JP2000298747A - Automatic toll collection system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Problem] In an automatic toll collection system, a vehicle without an in-vehicle device may pass through a tollgate without receiving a toll. In addition, there is a possibility that the angle measurement accuracy of the passing vehicle is degraded depending on the installation position of the vehicle-mounted device. SOLUTION: A first and second azimuth detection receiving antenna, and a first and second azimuth detection reception capable of processing two frequency signals of a reflection signal of a roadside transmission signal from a passing vehicle and a vehicle-mounted device transmission signal. Machine and an angle measurement processing device, a communication control device, a communication transmitter, a transmission / reception shared antenna, and a communication receiver, thereby preventing non-ETC vehicles from receiving unpaid charges, Angle measurement accuracy can be increased.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic toll collection system for detecting a direction of a radio wave at the time of toll collection, and for determining a vehicle by measuring a distance to a passing vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, on a toll road, a magnetic card type toll collection system has been introduced. Regarding this toll collection system, for example, Toshiba Review (40
No.) pp. 189-192, "Magnetic card type fee collection system", or Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Technical Report VOL. 22
NO. 6 (1985-11), pages 127 to 132, "System Technology in Magnetic Card Type Toll Collection Machine".

In such a conventional system, when entering a toll road from a general road or conversely, when exiting from a toll road, it is inevitable to temporarily stop at a toll booth and receive a toll ticket or pay a toll. It is necessary to do so, so many cars often line up in front of the toll booth. In order to improve such a problem, a non-stop automatic toll collection system has been proposed which can collect a toll by exchanging information between a roadside communication device and an in-vehicle device without temporarily stopping at a tollgate. FIG. 3 shows a system operation diagram. In FIG. 3, 1 is a toll road, 2 is a general road, 3 is a toll gate, 4 is a passing vehicle, 5 is a roadside communication device, 6 is an azimuth detecting device, 7 is a communication control device, 8 is a vehicle-mounted device of a passing vehicle, 9 is a vehicle traveling direction. The on-vehicle device 8 mounted on the passing vehicle 4 is connected to the roadside communication device 5 at the tollgate 3.
And exchange information with each other to exchange information necessary for toll collection. As a result, the passing vehicle 4 equipped with the on-vehicle device 8 can pass through the tollgate 3 without stopping.

For such a system, for example,
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Technical Report VOL. 32 NO. 4 (1995-7)
P264-267 "Needs and Technical Development in Expressway Traffic Management Systems", NIKKEI BUSINES
S, November 13, 1995, pages 155 to 158, "Information" Sending Information from Road to Car ", Dispute of Initiative in Japan, the United States, and Europe", or Published Patent Publication No. 5-508492, "Electric Vehicle Fee Collection Apparatus and Method" In particular, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-508492 discloses a detailed description.

[0005] The non-stop automatic toll collection system is being jointly developed by the public and private sectors in Japan.
It is said that it is after the first year. On the other hand, in some overseas countries, a system as shown in the above publication is operated.

In a non-stop automatic toll collection system, when a plurality of vehicles enter a tollgate at the same time, the roadside communication device determines which vehicle is to be charged and determines which vehicle is to be charged. It was necessary to know if it was communicating with the machine. In order to solve such a problem, the roadside communication device has two azimuth detection receiving antennas and two azimuth detection receivers and has two
A method has been proposed in which a roadside communication device determines the arrival direction of a radio wave received from an in-vehicle device by detecting a phase difference between signals to determine a vehicle to be charged. This method is described in, for example, NEC Technical Report VOL. 50 NO. 7/1
997, pages 147 to 155, "Method of measuring the angle of arrival of radio wave and communication vehicle discrimination system". FIG. 4 shows a case where two vehicles enter the tollgate at the same time. In the figure, 3 denotes a tollgate, 4 denotes a first passing vehicle, and 5 denotes a first toll vehicle.
Is a roadside communication device, 6 is an azimuth detection device, 7 is a communication control device, 8 is a first vehicle-mounted device, 9 is a vehicle traveling direction, and 10 is a second direction.
, 11 is a second vehicle-mounted device, 12 is an output signal of the first vehicle-mounted device, and 13 is an output signal of the second vehicle-mounted device.

FIG. 5 shows a configuration of a conventional tollgate device for discriminating a vehicle by radio wave direction detection. In the figure, 5 is a roadside communication device, 6 is a direction detection device, 7 is a communication control device, and 8 is a traffic system. A vehicle-mounted device, 14 a first azimuth detection receiving antenna, 15 a second azimuth detection receiving antenna, 1
6 is a transmission / reception antenna, 17 is a first direction detection receiver, 18 is a second direction detection receiver, 19 is a communication receiver, 20 is a communication transmitter, 21 is a transmission / reception separator, and 22 is a transmission / reception separator. Angle measurement device, 23 is reception data, 24 is transmission data, 2
5 is radio wave arrival direction information, 26 is a road-vehicle communication signal, and 27 is a vehicle-mounted device transmission signal.

