ROADSIDE BEACON SYSTEM

Abstract: A navigator system for providing in a moving vehicle a display of the position of the vehicle on a map. This position is recalibrated by a roadside antenna that transmits a split beam so that the signal is a minimum directly in front of the antenna. The on-board navigator recalibrates the position from data transmitted immediately before when the received signal is abruptly decreased as the vehicle passes directly in front of the antenna.

Description: This invention relates in general to a roadside beacon system, according to the preamble part of claim 1, beacon system which is used for data transmission between vehicle and road side antenna (beacon) and, if necessary, vehicle position calibration in a navigation system in which, after position data on a departure point are initialized, at least vehicle speed data and direction data are sensed and the vehicle's position is calculated by using the data in order that the present position of the vehicle can be displayed. A navigation system is known in the art in which a small computer and a display unit are installed on a vehicle. In a navigation system, for example, road map data are read out of a memory device comprising a compact disc and so forth and displayed on the display unit. Vehicle speed and moving direction are detected by a vehicle speed sensor and a direction sensor, respectively, in order to determine the current position and travel direction of the vehicle. According to these data thus determined, a symbol representing the vehicle is marked at the applicable position on the road map displayed on the display unit. The use of the navigation system permits the operator of the vehicle to visually detect the current position and travelling direction of the vehicle so that he can drive the vehicle directly to the destination without losing his way. However, such a kind of navigation system is disadvantageous in the following points. In the navigation system, errors inherent in the vehicle speed sensor and the direction sensor are accumulated as the vehicle travels without error corrections. When the vehicle has traveled for a certain distance (which is not always constant, being determined according to the degrees of errors inherent in the vehicle speed sensor and the direction sensor, and the variations of the ambient conditions of these sensors), the vehicle position displayed on the display unit becomes much different from the true position of the vehicle. That is, the system does not work satisfactorily, and accordingly the operator may lose his way. In order to overcome the above-described difficulty, a roadside beacon system is known in the art. In the roadside beacon system, known from EP-A-0 021 060, roadside antennas are installed alongside road networks at intervals of less than the distance with which the above-described accumulation of errors reaches the certain value. Each of the antennas thus installed is used to transmit a signal covering only a small area of the road. The signal which contains position data of the antenna or the place of correction, thus transmitted is received through a mobile antenna installed on the vehicle and processed by the computer so that the position and travelling direction of the vehicle are calibrated according to the signal thus received. With the roadside beacon system, the position and travelling direction of the vehicle can be displayed accurately with the accumulation of errors maintained less than a predetermined value and the navigation system works satisfactorily. Furthermore, the roadside beacon system is advantageous in that, if the roadside antennas are installed at positions near railways or railway crossings where the direction sensor is liable to operate with error because of strong magnetic field caused by railways, then errors attributed to external factors can be effectively corrected. In the above-described roadside beacon system, the signal including the position data and the road direction data is transmitted from each of the roadside antennas which have considerably high directivity. Therefore, the vehicle receives the signal only when passing through the area covered by the signal so that the necessary calibration is carried out according to the signal thus received. Therefore, if the area covered by the signal is made larger in order to enable vehicles to receive more sufficient data, then the peak of the field strength of the radio wave transmitted from the roadside antenna is reduced as much, and it becomes difficult to detect the position correctly where the vehicle confronts the roadside antenna. That is, the conventional roadside beacon system suffers from drawbacks that when data communication region is broadened, the signal receiving position with respect to the roadside antenna may be shifted so much that the satisfactory calibration effect cannot be obtained. The fundamental function of the roadside beacon system is to transmit the signal including the position data and the road direction data to the vehicle having the navigation system. However, in order to improve the utility of the roadside beacon system, it is desirable for the system to have the following functions: (1) Traffic data on traffic congestion, construction work and other road use conditions around each of the roadside antennas are additionally applied to assist drivers in