●Research Trends and Results

Collection System for Probe information from ITS SPOTs
KANAZAWA Fumihiko, Head
SAWADA Yasumasa, Senior Researcher
WAKAZUKI Takeshi, Researcher
IWASAKI Takeshi, Guest Research Engineer
Research Center for Advanced Information Technology, Intelligent Transport System Division(Key words) Probe, ITS Spots, traveling speed survey
1. Introduction
In the autumn of 2009, private companies began tosell ITS Spot compatible car navigation units, androad traffic information provision and safe driving
support information provision services (ITS SpotServices) using ITS Spots started operating. In 2011,ITS Spots were installed nationwide and are now
operating at about 1,600 locations, mainly on
expressways.
The communication technology used to operate ITS
Spot services is characterized by the ability to perform
high speed and high volume two-way communications,so that it not only provides road traffic information in
one direction from roadsides, a capability ofcommunication technologies already in use forordinary road traffic information provision services(downlinking), it also permits information to betransmitted from vehicles to the roadside systems(uplinking).
So the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transportand Tourism has, based on specifications prepared by
the National Institute for Land and InfrastructureManagement, built a system which collects probe
information (vehicle position (latitude, longitude, timeetc.) and behavior (forward acceleration, lateralacceleration etc.) from ITS Spot compatible carnavigation systems through IT Spots (below called“probe system”) and began collecting data in April
2011 (Fig. 1).
Uplinking probe
プローブ情報informationをアップリンク
ITS
Spot compatible
ITSスポット対応
car navigation (sales
カーナビ
beganin Oct. 2009)(2009.10から販売開始)

When car travels under an ITS Spot, its
ITSスポットの下を走行した際に、これまaccumulated probe data is uplinked.
で蓄積したプローブ情報をアップリンク

ITS SpotsITSスポット(Installedat about 1,600(2011年高速道路上を中locations, mainly onexpressways,in 2011)
心に約1,600箇所整備)

Downloading
ダウンロードIntranet
イントラ

Road managers
各道路管理者

Probe server
プローブサーバ(Gathers, consolidates, and（プローブ情報の集積、集約、aggregates probe information
集計等（2010年度整備））(provided in 2010)

Figure 1. Configuration of the Probe System(Simplified)
2. Application to traveling speed surveys
Traveling speed obtained by traveling speed surveys
is the most basic index used to represent the roadservice level. In the past, results of traveling speed
surveys, mainly for specified single days (business day,holiday) were reflected in policies, but using probe
information to constantly monitor traveling speed
permits monitoring of the fluctuation of the service

level on a road (clarifying and assessing singularities
or seasonal fluctuation etc.), which could not belearned by past surveys, permitting more advanced
and efficient traveling speed surveys.
So a probe server, which is part of a probe system,
can aggregate and process the collected probe data tocalculate the traveling time for fixed sections of a road,permitting constant monitoring of traveling speed.
Road managers can download travel time data throughthe internet (Fig. 2).
旅行時間のダウンロード画面
Travelingtime download screen[1]
Select location (can①箇所を選択
also be selected from（地図からも選択可）
map)[2]
Select road type
②道路種別を選択[3]
Select time period③期間を選択[4]
Click on Download④ﾀﾞｳﾝﾛｰﾄﾞをクリック

For
the selected location, road type, and time period,
選択した箇所、道路種別、期間について、DRMリンク単位
thetravel time by day of week, time period (15 minute
毎に、日別、時間帯別（15分帯）、上下線別の旅行時間をunits), and by inbound/outbound lane are output in CSVCSV形式で出力
formatfor each DRM link unit.

Figure 2. Traveling Time Download screen
3. Future development
Applications will be developed to analyze probe
information and display the results so that thecharacteristics (precision for example) of probe
information collected by probe systems will beclarified at the same time as road managers will beable to monitor changes in road traffic conditions
during disasters or to clarify and explain the effects ofprojects such as the construction of new roads.