AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE RAILROAD CROSSING WARNING SYSTEM
First Claim
1. A vehicle warning system comprising:
- a plurality of vehicles, each vehicle including a first control system having a radio transmitter located on the vehicle that autonomously transmits on a repeating basis a radio frequency signal that includes data for at least speed, heading and location of the vehicle; and
a second control system including a radio receiver that periodically receives data from the vehicles and determines whether to activate an associated warning device based on calculations using data from a vehicle to determine a relative relationship between the vehicle and the second control system.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An autonomous vehicle collision/crossing warning system provides for simple, inexpensive and decentralized installation, operation and maintenance of a reliable vehicle collision/crossing warning system. The autonomous warning system preferably utilizes a single frequency TDM radio communication network with GPS clock synchronization, time slot arbitration and connectionless UDP protocol to broadcast messages among vehicles and components in the warning system. Adaptive localized mapping of components of interest within the warning system eliminates the need for centralized databases or coordination and control systems and enables new vehicles and warning systems to be easily added to the system in a decentralized manner. Preferably, stationary warning systems are deployed as multiple self-powered units each equipped to receive broadcast messages and to communicate with the other units by a low power RF channel in a redundant Master-Slave configuration. The communication schemes are preferably arranged for low duty cycle operation to decrease power consumption.
65 Citations
15 Claims
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1. A vehicle warning system comprising:
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a plurality of vehicles, each vehicle including a first control system having a radio transmitter located on the vehicle that autonomously transmits on a repeating basis a radio frequency signal that includes data for at least speed, heading and location of the vehicle; and a second control system including a radio receiver that periodically receives data from the vehicles and determines whether to activate an associated warning device based on calculations using data from a vehicle to determine a relative relationship between the vehicle and the second control system. - View Dependent Claims (2)
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3. An autonomously synchronized radio communications system comprising:
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a transmitter that includes a transmitter processor having a clock operably triggered by a first crystal oscillator that is synchronized to a GPS signal; and a receiver that includes a receiver processor having a clock operably triggered by a first crystal oscillator that is synchronized to the GPS signal, such that the transmitter and the receiver operate on a common synchronous clock by compensating the respective crystal oscillators as a function of a frequency deviation between a signal pulse of the GPS signal and the clock of the respective transmitter and receiver. - View Dependent Claims (4, 5, 6)
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7. A stationary vehicle crossing warning system comprising:
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a first self-powered radio controller located in a vicinity of a vehicle crossing that transmits and receives radio frequency (RF) broadcast messages from passing vehicles within a first predefined range at a first power level and receives and transmits RF broadcast messages within a second predefined range at a second power level that is less than the first power level; and a second self-powered radio controller located in the vicinity of the vehicle crossing that transmits and receives broadcast messages from passing vehicles within the predefined range at the first power level and receives and transmits broadcast messages within the second predefined range at the second power level, wherein the radio controllers are adapted to exchange respective operating status and communication time slot assignments using time division multiplexing (TDM) RF communications at the second power level so as to reduce power consumption of the radio controllers. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10)
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11. An autonomous identified radio communication system comprising:
a plurality of controllers, each controller including a GPS receiver adapted to provide geoposition data and a radio frequency (RF) transceiver to broadcast messages wherein each controller uses the geoposition data to generate an identification address associated with broadcast messages for that controller. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13)
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14. A method of operating an autonomous vehicle warning system for a plurality of components in the warning system, the components including vehicles and stationary objects, the method comprising:
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for each component in the warning system, providing a radio frequency (RF) transceiver and a global positioning system (GPS) receiver; utilizing the RF transceiver for at least each of the vehicles to broadcast messages that include data for heading, speed and location of the vehicle derived from the GPS receiver; and utilizing the RF transceiver for at least one of the stationary objects to periodically receive data from the vehicles;
determining whether to activate an associated warning device for that stationary object based by calculating a relative relationship between that vehicle and the stationary object. - View Dependent Claims (15)
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Specification