Method for controlling the traffic at an intersection, a roundabout or a bottleneck

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for controlling the traffic at an intersection (2), a roundabout (3) or a bottleneck, wherein road users (5, 6, 7, 8) equipped with UWB technology detect one another as objects, determine their respective relative positions with respect to one another and, on this basis, each create a map, wherein the maps are transmitted to the other road users (5, 6, 7, 8) by means of vehicle-to-vehicle communication (V2V) and are fused, wherein the road users (5, 6, 7, 8) negotiate the right of way order on the basis of the fused map using vehicle-to-vehicle communication (V2V). The invention also relates to a method for controlling the traffic at an intersection (2), a roundabout (3) or a bottleneck using a light signal system (4), wherein a plurality of UWB nodes (9) are permanently installed with a known position at the intersection (2), the roundabout (3) or the bottleneck and detect road users (5, 6, 7, 8, 10) as objects, determine their respective positions and, on this basis, create a map, wherein the UWB nodes (9) transmit the right of way order to the road users (5, 6, 7, 8, 10) on the basis of the map using vehicle-to-infrastructure communication.

Description

[0001] Procedure for regulating traffic at an intersection, roundabout or bottleneck

[0002] The invention relates to a method for regulating traffic at an intersection, a roundabout or a bottleneck according to the preamble of claim 1 or 2.

[0003] The following problems exist with automated driving: inadequate detection of all road users in urban areas, accidents due to insufficient clarification of the right-of-way sequence, accidents involving non-motorized road users (VRU - vulnerable road users) due to poor detection and faulty functional response, congestion at poorly controlled intersections and roundabouts, and a lack of emergency lanes for emergency vehicles and accidents involving emergency vehicles.

[0004] Assistance systems as well as semi-autonomous and / or autonomous vehicles have difficulty fully assessing urban situations and deriving appropriate action and trajectory using environmental sensors alone. Especially at busy intersections and roundabouts, environmental sensors are often insufficient to avoid a collision with other road users with a very high degree of certainty.

[0005] Furthermore, it is very difficult to combine these system decisions with efficient driving, as the system often only makes the decision to activate the brakes when approaching closer. As a result, the vehicle's potential energy is not utilized, especially in truck-trailer combinations, and braking often has to be performed using the service brake instead of a retarder or the recuperation power of an electric drive motor. Another difficulty is predicting emergency vehicles early enough so that assistance systems can warn the driver early or react to them themselves.

[0006] Previous approaches to these three problem areas are based on optical or electromagnetic environmental sensors. These sensors identify vehicles, emergency vehicles, and other road users based on their reflection or in a camera image and localize them in a vehicle coordinate system. This position is subject to certain deviations, and especially in urban environments, there are often obscured or difficult-to-detect objects and road users. Emergency vehicles can often only be responded to once their sirens or emergency lights are detectable by microphones and cameras.

[0007] CN 113066299 A describes a digital passenger transport system based on vehicle-road cloud integration. A digital road-end subsystem includes a road-end detection module, a road-end positioning module, and a road-end signal priority module; a digital cloud subsystem includes a cloud mapping module, a cloud intelligent scheduling module, a cloud remote monitoring module, and a cloud remote intervention control module; and a digital vehicle-side subsystem includes a vehicle-side detection module, a vehicle-side positioning module, and a vehicle-side intelligent driving module. The vehicle-side intelligent driving module is used to obtain a collaborative decision and control result between the vehicle and the road in the cloud.The system improves the safety of autonomous driving of passenger cars through collaborative vehicle-road fusion perception and collaborative vehicle-road fusion positioning. The reliability and efficiency of autonomous driving of passenger cars are ensured through the cloud-based collaborative decision-making and control function between the vehicle and the road. The shortcomings of autonomous driving under conditions of blind spot detection, GPS signal loss, long waiting times at red lights, abnormal and out-of-control vehicles, and the like in single-vehicle intelligent driving are overcome.

