WO2022259095A1

WO2022259095A1 - System for homogeneous lighting of large environments

Info

Publication number: WO2022259095A1
Application number: PCT/IB2022/055135
Authority: WO
Inventors: Diego DE FECONDO
Original assignee: Nexty Arte S.R.L.
Priority date: 2021-06-07
Filing date: 2022-06-01
Publication date: 2022-12-15
Also published as: IT202100014735A1; EP4352405A1

Abstract

The lighting system according to the present invention can be installed in a large number of large rooms in which it is important to illuminate especially the lower part of the room itself, and wherein it is of fundamental importance to propose a non-dazzling light. The roads and tunnels constitute an application environment in which the present invention manifests all its advantages in a particular way. While the prior art has aimed at solving the clothing problem by proposing lighting from the top, thus offering light originating from points that are not normally in the field of vision of the people occupying the room in question, the present invention proposes a system that can be installed at a lower height, with very distributed lateral lighting, and the glare problem is managed with a combination of measures that, in the end, leads to even better results than the performance obtained with lighting from above. In addition to satisfying the anti-glare requirement, the present invention generally improves all the other aspects concerning lighting systems. In particular, it allows important savings in energy consumption, by illuminating just what must be illuminated from points that are as close as possible: effectively avoiding any waste of lighting and unnecessary light pollution. Furthermore, it also represents a point of arrival in terms of ease of maintenance.

Description

SYSTEM FOR HOMOGENEOUS LIGHTING OF LARGE ENVIRONMENTS

DESCRIPTION

Technical field of the Invention The present invention finds its application, in general, in the field of lighting.

In particular, the solution concerns the lighting of very large environments, wherein the way in which different needs can be balanced is of decisive importance, such as the optimization of costs related to consumption, the comfort of the lighting effect and the need to ensure adequate anti-glare More precisely, the invention focuses its objectives in order to define a system that is particularly efficient for the lighting of roads and tunnels, that is, very large environments in which lighting is one of the most important systems.

Prior Art

Evidently the need for lighting in streets and tunnels, as well as in other very large environments, is a need generally met by well-known solutions, however, there are many aspects where the lighting offered by the state of the art can be improved. Thanks to the significant advances in LED (Light Emitting Diode) technology, the great issue of consumption seems to have found a fairly satisfactory solution, in fact, with the same brightness produced, LEDs dissipate much less energy in heat. Furthermore, the technology has made available, at competitive costs, LEDs capable of generating a light rich enough in frequency components, so as to create pleasant lighting suitable for any type of environment.

The present invention therefore assumes LED technology as a reference technology for the generation of brightness, it being understood that, should other light irradiation technologies with characteristics similar to those offered by LED technology be developed, the same invention could also be implemented with such other technologies.

Among the large environments, which pose particular problems from the point of view of providing adequate lighting, roads and tunnels are particularly challenging: therefore, the present invention will ideally refer to these environments in order to be outlined in greater detail.

In addition to the use of efficient lighting technologies (such as LED technology), a further contribution to the optimization of consumption, in the context of street lighting, is given by the progressive spread of concepts related to ITS (Intelligent Transport System) scenarios. According to the ITS vision, in fact, the roads are destined to become a highly computerized environment, equipped with a multitude of sensors that detect the state of traffic in real time, as well as a number of other parameters. The "smart road" environment, therefore, can be controlled by computers that drive the various service systems in the individual stretches of road. It is clear that in such a controlled and monitored street it is possible to adjust the lighting exactly how and where it is needed, avoiding any kind of waste.

The so-called “smart roads”, i.e., the roads as they are imagined in the aforementioned ITS vision, largely use known technologies. In particular, an intelligent lighting system, implemented with LED headlights, and adjustable as mentioned above, is certainly already achievable to date with known technologies; the technical problem underlying the widespread implementation of "smart roads", in fact, is not of a conceptual nature, but rather of a practical and economic nature, as its implementation needs an IT and sensor infrastructure, which requires physiological times, not short, before being sufficiently widespread.

Therefore, each technology used in the implementation of systems serving "smart roads" must be considered the more adequate the more it favors, and facilitates, in general, the development of a computerized environment, as a "smart road" must be.

Having explained how the issue of energy efficiency can be addressed (i.e. , by resorting to efficient technologies such as LEDs and intelligent management of ignitions), street lighting, to date, has at least three other major categories of problems; and this regardless of whether or not the road considered can be considered a "smart road" or an approximation of it.

