Interactive road traffic monitoring method and apparatus

Abstract: An interactive method for monitoring road traffic consisting of detecting, using a short-range receiver installed on a vehicle, the presence of preceding vehicles in the same running direction and their dynamic conditions, as transmmitted by the preceding vehicles, in the form of binary coded periodic message at non-overlapped time intervals for each vehicle, and of transmitting, to the following vehicles using a short-range transmitter installed on the vehicle, a binary coded message indicating the presence of the vehicle and, optionally, dynamic conditions of the preceding vehicles, at time intervals non-overlapping the transmission intervals of the preceding vehicles.

Description: This invention relates to an interactive method for monitoring road traffic, as well as to an onboard apparatus and a system for implementing the method, that is a method and an apparatus for broadcasting in real time information concerning road traffic conditions, travelling speed, vehicle acceleration/deceleration, headway, etc., hereinafter collectively referred to as "dynamic conditions". The system and the implemented method are directed to improve driving safety by ensuring real time warning of potentially hazardous and/or difficult traffic situations, thereby filling a long-felt need. Extensive investigation and research work has been devoted to the development of traffic monitoring systems which mostly employ fixed pickup stations for integrating, processing, and broadcasting information to road users. The detection and transmission arrangements are mostly based on either radar, or inductive cable, or radio, or steered wave transmission systems. Such monitoring systems have essentially the following limitations: updating is performed at long time intervals; local measurements are taken at far apart locations; and integrated and averaged information is generated which relates to the dynamic conditions of groups of vehicles, not to the individual vehicles. Vehicle-to-vehicle interactive systems, based on the use of radars or transponders to provide drivers with indications of headway or distance (and its variations) between vehicles, have long been proposed but have been unsuccessful because either impractical or limited by their purely local character, covering vehicle pairs only. Examples of such systems are described in US-A-5,068,654 and GB-A-1,380,587. In particular US-A-5,068,654 describes a system in which a central reference timing signal transmitter provides a reference periodic timing signal which is received by several vehicles. The vehicles are each provided with a transponder. Each of the transponders is allocated a unique time period for transmission, relative to the reference so that the several transponders do not interfere in transmission. Although the system overcomes the problem of interference among several transmitting vehicles, it can be usefully implemented at local level only involving a limited number of vehicles, which must be always the same. Moreover each vehicle transmits information related to its own dynamic state and does not relay any information related to other vehicles. Similar limitations are present in GB-A-1,380,597 where the problem of transmission interference is minimized, but not solved, by randomly transmitting in very narrow time windows over a much longer time period, so that simultaneous transmission by two or more vehicles is low. Such limitations are overcome by the interactive method for monitoring road, specifically superhighway or motorway, traffic according to this invention, wherein each vehicle, as equipped with a receiver, a short-range low-power transmitter, and a processor -- hereinafter also denoted by the acronym "TBA" (Terminale a Bordo di Auto = Car-Mounted Terminal) -- acts as a relaying unit in a chain of receivers/transmitters, whereby information can be propagated throughout a road section. This method consists of detecting, through the TBA, the presence of vehicles travelling ahead in the same running direction and their dynamic conditions, which are transmitted in the form of a binary (or decimal, or hexadecimal) coded periodic signal, for example, from each of the preceding vehicles, at non-overlapping time intervals for each vehicle, and of transmitting, through the onboard transmitter as synchronized to messages received from the preceding vehicles, a binary coded signal indicating at least the presence of the vehicle and dynamic conditions thereof to the following vehicles, at time intervals which do not overlap the transmission time intervals from the preceding vehicles whose presence has been detected. Thus, each vehicle operates as a moving station to sense in real time both its own dynamic conditions and those of the other vehicles ahead of it, in that it acts as a receiver and transmitter of information about the traffic flow. According to a further aspect of this invention, therefore, the transmission takes place in a rearward or reverse direction from the running direction, in cascade between the various vehicles, and is added useful information (dynamic conditions) concernant the preceding vehicles over a predetermined distance, on the occurrence of each reception/transmission. According to a further