METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR REMOTELY DETECTING A VEHICLE

• US 20190005813A1
• Filed: 06/08/2018
• Published: 01/03/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tagmaster AB
• Original Assignee: Tagmaster AB
• Inventors: Edlund, Mattias Karl Olov
• Granted Patent: US 10,438,482 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0295 Proximity-based methods, e.g. position inferred from reception of particular signals
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/14 Determining absolute distances from a plurality of spaced points of known location
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/063 using wireless information transmission between the vehicle and a fixed station identification of vehicles G08G
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0112 from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0116 from roadside infrastructure, e.g. beacons
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/042 using inductive or magnetic detectors
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/095 Traffic lights
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/2216 used in interrogator/reader equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/3225 Cooperation with the rails or the road
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

Method and system for remotely detecting a vehicle positioned in at least one of several possible adjacent lanes, which lanes are arranged one after the other in a lateral direction, wherein reading antennas are arranged to read received electro-magnetic signals received from vehicles, at different lateral reading locations. The method involves measuring an electromagnetic signal received from the vehicle by several of said reading antennas; determining, for each of said several reading antennas, a respective received electromag-netic signal strength; determining, based upon knowledge about a respective relative geometric position and the said respective determined signal strength of each of the said several reading antennas, a geometric centre of gravity for a first signal strength function, which is the received signal strength as a function of physical lateral position; and detecting the vehicle as present in a lane in which the said geometric centre of gravity lies.

Claims

1. Method for remotely detecting a vehicle positioned in at least one of several possible adjacent lanes, which lanes are arranged one after the other in a lateral direction, wherein reading antennas are arranged to read received electromagnetic signals received from vehicles, at different lateral reading locations, which method comprises the steps

a) during one and the same time period, measuring an electromagnetic signal received from the vehicle by several of said reading antennas;

b) determining, for each of said several reading antennas, a respective received electromagnetic signal strength;

c) determining, based upon knowledge about a respective relative geometric position and the said respective determined signal strength of each of the said several reading antennas, a geometric centre of gravity for a first signal strength function, which is the received signal strength as a function of physical lateral position; and

d) detecting the vehicle as present in a lane in which the said geometric centre of gravity lies.

2. Method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises to perform step a) repeatedly, during several consecutive time periods.

3. Method according to claim 2, wherein each signal strength value of the first function is a respective total aggregated sum of read received signal strengths across said several consecutive time periods for the reading antenna in question.

4. Method according to claim 2, wherein the method further comprises to determine a time centre of gravity for a second function, which is the received signal strength as a function of time;

and to determine a time of detection as the said time centre of gravity.

5. Method according to claim 4, wherein each signal strength value of the second function is a respective total aggregated sum of read received signal strengths across said several reading antennas for the time period in question.

6. Method according to claim 2, wherein step a) is performed at least five times.

7. Method according to claim 6, wherein the method further comprises a detection initiation step, in which a particular electromagnetic signal is read by at least one of said several reading antennas and determined to be received from a vehicle from which a signal has not recently been received by any of said reading antennas, and wherein step a) is performed at least until none of said reading antennas read an electromagnetic signal which is stronger than the corresponding electromagnetic signal read during an immediately previously occurring time period.

8. Method according to claim 1, wherein several of said several reading antennas are connected to one and the same central device, which central device causes the connected reading antennas in question to emit a common reading signal during the same time period but in the form of individual and separated pulses of maximally 20 ms per antenna, and a respective detected return signal from the vehicle is provided to the central device from each of the said several reading antennas.

9. Method according to claim 1, wherein each of the said several reading antennas are arranged to detect electromagnetic signals from vehicles in a respective reading zone from a set of laterally overlapping reading zones.

10. Method according to claim 1, wherein the lanes are lanes of a road, and wherein the vehicle is moving past the said several reading antennas on the road.

11. Method according to claim 10, wherein, in step c), the geometric centre of gravity is determined to lie within a predetermined geometric interval comprising a border between two neighbouring lanes, and wherein the method then comprises detecting the vehicle as being located between said two neighbouring lanes or in both of said neighbouring lanes.

12. Method according to claim 1, wherein the said lanes are lanes of a gate system, and wherein the vehicle is arriving at the gate system and there detected by the said several reading antennas.

13. Method according to claim 12, wherein, in step c), the geometric centre of gravity is determined to lie within a predetermined geometric interval comprising a border between two neighbouring lanes, and wherein the method then comprises the further step of producing an alarm signal.

14. System for remotely detecting a vehicle positioned in at least one of several possible adjacent lanes, arranged one after the other in a lateral direction, which system comprises reading antennas arranged to read received electromagnetic signals received from vehicles, at different lateral reading locations, wherein the system is arranged to, during one and the same time period, measure an electromagnetic signal received from the vehicle by several of said reading antennas, and wherein the system is arranged to determine, for each of said several reading antennas, a respective received electromagnetic signal strength, wherein the system is arranged to determine, based upon knowledge about a respective relative geometric position and the said respective determined signal strength of each of the said several reading antennas, a geometric centre of gravity for a first signal strength function, which is the received signal strength as a function of physical lateral position, and wherein the system is arranged to detect the vehicle as present in a lane in which the said geometric centre of gravity lies.