Method and system for determining dynamic traffic information

Traffic data collection and traffic regulations have become indispensable due to the growing volume of traffic.

Usually, the current dynamic traffic information, for example by<ul><li>Fixed attachments on roads, such as induction loops, cameras, emergency call columns;</li><li>Traffic counters or traffic detectors;</li><li>Mobile traffic reporting units such as police, road service, helicopter;</li><li>Weather data acquisition systems And a multitude of information sources not mentioned here.</li></ul>

Disadvantage of the current traffic data collection is the high expenditure of personnel and material, the associated high costs, as well as the partly very long "reaction times" in events like accident, traffic jam or weather-related traffic impairments. Due to the enormous effort, a comprehensive traffic data recording based on the sensors on the road side is almost impossible, so that the focus of the detection must always be placed. Furthermore, such decentralized traffic data collection is a problem when it comes to centrally capturing, processing and forwarding data to third parties (police, road service, transport).

DE-A-41 05 584 discloses a traffic information system which operates on the basis of a mobile communication system. In this case, traffic information is transmitted from a central station to the vehicles via an organization channel of the mobile communication system, wherein the transmitted information in the vehicle can then be displayed optically or acoustically. Furthermore, it is provided that information about the location and / or the movement of the vehicle are detected and forwarded to the central station. If a cellular mobile communication system is used, a rough location determination of the vehicle is also possible by means of its location in a particular radio cell.

It is an object of the present invention to propose a method and a device for the determination of dynamic traffic information which avoids the above-mentioned disadvantages and permits a comprehensive coverage of the traffic data essentially directly from the vehicle. This is intended to provide a comprehensive data collection system for traffic information.

This object is achieved by the technical teaching of the independent patent claims.

For dynamic individual and collective information services current and historical traffic flow information such as driven speed, current traffic volumes, Acceleration behavior, traffic announcements, accident reports, weather events, etc., on road sections. The same information is the basis for the qualitative and quantitative development of the transport network. This information can be obtained from the vehicles via mobile radio. In order to be able to assign the information to a specific location, it is necessary to provide a device for self-locating in the corresponding vehicles. In this case, it is of particular interest to predict traffic impaired by these, eg vehicle-side and central-side recognition algorithms from these current traffic flow data, supplemented by historical values, and to predetermine their effects. In this way, traffic information can be updated very quickly, that is, detected or deleted.

With this concept of "dynamic traffic flow information", based on the telematics base mobile network, satellite-based positioning and navigation system, the most current traffic flow information is obtained from all roads, or can be queried in a targeted manner.

The traffic flow data collected by vehicle devices are transmitted according to an application possibility of the invention to a regionally responsible service center. With this method, traffic counts and speed determinations can be determined. This "mobile traffic data generation" means that the expenses are much more cost-effective than conventional methods with fixed installations in or on the roadways. In particular, it is provided to carry out a long-term recording of route-related and / or event-related traffic data, and to create from these a historical traffic database, which can be used for the purpose of forecasts or for the targeted control of traffic data collection. In this case, the traffic data acquisition can be controlled on the vehicle side by means of the arrival of virtual detection points, ie the traffic data acquisition process is started only after a detection point has been reached. Subsequent tracking-related detection processes are also controlled by the acquisition of detection points. If a detection point which would have to pass due to a preceding course of the route is not reached within a predetermined period of time, the termination of the travel, or the departure from the detection area (eg secondary roads), is assumed on the system side, and the detection process is terminated.

