JP7203648B2 - Information transmission control device and information transmission system - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an information transmission control device and an information transmission system .

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been provided an information collection system that collects abnormality information about road abnormalities by communicating information between in-vehicle equipment mounted on a vehicle and a management center that manages roads. For example, the information collection system disclosed in Patent Document 1 detects an abnormality on a road on which a vehicle is traveling, and collects image information of a photographed image of an abnormal location on the road and the position of the abnormal location on the road. The location information indicated by the user is transmitted to the server of the management center as fault information.

JP 2007-72667 A

The above-described conventional information collection system has a problem that it places a heavy load on the server because it sends all the trouble information to the server of the management center.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and is capable of reducing the load on the server by filtering fault information about faults in road traffic safety facilities and transmitting it to the server. The object is to provide a control device.

An information transmission control device according to the present invention includes a defect determination unit that determines whether or not there is a defect in a road traffic safety facility based on image information of a photographed image of the surroundings of a vehicle taken by a photographing unit; A position information acquisition unit that acquires vehicle position information indicating the current position of the vehicle from the vehicle position detection unit that detects the position; Based on the location information, a danger importance determination unit that determines the degree of danger importance for the road traffic safety facility that has been determined to be defective by the defect determination unit, and the defect determination unit determines that the road traffic safety facility has a defect. When image information and vehicle position information at the time of occurrence are associated with the risk importance level determined by the risk importance level determination unit to generate defect information, and the generated defect information is transmitted from the communication unit to the server , A transmission control unit that filters the defect information based on the determination result of the risk severity, a display unit that displays a display corresponding to the defect information, an audio output unit that outputs a sound corresponding to the defect information, and a communication unit. At least one of the display unit and the audio output unit receives the defect information received from the server and the repair plan information indicating the repair plan for the road traffic safety facility drawn up based on the degree of risk importance of the defect information. and an output control unit for transmitting to .

According to this invention, the load on the server can be reduced by filtering the trouble information about the trouble of the road traffic safety facility and transmitting it to the server.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an information transmission system including an information transmission control device according to Embodiment 1; FIG. It is a schematic diagram showing the overall operation of the information transmission system. 4 is a flow chart showing operations from the vehicle-mounted device side to the server side in the information transmission system. 4 is a flow chart showing operations from the server side to the vehicle-mounted device side in the information transmission system. 5A and 5B are diagrams showing an example of the hardware configuration of the information transmission control device according to Embodiment 1. FIG.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

Embodiment 1.
Information transmission control device 10 according to Embodiment 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5. FIG.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an information transmission system provided with an information transmission control device 10 according to Embodiment 1. As shown in FIG.

The information transmission system includes an in-vehicle device 20 , an imaging unit 31 , a vehicle position detection unit 32 and a server 40 . The in-vehicle device 20, the imaging unit 31, and the vehicle position detection unit 32 are mounted on the vehicle. The in-vehicle device 20 corresponds to, for example, a vehicle navigation device. The server 40 is installed in a management authority that manages road traffic safety facilities such as roadside signs, curved mirrors, roads, and road lanes (hereinafter referred to as road facilities).

The photographing unit 31 photographs the surroundings of the vehicle and transmits image information of the photographed image to the in-vehicle device 20 . This photographing unit 31 is, for example, an in-vehicle camera, a drive recorder, or the like.

The vehicle position detection unit 32 detects the current position of the vehicle in which the onboard device 20 is mounted. In addition, the vehicle position detection unit 32 transmits vehicle position information indicating the current position of the vehicle to the in-vehicle device 20 . The vehicle position detector 32 is, for example, a GNSS antenna and a GNSS receiver that are applied to GNSS.

The in-vehicle device 20 includes an information transmission control device 10 , a map information acquisition section 13 , an output control section 21 , a display section 22 and an audio output section 23 . The information transmission control device 10 also includes a malfunction determination unit 11 , a position information acquisition unit 12 , a risk importance determination unit 14 , a transmission control unit 15 and a communication unit 16 . Note that the output control unit 21 , the display unit 22 , and the audio output unit 23 may constitute the information transmission control device 10 .

The defect determination unit 11 determines whether or not there is a defect in the road facilities based on the image information acquired from the imaging unit 31 . When the defect determination unit 11 determines that there is a defect in the road facility, it transmits image information corresponding to the defect to the danger importance degree determination unit 14 . Further, when the defect determination unit 11 determines that there is no defect in the road facility, it does not transmit the corresponding image information to the risk importance determination unit 14 .