aspect of this invention, the various vehicles which precede in the same running direction use the same transmission and reception frequency, and interference of the signals generated by several vehicles is avoided using a time-sharing method of transmission whereby each vehicle will periodically transmit a binary coded signal using, within one time frame, a time window not used by any other nearby vehicles. According to a further aspect of this invention, the synchronization of transmissions between different vehicles, as required to prevent transmission interference, is of a dynamic type and related to a leading vehicle in the queue. The leading role may be played by any vehicle which is not preceded, within the reception range, by any other vehicle or fixed road section station. According to a further aspect of this invention, the essential instantaneous dynamic conditions transmitted from each vehicle consist of the vehicle speed, deceleration (where applicable) and distance travelled from an absolute starting reference. This information, which is received in real time within the transmission and reception range, allows any potentially hazardous situation in the neighborhood to be detected. Additional information transmitted from each vehicle relates to the averaged dynamic conditions of vehicles travelling a distance ahead outside the reception/transmission range. Such information, which would be received by cascade propagation, is the outcome of the instantaneous dynamic condition processing carried out by the individual TBAs and represents averaged dynamic conditions of far or medium-distance traffic, so that appropriate decisions to meet such conditions can be made. For implementing this method, a vehicle-mounted apparatus is provided which comprises essentially a receiver and a transmitter, preferably but not necessarily directional FM ones, logic circuits including a timer unit, a memory unit, and a microprocessor for temporarily storing received messages and processing them, generating messages to be transmitted, and transmitting the messages synchronously. These onboard apparatus form a communications chain system which is largely self-maintained and can be suitably integrated to fixed apparatus supplying backup, inizialization, etc. indications, which would locate at the adit/exit ends of the superhighway or motorway section and suitably confine the monitoring system for more efficient and straightforward handling of the same. The features and advantages of the invention will become more clearly apparent from the following description of a method according to this invention, which is defined by the appended claims, and of an apparatus and a system for implementing the method, as well as from the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a block diagram of an onboard apparatus for implementing the method of this invention; Figure 2 is a time diagram of the allocation of a transmission window as used by a vehicle within one transmission period; Figure 3 shows, in diagramatic form and as divided into fields, a preferred structure of a message from a vehicle within a transmission window; Figure 4 shows diagramatically the structure and subdivision into subfields of a first field in Figure 3; Figure 5 shows diagramatically the structure and subdivision into subfields of a second field in Figure 3; and Figure 6 shows diagramatically the structure of a system for monitoring a road section according to the invention. With reference to Figure 1, an onboard apparatus according to the invention comprises a transmitter 1, a receiver 2, a timing unit 3 having an internal oscillator 4, a microprocessor 5, a control memory 6, a read/write memory split function-wise into plural buffers 7, 8, and digital dynamic condition generators, such as a vehicle (numberplate) spotter VID 9, a speedometer TACH 10, an odometer ODOM 11, braking and/or lane sensors SENS 12, a clock TOD 13, and a running direction indicator DIR 14. The memory 8 may be seen as divided into three modules 8A, 8B, 8C adapted to respectively store instantaneous dynamic conditions (DYNAMIC INSTANT COND MEM), averaged dynamic conditions (DYNAMIC AVERAGE COND MEM), and real time updatings of the vehicle distances (DIST UPD). The apparatus is completed by shift registers PI/SO 15 having parallel inputs and serial outputs, shift registers SI/PO 16 having serial inputs and parallel outputs for writing/reading into/from the buffers 7, 8 which are, preferably but not necessarily, of the multi-port type to allow direct reading from the buffer 7 and writing in the buffer 8 through direct memory access mechanisms (DMA) without interfering with any concurrent activities of the microprocessor and without requiring its operation. Also provided for this purpose are a transmission window manager unit TR WINDOW MAN 18, whose function is to be explained, for relieving the microprocessor 5 of transmission timing tasks, an averaged data manager (AVER DATA MANAGER) block 19 which continually re-processes the averaged dynamic conditions to update the relative distance data prior to re-transmitting it, and a distance updating (DIST. UPDT) block 20 to update, as by extrapolation, the distance run data by each car. It may be appreciated that, by providing a microprocessor with adequate processing capacity, all the control functions of receive/transmit, read/write the buffers, and data update can be performed by the microprocessor itself. The apparatus is completed by a keyboard 21 for interrogating the TBA about specific conditions and presenting them on a display 22, and a comparator 23 for comparing and monitoring in real time vital information to traffic safety and for operating warning (ALARM) devices 24. Before describing the operation of the apparatus in Figure 1, in order to illustrate the method of this invention, it may be appropriate to review, with reference to Figures 2, 3, 4, 5, what the contents of the messages being received and transmitted by each vehicle are and their time relationships. Each vehicle receives, through an onboard receiver which is assumed to be directional and to have a limited range rating of 300 m, the messages transmitted from all the vehicles possibly preceding it in the same running direction and being located within 300 m from it, this range being conservatively assumed to be extended to 600 meters to allow for exceptionally favorable weather conditions. The number of the vehicles possibly falling within this range would depend on the characteristics of the road section. For instance, with three-lane superhighways or motorways, it can be assumed that their number would never exceed 256, including crawling queue situations. Actually, the number of vehicles is bound to be much smaller than that. To avoid transmission interference, therefore, each vehicle is to use a separate transmission time window from those of other vehicles to periodically issue messages having the same predetermined period for all the vehicles. Since the messages being transmitted would concern the inception of potentially hazardous situations, in order for the following drivers to maneuver in good time, the transmission period should be a short one, lasting no more than one second, for example. This means that, as shown in Figure 2, each vehicle could be afforded a time window of no more than 1:256 = 4 msec. The problem of vehicle synchronization has two facets: a first one concerns recognition of binary information being transmitted (using a carrier at a high frequency, e.g. on the order of hundreds of MHz) at a base frequency using modulation (such as PM, FM, NRZ, etc.) techniques which would allow recognition and frequency lockup either through conventional (PLO) circuits or sequences of several synchronization bits having an appropriate periodicity. In fact, while all the vehicles are setup to operate at the same transmission and reception carrier frequency rating and the same binary transfer rate, which may be set by specially accurate and stable crystal oscillators, it will be appreciated that frequency deviations between vehicle are possible. In practice, such deviations in the binary transfer rate can be limited to ± 100 ppm and, hence, readily recovered by transmitting synchronization fields. A second facet concerns identification in time of the starting time of each period, and definition of its duration, which should be the same for all vehicles, and the location of the transmission windows within the period. This problem could be solved by providing one (or more) fixed station(s) to generate periodic timing signals with a sufficiently long range to cover the whole road section affected. This signal, when received by all the vehicles, would allow the period start and duration to be identified, and the internal timings to be matched accordingly. A fixed local timing station with a limited range would be inadequate, on the other hand, because frequency drifts and attendant offsets would unavoidably occur outside its range. According to one aspect of this invention, vehicle synchronization does not take place using an absolute fixed time reference, but rather using essentially the same transmission signals as are received from other vehicles or local stations which are, therefore, synchronized in cascade, in a related manner to one another with the possible exception of a leading vehicle which is receiving no signals. As shown in Figure 3, within the 4-milliseconds transmission window used by a vehicle (and selected as explained hereinafter), a message is transmitted which comprises a bit string carrying the following meanings: a first field SYNC & START, e.g. of 8 bytes, having a synchronization and frequency lockup function, and identifying the start of the message transmission; a second field WIND.N, e.g. of 2 bytes, meaning the order number of the window used, and hence the location of the window in the period; this field is sent in real time as soon as it is received, from the register 16 to the unit 18 (Figure 1), and enables the unit 18 to synchronize the timer unit 3 to the period used by the transmitting vehicle and to define which is to be the start of the next period (period synchronization); a third field IST.DAT, e.g. of 12 bytes, describing in binary code the dynamic conditions of the transmitting vehicle; fourth and fifth fields AVER DAT1 and AVER DAT2, e.g. of 80 and 72 bytes, respectively, describing in binary code the average running dynamic conditions of those vehicles which precede the transmitting vehicle within distance ranges which are predetermined by the transmitting vehicle; and