JP3215596B2 - Traffic signal control device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a traffic signal control device, and more particularly, to a traffic signal control device for controlling a lighting time of a traffic light installed at an intersection.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a traffic signal control device for controlling each lighting time of a green signal, a red signal and a yellow signal of a traffic light installed at an intersection, a spot type sensor is installed for each traffic light installed at the intersection area. Then, based on detection information for detecting a vehicle that has passed or stopped under the spot-type sensor, each lighting time of the green signal and the red signal of the traffic light corresponding to the spot-type sensor on a one-to-one basis is controlled.

For example, in accordance with the number of vehicles passing by a spot type sensor detected while a green signal is being turned on, control is performed to stop or extend the lighting of the green signal of the corresponding traffic signal.

[0004]

However, in such a conventional traffic signal control device, the information detected by the spot type sensor is limited to the information of the vehicle passing or stopping under the sensor. At the same time, the lighting times of the traffic lights corresponding one-to-one are controlled based on the vehicle detection information detected by the spot-type sensor, and thus have the following problems.

That is, in the conventional traffic signal control device,
When the number of passing vehicles with the green light of the traffic light decreased, the control of turning off the green light was performed regardless of the vehicle status with the red light of the other traffic light. Cannot be set effectively, and there is a problem that it is difficult to control a traffic signal for smoothing traffic at an intersection.

[Purpose] An object of the present invention is to provide a traffic signal for simultaneously detecting each state of vehicle flow and stagnation at a crossroads intersection by a spatial sensor and efficiently controlling the lighting time of a traffic light based on the detected information. It is to provide a control device.

[0007]

The means of the present invention are as follows.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a traffic signal control device for controlling a lighting time of a green signal and a red signal of a signal light installed at an intersection. A spatial sensor that simultaneously detects the number of vehicles stopped in the intersection area while the red light is lit, and counts the number of vehicles per unit time in the intersection area based on the detected number of vehicles that are lit while the green signal is lit. Counting means for counting the total stop time of the vehicle in the intersection area based on the number of stops at which the red light is lit, and mutual counting of the number of passing vehicles per unit time and the total stop time of the vehicle counted by the counting means. Lighting time setting means for setting the ratio of the lighting time of the blue signal and the red signal within a predetermined cycle based on the relationship; It is characterized by and a control means for controlling a lighting switch of the green signal and red signal of each signal lamp device of the intersection based on the ratio of lighting time of green light and red light to be set.

In this case, the invention described in claim 2 is
The counting means sets the number of passing vehicles per unit time while the green light is on as the loosening rate, and sets the total of the stop times of the vehicles while the red light is on as the delay time, and the lighting time setting means includes:
Based on the correlation between the clearance rate and the delay time, a determination criterion for determining whether to stop and extend the lighting of the green signal is set,
The control means is configured to control the discontinuation and extension of the lighting of the green signal of each of the signal lights at the intersection based on the determination criterion.

[0010]

The operation of the means of the present invention is as follows.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, in a traffic signal control device for controlling each lighting time of a green signal and a red signal of a signal light installed at an intersection, the intersection area is controlled by a spatial sensor while the green signal is being lit. When the number of vehicles passing through and the number of vehicles stopped in the intersection area while the red light is lit are detected at the same time, the counting unit calculates the unit in the intersection area based on the detected number of passed light while the green signal is lit. The number of vehicles passing per hour is counted, and the total of the stop times of the vehicles in the intersection area is counted based on the number of vehicles stopped while the red light is lit, and the unit time counted by the counting means by the lighting time setting means The ratio of the lighting time of the green light and the red light is set within a predetermined cycle based on the correlation between the number of vehicles passing per vehicle and the total sum of the stop times of the vehicle. Is, by the control means, the lighting switch of green light and red light of the signal lamp device of the intersection is controlled based on the ratio of lighting time of green light and red light that is set by the lighting time setting means.