The position information acquisition unit 12 acquires vehicle position information from the vehicle position detection unit 32 .

The map information acquisition unit 13 acquires map information from a storage medium, an external server, or the like. Also, the map information acquisition unit 13 transmits the map information to the information transmission control device 10 . Map information includes various types of information such as roads with heavy vehicle traffic, roads with high speed limits, school zones, roads with bicycle lanes, accident-prone points, facility importance of road facilities, facility location information, etc. ing.

The facility importance of road facilities is, for example, a white line indicating a pedestrian crossing without a traffic light and a stop sign with a "high" importance, and a white line indicating a zebra zone with a "low" importance. . The facility importance of road facilities is not limited to two levels of "high" and "low", and may be set in three or more levels.

The risk importance level determination unit 14 determines the road facilities that are determined to be defective by the defect determination unit 11 based on the image information acquired from the defect determination unit 11 and the vehicle position information acquired from the position information acquisition unit 12. Determine hazard severity. Further, the risk importance determination unit 14 associates the image information acquired from the defect determination unit 11, the vehicle position information acquired from the position information acquisition unit 12, and the determined risk importance, and transmits them to the transmission control unit 15. do.

Specifically, the risk importance level determination unit 14 identifies the type and damage state of the road facility based on the image information acquired from the defect determination unit 11 . Further, the danger importance determination unit 14 identifies the damage location of the road facility based on the vehicle position information acquired from the position information acquisition unit 12 . Then, the risk importance determination unit 14 determines the risk importance based on the type of road facility, damage state, and damage location identified as described above.

Criteria for judging the degree of risk importance are set according to the damage state of the specified road facility, and the degree of facility importance and facility location information of the road facility included in the map information. For example, based on the criteria, the danger importance determination unit 14 assigns three levels of danger importance to road facilities with defects: "high", "medium", and "low". Note that the risk importance level is not limited to the three stages of "high", "middle", and "low", and may be set in two stages or four stages or more.

The transmission control unit 15 associates the image information acquired from the defect determination unit 11, the vehicle position information acquired from the position information acquisition unit 12, and the risk importance determined by the risk importance determination unit 14, and determines the defect. Generate information. Then, when the generated defect information is transmitted from the communication unit 16 to the server 40, the transmission control unit 15 filters the defect information based on the determination result of the degree of risk importance.

Specifically, the transmission control unit 15 has a filtering function of transmitting only defect information that has been determined to have a high degree of risk importance. The transmission control unit 15 causes the communication unit 16 to transmit malfunction information with a “high” and “medium” danger importance level, and transmits malfunction information with a “low” danger importance degree from the communication unit 16. don't let In addition, the information transmission control device 10 may be provided with a defect information storage section for storing defect information.

The communication unit 16 transmits and receives fault information to and from the server 40 by wireless communication. That is, the communication unit 16 transmits trouble information with a high degree of danger and importance to the server 40 and receives trouble information with a high degree of danger and importance from the server 40 . Further, when the communication unit 16 receives defect information with a high degree of danger and importance from the server 40 , the communication unit 16 transmits the defect information to the output control unit 21 .

The output control unit 21 is controlled when the defect information acquired from the communication unit 16 corresponds to the vehicle position information acquired from the position information acquisition unit 12 (when the location of the damaged road facility and the current position of the vehicle roughly match). ), the defect information is transmitted to the display unit 22 and the audio output unit 23 . At this time, the output control unit 21 transmits the defect information to at least one of the display unit 22 and the audio output unit 23 based on the degree of danger and importance of the defect information.

Specifically, when the output control unit 21 acquires defect information indicating that the degree of risk importance is “high”, the output control unit 21 transmits the defect information to both the display unit 22 and the audio output unit 23 . On the other hand, when the output control unit 21 acquires defect information with a danger importance level of "medium", the output control unit 21 transmits the defect information to at least one of the display unit 22 and the audio output unit 23. .

The display unit 22 acquires defect information from the output control unit 21 and displays a display corresponding to the acquired defect information. The audio output unit 23 acquires the defect information from the output control unit 21 and outputs audio corresponding to the acquired defect information.

The server 40 includes a communication section 41 , an information management section 42 , an information storage section 43 and a repair planning section 44 .

The communication unit 41 transmits and receives defect information to and from the communication unit 16 by wireless communication.