In fact, if the issue of the consumptions is gradually diminishing with the transition to LED lighting, perhaps carried out in conjunction with intelligent lighting control systems (albeit sporadic), there still remain the very topical the problems of: light pollution, the maintainability of the lighting systems, and the quality of lighting, understood as comfort perceived by the human eye. These are three problems which, as will be clarified below, are closely related. The theme of comfort is the most important because it is closely linked to safety. Vehicle drivers must first of all see well in order to drive well and, in particular, the lighting must never be annoying and dazzling.

This first requirement is essential and determines a first characteristic of street lighting according to the known art, which is found practically in all street lighting systems that are actually operational: that is, the fact that the light sources are placed very high up. The lighting headlights in lighting systems according to the known art are therefore usually placed in a quite high position, supported by street lamps, and oriented so as to illuminate the road.

This arrangement has advantages and disadvantages.

The advantages are essentially linked to the comfort of the result. In fact, being at the top, the headlights are located at the edge of the driver's field of vision, until they are completely out of his field of vision the closer the vehicle gets to the individual headlights. This reduces the risk of dazzling the drivers of vehicles traveling on the artificially illuminated road. By placing high the headlights, in fact, you avoid pointing them at the vehicles, except when they are under the headlight, and therefore in a condition in which the driver cannot be bothered, as he is obviously also shielded by the hood of his vehicle.

Finally, since the lighthouses are placed at a distance of several meters from each other (ranging from the order of ten meters to a few tens of meters, depending on the case), the fact of placing them at a certain height it allows to create a fairly homogeneous lighting on the ground; in particular, the more the headlights are spaced apart, the more they must be raised to obtain homogeneous lighting on the ground.

The disadvantages of positioning at the top are instead linked to the other two types of problems: light pollution, and maintenance difficulties.

The reasons for these disadvantages are quite evident, as it is clear that the higher the headlights are, the more they are visible even from a distance and from outside the road (thus producing light pollution), and the more difficult it is to reach them for interventions of maintenance.

In the case of tunnels, the lighting is normally achieved by providing a row of spotlights positioned aligned on the top of the vault of the tunnel itself, at a distance between them of several meters, this positioning being the highest and the least annoying vehicle drivers. But evidently, despite being placed at the highest point, their height is limited by the height of the tunnel, so that one of the problems found in road tunnels is also the discontinuity of the lighting, which becomes highly inhomogeneous, and alternates some points with high lighting and other quite dark points.

Furthermore, maintenance in the tunnel is also particularly onerous since the operations to be carried out on spotlights placed in the center of the vault typically require the blocking of all the lanes, with the need to provide alternative routes.

Finally, the high positioning of the headlights also has an impact on consumption, as the lamps are generally quite far from the road surface which is what must be well illuminated.

Ultimately, the known technique does not yet propose a satisfactory solution for the homogeneous, comfortable and anti-glare lighting of very large environments like roads or tunnels. In fact, to ensure the essential requirement of anti-glare, the known art proposes systems that are not easy to maintain, which produce significant light pollution and which, at the end, also present additional margins of energy efficiency, being the lighting of the road surface obtained with lamps placed in relatively distant positions from the surface itself.

Summary of the Invention The main purpose of the present invention, therefore, is to indicate a homogeneous lighting system for very large environments such as roads and tunnels, which guarantees good illumination of the pavement, or of the road surface, which does not produce potentially dazzling lighting for the people who normally occupy such spaces, and that it is easy to maintain. In particular, the system indicated must be able to be installed on the roadside, and not too high, so as to be able to illuminate the road surface well with lamps not too far away from the surface itself and without generating excessive light pollution in the surrounding environment. Furthermore, this system must have characteristics such that it is possible to adopt all the precautions aimed at containing energy consumption, including the precautions related to the implementation of the so-called "smart roads", according to the most up-to-date concepts defined in the ITS scenarios (Intelligent Transport System). The purposes of the present invention can be achieved by realizing a lighting system for a large environment, delimited by at least one perimetral border of great length, which in the typical case is the edge of a road, and which includes the following elements: a plurality of linear-shaped lighting devices designed to be installed horizontally one after the other in order to create a substantially continuous line of light, and being said lighting devices, in a typical embodiment, lighting modules made with one or more LED strips, and an electric line accessible along all said perimetral border of great length, suitable for supplying power to generic electrical devices; and said lighting system is designed to be installed along said perimetral border of great length, and is characterized in that: said linear-shaped lighting devices are designed to be mounted so that the prevailing central lighting direction has a component oriented downwards, and said linear-shaped lighting devices comprise an anti-glare cover mainly made of a transparent material in which there are amalgamated several micro-lenses randomly oriented, i.e. , fragments of material with suitable optical properties for deflecting the direction of an incident light beam.