Next, the operation of the conventional apparatus will be described. The first azimuth detection receiving antenna 14 and the second azimuth detection receiving antenna 15 are installed at a certain distance, and each receive a transmission signal 27 from the on-vehicle device 8. The first direction finding receiver 17 and the second direction finding receiver 18 receive the outputs of the first direction finding receiving antenna 14 and the second direction finding receiving antenna 15, respectively, and amplify, filter, Perform processing such as frequency conversion. The angle measurement processor 22 receives the outputs of the first azimuth detection receiver 17 and the second azimuth detection receiver 18 and detects the phase difference between these two signals, thereby obtaining the first azimuth detection reception antenna. 14th and 2nd
The direction of arrival of the radio wave received by the direction detection receiving antenna 15 is calculated. The communication control device 7 receives the radio wave arrival direction information 25. The arrival direction θ of the radio wave is obtained by the following equation.

[0009]

(Equation 1)

[0010] The transmission / reception shared antenna 16, the communication receiver 1
9. The communication transmitter 20 is used for the roadside communication device 5 to exchange information required for toll collection with the vehicle-mounted device 8, and the communication receiver 19 transmits an output signal from the vehicle-mounted device 8 to the reception data 23. Is output to the communication control device 7. Communication control device 7
Determines the vehicle for which the toll is to be collected based on the radio wave arrival direction information 25 and the reception data 23. In this way, the vehicle can be identified by detecting the radio wave direction.

[0011]

In the system configured as described above, a vehicle having no on-board unit installed in a tollgate (hereinafter, referred to as a non-ETC vehicle) and a vehicle having an on-board unit installed (hereinafter, ETC vehicle) ), The roadside communication device exchanges information with the ETC vehicle, but cannot exchange information with the non-ETC vehicle. Therefore, the direction of the non-ETC vehicle must be detected. Can not. FIG. 6 shows this situation, in which 3 is a tollgate, 5 is a roadside communication device, 6 is an azimuth detection device, 7 is a communication control device, 9 is a vehicle traveling direction, 28 is a non-ETC vehicle,
29 is an ETC vehicle, 30 is an in-vehicle device of the ETC vehicle, and 31 is a road-vehicle communication signal between the ETC vehicle and the roadside communication device.
The roadside communication device 5 cannot detect the direction of the non-ETC vehicle 28, and as a result, there is a problem that the non-ETC vehicle 28 may pass through the tollgate 3 without receiving the toll. . In addition, there is a problem that the angle measurement accuracy may be degraded depending on the installation position such as the height of the vehicle-mounted device of the passing vehicle.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and has as its object to prevent a non-ETC vehicle from passing through a tollgate without receiving a toll. Also,
An object of the present invention is to prevent a deterioration in angle measurement accuracy.

[0013]

An automatic toll collection system according to a first aspect of the present invention is an automatic toll collection system in which a vehicle passing through a tollgate can exchange information between a roadside communication device and a vehicle-mounted device mounted on the passing vehicle. In the toll collection system, a communication device provided in the roadside communication device and transmitting a wireless communication signal to the passing vehicle, and a communication device provided in the roadside communication device and transmitted from the onboard device and transmitted from the communication device and the traffic A first azimuth detection receiving antenna for receiving the radio wave of the wireless communication signal reflected by the vehicle body, and a first azimuth detection receiving antenna in the roadside communication device, A second direction detection receiving antenna for receiving a radio signal of the wireless communication signal transmitted from the communication device and transmitted from the communication device and reflected by the vehicle body of the passing vehicle; and Position detection receiving antenna and said second
An angle measurement processing device for obtaining the direction of arrival of the radio wave from the radio waves respectively received by the azimuth detection receiving antennas; and the frequency of the radio wave respectively received by the first azimuth detection receiving antenna and the second azimuth detection receiving antenna. And a communication control device for determining a vehicle to be charged based on the information on the components and the direction of arrival of the radio wave from the angle measurement device.

