On-board terminal device and vehicle collision prevention method

• US 10,640,108 B2
• Filed: 05/17/2016
• Issued: 05/05/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi Construction Machinery Company Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi Construction Machinery Company Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: Katou, Seiya, Kirimura, Akiyoshi, Ito, Takeshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Bates, Kevin T
• Assistant Examiner(s): Patel, Ronak
• Application Number:
  US15/579,622
• Publication Number:
  US 20180148050A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,449 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/00 Arrangements or fittings on vehicles for protecting or preventing injuries to occupants or pedestrians in case of accidents or other traffic risks safety belts or body harnesses in vehicles B60R22/00; devices, apparatus or methods for life-saving in general A62B; safety devices for propulsion unit control specially adapted for, or arranged in, vehicles B60K28/00; seats constructed to protect the occupant from the effect of abnormal g-forces, e.g. crash or safety seats, B60N2/42; energy-absorbing arrangements for hand wheels for steering vehicles B62D1/11; energy-absorbing arrangements for vehicle steering columns B62D1/19; harnessing in aircraft B64D25/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/801 Lateral distance
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/65 Data transmitted between vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/09 Taking automatic action to avoid collision, e.g. braking and steering
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/09 Arrangements for giving variable traffic instructions railroad crossing signals B61L; reflectors E01F, G08B; indicating arrangements for variable information by selection or combination of individual elements G09F9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/16 Anti-collision systems road vehicle drive control systems for predicting or avoiding probable or impending collision otherwise than by control of a particular sub-unit B60W30/08
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/163 involving continuous checking
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/166 for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/46 for vehicle-to-vehicle communication [V2V]

Abstract

An on-board terminal device includes a location measuring section that measures a location of an own vehicle, a wireless communication section that transmits own vehicle information including location information of the own vehicle to other vehicles and receives other vehicle information including location information of the other vehicles from the other vehicles by execution of wireless communication with the other vehicles, and a monitoring section that estimates the location of the other vehicles and calculates a relative distance between the own vehicle and the other vehicles when the wireless communication has been interrupted, and executes an alarm process for preventing collision of the own vehicle and the other vehicles when the relative distance is less than a predetermined threshold.

Claims

1. An on-board terminal device, comprising:

a GPS that measures a location of an own vehicle or a location measuring sensor that obtains the location of the own vehicle based on the result of measurement of the relative distance to a reference point arranged within a mine;

a transmitter that transmits own vehicle information including location information of the own vehicle to other vehicles and a receiver that receives other vehicle information including location information of the other vehicles transmitted from the other vehicles by execution of wireless communication with the other vehicles; and

a computer, wherein the computer is configured to

estimate the location of the other vehicles,

calculate relative distances between the own vehicle and the other vehicles when the wireless communication has been interrupted,

execute an alarm process for preventing collision of the own vehicle and the other vehicles when the relative distance is less than a predetermined threshold, and

notify an operator of the own vehicle with a notification about the other vehicle, or output a control signal for executing travel control of the own vehicle to the own vehicle,

wherein when the computer outputs alarm information including information on a region where the wireless communication is not available in the periphery of the own vehicle in the alarm process, the computer notifies the operator of the own vehicle of the region where the wireless communication is not available based on the alarm information, or outputs the control signal of a case where the other vehicles exist in the region where the wireless communication is not available based on the alarm information, and

wherein the computer calculates a reception rate of the wireless communication with respect to a plurality of divided regions set beforehand in the periphery of the own vehicle respectively based on a reception log of the other vehicle information of the past, and determines divided regions where the reception rate of the wireless communication is less than a predetermined reference value out of the plurality of divided regions to be a region where the wireless communication is not available.

2. The on-board terminal device according to claim claim 1,

wherein the computer executes the wireless communication with a plurality of the other vehicles respectively,

the computer classifies the plurality of other vehicles into a plurality of groups based on a predetermined classification element, and calculates a reception rate of the wireless communication for each of the divided regions with respect to each of the groups, and

the classification element includes at least any one of the vehicle height, vehicle type, relative direction with respect to the own vehicle, and vehicle status.

3. The on-board terminal device according to claim 2,

wherein when a total value of the reception number of the other vehicle information from each of other vehicles included in the same group as the other vehicle where the wireless communication has been interrupted is less than a predetermined threshold, the computer merges the group and other groups, and calculates a reception rate of the wireless communication.

4. The on-board terminal device according to claim 1,

wherein the computer continuously executes the alarm process for a predetermined alarm duration period when the wireless communication has been interrupted, and

the computer stops execution of the alarm process when the wireless communication has been restarted after a lapse of the alarm time or within the alarm time.

5. A vehicle collision prevention method, comprising the steps of:

measuring a location of an own vehicle;

transmitting own vehicle information including location information of the own vehicle to other vehicles and receiving other vehicle information including location information of the other vehicles from the other vehicles by executing wireless communication with the other vehicles;

estimating locations of the other vehicles and calculating a relative distance between the own vehicle and the other vehicles when the wireless communication has been interrupted; and

executing an alarm process for preventing collision of the own vehicle and the other vehicles by a computer when the relative distance is less than a predetermined threshold to thereby prevent collision of the own vehicle and the other vehicles,

wherein alarm information including information on a region where the wireless communication is not available in the periphery of the own vehicle is outputted from the computer in the alarm process, and

an operator of the own vehicle is notified of the region where the wireless communication is not available or, when there exists the other vehicle in the region where the wireless communication is not available, a control signal for executing travel control of the own vehicle is outputted to the own vehicle based on the alarm information.

6. The vehicle collision prevention method according to claim 5,

wherein, in the alarm process, based on a reception log of the other vehicle information of the past, a reception rate of the wireless communication is respectively calculated with respect to a plurality of divided regions set beforehand in the periphery of the own vehicle, and a divided region where the reception rate of the wireless communication is less than a predetermined reference value out of the plurality of divided regions is determined to be a region where the wireless communication is not available.

7. The vehicle collision prevention method according to claim 6,

wherein the wireless communication is executed with a plurality of the other vehicles respectively,

in the alarm process, the plurality of other vehicles are classified into a plurality of groups based on a predetermined classification element,

a reception rate of the wireless communication is calculated for each of the divided regions with respect to each of the groups, and

the classification element includes at least any one of the vehicle height, vehicle type, relative direction with respect to the own vehicle, and vehicle status.

8. The vehicle collision prevention method according to claim 7,

wherein, in the alarm process, when a total value of reception number of times of the other vehicle information from each of other vehicles included in the same group as another vehicle where the wireless communication has been interrupted is less than a predetermined threshold, the group and other groups are merged, and a reception rate of the wireless communication is calculated.

9. The vehicle collision prevention method according to claim 5,

wherein the alarm process is executed continuously for a predetermined alarm time when the wireless communication has been interrupted, and

execution of the alarm process is stopped when the wireless communication has been restarted after a lapse of the alarm time or within the alarm time.