Therefore, the switching control of the green signal and the red signal is performed in consideration of the total stop time (vehicle / second) of the number of vehicles passing through the green signal (vehicle / second) and the number of vehicles stopped at the red signal. Therefore, the flow of the vehicle can be more efficiently controlled at the crossroads.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, in the counting means, the number of vehicles passing per unit time while the green light is on is taken as the clearance rate, and the total stop time of the vehicle while the red light is on is a delay time. In the lighting time setting means, a criterion for determining whether to stop and extend the lighting of the green light is set based on the correlation between the loosening rate and the delay time,
The control means controls the discontinuation and the extension of the lighting of the green signal of each signal lamp at the intersection based on the determination criterion.

Therefore, as compared with the conventional control of the cut-off time of the green signal taking into account only the number of vehicles passing while the green signal is being lit, the control can be performed at a timing at which the correlation between the clearance rate and the delay time is balanced. The time control can be performed more effectively, and the lighting time control of the green signal can be performed to make the flow of the vehicle at the crossroads efficient.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to FIGS.

FIGS. 1 to 6 show an embodiment of a traffic signal control apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

First, the configuration will be described.

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a traffic signal control device 1 according to the present embodiment. A spatial sensor 20 and a signal lamp 30 are connected to the traffic signal control device 1.

The spatial sensor 20 has a predetermined range (for example, at a crossing intersection) regulated by a two-way traffic light.
It has a function of outputting the moving state of the vehicle within a range of about 200 m from the intersection) to the traffic signal control device 1 as image information.

FIG. 2 shows a functional block configuration inside the traffic signal control device 1. In FIG. 2, the traffic signal control device 1 includes a measuring unit 2, a control unit 3, and a light switch unit 4.
It consists of.

The measurement unit 2 performs image processing on the image information input from the spatial sensor 20 in a counting process described later to detect the number of vehicles passing while the green signal is on, and stops while the red signal is on. Detects the number of vehicles, calculates the slack rate (vehicles / second: number of vehicles passing per unit time) from the number of vehicles passing, and delays from the number of vehicles stopped (vehicle / second: vehicle stop time x number of vehicles stopped, lights red light) The sum of the stop times of vehicles that have been prevented from proceeding)
Each information of the calculated clearance rate and delay time is output to the control unit 3.

The control section 3 includes a sensitive section 3a and a multi-stage system section 3.
b.

The sensitive section 3a stores a green signal termination / extension determination reference table shown in FIG. 3 in a built-in memory, and determines a mutual relationship between each information of the loosening rate and the delay time inputted from the measuring unit 2 in this determination. It is determined which area of the reference table corresponds, and the area determination result is output to the control unit 3.

The multi-stage system unit 3b includes a manual setting unit 10
And a system function are built-in, and a timer built in the control unit 3 is switched for each time zone by a switching operation of the switch.

The control unit 3 executes a traffic signal switching control process described later based on the area determination result output from the sensing unit 3a, and outputs a display switching control signal for switching the signal display of the signal lamp 30 to open or close the lamp. Output to section 4. Although not shown, the control unit 3 stores a traffic signal switching control processing program in the internal memory.

The lamp opening / closing section 4 has a built-in switch for switching the display of the signal lamp 30, and switches the switch according to a display switching control signal input from the control section 3 to switch the display of the signal lamp 30.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.

First, the counting process executed by the measuring unit 2 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

The measuring unit 2 executes the main counting process as a routine work. First, image information of the intersection area input from the spatial sensor 20 is obtained (step S1), and predetermined image processing is performed to perform image processing. , The number of vehicles passing while the green signal is lit is detected, and the number of vehicles stopped while the red signal is lit is detected (step S).
2). Then, the loosening rate (vehicles / second) is calculated as the number of vehicles per unit time based on the detected number of vehicles (step S).
3) A delay time (vehicles / second) is calculated for the total stop time based on the detected number of stopped vehicles (step S4), and the calculated release rate (vehicles / second) and the delay time (vehicles / second) are calculated by the control unit 3. (Step S5), and returns to Step S1.

Next, the traffic signal switching control process executed by the control unit 3 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

The traffic signal control device 1 executes this traffic signal switching control process as a routine work, and first obtains a clearance rate (vehicle / second) and a delay time (vehicle / second) input from the measurement unit 2. (Step P1) In the sensitive part 3a, the obtained clearance rate (vehicle / second) and the delay time (vehicle / second)
Based on the correlation of (seconds), it is determined whether to stop or extend the lighting of the green signal based on the green signal termination / extension determination reference table shown in FIG. 3 stored in the internal memory (step P2).