An automatic toll collection system according to a second aspect of the present invention is the automatic toll collection system in which a vehicle passing through a tollgate can exchange information between a roadside communication device and an in-vehicle device mounted on the passing vehicle. Provided in a roadside communication device, and transmits a wireless communication signal to the passing vehicle,
A communication device that receives a wireless communication signal from the on-vehicle device, a transmission signal of the on-vehicle device, and a transmission signal of the on-vehicle device and a wireless communication signal transmitted from the communication device and reflected by the vehicle body of the passing vehicle. A first azimuth detection receiving antenna and a second azimuth detection receiving antenna for receiving radio waves, and radio waves from radio waves respectively received by the first azimuth detection receiving antenna and the second azimuth detection receiving antenna. Angle measurement processing device for determining the arrival direction of the vehicle, and the presence or absence of a wireless communication signal from the in-vehicle device or information of the signal, and the vehicle to be received the toll is determined based on the information of the radio wave arrival direction from the angle measurement processing device And a communication control device.

The automatic toll collection system according to a third aspect of the present invention is the automatic toll collection system according to the first or second aspect, wherein the radio signal transmitted from the communication device is reflected by a vehicle body of the passing vehicle, and A distance measurement processing device for measuring a distance between the passing vehicle and the roadside communication device from a time received by the direction detection reception antenna or the second direction detection reception antenna, and the communication control device is configured to perform the distance measurement. It has a function of determining the vehicle for which the toll is to be collected by referring to the distance information from the processing device.

[0016]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiment 1 FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing Embodiment 1 of the present invention.
7, 14 and 27 are the same as those of the conventional automatic toll collection system, 30 is an in-vehicle device of an ETC vehicle passing through tollgate 3, and 32 is a roadside communication device from an ETC vehicle passing through tollgate 3. It is a reflection signal of the transmission signal for communication.

Next, the operation will be described. In FIG. 1, a communication transmitter 20 outputs a wireless communication signal necessary for toll collection, and a transmission / reception shared antenna 16 radiates an output of the communication transmitter 20 separated by a transmission / reception separator 21 into the air. The first azimuth detection receiving antenna 14 and the second azimuth detection receiving antenna 15 are installed at a certain distance from each other, and transmit signals 27 from on-vehicle devices and radio communication signals 32 from on-road devices reflected from passing vehicles, respectively. To receive. The first azimuth detection receiver 17 and the second azimuth detection receiver 18 are:
The output of each of the first azimuth detection receiving antenna 14 and the second azimuth detection receiving antenna 15 is received, and processing such as amplification, filtering, and frequency conversion is performed. Angle measurement device 22
Receives the outputs of the first azimuth detection receiver 17 and the second azimuth detection receiver 18 and detects the phase difference between these two signals, thereby obtaining the first azimuth detection reception antenna 14 and the second The arrival direction of the radio wave received by the direction detection receiving antenna 15 is calculated, and the radio wave arrival direction information 25 is sent to the communication control device 7. Here, the output signals of the first azimuth detection receiver 17 and the second azimuth detection receiver 18 correspond to the output frequency of the vehicle-mounted device 30 of the passing vehicle and the output frequency of the communication transmitter 20 of the roadside communication device 5. When composed of two components, the passing vehicle is an ETC vehicle. On the other hand, when the output signals of the first azimuth detection receiver 17 and the second azimuth detection receiver 18 are composed only of the output frequency components of the communication transmitter 20 of the roadside communication device 5, the passing vehicle is Non-ETC
It is a vehicle. The communication receiver 19 is for the roadside communication device 5 to exchange information necessary for toll collection with the vehicle-mounted device 30, and outputs an output signal from the vehicle-mounted device 30 to the communication control device 7 as reception data 23. . The communication control device 7 determines the toll collection target vehicle based on the radio wave arrival direction information 25 and the reception data 23. In this way, the vehicle can be identified by detecting the radio wave direction.

In the automatic toll collection system configured as described above, a non-ET signal is generated by a reflected signal of an output signal from a communication transmitter in a roadside communication device from a passing vehicle.
The direction of C vehicle can be detected, and non-ET at toll booths
It is possible to prevent unpaid payment of the C vehicle. Also, ETC
For a vehicle, azimuth detection can be performed on two components, the output frequency of the on-vehicle device of the passing vehicle and the output frequency of the communication transmitter of the roadside communication device, so that the angle measurement accuracy can be increased.

Embodiment 2 FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing Embodiment 2 of the present invention.
6, 19 to 27 are the same as those of the conventional automatic toll collection system, 30 is a vehicle-mounted device of a passing vehicle, and 32 is a tollgate 3
A reflected signal of a transmission signal for communication of a roadside communication device from an ETC vehicle passing through the antenna, 33 is a first azimuth detection / distance measurement receiving antenna, 34 is a second azimuth detection / distance measurement reception antenna, 35 is a second azimuth detection / distance measurement reception antenna. 1 receiver for direction detection and distance measurement, 3
Reference numeral 6 denotes a second direction detection / distance measurement receiver, 37 denotes a distance measurement processing device, 38 denotes road-to-vehicle distance information, and 39 denotes output data of a communication transmitter.