a sixth field EMERG, e.g. of 32 bytes, being devoted to the transmission of a code indicating an emergency situation, as may arise from a situation of impending danger, e.g. sudden brake application resulting in greater deceleration than a predetermined value (e.g. greater than 30 m/s 2 ). Additionally to these fields, synchronization and lockup fields SYNC may be suitably interspersed which have 8 bytes each, and an end field END which has 8 bytes provided for closing the message. In all, the message may comprise, for example, 234 x 8 = 1872 bits which require a transfer rate of about 500 kbaud (about 2 µsec per bit) for their transmission within a time window of 4 msec. It should be noted that according to a particular aspect of this invention, a time subwindow having a duration, in the assumed condition, of about 640 µsec will correspond to the field EMERG. It is contemplated that this subwindow can be accessed by all the vehicles, not just by the one to which the current transmission window belongs. Concurrent transmission access by several vehicles to this time subwindow creates no problems from interference and misrecognition of the messages because, but for unavoidable limited offsets, the different vehicles are synchronized to one another and the signal propagation time differences over a range of 300 m do not exceed one microsecond. When the emergency code, which is the same for all the vehicles, comprises, for example, a succession of bytes (not bits) alternately at 1 and 0 logic levels, the reception of the overlapping offset signals will not hinder recognition in the subfield of a succession of groups of bits alternately at a logic 1 and logic 0 level, at least so long as the offset is on the order of a few microseconds. In this way (or using other equivalent expedients such as carrier activation or masking in the subwindow dedicated to emergency signal relaying), all the vehicles are enabled to transmit the emergency signal almost at once (with a time lag of no more than 4 msec from recognition of the critical event) without having to wait for their own transmission window. Figure 4 shows in greater detail the structure of the instantaneous data field IST DAT. Preferably, this field comprises: a vehicle (numberplate) spotting code VID, e.g. of 5 bytes; a vehicle speed identifying code SPEED, e.g. of 1 byte, as measured by the speedometer 10; a code SPACE (e.g. of 4 bytes) identifying (with a resolution of 1 m) the distance travelled by the vehicle, as measured by the odometer 11 which would be suitably and automatically initialized to an appropriate value as the vehicle enters the road section (absolute starting reference); and a code ACC, e.g. of 1 byte, for identifying a state of acceleration/deceleration and the extent thereof, as well as the running direction and the lane occupied as detected by the sensors 12 and 14 (e.g. 2 bytes). It may be appreciated that to be safe, the above codes (as well as the transmission window identifying code) may be associated with error detection and correction codes. Figure 5 shows in detail the preferred structure for a first averaged data field AVER.DAT1. This field comprises: a first code TR WIN, e.g. of 32 bytes, identifying time intervals or transmission windows already occupied by the vehicles which precede the vehicle generating this code, additionally to its reception field and within an appropriate distance range, e.g. of 1 km; a second code, e.g. of one byte, indicating the averaged speed (mean speed of the individual vehicles) of the vehicles ahead within a predetermined distance range, e.g. 0 to 250 m; a third code, e.g. of 3 bytes, indicating the time (hour, minute, second) of the measurement; and other subsequent codes which are equivalent to the second and the third and indicate the mean speed of the vehicles ahead within predetermined relative distance ranges, e.g. 250 to 500 m, 500 m to 1 km, 1 km to 2 km, 2 km to 3 km, and so forth up to 10 km, as well as the speed measurement time. These speed codes are obviously constructed from cumulated information during transmission between vehicles which is processed by the onboard apparatus in view of the indication SPACE originally present in the instantaneous data which enables the relative distances between the transmitting vehicle and those ahead to be defined with good approximation. Although the measurements of the distance travelled as provided by the odometer are affected by systematic errors, they are nonetheless far more accurate than a distance measurement based on the transmission/reception range and the number of re-transmissions of signals, from the source to the receiving vehicle involved. The accuracy of the space measurement can be refined by means of expedients to be explained. Quite similar is the structure of the field AVER DAT 2 which can supply indications of the mean speed over the 90 km after the first 10 (relative distance of the individual receiving TBAs) divided into intervals of 10 km each. The space-speed-time relationship thus obtained may either be absolute (referred to road subsections identified by the space indication from the start of the road section) or relative (distance from the vehicle receiving the information) in view of the distance travelled by it. With these assumptions, the