JP7646897B2 - Traffic control system, management vehicle allocation method and program - Google Patents

Description

Embodiments of the present invention relate to a management vehicle dispatch system, a management vehicle dispatch method, and a program.

Conventionally, on roads where there are restrictions on the inflow and outflow of vehicles and changes in the direction of travel of vehicles (hereinafter referred to as restricted roads, for example expressways, toll roads, etc.), when an event such as a traffic accident, broken-down vehicle, or road obstacle (falling objects, falling rocks, accumulated snow, frozen roads, etc.) occurs, vehicles under the control of the traffic control room, such as patrol vehicles (management vehicles) and various work vehicles (hereinafter referred to as management vehicles), are dispatched to the location of the event to respond.

For example, on expressways, which are restricted roads, information on traffic accidents, one of the events mentioned above, is provided through near-miss maps based on statistical data, warnings are posted on information boards in accident-prone areas, and information on accidents is notified to traffic controllers based on road traffic conditions monitored by CCTV cameras installed on the roadside. However, these measures do not directly contribute to reducing traffic accidents.

When a traffic accident occurs on a highway, it can potentially cause secondary disasters, such as further traffic congestion or rear-end collisions with following vehicles. For this reason, management vehicles are dispatched to the scene to handle traffic control and rapid recovery from the scene (removal of the accident vehicle) in the unlikely event of an accident.

JP 2005-267505 A JP 2005-157410 A JP 2000-057474 A Patent No. 6045846

However, because the system was designed to dispatch vehicles after an event had occurred, it was not possible to prevent accidents or secondary disasters.

Furthermore, because the management vehicles are dispatched after an event has occurred, there is a risk that they may not be dispatched quickly due to factors such as accidents, traffic jams, and other obstacles. In particular, on the restricted roads mentioned above, there are few places where vehicles can change direction, so even the management vehicle that is physically closest to the event location is not necessarily able to quickly reach the location of the traffic accident.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above, and aims to provide a traffic control system , a management vehicle dispatching method, and a program that enable quick dispatch of vehicles to event locations on restricted roads, and further prevent accidents, secondary disasters, etc.

The traffic control system of the embodiment is a traffic control system that dispatches a management vehicle for managing a restricted road on a restricted road where there are restrictions on the inflow, outflow, and change of direction of a vehicle,
a road information storage unit that stores road information including information on locations where a managed vehicle can turn around on a restricted road;
a traffic condition calculation unit that calculates a traffic condition including a degree of traffic congestion of vehicles on an expressway;
a probability calculation unit that calculates a probability of an event occurring based on the traffic conditions calculated by the traffic condition calculation unit and past occurrences of the event;
a management vehicle dispatch system that instructs a dispatch of a dispatchable management vehicle to respond to an event when the event occurs or when the occurrence probability calculated by the probability calculation unit becomes equal to or greater than a predetermined value;
Equipped with
The management vehicle dispatch system includes:
a management vehicle status calculation unit that calculates a management vehicle status including a current location and a work content of the management vehicle on the restricted road;
a vehicle allocation candidate information creation unit that, when an event occurs or there is an event whose occurrence probability is calculated to be equal to or greater than a predetermined value by the probability calculation unit, calculates a required time to a location where the event occurs or a predicted occurrence location of the calculated event whose occurrence probability is equal to or greater than a predetermined value based on road information stored in the road information storage unit, traffic conditions calculated by the traffic condition calculation unit, and management work conditions of the managed vehicles calculated by the managed vehicle status calculation unit, and creates vehicle allocation candidate information including the required time;
The vehicle dispatch instruction unit judges whether the traveling direction on the restricted road to be dispatched is correct or not based on the predicted accident occurrence location or the event occurrence location, calculates the arrival time for the management vehicle whose traveling direction is correct, and further calculates the arrival time of the management vehicle whose traveling direction is not correct as the required time for turning around and traveling at a location where turning around is possible stored in the road information storage unit, and outputs a dispatch instruction to the management vehicle judged to be optimal for dispatch based on the arrival time.

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a restricted road situation. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a management vehicle dispatch system in an embodiment configured as a part of a traffic control system. FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the accident occurrence probability calculation unit according to the embodiment. FIG. 4 is a process flowchart of the first embodiment. FIG. 5 is a process flowchart of the dispatchable managed vehicle extraction process. FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a vehicle dispatch instruction list. FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a state of a restricted road in the second embodiment. FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a state of a restricted road in the third embodiment. FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of event priority. FIG. 10 is a process flowchart of the third embodiment.