Next, the operation will be described. In FIG. 2, the communication transmitter 20 outputs a wireless communication signal required for toll collection, and the transmission / reception shared antenna 16 radiates the output of the communication transmitter 20 separated by the transmission / reception separator 21 into the air. At this time, the output of the communication transmitter 20 is ASK-modulated. First azimuth detection / distance measurement receiving antenna 3
The third and second direction detection / distance measurement receiving antennas 34 are installed at a certain distance from each other, and receive the transmission signal 27 from the vehicle-mounted device 30 and the wireless communication signal 32 from the road device reflected from the passing vehicle, respectively. The first azimuth detection / distance measurement receiver 35 and the second azimuth detection / distance measurement receiver 36 are:
It receives the outputs of the first azimuth detection / distance measurement reception antenna 33 and the second azimuth detection / distance measurement reception antenna 34, and performs processing such as amplification, filtering, and frequency conversion. The angle measurement processing device 22 receives the outputs of the first azimuth detection / distance measurement receiver 35 and the second azimuth detection / distance measurement receiver 36, and detects the phase difference between these two signals, thereby obtaining the first signal. The direction of arrival of the radio wave received by the azimuth detection / distance measurement receiving antenna 33 and the second azimuth detection / distance measurement reception antenna 34 is calculated, and the radio wave arrival direction information 25 is calculated.
To the communication control device 7. Here, the output signals of the first azimuth detection / distance measurement receiver 35 and the second azimuth detection / distance measurement receiver 36 correspond to the output frequency of the vehicle-mounted device 30 of the passing vehicle and the communication transmission of the roadside communication device 5. If the vehicle is composed of two components of the output frequency of the
It is a vehicle. On the other hand, the output signals of the first azimuth detection receiver 17 and the second azimuth detection receiver 18 are output from the roadside communication device 5.
When only the output frequency component of the communication transmitter 20 is configured, the passing vehicle is a non-ETC vehicle. The distance measurement processing device 37 receives the outputs of the first azimuth detection / distance measurement receiver 35 and the second azimuth detection / distance measurement receiver 36 and the output data of the communication transmitter of the roadside communication device, and And the first azimuth detection and distance measurement receiving antenna 33 and the second
The distance to the receiving antenna 34 for azimuth detection and distance measurement is calculated, and the road-vehicle distance information 38 is sent to the communication control device 7. Here, the distance measurement is performed by using a reflection signal of the ASK-modulated output signal of the communication transmitter 20 of the roadside communication device 5 from the onboard device 30 and the output data 39 of the communication transmitter 20 of the roadside communication device 5.
Is calculated using pulse radar technology. For example, the road-to-vehicle distance R is obtained from Expression 2. The communication receiver 19
The roadside communication device 5 is for exchanging information necessary for toll collection with the vehicle-mounted device 30, and outputs an output signal from the vehicle-mounted device 30 to the communication control device 7 as reception data 23. The communication control device 7 determines the vehicle for which the toll is to be collected based on the radio wave arrival direction information 25, the road-to-vehicle distance information 38, and the reception data 23. In this way, it is possible to determine the vehicle by detecting the radio wave direction and measuring the distance between the road and the vehicle.

[0021]

(Equation 2)

In the automatic toll collection system configured as described above, a non-ET signal is generated by a reflected signal of an output signal from a communication transmitter in a roadside communication device from a passing vehicle.
The direction of C vehicle can be detected, and non-ET at toll booths
It is possible to prevent unpaid payment of the C vehicle. Also, ETC
For a vehicle, azimuth detection can be performed on two components, the output frequency of the vehicle-mounted device of the passing vehicle and the output frequency of the communication transmitter of the roadside communication device, so that the angle measurement accuracy can be improved. In addition, since two parameters of the angle and the distance can be obtained by the angle measurement processing device and the distance measurement processing device, the angle measurement accuracy can be improved. In addition, Embodiment 1,
The automatic toll collection system shown in FIG. 2 can be applied not only to the non-stop automatic toll collection system but also to toll collection of parking lots and exchange of traffic information with passing vehicles.

[0023]

According to the first and second aspects of the present invention, there is an effect of preventing a non-ETC vehicle from passing through a tollgate without receiving a charge. In addition, since the direction of the ETC vehicle can be detected using two frequency components, there is an effect that the angle measurement accuracy is increased.