[0008] The invention is based on the object of providing a novel method for regulating traffic at an intersection, a roundabout, or a bottleneck. This object is achieved according to the invention by a method for regulating traffic at an intersection, a roundabout, or a bottleneck having the features of claim 1 or 2.

[0009] According to one aspect of the present invention, a method for regulating traffic at an intersection, a roundabout, or a bottleneck is proposed. Road users equipped with UWB technology detect each other as objects, measure their respective relative positions, and create a map based on this information. The maps are transmitted to the other road users and merged via vehicle-to-vehicle communication. According to the invention, the road users negotiate the priority order among themselves based on the merged map via vehicle-to-vehicle communication.

[0010] According to a further aspect of the present invention, a method for regulating traffic at an intersection, a roundabout, or a bottleneck with a traffic light system is proposed. Several UWB nodes with a known position are permanently installed at the intersection, roundabout, or bottleneck. They detect road users as objects, determine their respective positions, and create a map based on this. According to the invention, the UWB nodes transmit the priority order and traffic light switching to the road users based on the map via vehicle-to-infrastructure communication.

[0011] The solution according to the invention makes it possible to increase traffic safety and improve energy and traffic efficiency.

[0012] Advantageous embodiments of the invention are the subject of the subclaims.

[0013] Embodiments of the invention are explained in more detail below with reference to drawings.

[0014] Showing:

[0015] Fig. 1 is a schematic view of a traffic situation at an intersection, Fig. 2 is a schematic view of a traffic situation at a roundabout, and

[0016] Fig. 3 is a schematic view of a traffic situation at an intersection with

[0017] Traffic light system.

[0018] Corresponding parts are provided with the same reference numerals in all figures.

[0019] Figure 1 is a schematic view of a traffic situation 1 at an intersection 2.

[0020] Figure 2 is a schematic view of a traffic situation 1 at a roundabout 3.

[0021] The idea of ​​the present invention is to negotiate the right of way in urban situations in advance by combining UWB tracking technology (UWB - Ultra Wide Band) as a network of many nodes and vehicle-to-vehicle communication V2V and / or vehicle-to-infrastructure communication (V2X) in a handshake procedure.

[0022] In this process, road users 5, 6, 7, 8, for example pedestrians 5, cyclists 6, passenger cars 7, and / or trucks 8, become UWB network nodes in urban situations, detect each other as objects and their respective relative positions to one another, and each create a map. This mapping of road users 5, 6, 7, 8 in an urban situation is exchanged among road users 5, 6, 7, 8 using vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication and / or vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2X) communication. The different maps are merged to create an improved fused map. This object recognition already makes the assistance systems of road users 5, 6, 7, 8 more efficient.

[0023] In order to further reduce the risk of accidents, it is planned that road users 5, 6, 7, 8 also negotiate in advance the priority sequence at intersections 2, roundabouts 3, bottlenecks and similar.

[0024] This use of UWB reference tracking is based on the fact that many UWB-enabled devices are active in urban situations. Almost every pedestrian 5 and / or cyclist 6 carries a UWB-enabled smartphone. Vehicles such as passenger cars 7 and / or trucks 8 are equipped with UWB-enabled telematics units or will be in the future. Since this frequency of UWB-enabled devices means that more than three UWB-enabled devices are almost always reachable, the reference position relative to other devices can be measured using TOA (time of arrival), TDOA (time difference of arrival), or TW-TOF (two-way - time of flight). It is not crucial that an absolute position be recorded in the form of coordinates; it is sufficient that reference distances and, ideally, speeds are also tracked.

[0025] After the positions of other road users 5, 6, 7, and 8 have been recorded by UWB tracking, these positions are exchanged and referenced to each other using vehicle-to-vehicle communication (V2V). Continuously improving the positioning accuracy makes it possible to negotiate the right-of-way when road users 5, 6, 7, and 8 cross paths and confirm this via a handshake. This expanded V2V application enables a significant reduction in the risk of accidents in urban situations without signal lights.