The information management unit 42 causes the information storage unit 43 to store the defect information received by the communication unit 41 . In addition, the information management unit 42 reads the defect information stored in the information storage unit 43 and causes the communication unit 41 to transmit the read defect information.

The information storage unit 43 is a storage unit that stores defect information, as described above.

The repair plan drafting unit 44 reads the defect information stored in the information storage unit 43, and drafts a repair plan for the corresponding road facility based on the read defect information and the degree of risk importance of the defect information. . The server 40 does not have to include the repair plan drafting unit 44. In this case, the manager of the administrative authority drafts the repair plan for the corresponding road facility.

Next, the operation of the information transmission system will be explained using FIGS. 2 to 4. FIG.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the overall operation of the information transmission system, and describes the operations of the information transmission system in order of operation (1) to operation (5). In addition, in FIG. 2, it is assumed that the defect of the road facility is the disappearance of the lane drawn on the road, the vehicle A is the vehicle that is the source of the defect information, and the vehicle B is the destination of the defect information. It is assumed to be a vehicle.

In operation (1), the defect determination unit 11 of the vehicle A determines, based on the image information acquired from the imaging unit 31, that "the lane on the road has disappeared."

In the operation (2), the danger importance level determination unit 14 of the vehicle A identifies "a state in which the lane has disappeared" and "a place in which the lane has disappeared". Further, the hazard importance level determination unit 14 of vehicle A determines the hazard importance level for the disappearing lane based on the above criteria. In this case, most of the center line has disappeared among the lanes, so the danger importance determination unit 14 of vehicle A determines that the danger importance is "high".

In operation (3), the transmission control unit 15 of the vehicle A receives the image information and the vehicle position information when the defect determination unit 11 determines that “the lane on the road has disappeared” and the risk importance determination unit 14 The communication unit 16 is caused to transmit the defect information associated with the determined danger importance degree “high” to the communication unit 41 of the server 40 .

In response to this, the information management unit 42 causes the information storage unit 43 to store the defect information received by the communication unit 41 . The repair plan formulation unit 44 reads out the defect information stored in the information storage unit 43, and formulates a repair plan for the "disappearing lane" based on the defect information. In addition, the repair plan drafting unit 44 associates the defect information with the repair plan information related to the corresponding repair plan, and causes the information storage unit 43 to store the information.

In operation (4), the information management unit 42 transmits the trouble information stored in the information storage unit 43 to the communication unit 16 of the vehicle B from the communication unit 41 .

In operation (5), the output control unit 21 of the vehicle B displays the defect information on the display unit 22 when the defect information received by the communication unit 16 and the vehicle position information acquired from the position information acquisition unit 12 correspond to each other. and to the audio output unit 23 . The display unit 22 displays, for example, a message that reads, "There is no lane ahead. Watch out for oncoming vehicles!" In addition, the voice output unit 23 outputs, for example, a voice saying, "The lane is disappearing ahead. Watch out for oncoming vehicles!" Accordingly, the in-vehicle device 20 of the vehicle B alerts the driver.

In addition, in the operation (4), the information management unit 42 transmits not only the defect information stored in the information storage unit 43 but also the repair plan information corresponding to the defect information from the communication unit 41 to the communication unit 16 of the vehicle B. may be sent to As a result, the display unit 22 displays, for example, "Repair is scheduled for XX day" following the alert, and the voice output unit 23 displays, for example, "Month XX" following the alert. It will be repaired on ○ day." is output.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the operation from the vehicle-mounted device 20 side to the server 40 side in the information transmission system. The flowchart shown in FIG. 3 corresponds to the operations (1) to (3) shown in FIG.

In step ST<b>11 , the defect determination unit 11 determines whether or not there is a defect in the road facility based on the image information acquired from the imaging unit 31 . Here, when the defect determination unit 11 determines that there is a defect in the road facility (in the case of YES), the operation of the information transmission system proceeds to step ST12. On the other hand, when the defect determination unit 11 determines that there is no defect in the road facility (in the case of NO), the operation of the information transmission system repeats step ST11.

In step ST<b>12 , the danger severity determination unit 14 identifies the type and damage state of the road facility based on the image information acquired from the defect determination unit 11 .

In step ST<b>13 , the danger importance determination unit 14 identifies the damage location of the road facility based on the vehicle position information acquired from the position information acquisition unit 12 .