driving smoothly; (2) Detailed map data including houses (with names) around the roadside antennas are added so as to facilitate the arrival of the vehicle at the destination; (3) A relatively wide range of road map data including the areas where the roadside antennas are installed are additionally given to the navigation system to renew the road map on the display unit, thereby to allow the vehicle to smoothly travel to a far destination; and (4) Devices for bi-directional communications between vehicles and the roadside antenna system are required so as to carry out stable burst data communications. For this purpose, it is essential to widen the bandwidth of the signal radiated from the roadside antennas, and to broaden the area covered by the signal. However, the widening of the bandwidth of the signal and the broadening of the area covered by the signal cause another difficulty that vehicle position detected with respect to the position of the roadside antenna may be greatly deviated, and the calibration of the vehicle position, which is the original object of the system, thereby becomes erroneous, being affected by the deviation of the detected position. In view of the foregoing, the object of this invention is to provide a roadside beacon system in which a variety of functions can be readily performed with providing broad communication region, and the position of the vehicle can nonetheless be calibrated with high accuracy as is its original function. This is achieved by the provision of a roadside beacon system according to the characterizing part of claim 1. Preferred embodiments are subject of the sub-claims. In the roadside beacon system thus organized, the roadside antennas, or split beam antennas, installed at preselected positions in a network of roads transmit various data including at least position data to the vehicle. The navigator device installed on the vehicle receives the data radiated from the roadside antenna and uses some of them (namely position data) to thereby calibrate the vehicle position data and to display it. In the navigator device, the position determining means detects when the field strength becomes lower than a predetermined level, i.e., when the vehicle passes in front of the roadside antenna, and outputs the position detection signal. Therefore, the calibrating means can calibrate at least the position of the vehicle according to the position detection signal and the data received. Since the split beam antennas are installed along the roads, the field strength is abruptly decreased in front of the antennas. The navigator device detects this abrupt decrease point of the field strength, to determine the position of the vehicle with high accuracy. The position determining means may comprise both the region identifying means for detecting whether or not the vehicle is in the data transmission region of the roadside antenna and the field strength discriminating means for determining whether or not the field strength is at the predetermined level or less. In this case, the area identifying means can determine whether the vehicle is outside of the communication region of the roadside antenna or inside thereof. Therefore, the field strength discriminating means can detect the abrupt decrease of the field strength when the vehicle passes in front of the roadside antenna, to thus determine the position of the vehicle. In one case, the region identifying means comprises the level decision means for outputting the level decision signal whenever the field strength exceeds the predetermined level, and the flip-flop circuit for receiving the level decision signal from the level decision means. Also, in this case, the field strength discriminating means comprises the gate circuit which is opened by the output signal of the flip-flop circuit, and the strength decrease detecting means for detecting the abrupt decrease in strength of the signal received through the gate circuit. As a result, in this case, as the vehicle approaches the roadside antenna, the level decision means outputs the level decision signal indicating that the field strength exceeds the predetermined level, to set the flip-flop circuit to open the gate circuit so that the signal received is supplied to the strength decrease detecting means. Therefore, the vehicle position can be detected by detecting the abrupt decrease of the field strength. When the field strength is increased thereafter, the flip-flop circuit is reset by the decision signal produced by the level decision means, so that the gate circuit is closed to suspend the supply of the signal to the strength decrease detecting means. In a further case as described above, the region identifying means comprises the level decision means for outputting the level decision signal whenever the field strength exceeds the predetermined level, the gate circuit which is opened by the output signal of the level decision circuit, and the hold circuit for receiving the output signal of the gate circuit to maintain the gate circuit open. Also, in this further case, as was described above, the field strength discriminating means comprises the strength decrease detecting means for detecting the abrupt decrease in the strength of the signal received through the gate circuit, and the data decision means for determining both data received before and after the abrupt decrease in the