[0026] Road users 10 not equipped with UWB technology can be informed about the positions of other road users 5, 6, 7, 8 by means of vehicle-to-vehicle communication V2V, so that the functionality of the assistance systems of road users 10 not equipped with UWB technology can also be significantly increased.

[0027] Figure 3 is a schematic view of a traffic situation 1 at an intersection 2 with traffic lights 4.

[0028] At an intersection 2 with traffic lights 4, permanently installed UWB nodes 9 are used, which, on the one hand, improve positioning at intersection 2 and, on the other hand, regulate the priority sequence taking into account the switching of traffic lights 4. The future switching of the traffic lights is also transmitted to the vehicles near the intersection in order to make approaching the intersection more efficient.

[0029] At intersections 2 with traffic lights 4, the infrastructure can be integrated into communication and right-of-way negotiations. Fixed UWB nodes 9 with a known position (also in reference to intersection 2) are located at intersection 2 to map the objects, particularly road users 5, 6, 7, and 8, at intersection 2. These fixed UWB nodes 9 communicate as a V2X system with road users 5, 6, 7, and 8 and describe the right-of-way sequence when traffic lights 4 or part of them are green.

[0030] The combination of UWB tracking with V2V / V2X communication for traffic control in urban areas enables: the negotiation of right of way between road users 5, 6, 7, 8 in urban situations without signal light system 4, the regulation of right of way by UWB tracking and V2X communication of the infrastructure in urban situations with signal light system 4, the extension of active safety assistance systems of the

[0031] Road users 5, 6, 7, 8 through object detection (also in NLOS - non-line of sight) based on UWB tracking with V2V / V2X communication, increased energy efficiency through drive assistants in urban situations based on traffic situation detection through UWB tracking with V2V / V2X (e.g. through sailing, recuperation, efficient acceleration, no start-stop, etc.),

[0032] Increasing the efficiency of traffic flow through targeted traffic control, issuing dedicated priority certificates for emergency vehicles and / or special vehicles and targeted route planning for such vehicles.

[0033] List of reference symbols Traffic situation Intersection Roundabout Traffic light system Road user, pedestrian Road user, cyclist Road user, passenger car Road user, truck Fixed UWB node Road user not equipped with UWB technology

Claims

Patent claims 1. Method for regulating traffic at an intersection (2), a roundabout (3) or a bottleneck, wherein road users (5, 6, 7, 8) equipped with UWB technology detect each other as objects, measure their respective relative positions to each other and on this basis each create a map, wherein the maps are transmitted to the other road users (5, 6, 7, 8) by means of vehicle-to-vehicle communication (V2V) and merged, characterized in that the road users (5, 6, 7, 8) negotiate the priority order among themselves via vehicle-to-vehicle communication (V2V) based on the merged map.

2. Method for regulating traffic at an intersection (2), a roundabout (3) or a bottleneck with a traffic light system (4), wherein several UWB nodes (9) with a known position are permanently installed at the intersection (2), the roundabout (3) or the bottleneck, which detect road users (5, 6, 7, 8, 10) as objects, determine their respective positions and create a map on this basis, characterized in that the UWB nodes (9) transmit the priority sequence and the traffic light system switching to the road users (5, 6, 7, 8, 10) via vehicle-to-infrastructure communication based on the map.

3. Method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that reference positions for road users (5, 6, 7, 8) equipped with UWB technology are measured by means of TOA, TDOA and / or TW-TOF.

4. Method according to claim 3, characterized in that relative speeds of road users (5, 6, 7, 8) equipped with UWB technology are also measured by means of TOA, TDOA and / or TW-TOF.

5. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that road users (10) not equipped with UWB technology are informed about the positions of the other road users (5, 6, 7, 8) by means of vehicle-to-vehicle communication (V2V).

6. Method for issuing a dedicated right-of-way certificate to an emergency vehicle and for transmitting information about an emergency journey of the emergency vehicle to the road users (5, 6, 7, 8) at the intersection (2) using a method according to one of the preceding claims.

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