Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
  • G07C—TIME OR ATTENDANCE REGISTERS; REGISTERING OR INDICATING THE WORKING OF MACHINES; GENERATING RANDOM NUMBERS; VOTING OR LOTTERY APPARATUS; ARRANGEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS FOR CHECKING NOT PROVIDED FOR ELSEWHERE
  • G07C5/00—Registering or indicating the working of vehicles
  • G07C5/08—Registering or indicating performance data other than driving, working, idle, or waiting time, with or without registering driving, working, idle or waiting time

Definitions

• the present invention relates to satellite-based systems used to record or register the motion characteristics of vehicles.
• the GPS data is used only with the purposes of determining a vehicle's geographical location and its speed during the accident moment. Therefore, the background art does not provide a system whereby a full visual reconstruction can be produced of a relevant vehicle's behavior without making use of camera data. For this reason, such a system shall be a desired improvement in the relevant technical field particularly for tracing the vehicles, determining their driving characteristics during their travel, and reconstructing their accident moments, if any.
• the present invention relates to a novel satellite-based system, recording the motion characteristics of relevant vehicles so as to eliminate all aforesaid drawbacks.
• the objective of the present invention is to produce a system, which efficiently makes use of the current satellite-based geographical location systems or those systems which are under development; allows analyses to be made more rapidly with lower costs as compared to equivalent systems; and records the motion characteristics of vehicles with a relatively higher rate of accuracy.
• Another objective of the present invention in accordance with the previous objective is to produce a system that ensures the three dimensional visual reconstruction of a vehicle with a relatively higher rate of accuracy without making use of any cameras.
• the present invention provides a system for recording the motion characteristics of vehicles and optionally reconstructing their motion characteristics visually based on such records, said system characterized by comprising a satellite group providing at least the geographical location information in an adequate frequency, at least two satellite receivers, which are positioned on at least two different locations on the vehicle so as to sufficiently define the vehicle's shape, and which receive at least the respective vehicle's geographical location information from said satellite group with a frequency adequate enough to define said vehicle's motion behavior, a control unit, recording at least the respective geographical location information of each individual receiver supplied from said satellite receivers by correlating said information with the correct receiver, and optionally, a computer system at least reconstructing visually the vehicle's motion characteristic based on the geographical location information received from a memory unit.
• the present invention provides also a method for recording the motion characteristics of vehicles and optionally reconstructing their motion characteristics visually based on such records, said method comprising the steps of providing the satellite receivers at least with the geographical location information in an adequate frequency by a satellite group providing at least the geographical location information in an adequate frequency, determining and recording in an adequate frequency the location information of at least two different points on the vehicle to adequately define the respective vehicle's shape, based on the geographical location information received from said satellite group, and optionally, reconstructing the motion characteristic of said vehicle in a visual manner based on said location information.
• said satellite group provides the geographical location information preferably in a frequency of at least of one tenth (1/10) of a second and accordingly, said satellite receiver requests the location information in the same frequency.
• said satellite receivers are enclosed to prevent any damage to occur on the receivers during an accident.
• each satellite receiver on the vehicle is spared with at least one more satellite receiver against the risk of becoming damaged during an accident.
• At least the front, rear, and upper side of the vehicle are provided with at least one satellite receiver respectively.
• said satellite group provides also the speed information of the vehicle in an adequate frequency so that this information is received by said satellite receivers.
• Figure 1 is an illustration of a vehicle whereon the present invention is applied.
• the main requirement in the present invention is recording the geographical location information of a vehicle advancing with a high speed, in an adequate frequency and adequate accuracy. Thanks to this feature, it shall be possible to clearly record the entire motions of a relevant vehicle by means of coordinate information received from a satellite in an adequate frequency without requiring any other information.
• satellite receivers are used in this preferred embodiment of the present invention so as to provide one spare for each satellite receiver against the risk of any failures.
• the front satellite receivers (2), rear satellite receivers (3), and the side satellite receivers (4) are positioned respectively in the vehicle's (1) front bumper (1.1), rear bumper (1.2), and side bars (1.3), whereas the upper satellite receivers (5) and the lower satellite receivers (not shown in figure) are positioned respectively in the vehicle's (1) upper and lower sections, all in a hidden manner.
• the number of satellite receivers may be reduced to drop down the costs, or if necessary, this number may also be increased.
• one satellite receiver is positioned at the front, one at the rear, and one on the top of the vehicle.