re-transmission mechanism between vehicles enables the traffic condition to be known 100 km away with a time lag which would at worst be on the order of 4 minutes. The worst case considered corresponds to a traffic situation wherein a single vehicle is present within the transmission range of the vehicle ahead and the transmission window used by the vehicle ahead follows that used by the following vehicle directly. In the instance of a random selection of the transmission windows (from the available ones) by the vehicles, the average delay would be on the order of 2 minutes. In practice, nothing would forbid each vehicle from synchronizing itself to the vehicles ahead by selecting the first available transmission window following in time those used by the vehicles ahead. In this case, the delay in propagating the information would be drastically reduced to within a few seconds. It could be remarked that the relay mechanism for transferring the messages assumes the presence of vehicles which are a distance apart not exceeding the transmission/reception range all along the road section. This restriction can be easily overcome by providing fixed installations along the road section, e.g. set 10 km apart from each other or at the gates of a superhighway, which would receive (by radio or cable) information about the traffic conditions and relay it locally (with a reduced transmission range of 100-300 m, for example) to the running vehicles through one or more privileged transmission windows within the period. Such stations could tune in to the running vehicles, or conversely, the running vehicles could tune in thereto. Such stations could also provide, with a margin for uncertainty due to transmission range and time, a useful distance indication for odometer trip zeroing on the running vehicles. In combination with inductive or optical devices placed on the road blanket and co-operating with onboard sensors providing spatial confirmation of the received information, uncertainty can be completely eliminated from trip zeroing and systematic measurement errors of the onboard odometer can be corrected (using two measured base validations). It now becomes possible to describe with reference to Figure 1 how the method and apparatus of this invention operate in connection with the different possible cases. 1st Case : isolated non-initialized vehicle, that is outside an assisted system. Isolated non-initialized vehicle means a vehicle at a greater distance from other vehicles than the transmission/reception range and receiving, therefore, no signals. In addition, the vehicle has previously received no signals enabling it to initialize and synchronize the onboard instrumentation to such information as the spatial position, running direction, and possible others. Absent any signal from the detector 2, the onboard apparatus will operate on its own account and the timing unit 3 will randomly define the time location of the transmission period whose duration is defined as a predetermined multiple of the oscillator 4 period. The managing unit for the transmission window 16 arbitrarily defines the location of the transmission window within the period. The microprocessor 5 and timer unit 3 control the transmitter 1 to periodically output messages which comprise the fields of SYNC & START, and possibly the bits of the "Emerg" field. When the vehicle is equipped with compass sensors which allow the running direction to be defined, this indication too can be transmitted. These indications can be utilized by vehicles which follow a smaller distance away than the transmission/reception range to detect potentially hazardous situations (transmission of the data field "Emerg"). Under such circumstances, any vehicle mileage indication would be meaningless. If the vehicle presently enters the transmission range of one or more vehicles ahead of it, the receiver 2 will begin to receive signals and assert a signal SIG.PRES of reception in progress to the timer unit 3. Should a transmission from the transmitter 1 be concurrently in progress under control by the unit 3, this is taken to mean that two transmissions are interfering with each other and that the vehicle is not synchronized to the ahead ones. Therefore, the transmitter 1 is clamped off. Any following vehicles would then receive a partial message which may be ignored or acknowledged as it is. On receiving the SYNC & START heading of the message, the unit 3 can synchronize itself to the ahead vehicles. 2nd Case : vehicle entering an assisted road section. Assisted road section means here a checked access section at whose adit(s) stations for initializing the onboard apparatus are provided. The stations may be equipped with receiving and transmitting apparatus quite similar to the onboard apparatus, and can function as synchronization masters to impose their synchronization on all vehicles entering their transmission range, or as slaves tied to the synchronization being imposed on them by the passing vehicles. Expediently, the initializing stations would use one or more dedicated transmission windows to transfer information to the incoming vehicles over a transmission period being equal to or a multiple of that used by the vehicles. These stations serve to initialize the onboard apparatus, issuing information about