Further, according to the third invention, there is an effect of preventing a non-ETC vehicle from passing at a tollgate without receiving a charge. In addition, with respect to the ETC vehicle, the direction can be detected using two frequency components, and further, since two parameters of the distance and the angle are used, there is an effect of increasing the angle measurement accuracy.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing Embodiment 1 of an automatic toll collection system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing Embodiment 2 of an automatic toll collection system according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the operation of an automatic toll collection system.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a case where two vehicles equipped with on-vehicle devices enter a conventional tollgate at the same time.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration of a conventional tollgate device.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a case where a non-ETC vehicle and an ETC vehicle enter a conventional tollgate at the same time.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 toll road, 2 general roads, 3 tollgates, 4 first passing vehicles, 5 roadside communication device, 6 direction detection device, 7
Communication control device, 8 first vehicle-mounted device, 9 vehicle traveling direction,
Reference Signs List 10 second passing vehicle, 11 second in-vehicle device, 12 output signal of first in-vehicle device, 13 output signal of second in-vehicle device, 14 first receiving antenna for direction detection, 15 second
Azimuth detection receiving antenna, 16 transmission / reception shared antenna, 17 first azimuth detection receiver, 18 second azimuth detection receiver, 19 communication receiver, 20 communication transmitter, 21 transmission / reception separator, 22 Angle measurement device, 23 received data, 24 transmitted data, 25 radio wave arrival direction information, 26 road-to-vehicle communication signal, 27 on-board device transmission signal, 28
Non-ETC vehicle, 29 ETC vehicle, 30 ETC vehicle in-vehicle device, 31 Communication signal between ETC vehicle and roadside communication device, 32 Reflection signal of communication transmitter output signal of roadside communication device from passing vehicle, 33 First direction Detecting and distance measuring receiving antenna, 34 second direction detecting and distance measuring receiving antenna, 35 first direction detecting and distance measuring receiver, 3
6 Second direction detection / distance measurement receiver, 37 distance measurement processing device, 38 road-vehicle distance information, 39 communication transmitter output data.

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat II (reference) G08G 1/09 G06K 19/00 H

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An automatic toll collection system in which a vehicle passing a tollgate can exchange information between a roadside communication device and an in-vehicle device mounted on the passing vehicle. A communication device for transmitting a wireless communication signal to a vehicle; and a transmission signal provided for the roadside communication device, for receiving a transmission signal of the on-vehicle device and a radio wave of the wireless communication signal transmitted from the communication device and reflected by a body of the passing vehicle. First
Azimuth detection receiving antenna and the roadside communication device are disposed at a position separated from the first azimuth detection receiving antenna, and are transmitted from the in-vehicle device and transmitted from the communication device and reflected by the vehicle body of the passing vehicle. A second azimuth detecting receiving antenna for receiving the radio wave of the radio communication signal thus obtained, and an arriving azimuth of the radio wave from the radio wave respectively received by the first azimuth detecting receiving antenna and the second azimuth detecting receiving antenna. And a frequency component of a radio wave received by each of the first azimuth detection receiving antenna and the second azimuth detection receiving antenna and information on a radio wave arrival direction from the angle measurement processing device. An automatic toll collection system comprising: a communication control device that determines a vehicle to be charged. 2. An automatic toll collection system in which a vehicle passing a tollgate can exchange information between a roadside communication device and an in-vehicle device mounted on the passing vehicle. While transmitting a wireless communication signal to the vehicle, a communication device for receiving a wireless communication signal from the on-vehicle device, provided in the roadside communication device, the transmission signal of the on-vehicle device and transmitted from the communication device and of the passing vehicle A first azimuth detecting receiving antenna and a second azimuth detecting receiving antenna for receiving the radio wave of the wireless communication signal reflected by the vehicle body, and the first azimuth detecting receiving antenna and the second azimuth detecting antenna An angle measurement device for determining the direction of arrival of a radio wave from a radio wave received by a reception antenna, information on the presence or absence of a wireless communication signal from the vehicle-mounted device or information on the signal, and the angle measurement device An automatic toll collection system, comprising: a communication control device for determining a vehicle to be charged based on information on a direction of arrival of a radio wave from a vehicle. 3. The time when the radio signal transmitted from the communication device is reflected by the vehicle body of the passing vehicle and received by the first azimuth detecting receiving antenna or the second azimuth detecting receiving antenna. A distance measuring device for measuring a distance between the passing vehicle and the roadside communication device, and the communication control device has a function of referring to distance information from the distance measuring device to determine a vehicle to be charged. The automatic toll collection system according to claim 1, wherein: