JPH0431999A - Vehicle position informing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To surely inform the travel position of a vehicle in emergency by automatically informing the informing operation of the travel position of the vehicle corresponding to the deviation of the vehicle from a travel route. CONSTITUTION:The travel route to a destination is set by a travel route setting means 1. When the vehicle is departed, a present location detecting means 2 detects the present travel position of the vehicle sequentially at a prescribed timing. Information representing the present travel position of the vehicle is sent to a storage means 3 one by one, and is stored in order. A vehicle travel decision means 4 discriminates whether or not the present travel position of the vehicle is on the route set by the travel route setting means 1, and issues a control signal to a transmission means 5 when the present travel position of the vehicle is deviated from the route. The transmission means 5 reads out present travel position information in the storage means 3, and transmits it to a base station.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (A) Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to a vehicle position reporting device that reports the traveling position of a vehicle to a base station.

(B) Conventional technology As a device for notifying a base station of the current location of a vehicle in response to the occurrence of an emergency situation, there is a known device disclosed in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Application No. 63-72699 (Go 8G1/12).

In such conventional devices, when an emergency situation occurs, the driver (or passenger) operates an emergency switch, and the vehicle's running position is sent to the base station in time, and the vehicle's running position is transmitted to the base station, such as a security guard, etc. let them know. Such a device is suitable for being mounted on a cash transport vehicle or the like.

(c) Problems to be Solved by the Invention In this device, unless the driver (or fellow passenger) operates the emergency switch, the operation of transmitting the vehicle's driving position to the base station does not occur. However, in cases such as when the driver (or passenger) is involved in an unexpected accident or is attacked,
The driver may not be able to operate the emergency switch even though the vehicle is involved in an emergency situation. In such a case, it is inconvenient that the base station cannot be informed of the vehicle's traveling position in the event of an emergency. Therefore, the present invention aims to solve this problem.

(d) Means for Solving the Problems In view of the above problems, the vehicle position reporting device of the present invention includes a current position detecting means for detecting the current position of the vehicle, a driving route setting means for setting the driving route of the vehicle, and a driving route setting means for setting the driving route of the vehicle. storage means for sequentially storing the current position of the vehicle; departure detection means for generating a control signal when the vehicle deviates from the travel route; and deviation detection means for reading out the current position stored in the storage means in response to the control signal. A transmitting means for transmitting data to a station.

(E) Function The driver first sets the driving route to the destination before starting the vehicle. The driver drives the vehicle along this travel route. The storage means sequentially stores the traveling position of the vehicle. When the vehicle deviates from this travel route, it is determined that the vehicle is involved in an emergency situation, and a control signal indicating this is issued from the deviation detection means. The transmitting means transmits the traveling position in the storage means to the base station in response to this control signal, and informs the base station of the traveling route of the vehicle.

(F) Embodiment First, the basic configuration of the embodiment will be explained using the block diagram shown in FIG.

Before starting, the driver first sets the driving route (1)
Set the driving route to the destination. The driver starts driving the vehicle along the travel route thus set. When the vehicle is started in this manner, the current position detecting means (2) sequentially detects the current traveling position of the vehicle at predetermined timing. In detecting the current driving position, there is a method of detecting the current position of the vehicle by receiving signals from artificial satellites (GP
S method) or a method (dead reckoning navigation) in which the current traveling position of the vehicle is determined from vehicle traveling direction information and traveling distance information generated by a direction sensor and a distance sensor.

Information indicating the current traveling position of the vehicle detected by the current position detection means (2) is sequentially sent to the storage means (3), where it is stored in order. Furthermore, current position detection means (2
) The current traveling position information from vehicle traveling determining means (4)
The information is sent to the vehicle, where it is used to determine whether the vehicle is traveling on a good or bad route. That is, the vehicle running determination means (4) determines whether the current running position of the vehicle is on the route set by the running route setting means (1), and determines whether or not the current running position of the vehicle is on the route set by the running route setting means (1). When the signal is disconnected, a control signal is issued to the transmitting means (5). And the transmitting means (5) is
It is activated in response to such a control signal, and sequentially reads the current traveling position information in the storage means (3) and transmits it to the base station.

Here, the transmitting means (5) transmits not only the current traveling position information stored in the storage means (3) before the vehicle traveling position deviates from the traveling route, but also the current traveling position information stored in the storage means (3) after the vehicle deviates from the traveling route. The stored current driving position information is also read out in order and sent to the base station. Therefore, the base station can know the travel route of the vehicle until the vehicle deviates from the set travel route and the travel route of the vehicle after the vehicle deviates from the travel route.

FIG. 2 is a specific circuit block diagram showing further details of such an embodiment. In the figure, the operation switch (11) and the IC card (12) correspond to the travel route setting means (1) in FIG. 1, and the travel detection device (21) corresponds to the current position detection means (2). , the transmission means (5) corresponds to a modem (51) and a car telephone radio (52), and the storage means (3) corresponds to a RAM (Random Access
sMemory) (31) corresponds to this. Further, as the vehicle running determination means (4) in FIG. 1, a ROM (41) (R
The CPU (42) which controls each part according to a program stored in the head only memory also functions as the vehicle running determination means (4). Furthermore, (6
) is an interface for connecting each part to the CPU (42), and (7) is a monitor that displays the driving route of the vehicle.

Next, the operation of the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 will be explained. IC
The card (12) stores several types of travel routes that can be taken from the starting point to the destination. The driver can select a desired driving route from the driving routes by operating the operation switch (11).

The selected driving route is displayed on the monitor installed inside the vehicle (7)
is shown in the image.

The driver starts driving along the driving route displayed on the monitor (7).

After the vehicle is started, the running state of the vehicle is determined by the running detection device (
21). Such traveling detection device (21
) is GPS (Global Positioni)
ng System) receiver (211) and distance sensor (
212).

The GPS receiver (212) detects the current traveling position of the vehicle based on the GPS method. Further, the distance sensor (212) calculates the traveling distance from the starting point by counting the number of rotations of the tires. The current running position of the vehicle is displayed on the monitor (7).
), for example, a vehicle is indicated by (Δ) and superimposed on the display.

The travel route information read from the IC card (12) is stored in the RAM (31) via the interface (6) and CPU (42). Further, the current traveling position information of the vehicle detected by the GPS receiver (212) is also sequentially stored in the RAM (31) via the interface (6) and the CPU (42). CPU (4
2) compares the latest current driving position information stored in the RAM (31) with the driving route information from the IC card (12) according to the program stored in the ROM (41), It is determined whether the current traveling position of has deviated from the traveling route. When the CPU (42) determines that the current traveling position of the vehicle has deviated from the traveling route, the current traveling position information of the vehicle that has been stored in the RAM (31) up to that point and the RAM (31) thereafter are stored in the RAM (31). The current driving position information of the vehicle stored in the RAM (31) is sequentially read out from the RAM (31), and
via the modem (51). Like this modem (
The data sent to 51) is digital data, and the modem (51) modulates such digital data into a voice signal that can be transmitted by a car telephone. The car telephone radio (52) then transmits the voice signal using the telephone line. In this embodiment, a car telephone radio (52) is used as a transmission means, but in addition to this, a teleterminal radio developed for digital data communication can be used as long as it is within the service area of the teleterminal. Available for use.

Next, the contents of the information stored in the IC card (12) will be explained with reference to FIG. 3. Such information is the third
As shown in the figure, base station telephone number information (A) and number of travel routes information (B) indicating the number of travel routes that can be selected.
and an information block (CI) indicating the contents of each driving route (
C2)... and an information block (DI) (C2) indicating the contents of the area for determining the driving route. A driving route is determined by connecting multiple areas. FIG. 4 shows a method for determining such a driving route. In the figure, the area at the upper left corner is area 1, and from there to the right are area 2, area 3, and so on.

Furthermore, when reaching area 7, the leftmost area of the step below is area 8, and 35 areas are defined up to the lower right corner area according to such rules. In the example of FIG. 4, in order to determine the driving route, areas 29 to 33 and area 2 are
6.27 and region 13.14 are selected.

In FIG. 3, information blocks (CI), (C2), etc. indicating the contents of the driving route are each composed of route number information and information indicating the number of the area to be selected in order to determine the driving route. In addition, the information block indicating the contents of the area includes, in each area, coordinate information indicating the longitude and latitude of the southwest corner,
It consists of coordinate information indicating the longitude and latitude of the northeast corner. RAM
Among such information, (31) includes base station telephone number information (A) and an information block (information block (cD (C2)) indicating the contents of the selected driving route (Reka Shirakawa). ) and the area information block (information block (DI) (C2)...) corresponding to the area number included in this information block.
(selected one among the following) is stored in accordance with the travel route setting operation.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the contents of current traveling position information further stored in RAM (31). As shown in the figure, RAM (
31) has five sets of travel position information storage areas (EO) to (
E4). In each storage area (EO) to (E4),
Two types of information are stored: longitude coordinate information and latitude coordinate information indicating the current traveling position of the vehicle detected by the GPS receiver (212). Traveling position information indicating the current position of the starting point is first stored in the storage area (EO).

Thereafter, every time the vehicle travels 100 meters, the position information indicating the position of that point is stored in the storage area (El) as current travel position information.
) are stored in order in the following areas. After the current travel position information is stored up to the storage area (E4), the current traveling position information is returned to the storage area (EO) and stored in the subsequent areas in order.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the contents of information stored in the ROM (41). As shown in the figure, the ROM (41) contains ID code information (F) for identifying the vehicle, and the CPU (42).
) to control each part (G)
is memorized. Next, the vehicle position reporting operation of the present invention will be explained below according to such a program.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart regarding operations necessary before the vehicle starts running. When the power of the main device is turned on, the device enters a state of waiting for setting of a travel route (step 1). Once the driving route is set by the driver, step 2
Then, it is determined whether the set driving route is correct or not. This determination is made by comparing the driving route number set by the driver with the number of driving routes stored in the IC card (12), and when the driving route number is greater than the number of driving routes, the driving route with that driving route number is IC
It is determined that the data is not stored in the card (12), and the determination in step 2 is set as No. If the determination in Step 2 is No, then in Step 3, the red LED placed on the front of the device is lit to indicate to the driver that the driving route has been set incorrectly. Further, if it is determined in step 2 that the driving route number set by the driver is correct, in step 4 the driving route information corresponding to this driving route number is read out by the IC card (12), and the driving route information corresponding to this driving route number is read out in step 4. The driving route is monitored (7
) is displayed.

After the above preparations are completed, the device shifts to the driving state monitoring mode. The subsequent driving state monitoring operation follows the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 8 and 9.

First, in step 5, step 6 and step 7,
The variable n, the 500m running flag P, and the deviation flag P are respectively −
Set to 1,0,0. After that, in step 8, the current driving position is detected based on the data from the GPS receiver (212), and in step 9, the vehicle is
Whether the vehicle has traveled 00 m or not is determined based on the output from the distance sensor (211). If YES is determined in step 9, then in step 10 the variable n is set to 4.
It is determined whether or not, and if No, step 11
After incrementing the variable n by 1 in Step 12, the current traveling position data detected in Step 8 is stored in the traveling position information storage area (see Figure 5) of the RAM (31) corresponding to the number of this variable n. Store. In addition, to supplement the explanation regarding the storage of such information, if n=
o, the current driving position information is stored in the storage area (EO) in FIG. 5, and if n=1, the storage area (E
This means that the current driving position information is stored in l).

If the determination is YES in step 10, the 500m running flag P is set to P=1 and the variable n is reset to n=0 in step 13, and then,
Current traveling position information is stored in an area of the RAM (31) corresponding to the variable n=0, that is, a storage area (EO).

In the above steps, steps 8 and 9 store current traveling position information in RAM (3
1) defines the storing operation, and also steps 10 to 14
defines an operation in which, after information is stored up to the fifth storage area among the five storage areas in the RAM (31) shown in FIG. 5, the process returns to the first storage area to store the information. .

After the current travel position information is stored in the RAM (31) in step 12, it is then determined in step 15 whether the departure flag q is 1 or not. Such step 15
determines whether the vehicle has deviated from its driving route in the past.

If the vehicle deviates from the travel route even once, the determination is YES and the process proceeds to step 29.

If the vehicle has not deviated from the travel route even once, the process proceeds to step 16, where it is determined whether the vehicle has deviated from the travel route at the current point. The determination in step 16 is that the latest current driving position information stored in RAM (31) in step 12 is the same as <RAM (31).
This is done by comparing the route information stored in ). That is, such a comparison is performed when the latest current traveling position is included in one of the regions for determining the traveling route (as described above, the traveling route is determined by connecting regions). Compare whether or not.

More specifically, such a comparison is performed by comparing the longitude and latitude information of the current driving position with the longitude and latitude information of the southwest corner and northeast corner of each area. If the longitude and latitude of the area are smaller than the longitude and latitude of the current driving position, and the longitude and latitude of the northeast corner are larger than the longitude and latitude of the current driving position, it is determined that the current driving position is included in that area. .

If the determination in step 16 is NO, step 8
, and repeats the same operation as above to store the vehicle's current traveling position information in RAM (3
1) Store in the storage areas in order. On the other hand, if the determination in step 16 is YES, the operation of transmitting the current traveling position of the vehicle to the base station is started by the following routine.

If YES is determined in step 16, the deviation flag q is set to 1 in step 17, and then it is determined in step 18 whether or not the 500 m flag P is 1. If the determination is YES here, step 19
In step 20, the variable m is set to m=4, and if the determination is NO, the variable m is set to m=n in step 20. The setting of the variable m is necessary when all the information stored in the RAM (31) is sequentially read out by the following routine.

Once the variable m has been set as described above, the car telephone radio (52) then starts transmitting vehicle travel information. That is, in step 21, the vehicle is launched to the base station, and when the base station receives this, a vehicle ID code is transmitted in step 21 in order to identify the vehicle to the base station. Note that the transmission to the base station is read out from the IC card as described above, and then transferred to the RAM (31
) is based on the telephone number information of the base station (see FIG. 3). Also, the vehicle ID code is transmitted using the ROM.
(41) Vehicle ID code (
(see Figure 6).

When such transmission is performed, the current traveling position information stored in each information storage area in the RAM (31) is sequentially read out by the operations of steps 23 to 28 and transmitted to the base station. Ru. That is, first, in step 23, the current traveling position information in the information storage area in the RAM (31) corresponding to the number of the variable n is read out from the RAM (31) and transmitted to the base station. Here, the content of the variable n is the number set in steps 10 to 14, and the information storage area corresponding to this number stores the current traveling position information at the moment when the vehicle deviated from the traveling route. has been done.

Therefore, in step 23, the current traveling position information is read from the RAM (31) and transmitted to the base station.

When the current traveling position information is transmitted in this manner, it is then determined in step 24 whether the variable m has become 0, and if NO here, m =
m −1 is done. Then, in step 26, it is determined whether the variable n is 0 or not. If NO, n=n-1 is set in step 27, and if YES, n=4 is set in step 28, and then step Return to 23. In step 23, in accordance with the newly set variable n, the corresponding current traveling position information is read from the storage area in R, AM (31) as described above, and is transmitted to the base station. The operations in steps 23 to 28 are repeated until the variable m reaches O and the determination in step 24 is YES.

Among the operations of steps 23 to 28, steps 26 to 28 are associated with step 23 and are operations of sequentially selecting each of the five storage areas in the RAM (31). That is,
For example, when n=1, the current traveling position information of the storage area (El) corresponding to n=1 is read out in step 23, but then n=o is set in step 26 and 27, so step At step 23, the current traveling position information of the storage area (EO) corresponding to n=o is read out. Then, in step 26.28, n=4 is set, so in step 23, the memory corresponding to n=4 is set to NOR (E
4) The current traveling position information is read out.

This operation of changing the storage area to be read is continued until the variable m becomes 0. Here, the variable m is step 1
8 to 20, m=4 or m=n. Here, steps 18 to 20 are RAM (
31) of the five storage areas (EO) to (E4),
If all of the information is stored, set the variable m to 4; if not all of the information is stored, set the value of the variable n, which is the number corresponding to the storage area where the latest information is stored, to the variable m.
Set to .

Therefore, when the current traveling position information is read and transmitted in steps 23 to 28, when information is stored in all five storage areas of the RAM (31), the operation of changing the storage area to be read is performed when the variable m is m. The process is executed five times from =4 to O, and the current travel position information is read and transmitted to all five storage areas. Also, RAM
When information has not yet been stored in all of the five storage areas in (31), the operation of changing the storage area to be read is executed n times until the variable m reaches 0 from m=n, and the following Therefore, among the five storage areas, storage areas En to E9-1, E, -1, . . . E corresponding to variable n
Information is read and transmitted in the order of o.

As described above, when the operation of reading and transmitting all the current traveling position information before the vehicle deviates from the traveling route is completed, the flowchart returns to step 8, and the device sequentially transmits the subsequent traveling trajectory of the vehicle to the base station (vehicle (every time the car travels 100m)
Switch to communication mode. That is, in steps 8 to 14, after the vehicle deviates from the driving route,
Every time the vehicle travels m, the current traveling position information is stored in a storage area in the RAM (31), and then the process proceeds to step 15. In step 15, the state of the departure flag q is determined, and since the determination is YES, m=o is set in step 29, and then the process proceeds to step 23. In step 23, the latest current driving position information stored in the RAM (31) in this manner is transmitted to the base station.

After that, the variable m is determined in step 24, but since m=o was set in the previous step 29, the determination is YES, and the process returns to step 8 and the same operation as above is performed. repeat. After it is determined that the vehicle has deviated from the driving route once in this way, the vehicle
Every time the vehicle travels 00 m, current traveling position information of the vehicle is transmitted to the base station.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, and various other changes are possible. For example, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the driving route of the vehicle is displayed on the monitor in advance, but if the distance is short enough for the driver to memorize, it is not necessary to display it on the monitor in this way. Also, after the vehicle deviates from the driving route,
For example, it is preferable to prevent the power of the device from being turned off even if the power switch is operated after the vehicle deviates from the driving route so that there is no problem even if the power of the device is turned off by a robber or the like.

(G) Effects of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, the operation of reporting the vehicle traveling position is automatically performed in response to the vehicle deviating from the traveling route. Even if a position reporting operation cannot be performed, the driving position of the vehicle can be reliably reported to the base station.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 to 9 show an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the basic configuration of the embodiment, FIG. 2 is a circuit block diagram showing details of this block diagram, and FIG. 3 is an IC A diagram showing the contents of information stored in the card, FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the area for determining the driving route, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the storage area in the RAM, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the contents of the ROM. , FIG. 7, FIG. 8, and FIG. 9 are flowcharts showing the operation. (1)...Driving route setting means, (2)...Current position detection means, (3)...Storage means, (4)...Driving determination means (deviation detection means), (5)... ...Transmission means.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) Current position detection means for detecting the current position of the vehicle;
A driving route setting means for setting a driving route of the vehicle, a storage means for sequentially storing the current position of the vehicle, a deviation detection means for generating a control signal when the vehicle deviates from the driving route, and a deviation detecting means for generating a control signal in response to the control signal. and transmitting means for reading out the current position stored in the storage means and transmitting it to a base station.