the spatial position (km) of the station, exact time, and conventional running direction. This information, when received by the onboard apparatus, allows the onboard instruments to be set. In particular, the space indication can be confirmed and made accurate as the vehicle moves past electromagnetic, optical, or mechanical devices co-operating with onboard sensors. At this time, each vehicle entering the assisted section will have all the necessary basic information available for generating the information contained in the already discussed messages, and specifically the vehicle spatial position SPACE of the instantaneous data field, running direction, travel lane (which is to be checked and altered continually by the onboard sensors), and the exact time of message transmission. Each TBA becomes, therefore, the transmitting element of an instantaneous data message related to the vehicle, which message will be added the reception of further instantaneous data averaged by the vehicles ahead. Such data is suitably processed and relayed onwards. The information received from a preceding vehicle is updated once each second on the average in a non-sequential manner (the position of the time window used does not reflect the physical position of the car within a car queue). Accordingly, to avoid detecting inexistent hazardous conditions (such as a possible spatial collision of vehicles), almost continual updating is performed by extrapolation (e.g. every 50 or 100 msec) through the distance updating block 20 (DIST UPDT) for the received instantaneous dynamic conditions (speed, space), and by comparison with the dynamic conditions of the receiving vehicle via the comparator 23. 3rd Case: vehicles running through an assisted section. The behavior of vehicles going through an assisted section can be readily understood from examination of Figure 6 (and with reference to Figure 1, where appropriate), which shows diagramatically an assisted section having an adit gate 50 and an end exit gate 53. The gate 53 is operative to clear outgoing vehicles of information no longer meaningful on leaving the section, such as running direction indications (unless a vehicle is equipped with indicators of its own which are based on a common reference unrelated to the section, such as a compass). The road section is occupied by a number of vehicles A, B, C, D, E, N, following one another in that order towards the exit 53. Since the messages are transferred in the reverse order, the cumulated information stream from vehicle A to vehicle N will be expediently considered. It will be assumed that no vehicles are preceding A, and that vehicle B is following 250 m behind vehicle A within the receive/transmit range of both vehicles, A and B. Leaving aside the aspects connected with synchronization of the vehicles, already exhaustively reviewed hereinabove, vehicle A will transmit at a time T0 information concerning its identity (numberplate), speed, acceleration, and spatial position relatively to an absolute reference such as gate 50. This information is received by vehicle B, which will load it into the buffer 8 (Figure 1). Vehicle B may also receive, at subsequent times, further like information from other vehicles, such as A1, between B and A. At a time T1, which may lag some 4 msec to 1 sec behind, according to the position of the transmission window of B relative to A, vehicle B will be transmitting information concerning its speed, distance, and acceleration. To this information, there add indications of the average speed of vehicles A and A1 ahead and of the measurement transmission time. These indications are generated by the microprocessor 5 and/or the block 19 (AVER DATA MANAGER) which will read the information 8 stored in the buffer 8, compute its mean value and store it into the buffer 7 for later transmission. Since there are no more vehicles ahead of A, whose average speed is indicated, the speed average of A and A1 is taken as the average speed of all the vehicles ahead of B within a 250 m range. The whole of this information is received by vehicle C, which is assumedly no more than 250 m away, along with additional like information received from other vehicles within the reception range of C. At a time T2 after T1, vehicle C will transmit information about its speed, spatial position (hence, distance), and acceleration. Added to this information is an indication of the average speed of the vehicles (such as B) preceding it within the 250 m range and of the recording time. All this information is relayed onwards, however, as relating to vehicles ahead of C within the 250 to 500 m range. Vehicle D, assumedly following 250 m behind vehicle C, will receive this information and relay it at a time T3. In this case, the averaged information originating from vehicle B is relayed as information concerning vehicles ahead of D within the 0.5 to 1 km range, and that originating from vehicle C as concerning vehicles ahead of D in the 250 to 500 m range. The relaying process from vehicle D to the following vehicle E (also 250 m away) is quite similar. The single difference is that the information within the 0.5 to 1 km range will not be transferred (logically) to the range relating to vehicles 1 to 2 km away, and may only be further averaged with values which move into