads are illuminated by lamps mounted to variable height between the six and ten meters. In case of fog, said lamps, reflecting the fog itself provokes a disturbing intense flare that limits the visibility.

The same phenomenon appears with dazzling floodlights and low- beam headlights of the motor vehicles. The present invention is proposed to eliminate the disadvantages described above and obtaining also a considerable energy (power) saving.

Discarge lamps are used to emit a lightning bolt of light very much intense (flash) on the surface of the road. In our prototype two (2) 25W xenon lamps have been used.

A great amount of luminous energy is emitted by said lamps in very short time towards the bottom ( road floor ) through a special searclight, without interesting the superior layer where the fog is present .

Therefore the lighting is obtained in more efficent ( A ) and economic ( B ) way, with respect using traditional lamps system.

A - In more efficient way because the special floodlights where the lamps are mounted, address the light towards the bottom without interesting the fog layers that usually layes some tens of centimeter over the ground; at the same time it is avoided to illuminate the fog that otherwise would form one inpenetrable translucent barrier because of well known phenomena of diffraction and/or refraction: the attached drawing n° 2 (of 3)FIG ! shows the type of floodlight realized in order not to illuminate the fog layer. The searchlight is composed by a parabolic arc PR which reflects the light coming from the tubolar lamp L situated in the parabola fire. On the top, the parabola is shrouded by the S screen , so that the luminous beam are not diverted toward the high.

B- In more economic way because it is sufficient to illuminate the road for very short time since we can memorize its vision due to the phenomenon of the persistence of the image on hairnet of the eye. As an exemple of the economization , you can consider that one xenon lamp from 25 W ( I lightning bolt per second = 25 joule ) gives an impulse of luminous energy equivalent to a 250 KW tradizional lamp ignited for 100 microseconds .

Coming back to the operation of the system , the lamps are ignited in sequence by a processor which is also metering the fog intensity. The lamps will ignite one after the other in the towars of the march and the speed of the ignition sequence will depende from the intensity of the locally present fog. I.E. the more it is intense the fog and more slowly will advance the light lightning bolts. With little fog the lamps stop to work. The image formed from the lightning bolt memorized in the eye of the driver, will help him in the vision of the road. Said lamps ( flash ) are installed on the edges of the road in order to illuminate with their lightning bolt the road to cover but oriented in such a way not dazzle the eyes, even of the drivers of upcoming vehicles. The lamps will be installed in special floodlights mounted downward for the maximum efficiency: 20 / 80 cm from the road floor ( fig. 1 of drawing 2 of 3 ) and oriented in such a way to illuminate the road and not the fog that is layng always upper the road floor. Processors will be installated beside the road. Each one will command some lamps.

Our prototipe uses one processor for 4 lamps. As soon as the last lamp of the sequence of four is ignited, said ignition is comunicated to the following processor that will be analogous behaved with the successive one, varying, if the case , the speed of lightning bolts in function of the intensity of the present fog that can be different from that previous segment . I.E. the speed of advancing of lightning bolts , changes along all the distance served in function of the intensity of the fog.

The sensibility of the sensor of the fog is to be set-up to adapt the speed of the sequence of ignition to the prefixed speed of the vehicles ( computed on the basis of security speed), so that the vehicle proceeds having always the illuminated road, if it follows the speed set- up from lightning bolts of light.

Another application consists in the use of passage detector. The discarge lamps will be activated by the passage of the vehicle, and will be positioned some tens of meter after the passage detector ( distance depends by the medium intensity of the fog in the place of the installation) and the ignition could be anticipated or delayed in function of the intensity of fog found on the place from the appropriate meter. The passage detector can be positioned toghether with the lamp so enabling the subsequent lamp.

The device subject of the present invention will now be described with reference to the attached 1 and 3 of3 drawings.

Our prototype working with 4 lamps , will be illustrated, but it is meant that a various number of lamps can be grouped drived by the same processor, or that , the management of all the system can completely be realized in a centralized way from a center sending and receiving informations via radio, landline telephone network , satellite or dedicated network.

In the invention, it has made use of already existing and well known components to which the present licence does not refer, but they have been used to connect several elements to obtain the described performances. The originality of the system, targeting the present licence, consists of the particular way in which they are used and connected in such a way to obtain the desired performance .

Drawing n° 1 (of 3) shows the elements of the system:Ll ,L2,L3 ,L4 lamps installed in the appropriate floodlights;S l , S2,S3 ,S4 passage sensors vehicle; C processor command; MN fog intensity meter. We will describe two ways in which the system components can be connected .

With reference to the drawing n° 1 and 3 (of 3) , when the vehicle comes in proximity of the passage sensor S l , a digital/analog passage signal is sent to processor C . In our case a closing electrical contact. Processor C after processing signal coming from MN and delaying according the fog intensity, send to the lamp L2, the signal of turn-on and the lamp will illuminate the surface of the road.