According to another possible application, in particular in connection with accidents or congestion, it is provided, for example, to give a warning to all vehicles, which are located near the place of the accident or move towards the place of the accident, eg from an accident vehicle. Due to the high travel speeds on federal motorways (BAB), the position data of the accident location plus historical travel position data for determining the direction of travel are transferred to the mobile radio network using the fastest communication option. The data are then transmitted directly to the affected radio cell or to the neighboring radio cells to all mobile stations which can be reached without preprocessing. However, only the mobile subscribers, who are moving towards the scene of the accident, are informed about the existing danger. In this case, it is advisable to keep the last section of the traveled path as a historical "position sweep", preferably on the vehicle side, in addition to its current position, and to use this as a "route to the accident location / storage location", for example in the event of a traffic jam. This route can then be appended to a corresponding warning message for other road users. The warning message is thus not only specified according to the position at which the event occurred, but also according to the direction of travel or the travel route.

The accident data are advantageously transferred simultaneously to the relevant service center, which carries out a check / plausibility check of the data. After verification, a confirmation is distributed to the relevant mobile subscribers or the accident report is stymied. All this requires that the respective mobile subscribers have a corresponding terminal suitable for receiving these messages.

It is a good idea to carry out the remote interrogation of the traffic-relevant attributes at least partially route-specific. In particular, in this context, it is possible to monitor particularly explosive areas or junctions of the traffic network by accessing historical data from the perspective of the traffic flow. To this end, vehicles are selected by the service center for acquisition, the selection preferably being based on the historical traffic data. The detection of the data is carried out in and / or between defined virtual detection regions, which are fixedly predetermined or can be varied dynamically as a function of the occurrence of an event, such as a traffic jam.

Furthermore, an event-related standardization is provided, at least in part, which can, for example, be carried out by the service center directly to the vehicles or else automatically and is carried out as far as possible over the entire area. The vehicles are not returned to the control center until one or more predefined events have actually occurred, such as windscreen wiper actuation as an indication of the onset of rain or braking. This feedback to the service center, supplemented by the location and time of the occurrence of the event, gives the head office an overview of the general traffic situation in the coverage area.

For reasons of timeliness or urgency, a storage-expandable information container of the signaling channel can be used for the communication between mobile radiotelephone and mobile radio network. Such an information container is then to be evaluated in the relevant network node of the mobile radio network (eg the BSC of the GSM networks) and transmitted via broadcast functions in the relevant radio cells. The use of a traffic channel, which might not be available immediately in case of an overload, is therefore unnecessary.

In the following, the invention is explained in more detail by way of a drawing which is merely illustrative. In this connection, further features and advantages of the invention which are essential to the invention will become apparent from the drawing and its description. FIG.<dl id="dl0001"><dt>FIG</dt><dd>Example of functional units of the central monitoring station</dd><dt>FIGS. 2 and 3</dt><dd>Application example of traffic data collection</dd><dt>FIG</dt><dd>Communication process of a direct traffic warning</dd><dt>5 and 6</dt><dd>Dynamic variation of the detection ranges as required</dd></dl>

For a dynamic traffic flow detection, the following basic system functions are preferably required:<ol><li>1. Insert the application software into standardized terminals.</li><li>2. Definition of the route sections to be recorded by the road and / or service operator (contracting entity).</li><li>3. Implementation of these sections in geographic description (satellite positioning coordinates).</li><li>4. Definition of the attributes to be recorded on this section of the route<ul><li>Confirmation of the passage on this section of the route for the purpose of traffic counting,</li><li>Time data, actual transit time or speed for the purpose of identifying traffic obstructions and establishing historical traffic databases,</li><li>Other relevant attributes available on the vehicle side (brake lights, ABS info, rear fog lights, windscreen wipers, temperature sensors).</li></ul></li><li>5. Transfer of the defined requirements from the service center to the terminal.</li><li>6. Functions of the terminal:<ul><li>Determining that this section of the route has actually been traversed,</li><li>Determination of time data for determining the actual throughput time or determination of the speed,</li><li>Determination of further relevant attributes which are present on the vehicle side (brake lights, ABS information, rear fog lights, windscreen wipers, temperature sensors).</li></ul></li><li>7. Transfer of traffic flow information from the terminal to the service center.</li><li>8. Evaluation of traffic flow information in service centers and preparation for transmission to other terminals and / or third parties.</li></ol>

The terminals consist of satellite navigation system, mobile communication functions and a module for the application function including the few required operating functions. The application software and operating data can be inserted into the vehicle-side terminal via a chip card, separate mechanical interfaces or via mobile radio interfaces.