the 0.5 to 1 km range from the 250-500 m range. The information related to the 0.5-1 km range will only be transferred to the 1-2 km range on the occurrence of two transmission periods and 4 successive transmission periods for the following ranges up to a 1 km scope. The information of the 1 km scope ranges is transferred to the 10 km scope ranges every 40 successive transmission periods. The process outlined above only holds for static conditions and for vehicles which are exactly 250 m apart. However, it will be appreciated that the actual range of each relaying operation can be taken into account by associating, with each field of averaged values, a code indicating the actual relaying range and being progressively incremented. The foregoing description is understood to be esemplary and non-limitative of the method and the apparatus according to the invention, and has been simplified for a more more convenient illustration of their basic features, which consist of relaying, rearwards between vehicles along a road section, instantaneous information about dynamic conditions of each of the vehicles and averaged dynamic conditions related to definite space and time positions, and all this by a method which prevents vehicle transmission interference. The Instantaneous Dynamic conditions identified are basically speed, acceleration, and spatial positions, where allowed for by outside backup enabling measuring errors to be corrected, but may also include (as regards the Averaged Dynamic Conditions) such other factors as the number of vehicles present within predetermined space and time ranges or an indication of the traffic density and evenness, any significant deviations from the mean values, and so forth, as well as outside originated information (police, weather reports, roadworks ahead, etc.). Thus, the described method and apparatus variants may be manifold. In particular, to restrict the transmission interference problem (solved using time sharing techniques) to just vehicles which are running and precede in the same direction, no directional transmitters and receivers are required. Directional selectivity can be obtained by using two different carrier frequencies according to running direction, and discrimination between preceding and following vehicles (whose messages may be ignored) can be obtained by recognizing the spatial and relative positions of the vehicles. Within this frame, recognition of the following vehicles (and likewise, misrecognition of the vehicles ahead) may be useful to match the transmitting power (or receiving sensitiveness in the instance of the vehicles ahead), and hence the range under specific traffic conditions to provide in all events cascaded intercommunications between the vehicles with no loss of information and no need for fixed backup installations to relay transmission even under light traffic conditions. In addition, it affords advantages in terms of minimized synchronization interference, if any. In fact, when a leading vehicle in a group of vehicles is forced to select another transmission window in approaching a group of vehicles ahead, it can do it taking into account the transmission windows being used by the following vehicles as well, to avoid interfering with their transmission windows. Other possible variants relate to the structure of the information being transmitted, particularly in view of that certain averaged information about remote traffic conditions is actually updated at longer intervals than the transmission period. Thus, it becomes possible to spread such information, as identified by an associated code, over plural successive transmission windows. In this way, the number of bits to be transferred to each transmission window can be reduced substantially, and for a given transmission period and logic rate, the number of transmission windows can be increased, or the transmission period reduced for the same transmission logic rate and window number. The hazardous and emergency situations which have been indicated as identifiable by way of example, such as sudden braking of preceding vehicles and eccessive speed relative to the preceding vehicles, may be expanded to include different situations, such as excessive speed of the following vehicles, unsafe headway, overtaking and lane jumping. The basic advantages offered by the method, apparatus and system according to the invention over known solutions are, additionally to low manufacturing cost as afforded by their low-power microelectronics, high applicational versatility and the ability to integrate far-apart functions, such as detecting local dynamic conditions and detecting and cumulating remote but averaged conditions to one vehicle with no need for expensive fixed installations. The foregoing description makes no mention of how the information picked up by the onboard apparatus can be put to use. This is wholly irrelevant for the purposes of this invention. It will be appreciated that the onboard apparatus may include sound and optical devices to give warning of a danger or an emergency, automatic devices acting on the engine fuel system or the vehicle brake system, and voice or keyboard interrogation devices for displaying in voice or visual forms information selected or processed by the apparatus from the collected data.

