Control method for a road toll system

• US 8,754,781 B2
• Filed: 02/01/2013
• Issued: 06/17/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kapsch TrafficCom AG (Datax Handelsgmbh)
• Original Assignee: Kapsch TrafficCom AG (Datax Handelsgmbh)
• Inventors: Leopold, Alexander, Nagy, Oliver
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tai T
• Application Number:
  US13/757,565
• Publication Number:
  US 20130201035A1
• Time in Patent Office: 501 Days
• Field of Search: 340/902, 340/905, 340/928, 340/936, 340/937, 340/5.7, 340/5.82, 340/550, 705/13, 705/15
• US Class Current: 340/902
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 9/00 Arrangement or adaptation of signal devices not provided for in one of main groups B60Q1/00 - B60Q7/00 , e.g. haptic signalling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/06 Arrangements for road pricing or congestion charging of vehicles or vehicle users, e.g. automatic toll systems
• 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 1/0137 for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/015 with provision for distinguishing between two or more types of vehicles, e.g. between motor-cars and cycles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0175 by photographing vehicles, e.g. when violating traffic rules
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/052 with provision for determining speed or overspeed speed measuring in general G01P
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/054 photographing overspeeding vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/202 Dispatching vehicles on the basis of a location, e.g. taxi dispatching
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental

Abstract

A control method for a road toll system using vehicle-based on-board units, recording vehicles, control vehicles, cellular mobile communication networks, and switching servers, comprising: registering a recording vehicle identifier and a mobile communication network cell identifier in the switching server; selecting a cell identifier in a control vehicle and transmitting the same with a control vehicle identifier to the switching server; associating the control vehicle identifier with the recording vehicle identifier for which a cell identifier that is identical to the selected cell identifier is registered; detecting a traffic or toll violation by means of the recording vehicle and transmitting a violation data record to the switching server, determining the assigned control vehicle identifier; transmitting the violation data record to the control vehicle identified by the determined identifier; and processing the violation data record in the control vehicle.

Claims

1. A control method for a road toll system that is based on on-board units carried by vehicles having vehicle license plate numbers, using at least one recording vehicle and at least one control vehicle that have unique identifiers and are connected to a switching server via a cellular mobile communication network, the method comprising:

registering an identifier of a recording vehicle and a current mobile communication network cell identifier thereof in the switching server;

selecting a cell identifier in a control vehicle and transmitting the selected cell identifier and the identifier of the control vehicle to the switching server;

associating the control vehicle identifier with the recording vehicle identifier for which a cell identifier that is identical to the selected cell identifier is registered;

detecting a traffic or toll violation of an on-board unit or of a vehicle carrying the same and reading the vehicle license plate number thereof by the recording vehicle;

transmitting a violation data record, containing the read license plate number and the recording vehicle identifier, to the switching server, determining the assigned control vehicle identifier, and transmitting the violation data record to the control vehicle identified by the determined identifier; and

reading the license plate number of a passing vehicle by means of the control vehicle, comparing the read license plate number to the license plate number contained in the violation data record, and outputting an alert message if the license plate numbers agree with each other.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the current cell identifier of the recording vehicle is determined in the recording vehicle and transmitted by the same to the switching server.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the current cell identifier of the recording vehicle is determined in the switching server based on information from the mobile communication network.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the selection of the cell identifier in the control vehicle is carried out by user selection.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the cell identifiers registered in the switching server are transmitted to the control vehicle where they are displayed to the user for user selection.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the selectable cell identifiers are displayed to the user on a display as geographical regions of a digital map.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the current mobile communication network cell identifier of the control vehicle is determined and used as the selected cell identifier.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein, when the traffic or toll violation is detected, the location of the recording vehicle is determined by means of satellite navigation and added to the violation data record as the location of the violation.

9. The control method according to claim 1, wherein the following steps are carried out by the recording vehicle:

reading out a vehicle shape-specific toll parameter from an on-board unit of a passing vehicle by means of a DSRC transceiver;

detecting a shape parameter of the vehicle by means of a sensor;

checking the toll parameter for consistency with the shape parameter and, in the case of inconsistency, and,

transmitting the violation data record.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the shape parameter and the toll parameter are a respective vehicle length or a respective number of vehicle axles.

11. The method according to claim 9, wherein a laser scanner is used as the sensor.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the speed and the driving direction of a passing vehicle is/are measured in the recording vehicle and the traffic or toll violation is also determined based on this/these measured value(s).