The main advantage of the present invention consists in the fact that a lighting system realized according to the teachings of the present invention satisfies all the main requirements for which it was conceived.

It is noted, from the beginning, that since it is a solution consisting of a system, numerous implementation variants are possible, as they serve to adapt it to different installation contexts, or that differ in cost or constructive simplicity. However, it is reiterated that any lighting system that has the essential characteristics indicated in the main claim, or in the dependent claims, must be understood as a possible implementation variant of the same invention.

Brief Description of the Drawings

This invention also has further advantages, which will become more evident from the following description, from some examples of practical embodiments which illustrate further details, from the attached claims, which form an integral part of the present description, and from the attached figures in which: Figure 1 schematically shows the street lighting systems according to the known art. Figure 2 schematically shows a street lighting system according to the invention.

^ Figures 3a and 3b schematically show some details of a street lighting system according to the invention.

Detailed Description

In Figure 1 the number 310 indicates a generic road on which a generic vehicle indicated with the number 410 is circulating. Said road 310 is illuminated according to the known technique with classic street lamps: in Figure 1 one of these street lamps is shown, and it is indicated with the number 390.

Figure 1 therefore highlights the main characteristics of the street lamps with which the streets 310 are normally illuminated. The first feature is given by the fact that the lighting is generated by headlights suspended above the road; and the number 399 indicates one of these headlights. Said headlights 399 is held suspended at a height indicated in Figure 1 with the number 211 , and has an illumination cone of a certain amplitude, indicated with the number 201 . The choice of positioning the headlights at a fairly considerable height 211 is given by the fact that in this position the headlights 399, especially those closest to the vehicle 410, are found at the edge of the field of vision of the driver of the vehicle 410, actually avoiding the risk of glare, as it is normal for the driver to look forward while driving, or slightly downwards, i.e., looking towards the surface of the road 310.

Furthermore, the positioning at the top means that the ground lighting can be fairly homogeneous even in the presence of headlights with a not too wide cone of illumination.

In this regard, it should be noted that the choice of a not very large amplitude 201 of the lighting cone is dictated by several reasons. In fact, in this way the lighting is directed mainly towards the ground, avoiding scattering the light towards areas that are not interested in illuminating and, above all, reducing the light directed towards the drivers of the vehicles, since the light coming from the most distant lamps could remain within the visual field of vehicle drivers. Furthermore, LED technology is physically a technology that generates a fairly directive light emission. There are certainly lamps made with elementary LEDs having emissions with fairly large lighting cones, but these emissions can be obtained at higher costs and by making the LED work in conditions that are not of maximum efficiency, thus having to renounce part of the benefits (essentially in terms of management costs) of the LED technology.

The 399 headlights, placed at a height 211 , are visible even from a distance, and contribute to the phenomenon of light pollution which should certainly be reduced; however, the major problem caused by this suspended positioning of the headlights 399 is due to the complexity of the maintenance maneuvers, since, to intervene on a headlights 399, a worker, such as the one shown in Figure 1 and indicated with the number 421 , must necessarily make use of long stairs, or special means that allow him to reach the altitude 211 : and therefore, any maintenance intervention always requires an interruption or a significant limitation of the accessibility of the road 310. In the case of lighting systems for tunnels, the situation is very similar, with the difference that the 399 headlights do not need to be suspended from a lamppost, but can simply be fixed to the vault of the tunnel (i.e. , at the highest point). Typically, the vaults of the tunnels are a little lower than the lampposts 390, however the contraindications related to the invasiveness of the maintenance operations remain, and, if anything, there is a problem related to the quality of the lighting. In fact, lower headlights generate less homogeneous lighting and they are certainly more annoying for the driver.

Figure 2 shows, again, a generic road, still indicated with the number 310, on which a generic vehicle is circulating, indicated again with the number 410. Yet, this road 310 is illuminated with a different lighting system, according to the present invention, and shown within a dashed line, denoted by the number 100.