The necessary configuration parameters for recording the dynamic traffic information or traffic events are also set by means of a chip card (eg by mail), by mechanical interfaces, by individual point-to-point or distribution communication in the terminal.

The dynamic data on the geographic description of the route section on which traffic relevant events are to be collected may be<ul><li>Via a separate interface at the terminal,</li><li>By a chip card,</li><li>Through a procedure via mobile data communication and / or</li><li>Data distribution services in mobile communications</li></ul>Can also be transmitted from the center to the terminal.

In the example according to FIG. 2, the application recognizes whether the vehicle 13, which is located on a traffic route 12, has traversed a defined detection area S1, and determines the transit time up to the detection area S2. When the predetermined transit time is substantially exceeded, the route section defined by the detection areas S1, S2 and the actual transit time are encoded as "floating car data °" and optionally with further vehicle-side additional information such as operating status of brake lights, mist lights, windshield wipers, ABS, To the detection center 20 (see FIG. 1). On the basis of this assignment, the speeds of the vehicles determined by the vehicle devices are then allocated to the road sections. In the same way, simple counting of the vehicles or the recognition of traffic streams, which pass through a particular route section defined by detection areas S3, S4, is possible. Braking and acceleration characteristics of the vehicle are recorded as event-related information and transmitted to the control center with position and time data.

As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the position of the detection areas S1, S2 is initially fixed. However, it can be dynamically varied to S1 ', S2' at the occurrence of a traffic-relevant event (storage area 14) and thus be adapted to the new traffic situation in such a way that a best possible data collection is ensured.

If the event 14 occurs, the terminal detects this by the vehicle behavior (braking) of the vehicle in the affected detection areas (S1, S2 or S1 ', S2') and a message is transmitted to the control center 20 via mobile radio. Abrupt standstill of the vehicle can be an indication of an impact or accident. Strong braking of the vehicle on the highway often means a start. A slow journey gives an indication of heavy traffic, etc. This message is linked to the information where the event occurred (eg intersection 17) and the position of the reporting vehicle (eg intersection 18 - intersection 17). The information given to the control center 20 would therefore be, for example: Event 14 has been entered at intersection 17 after the intersection of the travel route 18 - intersection 17. The control center 20 can now output to all the vehicles the information that when the route section is planned, Intersection 17 the event 14 (jam) will occur. The crossroads 18 - junction 19 are named as the alternative. If the avoidance path is taken from the vehicle, then a return message is sent to the central station 20. From the feedback signal of the vehicles, the control center 20 can recognize whether the diversion recommendation is assumed. The received data is processed by the application function in the central station 20 and the stretch data is allocated in a dynamic database 7 to a digital road map. In addition, the geographic self-locating in the vehicle can be made aware of the imminent traffic jam, for example shortly before the traffic jam (warning: danger of running up).

Through plausibility checks 8 in the determination of the deviations (for this purpose, historical data, average data or data of other participants located on this section of the route are used), increased transit times caused by parking, breakdowns etc. must be suppressed. In addition, traffic information returned to the road user can be transmitted exactly geographically or logically, eg with the specification of the road names.

In addition to the above-mentioned dynamic postprocessing of the traffic flow information, all traffic flow information is collected and stored in a historical traffic database.