In step ST14, the hazard importance determination unit 14 determines the hazard importance of the road facility determined to have a problem.

In step ST15, the transmission control unit 15 determines whether or not the degree of risk importance of the generated defect information is "high" or "medium". Here, when the transmission control unit 15 determines that the degree of risk importance is "high" or "middle" (in the case of YES), the operation of the information transmission system proceeds to step ST16. On the other hand, when the transmission control unit 15 determines that the degree of risk importance is not "high" or "medium" (in the case of NO), the operation of the information transmission system returns to step ST11.

In step ST<b>16 , the transmission control section 15 causes the communication section 16 to transmit the defect information to the communication section 41 of the server 40 .

In step ST<b>17 , the information management section 42 causes the information storage section 43 to store the defect information received by the communication section 41 .

In step ST18, the repair plan drafting unit 44 formulates a repair plan for the defective road facility based on the defect information stored in the information storage unit 43 and its degree of risk importance.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing the operation from the server 40 side to the in-vehicle device 20 side in the information transmission system. The flowchart shown in FIG. 4 corresponds to the operations (4) and (5) shown in FIG.

In step ST<b>21 , the information management section 42 causes the communication section 41 to transmit the defect information stored in the information storage section 43 to the communication section 16 of the in-vehicle device 20 .

In step ST22, the output control section 21 determines whether or not the defect information acquired from the communication section 16 and the vehicle position information acquired from the position information acquisition section 12 correspond to each other. Here, when the output control unit 21 determines that they correspond (in the case of YES), the operation of the information transmission system proceeds to step ST23. On the other hand, when the output control unit 21 determines that they do not correspond (in the case of NO), the operation of the information transmission system returns to step ST21.

In step ST23, the output control unit 21 determines whether or not the risk importance of the defect information is "high". Here, when the output control unit 21 determines that the danger importance degree is "high" (in the case of YES), the operation of the information transmission system proceeds to step ST24. On the other hand, when the output control unit 21 determines that the danger importance level is not "high" (in the case of NO), the operation of the information transmission system proceeds to step ST25.

In step ST24, the display section 22 displays a display corresponding to the defect information. The audio output unit 23 outputs audio corresponding to the trouble information. Then, the operation of the information transmission system ends.

In step ST25, the display section 22 displays a display corresponding to the defect information. The operation of the information transmission system ends.

Next, the hardware configuration of the information transmission control device 10 according to Embodiment 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. 5A and 5B. 5A and 5B are diagrams showing an example of the hardware configuration of the information transmission control device 10 according to Embodiment 1. FIG.

The functions of the defect determination unit 11, the position information acquisition unit 12, the risk importance determination unit 14, the transmission control unit 15, and the communication unit 16 in the information transmission control device 10 are realized by a processing circuit. That is, the information transmission control device 10 has a processing circuit for realizing the above functions. The processing circuit may be a processing circuit 51 as dedicated hardware, or a processor 52 that executes a program stored in the memory 53 .

As shown in FIG. 5A, when the processing circuit is dedicated hardware, the processing circuit 51 may be, for example, a single circuit, a composite circuit, a programmed processor, a parallel programmed processor, an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit). , FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), or a combination thereof. The functions of the malfunction determination unit 11, the position information acquisition unit 12, the danger importance determination unit 14, the transmission control unit 15, and the communication unit 16 may be realized by a plurality of processing circuits, or the functions of each unit may be combined into one unit. It may be realized by one processing circuit 51 .

As shown in FIG. 5B, when the processing circuit is the processor 52, the functions of the defect determination unit 11, the position information acquisition unit 12, the risk importance determination unit 14, the transmission control unit 15, and the communication unit 16 are software, It is implemented by firmware or a combination of software and firmware. Software or firmware is written as a program and stored in the memory 53 . The processor 52 reads out and executes programs stored in the memory 53 to achieve the functions of each section. That is, it can be said that the program causes the computer to execute the malfunction determination function, the position information acquisition function, the risk importance determination function, the transmission control function, and the communication function.

Here, the processor 52 is a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a processing device, an arithmetic device, a microprocessor, or the like. The memory 53 may be a non-volatile or volatile semiconductor memory such as RAM (Random Access Memory), ROM (Read Only Memory), EPROM (Erasable Programmable ROM), or flash memory, or a hard disk or flexible disk. or an optical disc such as a CD (Compact Disc) or a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc).