Some of the essential characteristics of the lighting system 100 according to the invention concern its mounting arrangements: in fact, it is a system designed to be mounted on the roadside and at a height, indicated in Figure 2 with the number 212, significantly lower of the height 211 where there must be mounted the headlights of the lighting systems according to the known art.

The position on the side of the road, and the relatively low height 212, allow the workers in charge of maintenance to access the lighting fixtures with great ease. The worker indicated in Figure 2 with the number 422 is even in a position to intervene on the lighting bodies without the need for stairs, and working on the roadside without theoretically imposing blocks or limitations on vehicular traffic. In any case, even different implementation versions, mounted at a slightly higher height 212, not reachable by standing on the ground, or accessible only from inside the street, are still easily maintained using relatively low stairs or risers, and occupying very limited spaces for the execution of the maintenance maneuvers that are necessary, so as to restrict the useful space of the road only to a limited extent during maintenance, without necessarily introducing heavy obstacles to the traffic flow.

Heights 212 that are very interesting for obtaining a good street lighting are those around 3 meters from the ground, approximately between 2 and 4 meters.

Another feature regarding the mounting arrangements, concerns the orientation of the lighting cone, seen in a cross-sectional plane with respect to the direction of the road, i.e. , the section plane used for both Figure 1 and Figure 2. The width of the illumination cone of the lighting system 100 (in the plane considered) is indicated in Figure 2 with the number 202, and the central axis of this cone, with the system assembled, is oriented slightly downwards; so that the angle between this central axis of the illumination cone, and the vertical half-plane oriented downwards that originates from the assembly area of the system 100, and parallel to the direction of the road, is an acute angle: an angle which in Figure 2 is indicated with the number 203.

Flaving said about the main characteristics concerning the mounting position of the lighting system 100 according to the invention, some structural characteristics of the elements of this system are now indicated. It essentially comprises two main components: a set of longitudinal lighting bodies, indicated in Figure 2 with the number 110, and a cable duct (and with support functions), indicated in Figure 2 with the number 120.

Also said conduit 120 is longitudinal in shape, and it is designed to carry electrical power so that it is accessible along the entire roadside where the actual lighting bodies 110 must also be installed. In one of the preferred embodiments, in which the roadside does not have a support structure that can be used to sustain the lighting system 100 (for example a road-side anti-noise barrier), said duct 120 can also act as a support structure, and can therefore be made in such a way that it is rigid and that it can be installed horizontally more or less at the installation height of the lighting bodies 110, so as to contribute to their support. Its main function, as mentioned, is to make the power supply easily accessible along the roadside, at any point; it can also have a support function, as already mentioned, but, above all, it offers a formidable opportunity to create an infrastructure that truly serves the implementation of a "smart road". In fact, inside said conduits 120, which can also be quite capacious, it is convenient to distribute power lines in various regimes, for example alternating regimes or even in continuous at 24, 48 or 96 Volts, as well as data bus both in optical fiber (given the long transmission distances that can be necessary to cover) and with copper cables. Furthermore, the pipeline itself can also act as a support for a very wide variety of sensors and “smart objects” in general (i.e., intelligent devices serving “smart road” applications). The lighting bodies 110 are, as mentioned, of longitudinal shape, and they are designed to be installed one after the other in order to create a continuous lighting line, very suitable for producing perfectly homogeneous lighting along the path of the road, even if the lighting is made with LED sources that, if taken individually, can be quite directive. Indeed, the directivity of the elementary LED source is conveniently exploited in the context of the present invention, to direct the lighting towards the road surface and in the area at the height of the vehicles, without dispersing it, illuminating the area above the vehicles, where it is not needed and it would just produce light pollution. The representation offered in Figure 2 shows very clearly how the vertical amplitude 202 of the illumination, thanks to the appropriate orientation of the lighting body 110, perfectly illuminates the road surface and the space in which the vehicle 410 is moving, without significantly dispersing the light above the vehicle itself. And this optimal illumination is obtained with fairly directive lighting sources; the amplitude of illumination 202 exemplified in Figure 2 is about 60 °, which is an amplitude that can be guaranteed with low-cost and extremely energy-efficient LED sources.