• Said satellite receivers are preferably enclosed in a protective container in order to avoid any damage to occur thereon in any accident.
• all receivers are preferably energized by the vehicle's battery or at least are charged by such battery.
• a control unit is positioned in the vehicle to record any information sent from said satellite receivers by correlating the information to the individual receiver that sent this specific information. Thanks to this feature, both the control unit and any external system reading the records on the memory can determine which location information belongs to which receiver (bottom, top, or side receivers), i.e. to which zone of the vehicle.
• Said control unit may be equipped with some additional functions to provide the system with a healthy operation. Accordingly, in an alternative embodiment of the present invention, said control unit increases and decreases the recording frequency, respectively, with the vehicle accelerating and decelerating, provided that the desired recording interval is maintained (such as making one record in 1 meter).
• the speed information here may be taken from a tachometer provided in the vehicle or from the satellite data.
• the control unit detects the accident moment or makes an estimate of a probable accident, and subsequently increases the recording frequency to at least 30 times per second, independently from the vehicle's speed.
• the control unit can detect the accident moment according to many data. Examples of such data include, but are not limited to, the data received from the impact sensors on the vehicle, instantaneous speed variations of the vehicle, the data received from a radar on the vehicle comparing the distance to a front-traveling or approaching vehicle with the current vehicle's speed, activation status of ABS, activation status of air bags, malfunctioning of at least one of satellite receivers, data from the gyroscopes on the vehicle, or any abnormal alteration of the relative position of at least two of the satellite receivers on the vehicle.
• control unit may maintain the records older than a certain period by a relatively lower frequency (e.g. 1 minute) or may completely erase such data, when there are no accidents in order to gain space in memory.
• a relatively lower frequency e.g. 1 minute
• said control unit is enabled to record the data from some terminal sensors in the vehicle by correlating such data to the geographical location data supplied by the satellite receivers to keep records of the vehicle's traveling data.
• Said terminal sensors can be selected from a group comprising the devices determining the information on vehicle instantaneous speed, braking moments, impacts status, following distance to a front-traveling vehicle, any red light violation status, vehicle's balance status, and lane changes.
• exemplary devices for this category mention may be made on tachographs providing speed information, impact sensors, at least one gyroscope, digital cameras and electronic image processing units for analyzing the images supplied by these cameras for determining lane changes and for red light violations.
• any traffic lane change can also be determined by making use of the GPS location information. Accordingly, since the vehicle's motion behavior on the road shall be produced in a probable reproduction effort, it may be possible to determine any such lane altering circumstances.
• some measures are also taken in the control unit against the risk of erroneous measurements the satellite receivers may make. Accordingly, at least those data on the respective vehicle's size, the position of such receivers on the vehicle, and the relative distances between the receivers are set in the control unit along with certain tolerances, so that the control unit makes comparison on the data received from the satellite receivers in order to make records of any extraordinary circumstances deviating from such definitions kept on the memory.
• This recording operation can also be made automatically by means of a calibration scan to be carried out by the control unit, while it is installed for the first time.
• the control unit can calculate the difference between the location information of two satellite receivers, and if the result of such calculation is 1 meter, for example, it can attribute this value to an erroneous measurement if there is not occurred any accident, and keeps the record together with this information.
• said computer system makes use as reference of the location information received from the satellite receivers, and reproduces visually the vehicle's motion behavior.
• This reproduction function can be used to reconstruct the accident moments, and to determine the driving characteristics of the driver during a travel (such as improper overtaking, slipping, instantaneous brakes/moves, excessive speed, etc).
• three-dimension images of an adequate amount of vehicle models and roads are recorded on said computer system, and the system is capable to reproduce any accident moment on a 3D medium in accordance with such reference data.
• the computer system visually reproduces the motion behavior of the vehicle according to this location information.
• said computer system comprises a digital map, and correlates the geographical location information received from the vehicle to said digital map. On said digital map, the traffic rules of each road is kept recorded, whereas the computer system compares the records on the geographical location information and on the traveling information received from the vehicle to the digital map so as to determine any rule violations.
• Said computer system is preferably positioned on certain police headquarters.

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• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Traffic Control Systems (AREA)

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• 2007
  • 2007-03-14 EP EP07748776A patent/EP2002403A1/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 2007-03-14 WO PCT/TR2007/000023 patent/WO2007108784A1/en not_active Ceased

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