signal strength coincide with each other or no data transmission is carried out. The data decision means output on the coincidence of the transmission data, the signal representing the fact that the signal strength abrupt decrease occurs just before the roadside antenna and thereafter outputs the signal for resetting the hold circuit. Therefore, in this further case, when the level decision means determines that the field strength has exceeded the predetermined level, the gate circuit is opened to receive the data, and thereafter the hold circuit operates to maintain the gate circuit open so that the transmission data are supplied to the strength decrease detecting means. Then, the data decision means determines whether or not the transmission data provided before and after the signal strength decreases coincide with each other. When it is determined that the transmission data coincide with each other, the signal is outputted which represents the fact that the signal strength decrease point corresponds to the position of the roadside antenna. Thereafter, the signal to reset the hold circuit is outputted to reset the hold circuit so that the system is placed in initial state again. In the following the invention will be described with explaining figures. Fig. 1 is a diagram outlining an example of a road map displayed on a display unit in a roadside beacon system. Fig. 2 is a perspective view outlining the roadside beacon system Fig. 3 is a perspective view showing the construction of a roadside antenna in the roadside beacon system. Figs. 4A and 4B are diagrams showing the directivity of the roadside antenna. Fig. 5 is a block diagram showing a first example of a roadside beacon system according to this invention. Fig. 6 is a graphical representation indicating an electric field strength distribution. Fig. 7 is a block diagram showing a second example of the roadside beacon system according to the invention. Preferred embodiments of this invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. Fig. 1 is a diagram outlining one example of a road map displayed on a display unit. In Fig. 1, the present position and travelling direction of a vehicle are indicated by the arrow A , and roadside antennas P₁, P₂, ... and P n are indicated at various positions where they have been installed. The roadside antennas P₁ through P n may be omitted from the displayed map. Further in the road map of Fig. 7, large structures such as buildings are marked as landmarks. Fig. 2 is an explanatory diagram for a description of a roadside beacon system. As shown in Fig. 2, a transmitter 2a supplies a signal including position data and road direction data to a roadside antenna 2. The roadside antenna is installed near a road 1 and radiates this signal in the vicinity of the road 1. A mobile antenna 4 for receiving the prescribed signal is installed at a predetermined position on a vehicle 3 which is traveling along the road 1. The signal received is supplied to a navigation device (not shown). The roadside antenna 2, as shown in Fig. 3, comprises two reflection panels 21 which form an angle of 2₀ and bend downward at an angle of ₀. A dipole antenna 22 is installed at a predesignated position on each of the reflection panels 21. The dipole antennas 22 are excited in opposite phase. The installation and directivity of the dipole antennas 22 will be described in more detail. Assuming that 2₀ < 90°, that the distance d between each dipole antenna 22 and the reflection board 21 is 50 mm (d = 50 mm), that the distance D between each dipole antenna 22 and the connecting line of the two reflection boards 21 is 100 mm (D = 100 mm), that the length L of each dipole antenna 22 is 120 mm (L = 120 mm), and that the signal frequency f is 1.5 GHz, the horizontal directional pattern is as shown in Fig. 4A. That is, the electric field strength is extremely low in the central direction (or the zero point occurs in the center direction), but the electric field strength abruptly increases when the direction difers from the center. In other words, the field strength is high over a wide range of horizontal directions. Under the same conditions, the vertical directional pattern is as indicated in Fig. 4B. That is, the vertical directivity is considerably high. The mobile antenna 4 is an antenna which is non-directional in the horizontal direction. Fig. 5 is a block diagram showing one example of a roadside beacon system according to the invention, for a description of the arrangement of a mobile signal receiver installed on a vehicle. The signal (proportional to the field strength distribution indicated in Fig. 6) received by the mobile antenna 4 is amplified by an amplifier 5 and detected by a detector circuit 6. The output of the detector circuit 6 is applied to a low-pass filter 7, where high frequency components are removed from it so that a stable output is provided by the low-pass filter 7. The output of the filter 7 is supplied to both a level decision circuit 8 and a first gate circuit 9. A decision signal outputted by the level decision circuit 8 is applied to a flip-flop circuit 10 and a second gate circuit 11. The above-described first gate circuit 9 is opened by a signal outputted by the flip-flop circuit 10. The signal stabilized by the low-pass filter 7, i.e., the output signal of the low-pass filter 7 is supplied through the first gate circuit 9 to a position detecting level decision circuit 12. A decision signal outputted by the position detecting level decision circuit 12 is supplied, as a calibration control signal, to a navigator 13. The signal amplified by the amplifier 5 is supplied through the second gate circuit 11 to a memory 14. Data are transmitted between the memory 14 and the navigator 13. The memory 14 transmits data to a data transmission terminal which is connected to a CRT 20 for displaying the map of Fig. 1. In the level decision circuits 8 and 12 mentioned above, the decision reference levels are set to L1 and L2, respectively. The flip-flop circuit 10 serves as a power source for the position detecting level decision circuit 12. The signal radiated from the roadside antenna 2 is, for instance, phasemodulated with transmission data. Its horizontal directional pattern is as shown in Fig. 4A. The signal described above is received by the mobile antenna 4 and is amplified by the amplifier 5. It is then supplied to the detector circuit 6 and the second gate circuit 11. The signal detected by the detector circuit 6, after being stabilized by the low-pass filter 7, is supplied to the level decision circuit 8, where it is determined whether or not the level of the signal is higher than the reference level L1. When the signal level is higher than the reference level L1, the level decision circuit 8 outputs a high level signal, so that the second gate circuit 11 is opened to store the amplified signal in the memory 14. In the case where the vehicle 3 traveling along the road 1 is significantly far from the roadside antenna 2, initially the level of the signal received by the mobile antenna 4 is substantially zero. That is, the level of the signal proportional to the average field distribution function is substantially zero. Therefore, a signal whose level is lower than the reference level L1 is applied to the level decision circuit 8. Therefore, a low level signal is provided by the flip-flop circuit 10, as a result of which the first gate circuit 9 is held closed, and no data transmission to the memory 14 is carried out. As the vehicle approaches the roadside antenna 2, the level of the signal proportional to the average field distribution function increases gradually. When the level of the signal becomes higher than the reference level L1, the flip-flop circuit 10 outputs a high level signal, so that the first gate circuit 9 is opened. Thus, the signal stabilized by the low-pass filter 7 is supplied to the position detecting level decision circuit 12. In the above-described operation, when no data is transmitted to the navigator 13 through the memory 14, the navigator 13 calculates and determines the present position and travel direction of the vehicle according to the vehicle speed data outputted by a vehicle speed sensor (not shown), the travelling direction data provided by a direction sensor (not shown), and the previous calibration. The present position and travelling direction thus determined together with the road map are displayed on the display unit (not shown). However, when the signal level becomes higher than the reference level L1, the second gate circuit 11 is opened, so that the signal amplified by the amplifier 5 can be stored in the memory 14. When the vehicle reaches the roadside antenna 2 (strictly stated, it comes in front of the antenna), the level of the signal proportional to the average field distribution function decreases abruptly. When the level of the signal supplied to the position detecting level decision circuit 12 becomes lower than the decision reference level L2, the level decision signal outputted by the level decision circuit 12 is supplied, as the calibration control signal, to the navigator 13 at the time instant T₁ in Fig. 6. Therefore, upon provision of the level decision signal, the data stored in the memory 14 are supplied to the navigator 13, so that the present position is calibrated in the device. As a result, the position data and the travel direction data are calibrated, so that the correct present position and travelling direction are displayed on the display unit. In the above-described operation, the signal level becomes lower than the reference level L1 so that the level decision circuit 8 outputs the low level signal to close the second gate circuit 11. In this case, however, the state of the flip-flop circuit 10 is maintained unchanged and therefore the first gate circuit 9 is held opened to cause the position detecting level decision circuit 12 to perform a position detecting operation. Thereafter, with the position and travelling direction thus calibrated as references, according to vehicle speed data from the vehicle speed sensor and travel direction data from the direction sensor the position and travel direction of the vehicle 3 together with the road map can be displayed with the arrow A on the display unit at all times. After the vehicle 3 immediately passes by the roadside antenna 2, the signal level exceeds the reference level L1, and the level decision circuit 8 outputs the high level signal again. Therefore, the flip-flop circuit 10 outputs the low level signal to close the first gate circuit 9. Accordingly, the position determining operation is not carried out at all until the vehicle approaches the following roadside antenna 2. Whenever the vehicle passes through the area