Although it should already be clear, it is observed that the homogeneity of illumination in the horizontal direction (i.e., the homogeneity needed to achieve comfortable lighting for vehicle drivers) is ensured by the fact that the lighting bodies 110 are longitudinal and emit light substantially continuously along their entire length: in a preferred embodiment, these lighting bodies 110 are made with a very closely spaced LED strip, so as to produce a substantially continuous line of lighting, unlike in the case of LED headlights suitable to be mounted in the top of street lamps. In fact, in the street lamps that characterize most of the lighting systems according to the known art, the lighting body, when in LED technology, is usually made with a matrix of LEDs grouped in a very concentrated two-dimensional surface.

Finally, the lighting supplied from a lower height, and closer to the area to be illuminated, has a further advantageous aspect linked to energy efficiency, in fact, it is evident that the farther the lighting source is (as in the case of headlights suspended on the street lamps), and the higher the brightness of the source must be, and therefore generated by energetically more expensive lighting devices.

At this point it is also necessary to investigate the essential requirement of anti glare: in fact, with reference to the technical choices related to the installation of the known art, it was said that the installation height represented the fundamental measure adopted to avoid the risk of glare of vehicle drivers.

Evidently, the lighting system 100, according to the teachings of the invention, radiates the illumination from points that are at a height that is not located sufficiently at the edge of the visual field of vehicle drivers, and therefore the glare problem must be faced with a series of measures different from those adopted by the known art. These different measures all work together to solve the problem and add up to obtain excellent anti-glare performance.

A first precaution concerns the choice of implementing a very distributed lighting and not concentrated in lighting points, as happens with the street lamps. The distribution of the light sources allows to operate with low luminosity in the single sections of each lighting body; therefore, unlike the street lamps which must illuminate a large area starting from each light point, the system 100 according to the invention goes beyond the concept of light point, and each linear section of each lighting body 110 illuminates a small area of space which is in front of it: thus requiring a low brightness, which is therefore much less annoying and not very dazzling. Furthermore, the intrinsic directivity of LED sources means that the components of light irradiation directed towards the drivers' eyes are very low.

A further extremely effective and decisive measure for the safe application of the lighting system 100 in the context of street lighting, is given by the presence of a special cover that protects the luminous elements and diffuses the light, making it non-dazzling.

Figure 3a shows a detail of an implementation form of the lighting system 100 according to the invention. The numbers in Figure 3a indicate the same elements shown also in Figure 2; therefore, the number 110 indicates a longitudinal lighting body seen in section, the number 120 indicates the conduit on which the power supply is distributed (and, possibly, also lines for telecommunication transmissions), while the lighting system as a whole it is always indicated with the number 100 and is enclosed within a dashed line.

Figure 3a also highlights two fundamental components of the lighting body 110: the actual light source, indicated with the number 111 , and the anti-glare cover, indicated with the number 112.

In a preferred embodiment, said light source 111 is constituted by a strip of LEDs applied to a support structure, which maintains its correct orientation. It is observed that elementary LEDs, even very directive and simple ones, can be used at their point of maximum efficiency. By this we mean that each elementary LED can be optimally powered, and emits light in the spectrum in which it exhibits the greatest luminous efficiency. In fact, the amplitude of the lighting cone, up to reaching the optimal 202 amplitude, can be obtained by means of the dispersion effect produced by the anti-glare cover 112.

Said LED strip, i.e., the light source 111 , is then protected by the anti-glare cover 112 which is made with the extrusion technique and is composed of a transparent composite plastic material that contains a large number of micro-lenses. In the extrusion process, these micro-lenses are arranged randomly within the thickness of the cover 112 itself, creating a large number of discontinuities in the propagation coefficient of the light emitted by the elementary LEDs. The light rays emitted by each LED of the strip 111 , which originally have a prevailing direction (as mentioned, in fact, the light emitted by the LEDs is generally quite directive), undergo multiple deviations. Therefore, the light that is diffused into the environment after crossing the cover 112 is much less directive. In conclusion, a first effect obtained by means of the cover 301 consists of a widening of the emission angle of the light generated by the LEDs of the strip 111.

A second effect that is obtained by means of such covers made with the extrusion technique and composed of a transparent plastic material, consists in a significant containment of the glare produced by the lighting body according to the invention, and this is the essential effect that makes possible the implementation of the present invention.

In fact, LED light, due to its greater intrinsic directivity, often produces a glare effect when the eye looks at the light source in the direction of greater emission. There are various metrics with which the glare effect can be measured, and in almost all legislations, glare limits are provided, specific for each environment, which must be observed in order to have the possibility of installing an illuminating body, which, therefore, must undergo homologation tests before it can be placed on the market for each specific application.

