Wireless vehicle detector aggregator and interface to controller and associated methods

• US 9,489,840 B2
• Filed: 02/28/2014
• Issued: 11/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cubic Corporation
• Original Assignee: Trafficware Group Incorporated
• Inventors: Neel, Clyde, Beyer, Darren, Fiebrich, Timothy, Green, Michael, MacLeod, Kenneth W, Vadlamani, Srikar, Hawkins, Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Kim T
• Application Number:
  US14/194,280
• Publication Number:
  US 20140240146A1
• Time in Patent Office: 984 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 1/0104 Measuring and analyzing of parameters relative to traffic conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0116 from roadside infrastructure, e.g. beacons
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0133 for classifying traffic situation
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/042 using inductive or magnetic detectors
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/26 at least one of which is mobile
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Embodiments of systems and methods of the present invention include efficient, reliable aggregation and transfer of one or more sensor pods detect status to the base station and then the traffic controller. An embodiment of an access point maintains a sensor state array, which is the current status of the sensor pods in communication with the access point. The access point can maintain the sensor state array in its memory and relay the sensor state array to the base station. An embodiment of a base station can use the sensor state array information to generate and update a vehicle detector array, which is the current status of all the sensor pods in the wireless vehicle detector network. An embodiment of the base station emulates one or more bus interface units and uses the vehicle detector array to relay detector information to the traffic controller periodically or when polled.

Claims

1. A wireless vehicle detection system comprising:

one or more sensor pods spaced apart in a traffic region to define a zone, each of the one or more sensor pods being positioned in or below and yet in close proximity to a plane of a surface of a road, adapted to detect received communication signal strength, and operationally adapted to adjust transmitting power based upon said strength to thereby conserve power usage, each sensor pod including (1) a vehicle detector controller adapted to determine presence of one or more vehicles, (2) a communication controller connected to the vehicle detector and adapted to communicate data relating to the presence of one or more vehicles, (3) a battery sufficiently large to support transmit power sufficient to achieve transmission range of 300 feet or more, (4) a hybrid layer capacitor connected in parallel electrically to the battery to protect the battery from degradation at transmit power levels; and

(5) an antenna positioned in a substantially horizontal orientation when positioned inside an enclosure of the sensor pod and near a top end of the enclosure when the sensor pod is positioned in or below the surface of the road, the antenna adapted to allow for and support radio frequencies no greater than 928 MHz, the antenna also having an antenna housing having a hollow interior to allow communication circuitry components to be mounted at least partially inside the antenna housing thereby decreasing vertical space requirements inside of the enclosure of the sensor pod;

a plurality of access points adapted to communicate with the one or more sensor pods in a plurality of zones, each zone having at least one sensor pod in communication with at least one of the plurality of access points, each access point comprising;

an access point controller including;

a sensor state aggregator module adapted to maintain current detect status of the one or more sensor pods in a respective zone, the sensor state aggregator module comprising a set of instructions that causes the access point, when executed by the access point controller, to perform the operation of;

generating a first sensor state array, each of the one or more sensor pods in the respective zone having an entry in the first sensor state array;

updating the first sensor state array responsive to receiving one or more signals from the one or more sensor pods in the respective zone, the one or more signals including current detect status of the one or more sensor pods;

communicating an output message indicating a time stamp and event trigger details responsive to receiving an individual status message from the one or more of the sensor pods responsive to the event trigger details; and

communicating the updated first sensor state array indicating current detect status of the one or more sensor pods upon demand or after a predetermined time period;

a base station adapted to provide data processing and storage for the wireless vehicle detection system, the base station comprising;

a base station controller;

one or more non-transitory memories encoded with one or more computer programs operable by the base station controller, the one or more computer programs comprising;

 

a traffic detector aggregator module adapted, to aggregate data from the plurality of access points so that a user can configure and monitor the wireless vehicle detection system, the traffic detector aggregator module comprising a set of instructions that causes the base station, when executed by the base station controller, to perform the operation of;

 

generating a second sensor state array, each of the one or more sensor pods in all of the zones having an entry in the send sensor state array;

 

updating the second sensor state array responsive to receiving the updated first sensor state array from one of the plurality of access points;

 

generating a vehicle detector array, the vehicle detector array comprising information indicating a physical detector input for each of the zones of and time stamps of event triggers;

 

updating the vehicle detector array responsive to receiving the output message from one of the plurality of access points;

a bus interface unit (BIU) emulator adapted to adapted to be in communication with a synchronous data link control (SDLC) interface, the SDLC interface being in communication with a traffic controller so that the BIU emulator is responsive to the traffic controller.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle detector controller is adapted to communicate with the communication controller, the vehicle detector controller further comprising:

a plurality of magnetic sensors adapted to sense the presence of one or more vehicles, and to output sensed data corresponding to the presence of one or more vehicles;

a calibration module adapted to adjust for sensor offset, or to set or reset the plurality of magnetic sensors; and

a sensor controller adapted to determining the presence of the one or more vehicles responsive to one or more of the plurality of magnetic sensors outputting the sensed data.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the communication controller is adapted to communicate with the vehicle detector controller via a serial link, the communication controller further comprising:

a radio transceiver adapted to communicate in the 902-928 Mhz ISM band;

the antenna; and

a communication module controller adapted to generate a packet suitable to be wirelessly transmitted via the antenna to the access point.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle detector controller is adapted to communicate with the communication controller, the vehicle detector controller further comprising:

a plurality of magnetic sensors adapted to sense the presence of one or more vehicles, and to output sensed data corresponding to the presence of one or more vehicles;

a calibration module adapted to adjust for sensor offset, or to set or reset the plurality of magnetic sensors; and

a sensor controller adapted to determining the presence of the one or more vehicles responsive to one or more of the plurality of magnetic sensors outputting the sensed data; and

wherein the communication controller further comprises;

a radio transceiver adapted to communicate in the 902-928 Mhz ISM band;

the antenna; and

a communication module controller adapted to generate a packet suitable to be wirelessly transmitted via the antenna to the access point.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein one or more of the plurality of access points further comprises a plurality of antennas, one or more first antennas of the plurality of antennas being adapted to communicate with the base station at approximately 2.4 GHz and one or more second antennas of the plurality of antennas being adapted to communicate with the one or more sensor pods at approximately 902-928 Mhz.