System for detecting vehicle traffic by means of an on-board co-operational telematic platform based upon extended floating car data

• US 20070208500A1
• Filed: 02/01/2007
• Published: 09/06/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: C.R.F. Societa Consortile Per Azioni
• Original Assignee: C.R.F. Societa Consortile Per Azioni
• Inventors: Lilli, Francesco, Darin, Marco, Visintainer, Filippo, Sommariva, Fulvio, Betterle, Enrico
• Application Number:
  US11/701,953
• Publication Number:
  US 20070208500A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/117
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0104 Measuring and analyzing of parameters relative to traffic conditions

Abstract

Described herein is a telematic apparatus, which can be installed on board a road vehicle for detecting a set of vehicle information regarding the road traffic present around the road vehicle itself, and is designed to transmit said vehicle information to a remote operating center that processes it in order to supply a set of indications regarding the condition of the road traffic; the telematic apparatus comprising: a traffic-congestion detector module for estimating, as a function of a set of vehicle parameters correlated to a set of operating quantities of the road vehicle, a total-traffic index correlated to the likelihood of presence of a condition of traffic congestion around the road vehicle; and a control module, which verifies whether the total-traffic index satisfies a first relation with a pre-set threshold, and issues a command for transmission of the vehicle information to the remote operating center when said relation is satisfied.

Claims

1. A telematic apparatus, which can be installed on board a road vehicle for detecting a set of vehicle information regarding the road traffic present around the road vehicle itself, and is designed to transmit said vehicle information to a remote operating center that processes it in order to supply a set of indications regarding the condition of said road traffic;

said telematic apparatus comprising;

a traffic-congestion detector means designed to estimate, as a function of a set of vehicle parameters correlated to a set of operating quantities of said road vehicle, a total-traffic index correlated to the presence of a condition of congestion of the road traffic; and

a control means designed to verify whether said total-traffic index satisfies a first relation with a pre-set threshold, and to issue a command for transmission of said vehicle information regarding the road traffic present around the road vehicle to said remote operating center when said relation is satisfied.

2. The telematic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said traffic-congestion detector means comprise first computing means, which receive said vehicle parameters and supply a set of contribution quantities, each of which corresponds to a value correlated to the degree of incidence of the events associated to a given vehicle parameter on the likelihood of the presence of a condition of congestion of the road traffic.

3. The telematic apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said traffic-congestion detector means comprise estimation means designed to process said contribution quantities to determine in a pre-set basic interval a basic traffic indicator via the following relation:

I_B=C₁*W₁+C₂*W₂+ . . . +C_n*W_n;

where W₁-W_n are pre-set weights assigned to each contribution quantity C_i.

4. The telematic apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said traffic-congestion detector means comprise decision-making means designed to process a plurality of basic traffic indicators calculated during respective basic time intervals contained in a pre-set examination time interval so as to supply at output said total-traffic index.

5. The telematic apparatus according to claim 4, in which said examination time interval comprises a set of temporal sub-intervals, each of which comprises a pre-set number of basic time intervals;

said telematic apparatus being said decision-making means comprise a computing module designed to calculate, for each temporal sub-interval, a partial indicator as a function of the mean value and of the variance of the basic traffic indicators calculated selectively in the basic time intervals in which a state of motion of the vehicle is verified.

6. The telematic apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said decision-making means comprise a conditional module designed to determine said total-traffic index as a function of the basic traffic indicators and of said partial indicators calculated in said examination time interval.

7. The telematic apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said conditional module is designed to assign to the total-traffic index a value of the total-traffic index determined during an examination interval that precedes the current examination interval if a first vehicle condition corresponding to a condition of stationary road vehicle is verified.

8. The telematic apparatus according to claim 7, wherein, in the case where a second vehicle condition is verified, said conditional module determines the total-traffic index, carrying out an average of the basic traffic indicators calculated selectively in the basic time intervals in which a state of motion of the vehicle is verified.

9. The telematic apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said conditional module verifies said second vehicle condition when each partial indicator determined in the examination time interval satisfies a relation with a pre-set threshold depending upon the sub-interval.

10. The telematic apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said conditional module assigns to the total-traffic index a zero value, when neither of said first vehicle condition or said second vehicle condition is verified.

11. The telematic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said traffic-congestion detector means are designed to estimate said total-traffic index as a function of a set of vehicle parameters correlated to a set of operating quantities supplied by a telematic platform based upon xFCD.

12. The telematic apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said traffic-congestion detector means are designed to estimate said total-traffic index as a function of a set of vehicle parameters correlated to a set of operating quantities supplied by a telematic platform based upon xFCD.

13. The telematic apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said traffic-congestion detector means are designed to estimate said total-traffic index as a function of a set of vehicle parameters correlated to a set of operating quantities supplied by a telematic platform based upon xFCD.

14. The telematic apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said traffic-congestion detector means are designed to estimate said total-traffic index as a function of a set of vehicle parameters correlated to a set of operating quantities supplied by a telematic platform based upon xFCD.

15. The telematic apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said traffic-congestion detector means are designed to estimate said total-traffic index as a function of a set of vehicle parameters correlated to a set of operating quantities supplied by a telematic platform based upon xFCD.

16. The telematic apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said traffic-congestion detector means are designed to estimate said total-traffic index as a function of a set of vehicle parameters correlated to a set of operating quantities supplied by a telematic platform based upon xFCD.

17. The telematic apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said traffic-congestion detector means are designed to estimate said total-traffic index as a function of a set of vehicle parameters correlated to a set of operating quantities supplied by a telematic platform based upon xFCD.

18. The telematic apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said traffic-congestion detector means are designed to estimate said total-traffic index as a function of a set of vehicle parameters correlated to a set of operating quantities supplied by a telematic platform based upon xFCD.

19. The telematic apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said traffic-congestion detector means are designed to estimate said total-traffic index as a function of a set of vehicle parameters correlated to a set of operating quantities supplied by a telematic platform based upon xFCD.

20. A system for detection of vehicle traffic comprising a plurality of road vehicles installed on board each of which is a telematic apparatus, which is designed to detect a set of vehicle information regarding the road traffic present around the road vehicle itself, and is able to transmit said vehicle information to a remote operating center for controlling traffic;

said system for detection of vehicle traffic being wherein said telematic apparatus comprises;

a traffic-congestion detector means designed to estimate, as a function of a set of vehicle parameters correlated to a set of operating quantities of said road vehicle, a total-traffic index correlated to the presence of a condition of congestion of the road traffic; and

a control means designed to verify whether said total-traffic index satisfies a first relation with a pre-set threshold, and to issue a command for transmission of said vehicle information regarding the road traffic present around the road vehicle to said remote operating center when said relation is satisfied.