Figure 3b shows a cover 112 in which a constructive detail is enlarged: this enlargement shows how the cover 112 can be made by implementing a further trick that is also effective in order to exert an excellent containment of the glare effect. In fact, the enlarged view of the cover 112 highlights, on the internal surface, a serrated shape which (being a sectional view) corresponds to the presence of a sequence of longitudinal ribs easily obtainable through the extrusion process with which the cover 112 is made. These ribs, which obviously can be found in any of the surfaces of the cover (and nothing prevents them from being present on both surfaces), allow to further, and very significantly, reduce the glare indices of the light emitted, with the same of useful light intensity.

In the end, as a result of all these measures that operate to contain the potential glare effect of a light placed within the driver's field of vision, the desired result is achieved of producing a completely satisfactory lighting in terms of anti-glare requirements.

For the sake of completeness, it should be noted that accurate and repeated tests have confirmed that both the diffusion angle and the glare indices are significantly improved and controllable through the use of a cover with the described features.

In particular, with reference to glare indices, it has been shown that illuminating bodies according to the invention can be installed, with a large margin, even in environments where they are imposed coefficients corresponding to extremely low glare, such as roads and tunnels. Concluding Remarks

Ultimately, the lighting system 100 according to the teachings of the invention can be installed in a large number of large rooms in which it is important to illuminate especially the lower part of the room itself, and in which it is essential to propose a non-dazzling light.

Roads and tunnels constitute an application environment in which the teachings of the present invention particularly manifest all their advantages.

While the prior art has aimed at solving the glare problem by proposing lighting from above, thus offering light originating from points that are not normally in the field of vision of the people occupying the room in question, the present invention proposes a system that can be installed at a lower height, with a very distributed lateral lighting, and the glare problem is managed with a combination of measures that, in the end, leads to even better results than the performance obtained with lighting from above. In addition to meeting the anti-glare requirement, the present invention improves all the other performances related to the lighting systems.

In particular, it allows important savings in energy consumption, in fact it lends itself to being implemented with very efficient LED technologies (among other things, using elementary LEDs which can in turn work at their point of maximum efficiency), and only illuminates what needs to be illuminated, from points that are as close as possible: avoiding any waste of lighting.

It can also be said that the particular installation configuration of the lighting system 100 also represents a point of arrival as regards maintainability, which is made extremely simplified, to the point that it is difficult to imagine further simplifications. Without forgetting that the lighting systems 100, precisely because they illuminate only where needed, can also be considered a point of arrival with respect to the problem of containing light pollution.

The lighting system 100 according to the invention, as mentioned, is also of particular interest as it favors the transition towards the so-called "smart roads", i.e., roads according to the evolutionary vision dictated by the "ITS" (Intelligent Transport System) scenarios, in which the streets are seen as extremely computerized environments and characterized by the action of numerous systems aimed at providing all the services that can make transport, both public and private, comfortable and safe. Lighting is obviously one of the fundamental services for the use of the roads, with a significant impact also with respect to safety aspects. The present invention is fully consistent with ITS scenarios, as it presupposes, for its installation, a structure that can be shared for the installation of numerous other systems, which typically involve the exploitation of various types of sensors that must be installed along the entire road route, and can therefore share wiring and support structures with the lighting system 100.

The structure of the lighting system 100, also constituted by the lighting bodies themselves 110 and by the conduits 120 for the distribution of power and data, which are part of the present invention, can therefore be used to install many other devices. Ultimately, as a whole, it can also act as a support structure for many other electrical devices that need to be installed along the edge of the road, such as the various sensors typically required in systems that qualify so-called "smart roads".

Such a structure is also extremely versatile, as it can be sized with considerable margins of freedom, in order to make it suitable for accommodating wiring and devices in great abundance and variety. It is precisely in this evolutionary context that the present invention can lend itself to numerous improvements and additions: in fact, in the context of a "smart road" in which there are systems capable of detecting almost every event concerning traffic, the lighting can be adjusted consequentially. For example, being able to detect the presence of fumes, vapors or mists, a consequent lighting can be provided in order to ensure the best possible visibility in each circumstance.