Especially in the case of an accident or traffic jam, it is important to immediately give a traffic warning to all traffic people who are close to the accident or traffic jam, or to move towards the event. FIG. 4 illustrates, using the steps a - e, a possible communication sequence for such a direct traffic warning message.<ul><li>A) The terminal of the accident vehicle 13 transmits a message (location coordinates and further available data about the direction of travel, etc.) to its directly responsible transmitting and receiving station (base station BTS) of the mobile radio network.</li><li>B) The superordinate network node 15 of the mobile radio network (eg the BSC of the GSM networks) evaluates the message and immediately causes a warning message to be transmitted to other mobile radio subscribers (vehicles 13a, 13b, 13c) of the originating and neighboring radio cells,</li><li>C) The higher-level network node sends the message parallel to the relevant service center 20 (service center), eg via the DatexP line. The service center checks the message.</li><li>D) The service center sends a confirmation or cancellation note to the network node (BSC).</li><li>(E) The network node (BSC) makes the sending of the confirmation or stating note in the originating and neighboring cells.</li></ul>

For the evaluation of the alarm messages, the receivers 13a, 13b, 13c must be equipped with a corresponding terminal according to the invention. The accident data taken as an example, eg accident position, are compared with the vehicle's own position. If a relevance (approach to the accident location) is recognized, this is communicated via a man-machine interface. This can be done visually and / or acoustically (eg "accident after 2.5 kilometers"). The distance information is then updated by means of the satellite satellite navigation system. The confirmation or cancellation of the traffic announcement by the service center 20 is correspondingly displayed acoustically / visually.

The transmission of the data takes place, for example, via a signaling channel of the GSM mobile radio network available throughout Europe.

Required base functions of the terminal:

The traffic telematics terminals preferably consist of the following functional units:<ol><li>1. Self-location via the well-known GPS procedures and improved algorithms.</li><li>2. Functions of the application software<ul><li>Automatic operation,</li><li>Reception of basic data</li><li>Determine the passage through a predetermined section of the route</li><li>Determine the current transit time between two positions or speed</li><li>Recognition of set events (braking, acceleration)</li><li>Plausibility check or preparation of optional additional information (lights, ABS, windscreen wipers)</li><li>Generation of the traffic flow message</li><li>Generation of optional additional information (light, ABS, windshield wiper)</li><li>Generation of the time</li><li>Communication management for the automatic operation of the GSM terminal</li></ul></li><li>3. GSM communication<ul><li>Interface for mobile data transmission and optional short messages (SMS MO and MT) and distribution messages (SMS CB)</li><li>Optionally expandable to telephony (language)</li></ul></li><li>4. Man-machine interface (control terminal), only basic elements are required. (5.) Optional</li></ol>

Upgrading to an emergency call terminal and / or a fully functional dynamic guidance system

Functions of the control panel

A digital street map of the coverage area is located in the central area 20 in the granularity of the street classes (BAB, federal roads, circular roads, city and community roads) as well as system-specific attributes of the individual sections of the route (such as mean transit times, parking spaces, etc.)

FIG. 1 illustrates the functions which the control center 20 is preferably intended to perform. The center 20 performs the communication management for the incoming dynamic traffic flow information of the various terminals (EG, 1, 2, 3) each equipped with or without a digital road map. The data from existing, conventional detection systems, for example induction loops 4, can also run into the central station 20. The communication with the terminals (EG) takes place, for example, via a GSM network, eg the D1 network. The received information is recognized in a special communication server 5, processed and stored for further processing in a service server 6, and 7 route sections are allocated in a database. In this case, we carried out the check for plausibility 8 and a reconciliation using the traffic flow information obtained on the infrastructure infrastructure 4 on the road side. The data flow to the terminals is bidirectional so that the network server 9 can return current processed data directly to individual or all assigned terminals. Interfaces 10, 11 are also provided to third parties, whether public or private, via which the data can be passed on. Through the knowledge of the historical traffic data and the current traffic situation, the service center 20 dynamically controls the track sections to be recorded and the attributes to be collected, such as speed, message threshold, traffic counts, etc. It specifically assigns acquisition orders to selected regions of vehicles selected on the basis of historical traffic data. The data returned by vehicles are processed and processed and made available in a suitable form to mobile subscribers or third parties.