Traffic Control System Using Vehicle Probe Data for Road Hazard Avoidance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current traffic control systems, such as those using Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), struggle to ensure safety and stability in vehicle travel by failing to promptly account for obstacles like falling objects, ruts, and road surface conditions that are not reflected in infrastructure-provided information until just before the vehicle encounters them.
Innovation Solution
A traffic control system that includes a vehicle control system capable of transmitting and receiving traveling information via a cloud-based network, using external environment recognition units and a management and control system to collect and process data from multiple vehicles, allowing for the calculation and transmission of recommended traveling information to avoid hazards and maintain optimal routes and speeds.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If infrastructure-based traffic control systems (VICS) are used to provide road traffic information, then macro information for road sections can be provided to vehicles, but the system fails to promptly detect and communicate obstacles like falling objects, ruts, and road surface conditions that are not captured by infrastructure sensors
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines infrastructure-based information (VICS) with vehicle-based autonomous recognition information (cameras, laser radar) to create a comprehensive traffic control system. This merging allows the system to leverage both macro road information from infrastructure and micro hazard detection from individual vehicles, resolving the contradiction between infrastructure coverage and hazard detection capability
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where vehicles transmit autonomous recognition information about obstacles and road conditions back to the traffic control system. This feedback loop enables the infrastructure to learn from individual vehicle experiences and improve overall system reliability by incorporating real-time hazard data that infrastructure sensors alone cannot detect
2Reliability
If vehicles rely solely on infrastructure-provided information from VICS, then the system architecture remains simple, but the system cannot anticipate hazards until just before vehicles encounter them, compromising safety
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by having vehicles autonomously recognize and report obstacles and road conditions before other vehicles encounter them. The traffic control system collects this advance information and transmits warnings to approaching vehicles, enabling them to take preventive action before reaching hazardous sections
Solution Approach 2:
The traffic control system acts as an intermediary that receives autonomous recognition information from vehicles, processes it centrally, and redistributes it as warnings to other vehicles. This intermediary function amplifies individual vehicle observations into system-wide safety information, extending the effective warning range beyond what individual vehicles can detect
3Reliability
If the traffic control system collects and processes information from multiple vehicles to provide recommended traveling information, then traveling safety and stability improve, but the system complexity and data processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential and highly reliable information from the vast amount of data collected from multiple vehicles. The traffic control system applies selection criteria to filter out redundant or low-quality data, focusing processing efforts on critical hazard information and proven reliable travel patterns, thereby managing complexity while maintaining reliability
Data Source
AI summary
A traffic control system includes a vehicle control system and a management and control system. The vehicle control system transmits, from a probe information transmitter, traveling information of a specific section in which an own vehicle has traveled deviating from a target route or target speed of the own vehicle, as probe information. The management and control system collects the probe information of a plurality of vehicles and extracts highly reliable information by a probe information collector, and calculates and transmits recommended traveling information for passing through the specific section by a recommended traveling information calculator. The vehicle control system performs traveling control for passing through the specific section based on the recommended traveling information for the specific section received from the management and control system and recognition information of a traveling environment for the specific section in a specific section traveling controller.