When the correlation between the clearance rate (vehicles / second) and the delay time (vehicles / second) corresponds to the censoring area shown in FIG. A switch control signal to be terminated is output to the lamp opening / closing section 4 (Step P3), and the process returns to Step P1.

At this time, in the lamp opening / closing section 4, the built-in switch is switched by the switching control signal input from the control section 3, and the blue lighting of the signal lamp 30 during the green signal lighting is stopped.

The separation rate (vehicles / second) and the delay time (vehicles / second)
If the correlation of (sec) corresponds to the extension region in FIG. 3, it is determined that the signal is a blue extension, and a switching control signal for extending the blue lighting of the signal lamp that is illuminating the green signal is output to the lamp opening / closing unit 4 (step S1). P3), and returns to the processing of Step P1.

At this time, in the lamp opening / closing section 4, the built-in switch is switched by the switching control signal input from the control section 3, and the green lighting of the signal lamp 30 during the green signal lighting is extended.

According to the above traffic signal switching control processing, in this embodiment, the clearance rate (vehicle / second) indicating the number of vehicles passing while the green light is lit and the delay time (vehicle / second) indicating the number of stopped vehicles while the red light is lit. As shown in FIG. 6, the green light cutoff time is controlled in consideration of the green light cutoff time. Can be controlled at a timing at which the correlation of Eq. (1) is balanced, the lighting time control of the green signal can be more effectively performed, and the lighting time control of the green signal that makes the flow of the vehicle at the crossroads efficient can be performed.

[0037]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a green signal taking into account the total stop time (vehicles / second) of the number of vehicles passing by a green light (vehicles / second) and the number of vehicles stopped by a red light is considered. Red light lighting switching control can be executed, and the flow of the vehicle can be more efficiently controlled at the crossroads.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, as compared with the conventional control of the cutoff time of the green signal taking into account only the number of vehicles passing while the green signal is lit, the control is performed at a timing at which the correlation between the clearance rate and the delay time is balanced. Therefore, the lighting time control of the green signal can be more effectively performed, and the lighting time control of the green signal for improving the flow of the vehicle efficiently at the crossroads can be performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a traffic light control device to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a functional block configuration diagram inside the traffic signal control device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a green light termination / extension determination reference table stored in a sensitive unit in the control unit of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a counting process executed by the measurement unit of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a traffic signal switching control process executed by the control unit in FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between the present embodiment and a conventional green signal discontinuation control time.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Traffic signal control device 2 Measuring unit 3 Control part 3a Sensitive part 3b Multistage system part 4 Lamp opening / closing part 20 Spatial sensor 30 Signal lamp

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on front page (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G08G 1/08

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A traffic signal control device for controlling the lighting time of a green signal and a red signal of a traffic light installed at an intersection, the number of vehicles passing through an intersection area while the green signal is being lit and the red signal being lit. A spatial sensor that simultaneously detects the number of vehicles stopped at the intersection area, and counts the number of passing vehicles per unit time in the intersection area based on the detected number of passing vehicles while the green light is on. Counting means for counting the sum of the stopping times of the vehicles at the intersection area based on the number of stopped vehicles; and the green signal based on the correlation between the number of passing vehicles per unit time counted by the counting means and the sum of the stopping times of the vehicles. And lighting time setting means for setting the ratio of the lighting time of the red signal within a predetermined cycle; and a blue signal set by the lighting time setting means. A traffic signal control device, comprising: control means for controlling switching between the lighting of a green signal and the lighting of a red signal of each of the signal lights at the intersection based on the ratio of the lighting time of the red signal. 2. The lighting device according to claim 1, wherein the counting means sets a number of vehicles passing per unit time while the green light is on as a loosening rate, and a total of stop times of the vehicles while the red light is on as a delay time. Based on the correlation between the clearance rate and the delay time, a criterion for determining whether to stop and extend the lighting of the green signal is set, and the control means stops the turning on and off of the green signal of each signal lamp at the intersection based on the criterion. The traffic signal control device according to claim 1, wherein the lighting extension is controlled.