Or, in the case of tunnel lighting, it is possible to illuminate the interior, during the day, according to the external light, so as to mitigate the sudden change in brightness that normally afflicts vehicle drivers when entering and exiting tunnels on particularly bright days.

Or again, the lights can be dimmed to a minimum in stretches of road where no vehicles are on the road. On the contrary, the lighting can be enhanced where the presence of an accident or damaged vehicle is recognized. Obviously, the "intelligent" lighting performances, examples of which have just been offered, can also be implemented in association with concentrated spotlight systems according to the known art; however, the lighting system 100 according to the invention significantly facilitates, for the reasons already set out above, the implementation (and installation) of the sensor network that is necessary. In general, therefore, the present invention lends itself to numerous variants while maintaining the claimed prerogatives and, in fact, allows to conceive a new type of road characterized by being equipped with a lighting system 100 according to the teachings of the present invention, and which has some very advantageous features from various points of view. Some variations may concern the installation methods, for example by providing lighting systems with more than one line of parallel lighting bodies placed at two, or more, different heights, so as to make the light source even more diffused.

Or support structures and conduits can be conceived with different designs, but also with different structural characteristics.

Even LED technology, although at the moment it seems an almost obligatory choice, is not absolutely essential, and if other technologies with which to generate a light source become available, these could be used in other forms of implementation of the present invention. Being essential characteristics only the linear conformation of the source, its suitability to be installed horizontally and its suitably to be oriented towards the area to be illuminated, and the fact of being a source that can be covered with the special anti-glare cover 112 previously described.

Possible further variants may be linked to the evolution of other plants and other systems that will affect the "smart roads" of the future, in order to proceed towards an ever-greater integration of systems with different functions.

With reference to scenarios of this type, which today may appear excessively complex, it is a question of exploiting elements of each system to the benefit of other systems as well, so that each element of each system can be subject to variations that allow it to be used for a plurality functions, which at the moment are not yet definable, or for which the need is not yet felt.

Therefore, especially in the context of these evolutionary scenarios, the invention seems to lend itself to incorporating and supporting further development and improvement efforts, capable of improving the performance of the system described. Many further developments can therefore be made by man skilled in the art without thereby departing from the scope of the invention as it results from this description and the attached claims, which form an integral part of this description; or, if said developments are not included in the present description, they may be the subject of further patent applications associated with the present invention, or dependent on it.

Claims

1. A lighting system (100) for a large environment, delimited by at least one perimetral border of great length, which includes the following elements: i. a plurality of linear-shaped lighting devices (110) designed to be installed horizontally one after the other in order to create a substantially continuous line of light, and ii. an electric line accessible along all said perimetral border of great length, able to supply power to generic electrical devices; and said lighting system (100) is designed to be installed along said pe perimetral border of great length, and it is characterized in that: a. said linear-shaped lighting devices (110) are designed to be mounted so that the prevailing central lighting direction has a component oriented downwards, and b. said lighting system (100) comprises an anti-glare cover (112), designed to cover said linear-shaped lighting devices (110), mainly made of a transparent material in which there are amalgamated randomly oriented micro-lenses, i.e. , fragments of material with suitable optical properties, and c. said randomly oriented micro-lenses are suitable for randomly deflecting the direction of all the elementary incident light-rays emitted by said linear shaped lighting devices (110), and d. said anti-glare cover (112) is able to make wider the emission angle of the light emitted by said linear-shaped lighting devices (110).

2. Lighting system (100) according to claim 1 , wherein said lighting devices (110), are lighting modules comprising one or more strips of LEDs applied to a supporting frame.

3. Lighting system (100) according to claim 1 , arranged to illuminate a road (310), being said perimetral border of great length the edge of a road (310), and said lighting system (100) also comprises a conduit (120) arranged to house said electric line for power supply and also other wiring.

4. Lighting system (100) according to claim 3, in which said lighting devices (110) and / or said conduit (120), are also part of a support structure designed to support other electrical devices.

5. Lighting system (100) according to claim 1 , in which said anti-glare covers (112) are made by extrusion and have longitudinal ribs in at least one of their surfaces.

6. A road (310) equipped with a lighting system (100) according to claim 1 , installed on at least one roadside, in which a line formed by said lighting devices (110) is positioned horizontally at a height from the ground between 2 and 4 meters.

7. A road (310) equipped with a lighting system (100) according to claim 1 , in which, on at least one roadside, at least two lines formed by said lighting devices (110) are positioned at different heights.