The delay time is estimated taking into account the speed advised for security issue , in that particular site. To the passage of the vehicle across the S2 sensor, the L3 lamp will be ignited so and so for all the lamps installed. All management will be supplied by processor C who contains two timers, a cyclical commutator, one radio receiver, one radio trasmitter, a variable frequency generator and various logical ports. The system is fed by 12 V cells .

In the realized prototype the passage sensor (it was of microwaves type in our case, but various types of sensors exist in the market or can be realized) gives the impulse of departure (trigger) to a programmable timer whose timing cycle is dependent upon the output voltage of the fog meter. The ignition of the subseguent lamp occurred after the established time delay.

After the passage of the vehicle in the proximity of F4 sensor, the radio trasmitter placed inside of the processor, transmits the information of the sequence to the following processor and so and so for all the distance served from the system. As soon as the vehicle is passed, the overstepped lamps will non ignite unless it does not follows another vehicle.

In the other configuration, the system components have been connected without the passage sensor.

The cyclical commutator operated by the oscillator ( frequency generator with the period function of the intensity of the fog), ignited the lamps in succession therefore the vehicle had to regulate its speed in order to procede with light lightning illuminating the road.

In this configuration the driver is obligated to conform itself to the speed determined from the distance of the lamps and the time between the ignitions. The speed( ignition timing) can be set to the optimal judged one. In this case the lamps are ignited cyclically also without traffic.

As already told, this invention has been realized using well known components on which vindications cannot be requested. Vindications, however are called for the particular way in which these components are used in order to obtain the system performance with the described functionalities, that will be herefollows vindicated. The drawing n° 3 of 3 shows the operation of the processor and its modules, that are the heart of the system. The description of the operation in the two cases, with the aid of bloks diagrams herefollows :

CYCLICAL VERSION. See drawing n° 3 of 3.

The cyclical commutator, switches its outputs with T period coming from the oscillator , function of the fog intensity. In our prototype the oscillator completes four cycles and then stops waiting for the departure impulse from the previous processor. The oscillator, after a period T l longer than T, begins newly the four cycles, excluded the case of little fog where it will stop the operation. I.E. every oscillator waits for sync of the previous one. If it does not arrive(in case of no fog in previous segment)it will begin however to work after a time a little bit greater ( T l ) , if enabled by his fog sensor. The cyclical commutator, as indicated in the dawing, gives the impulse of ignition to the lamps. As soon as finished the series of ignitions it will give the impulse to command the oscillator of the following series.

VERSION WITH SENSOR. See drawing n° 3 of 3.

The impulse coming from the previous series, after a time established by the timer in function of the intensity of the fog, commands the first lamp of the series ( L 1 ); as soon as the vehicle activates the S l sensor , after a T time ( in function of fog intensity )it will give the ignition impulse to the L 2 lamp and so and so. The S4 sensor will give the impulse for the ignition of the first lamp of the following series.

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Claims

- the use of impulsive discharge lamps installed in the appropriate floodlight and positioned little over the level of the road in such a way to illuminate the floor without interesting the fog that it is found generally on the upper Her. - the use of impulsive discharge lamps that are able to concentrate a great luminous energy in a very short time realizing the double target i. e. to powerfully illuminate the road in case of fog and to save energy (power ). At the present state of art, said lamps are xenon type and are used in the flashes for cameras. - the use of impulsive discarge lamps because of their low consumption and therefore, concur to realize a considerable energy saving in the lighting system for vehicular roads. - the use of vehicle passage sensors which allows to illuminate the road to the passage of the vehicles. - the use of vehicle passage sensors, in order to illuminate the road to the passage of the vehicle also in case of absence of fog in order to concur for energy saving - the use of impulsive discharge lamps which, by means of ligtning bolt memorize in the eyes, the instantaneous vision of the road evidencing possible obstacles along the march. - the use of impulsive discharge lamps because of their low power consumption that makes convenient and possible the use of solar energy in absence of power-network. - the use of fog intensity meter to set up the speed of lightning bolts proceeding with the aim of programming the speed of the vehicle that will always find the road illuminated. - the use of a cyclical commutator which enable the ignition of the lamps in sequence. 0- the use of transmission of the synchronizazion impulse via radio, telephone network or optical fiber or cable to the subseguent processor in order to maintain the sequence of light ligthning bolts . 1 - the use of the telephone network , landline, radiolink, satellite or dedicated network, in order to transmit the sensors and detectors information to the appropriate management processor that will transmit the ignition sequences to the illuminant bodies . 2- the assembly of some or all the latter elements in order to realize the described complete system. 3 - the use of more than one impulsive discarge lamps coupled so as to increase the intensity and /or the duration of the lightning bolt of light.