Claims: An interactive method for monitoring road traffic, consisting of detecting, through a receiver (2) and a processor (5) installed on a vehicle, the presence of vehicles travelling ahead in the same running direction and their dynamic conditions, as periodically transmitted, with a predetermined period, in the form of a coded message from each of said preceding vehicles, in transmission time windows of said period, distinct for each vehicle, of detecting, through said receiver (2) and said processor (5), at least a transmission time windows in said period, not used by any other preceding vehicle whose presence has been detected, and of transmitting, through a transmitter (1) installed on the vehicle, a coded message indicating at least the presence of said vehicle and dynamic conditions thereof to following vehicles, during said detected at least one time window. A method as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the range of said receiver (1) and transmitter (2) is on the order of hundreds of meters. A method as claimed in Claim 1, wherein said dynamic conditions include at least one state of acceleration/deceleration. A method as claimed in Claim 1, wherein said transmission time windows include an emergency signal transmission field for overlapped use by several vehicles, said emergency field being used upon recognition by a vehicle of an emergency situation, the recognition of a deceleration state in excess of a predetermined value constituting an emergency situation. A method as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein said dynamic conditions include travelling speed. A method as claimed in Claim 5, wherein a vehicle identifier (VID) is associated with said speed. A method as claimed in the preceding claims, wherein said coded message transmitted by said vehicle includes identification of the time windows used by said preceding vehicles and an indication of the mean speed of said preceding vehicles. A method as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein said coded message transmitted by said vehicle includes an indication of the spatial position of said vehicle, relative to a starting reference, and a plurality of indications, each concernant the mean speed of preceding vehicles traveling in the same direction within predetermined distance ranges. A method as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein said transmitted coded message includes an indication of the direction in which said vehicle is proceeding. A vehicle-mounted apparatus for interactive road traffic monitoring, comprising: a receiver (2) for receiving a plurality of periodic signals being transmitted in distinct time windows of a predetermined period and each indicating the presence of a preceding vehicle and its dynamic conditions; first comparator means (23) for comparing said plurality of periodic signals with at least one dynamic condition of said vehicle; means (5) for processing said plurality of signals to generate a mean value of dynamic conditions of preceding vehicles transmitting said plurality of signals; Means for detecting (18), in said period, time windows not used for transmission of said received periodic signals by preceding vehicles, and a transmitter (1), responsive to said means for detecting (18), to transmit, in a time window detected as not used for transmission by preceding vehicles whose presence is indicated by said periodic signals, a periodic signal indicating at least one dynamic condition of said vehicle and said mean value of dynamic conditions of said preceding vehicles. An apparatus as claimed in Claim 10, including means (19) for identifying the transmission time windows of each of said plurality of received periodic signals to associate, with said mean value of dynamic conditions of said preceding vehicles, an identification code (TR WIN) of said time windows. An apparatus as claimed in Claim 10, including a reset means (5) for setting distance travelled and elapsed time measuring means (11,13) back to an original state in response to a received initialization signal. An interactive road traffic monitoring system, comprising a plurality of vehicle-mounted apparatus, each as claimed in Claim 12, and a plurality of means (50,53), one for each adit to a road section, for generating and transmitting said initialization signal.

Inventors: SCURATI MARIO, SCURATI, MARIO
Applicants: ST MICROELECTRONICS SRL, STMICROELECTRONICS S.R.L.
Application year: 1993
Main classification: G08G1
IPC codes: G08G1, B60W30