covered by the signal radiated from the roadside antenna 2, the level of the output signal of the level decision circuit 8 changes "low", "high", "low", "high" and "low" in the stated order. Therefore, the position data can be accurately calibrated by detecting the lowering of the signal level which is caused when the vehicle approaches the roadside antenna 2. As is apparent from Fig. 6 showing the field strength distribution along the road, the received signal level decreases abruptly. Therefore, the position detection can be achieved with considerably high accuracy even if the reference level L2 of the position detecting level decision circuit 12 varies more or less, or even if position detecting level decision circuit 12 is variable in characteristic due to manufacturing deviations. Furthermore, the position detection is carried out by utilizing the abrupt decrase of the received signal level and according to the signal stabilized by the low-pass filter 7, as was described above. Therefore, if the decision reference level L2 is set to much lower than the value which may be reached during fading, then the position detection can be stably and accurately carried out substantially without being affected by multi-path transmission fading. As is apparent from Fig. 6, the data transmission region is increased. That is, the data transmission region is more than about five times that in the case where a uni-directional antenna is used. Fig. 7 is a block diagram showing a second example of the roadside beacon system according to the invention. The second example of Fig. 7 is different from the first example of Fig. 1 in the following points. The flip-flop circuit 10 is eliminated. Instead, a self-holding hold circuit 16 is connected to the first gate circuit 9 so that, once the first gate circuit 9 is opened, it is maintained opened. A data comparison circuit 15 is connected between the memory 14 and the navigator 13. The data comparison circuit 15 provides a signal representing the coincidence of data provided before and after the position detecting level decision circuit produces the output signal. The signal provided by the data comparison circuit 15 is applied, as a reset signal, to the hold circuit 16. As a result, the first gate circuit 19 is closed, and the supply of power to the position detecting level decision circuit 12 is interrupted. In these points, the circuit of Fig. 7 is different from that of Fig. 5. The data comparison circuit 15 is made up of a comparison circuit for comparing the contents of data provided before and after the position detecting level decision circuit 12 outputs the decision signal and a circuit for determining the presence or absence of data. As a result, when the vehicle 3 has passed through the data transmission region with the transmission of the data to be stored in the memory 14 suspended, the first gate circuit 9 and the second gate circuit 12 are reset. The operation of the second example of the roadside beacon system thus organized will be described. Similarly as in the first example shown in Fig. 5, when it is determined that the received signal level is higher than the reference level L1, the level decision circuit 8 outputs the high-level decision signal to open the first and second gate circuits 9 and 11 so that the signal stabilized by the low-pass filter 7 is supplied to the position detecting level decision circuit 12 while the signal amplified by the amplifier 5 is applied to the memory 14. The hold circuit 16 is set by the output signal of the first gate circuit 9, thus maintaining the first gate circuit 9 open. Supplying the signal to the position detecting level decision circuit 12 can be continued without being affected by the received signal level. The same data transmitted through the roadside antenna 2 have been stored in the memory 14 several times. Therefore, when the received signal level becomes lower than the reference level L2 and the position detecting level decision circuit 12 outputs the position detection signal, the contents of data provided before and after the position detection signal is outputted are compared in the comparison circuit 15. Upon coincidence of the data, the data comparison circuit 15 applies the reset signal to the hold circuit 16 so that the output signal of the position detecting level decision circuit 12 is suspended. And when the level of the decision signal outputted by the level decision circuit 8 becomes low, the first gate circuit 9 is closed so that the position detecting operation is suspended. If, in this connection, the reference level L2 is set much lower than a value which may be reached during fading, then the position detecting operation can be stably and accurately achieved without being affected by fading. When coincidence of the data is confirmed by the comparison circuit, data which have been stored in the memory 14, are supplied from the memory 14 through the data comparison circuit 15 to the navigator 13, so that the present position stored in the device is calibrated. The position data and the travelling direction data are calibrated on the present position thus calibrated, so that the correct present position and travelling direction of the vehicle are displayed on the display unit. In the case where non-coincidence of the data is confirmed by the comparison circuit 15, even if the position detecting level