Traffic Congestion Prediction Method And Traffic Congestion Prediction Device

• US 20130253812A1
• Filed: 03/12/2013
• Published: 09/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: Denso IT Laboratory, Inc. (DENSO Corporation)
• Inventors: Masutani, Osamu
• Granted Patent: US 9,449,505 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/118
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/00 Traffic control systems for road vehicles arrangement of road signs or traffic signals E01F9/00 ; automatic vehicle control B62D
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0112 from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0133 for classifying traffic situation
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0141 for traffic information dissemination
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0145 for active traffic flow control

Abstract

Provided is a traffic congestion prediction method which is able to perform a prediction process using floating information with higher accuracy. The traffic congestion prediction method includes: a step of receiving information by a prediction device; a step of predicting a route of each floating car based on the current position information and destination information received; a step of calculating, for the each floating car, a first passing time group which is a set of respective passing times at a plurality of predetermined spots on the route predicted; a step of calculating the number of existing floating cars per link based on the first passing time group, if any of a plurality of floating cars exists on the link at a predetermined time; and a step of calculating a second passing time group by use of the number of existing floating cars and a predetermined calculation technique.

Claims

1. A traffic congestion prediction method for predicting traffic congestions by a traffic congestion prediction device based on information transmitted from a plurality of floating cars, comprising:

a receiving step of receiving, by the traffic congestion prediction device, current position information and destination information transmitted from each of the plurality of floating cars;

a route prediction step of predicting a route to a destination of the each of the plurality of floating cars based on the current position information and destination information received in the receiving step;

a first calculation step of calculating, for the each of the plurality of floating cars, a first passing time group which is a set of respective passing times at a plurality of predetermined spots on the route thus predicted for the each of the plurality of floating cars in the route prediction step;

an existing-number calculation step of calculating the number of existing floating cars per link based on the first passing time group calculated in the first calculation step if any of the plurality of floating cars exists on the link at a predetermined time, the link being a route between a predetermined two spots to be adjacent on the route thus predicted; and

a second calculation step of calculating, for the each of the plurality of floating cars, a second passing time group which is a set of respective passing times at the plurality of predetermined spots by use of the number of existing floating cars calculated in the existing-number calculation step and a predetermined calculation technique.

2. The traffic congestion prediction method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of:

judging, for the each of the plurality of floating cars, whether or not a difference between a passing time of the predicted route based on the first passing time group and a passing time of the predicted route based on the second passing time group is a predetermined value or more, then, for each floating car of which the difference is the predetermined value or more, updating the first passing time group by the second passing time group and calculating the number of existing floating cars at the predetermined time per link, and calculating the second passing time group for the each floating car by use of the number of existing floating cars thus calculated and the given calculation technique.

3. The traffic congestion prediction method according to claim 1, wherein the first passing time group is calculated based on a distance between respective links and a speed of a floating car targeted for the calculation.

4. The traffic congestion prediction method according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined calculation technique used for calculating the second passing time group is a calculation technique using a QV curve.

9. The traffic congestion prediction method according to claim 2, wherein the first passing time group is calculated based on a distance between respective links and a speed of a floating car targeted for the calculation.

5. A predicted traffic congestion prediction device for predicting traffic congestions based on information transmitted from a plurality of floating cars, comprising:

receiving means for receiving current position information and destination information transmitted from each of the plurality of floating cars;

prediction means for predicting a route to a destination of the each of the plurality of floating cars based on the current position information and destination information thus received;

first calculation means for calculating, for the each of the plurality of floating cars, a first passing time group which is a set of respective passing times at a plurality of predetermined spots on the route thus predicted for the each of the plurality of floating cars;

existing-number calculation means for calculating the number of existing floating cars per link based on the first passing time group thus calculated, if any of the plurality of floating cars exists on the link at a predetermined time, the link being a route between a predetermined two spots to be adjacent on the route thus predicted; and

second calculation means for calculating, for the each of the plurality of floating cars, a second passing time group which is a set of respective passing times at the plurality of predetermined spots by use of the number of existing floating cars thus calculated and a predetermined calculation technique.

6. The traffic congestion prediction device according to claim 5, further comprising:

judgment means for judging, for the each of the plurality of floating cars, whether or not a difference between a passing time of the predicted route based on the first passing time group and a passing time of the predicted route based on the second passing time group is a predetermined value or more, wherein;

for each floating car of which the difference is the predetermined value or more, the existing-number calculation means updates the first passing time group by the second passing time group and calculates the number of existing floating cars at the predetermined time per link, and

the second calculation means calculates the second passing time group for the each floating car based on the number of existing floating cars thus calculated and the predetermined calculation technique.

7. The traffic congestion prediction device according to claim 5, wherein the first passing time group is calculated based on a distance between respective links and a speed of a floating car targeted for the calculation.

8. The traffic congestion prediction device according to claim 5, wherein the predetermined calculation technique used for calculating the second passing time group is a calculation technique using a QV curve.

10. The traffic congestion prediction device according to claim 6, wherein the first passing time group is calculated based on a distance between respective links and a speed of a floating car targeted for the calculation.