Some of the functions of the defect determination unit 11, the location information acquisition unit 12, the risk importance determination unit 14, the transmission control unit 15, and the communication unit 16 are realized by dedicated hardware, and some are realized by software or It may be realized by firmware. In this way, the processing circuit in the information transmission control device 10 can implement the functions described above by hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof.

As described above, the information transmission control device 10 according to the first embodiment includes the defect determination unit that determines whether or not there is a defect in the road facility based on the image information of the captured image of the surroundings of the vehicle captured by the image capturing unit 31. 11, a position information acquisition unit 12 that acquires vehicle position information indicating the current position of the vehicle from a vehicle position detection unit 32 that detects the current position of the vehicle, and a defect determination unit 11. It is determined that there is a problem with the road facility. Based on the image information and the vehicle position information at the time of Image information and vehicle position information when it is determined that there is a problem is associated with the risk importance level determined by the risk importance level determination unit 14 to generate defect information, and the communication unit 16 transmits the generated defect information. and a transmission control unit 15 for filtering the trouble information based on the judgment result of the degree of risk importance when the trouble information is transmitted from the apparatus to the outside of the apparatus. Thereby, the information transmission control device 10 can reduce the load on the server 40 by filtering the trouble information about the trouble of road facilities and transmitting it to the server 40 .

The danger severity determination unit 14 determines the state of damage of the road facility specified based on the image information when the defect determination unit 11 determines that the road facility has a problem, and the map acquired by the map information acquisition unit 13. Based on the facility importance of the road facility and the facility position information included in the information, the criterion of the danger importance is set. Thereby, the information transmission control device 10 can improve the determination accuracy of the risk importance determination section 14 .

The information transmission control device 10 includes a display unit 22 for displaying a display corresponding to the defect information, an audio output unit 23 for outputting a sound corresponding to the defect information, and a communication unit 16 for receiving the defect information from outside the device. and an output control unit 21 for transmitting the defect information to at least one of the display unit 22 and the audio output unit 23 based on the degree of difficulty. As a result, the information transmission control device 10 can alert the driver according to the danger level of the defect information.

It should be noted that, within the scope of the invention of the present application, any component of the embodiment can be modified or any component of the embodiment can be omitted.

10 information transmission control device 11 malfunction determination unit 12 location information acquisition unit 13 map information acquisition unit 14 danger importance determination unit 15 transmission control unit 16 communication unit 20 in-vehicle device 21 output control unit 22 display Unit, 23 Audio output unit, 31 Imaging unit, 32 Vehicle position detection unit, 40 Server, 41 Communication unit, 42 Information management unit, 43 Information storage unit, 44 Repair plan formulation unit, 51 Processing circuit, 52 Processor, 53 Memory, A, B vehicles.

Claims (3)

a defect determination unit that determines whether or not there is a defect in the road traffic safety facility based on the image information of the image captured by the image capturing unit around the vehicle;
a position information acquisition unit that acquires vehicle position information indicating the current position of the vehicle from a vehicle position detection unit that detects the current position of the vehicle;
Based on the image information and vehicle position information when the road traffic safety facility is determined to be defective by the defect determination unit, the risk importance level of the road traffic safety facility determined to be defective by the defect determination unit is determined. a risk severity determination unit for determining;
The defect information is generated by associating the image information and the vehicle position information when the defect determination unit determines that there is a defect in the road traffic safety facility and the risk importance determined by the risk importance determination unit. a transmission control unit for filtering the generated defect information based on the determination result of the degree of risk severity when the generated defect information is transmitted from the communication unit to the server ;
a display unit that displays a display corresponding to the defect information;
an audio output unit that outputs audio corresponding to the defect information;
The display unit and the voice output unit display the defect information received by the communication unit from the server and repair plan information indicating a repair plan for road traffic safety facilities drawn up based on the degree of danger and importance of the defect information. and an output control unit that transmits to at least one of the information transmission control devices. The danger importance determination unit
Damage state of the road traffic safety facility specified based on the image information when the defect determination unit determines that the road traffic safety facility has a defect, and the road included in the map information acquired by the map information acquisition unit 2. The information transmission control device according to claim 1, wherein criteria for judging the degree of importance of danger are set based on the degree of importance of the traffic safety facility and information on the location of the facility. A vehicle-mounted device having the information transmission control device according to claim 1 or claim 2 ,
An information transmission system comprising : the server that transmits and receives defect information to and from the communication unit.

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