decision circuit 12 outputs the position detection signal, it is determined that the position detection signal thus outputted is not a correct one. That is, the hold circuit 16 is caused to keep outputting the high level signal. Therefore, the supply of the stored data into the navigator 13 from the memory 14 is suspended so that the incorrect calibration is positively prevented. Whenever the vehicle passes by each roadside antenna 2, the above-described operations are repeated, so that the navigation of the vehicle is accurately achieved irrespective of the travel distance. While the preferred embodiments of the invention have been described, the invention is not limited thereto or thereby. For instance, in the above described embodiments, the effect of the fading phenomenon is lessened by using the low-pass filter 7. However, if a signal amplitude-modulated with a sufficiently high frequency signal is transmitted from the roadside antenna and is demodulated in the mobile signal receiver, then the effect of the fading phenomenon can be eliminated from the received signal. Furthermore, if the mobile antenna is installed in such a manner as to tilt upward, then only the signal not effected by fading can be received. And it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes and modification may be made in the above-described embodiments without departing from the invention. As was described above, in the roadside beacon system of the invention, the split beam antennas are employed as the roadside antennas, and the position detecting operation is carried out by detecting the abrupt decrease of the receiving signal level. Therefore, the position detecting operation can be achieved accurately substantially without being affected by variation of the decision reference levels or variation in characteristic of the position detecting level decision means, and the amount of transmission data can be increased. Further, according to the present invention, wide data communication region can be also obtained.

Claims: A roadside beacon system for transmitting data including roadside antenna means (2) installed along a road and navigation means (13) carried by a vehicle including means (4) for receiving signals radiated by said antenna means characterized in that the roadside antenna means (2) include a split beam antenna and have a directional pattern such that the field strength of signals is abruptly lowered in front of said antenna, and in that the navigation means comprise position detection means for outputting a position signal when the field strength of said received signal becomes less than a first predetermined level (L2), and calibrating means for calibrating said navigation means (13) according to said position signal and position data included in said radiated signal. A roadside beacon system according to claim 1, wherein said position detection means comprises: region identifying means for detecting whether said vehicle is inside of a data transmission region of said roadside antenna means (2); and field strength discriminating means for determining when said field strength of said received signal is below said first predetermined level (L2). A roadside beacon system according to claim 2 wherein said region identifying means comprises: first level detecting means (8) for outputting a decision signal when said field strength of said received signal exceeds a second predetermined level (L1) greater than said first predetermined level (L2), and a flip-flop circuit (10) for receiving said decision signal from said level detecting means (8); and wherein said field strength discriminating means comprises: a gate circuit (9) which is opened by an output signal of said flip-flop circuit (10) and selectively passing at least part of said received signal, and second level detecting means (12) for detecting when said signal passed through said gate circuit (9) falls below said first predetermined level (L2). A roadside beacon system according to claim 2 wherein said region identifying means comprises: first level detecting means (8) for outputting a decision signal when said field strength of said received signal exceeds a second predetermined level (L1), a gate circuit (9) which is opened by an output signal of said first level detection means (8) and selectively passing at least part of said received signal; and wherein said field strength discriminating means comprises second level detecting means (12) for detecting when a level of said signal passed through said circuit falls below said first predetermined level (L2) and to thereupon output an interruption signal, data comparison means (15) for determining that position data included in said received signal before and after said interruption signal coincide and to thereupon output a coincidence signal, a hold circuit (16) connected to said gate circuit (9) to maintain it open on reception of an output signal from this circuit, and means for resetting said hold circuit (16) responsive to said coincidence signal. A roadside beacon system according to at least one of claims 1 to 4 further comprising means for displaying a vehicle position and an information based on said radiated signals.

Inventors: SHIBANO, YOSHIZO C/O OSAKA WORKS
Applicants: SUMITOMO ELECTRIC INDUSTRIES LIMITED
Application year: 1987
Main classification: G01S1
IPC codes: G01S1, G06F17, G08G1, H04B7