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
In the following, an embodiment will be described in which the present invention is applied to a road on which there are restrictions on the inflow and outflow of vehicles and on the change of direction of travel of vehicles (hereinafter referred to as a restricted road, for example, an expressway, a toll road, etc.). Here, the case of an expressway will be described as an example of a restricted road.

[1] First Embodiment Next, the process of the first embodiment will be described.
In the first embodiment, for ease of understanding, a case will be described in which no event (traffic accident, etc.) that requires preferential dispatch of a managed vehicle has occurred at the time of processing.

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a restricted road situation.
In FIG. 1, general roads connecting to each interchange are omitted.
The expressway HW, which is a restricted road, has five interchanges IC1 to IC5. In the following description, when there is no need to distinguish between the interchanges IC1 to IC5, they will be referred to as "interchange ICs."

As uphill roads with the direction of travel to the left in Fig. 1, roads RT1i, RT2i, RT3i, RT4i, RT5i, and RT6i are provided, in order from the left, with each interchange IC as a boundary. Also, as downhill roads with the direction of travel to the right in Fig. 1, roads RT1o, RT2o, RT3o, RT4o, RT5o, and RT6o are provided, in order from the left, with each interchange IC as a boundary.

Furthermore, there are five management vehicles PC1 to PC5 on the expressway HW.
In Fig. 1, the management vehicles PC1 to PC4 are on patrol, and the management vehicle PC5 is responding to an obstacle on the road (working). In the following, when there is no need to distinguish between the management vehicles PC1 to PC5, they will be referred to as "management vehicles PC". Also, on the expressway, congestion A and congestion B, which indicate the range of congestion, are indicated by arrows.

In addition, in FIG. 1, a location Px, which is considered to have a high probability of accidents, is shown near interchange IC2 on road RT3o.

Next, a management vehicle dispatch system according to an embodiment will be described.
FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a management vehicle dispatch system in an embodiment configured as a part of a traffic control system.

Here, the traffic control system 10 is a system that recognizes traffic conditions, including the degree of congestion and traffic accidents on expressways, and takes measures such as traffic restrictions in response to the traffic condition information, and provides information such as warnings to users of the expressway. The traffic control system is, for example, composed of multiple computer devices in a traffic control room 1000. For example, the traffic control room 1000 is provided with multiple large computer devices (not shown) such as a probe information collection device and a central processing unit, multiple terminal devices 1002 used by operators, and a large display unit 1001. The display unit 14, which will be described later, corresponds to the display unit 1001 and the display unit of the terminal device 1002.

The traffic control system 10 uses vehicle detectors 2, surveillance cameras 3 or on-board devices of management vehicles PCs, and further on-board devices of general vehicles 4 as information gathering means.
The vehicle detector 2 is installed on the side of a road, such as on the side of a highway, and is a detector that collects information such as traffic volume [vehicles/h], average speed [km/h], vehicle density [vehicles/km], and occupancy rate [%], and transmits the detected information to the traffic control system 10.
The surveillance camera 3 is installed on the roadside of the expressway and captures images of the expressway, and transmits the captured images to the traffic control system 10.
The on-board device of the management vehicle PC uses a detection system such as GPS (Global Positioning System) to collect probe information such as longitude information, latitude information, altitude information, position accuracy, speed information, driving direction, and acceleration/deceleration information (acceleration in the X, Y, and Z directions) as time-series vehicle information, and transmits the probe information to the traffic control system 10.
The general vehicle 4 is a general vehicle that runs on the road.

The traffic control system 10 is roughly divided into a traffic control processing system 10A that performs the core processing of the traffic control system 10, a management vehicle dispatching system 10B that automatically dispatches management vehicles PCs under the traffic control processing system, and an accident occurrence probability calculation unit 10C that calculates the accident occurrence probability to predict the occurrence of accidents.

The accident occurrence probability calculation unit 10C performs processing to calculate the accident occurrence probability for each of a plurality of accident occurrence probability calculation unit points set on the expressway HW at predetermined distances or at predetermined facilities, based on the traffic conditions and past accident cases detected by the traffic control processing system 10A.
In this case, one example of a method for calculating the probability of an accident occurring is to use a model such as a self-organizing map to learn accident cases, as described in Patent No. 6,045,846, and calculate the probability of an accident occurring for each condition, such as location on the road, time, and weather.
The calculated accident forecast results are transferred to the traffic control processing system 10A and the management vehicle dispatch system.

Next, the management vehicle dispatch system 10B, as will be described in detail later, uses the information to automatically dispatch the management vehicle PC in order to prevent accidents or to respond quickly in the unlikely event that an accident does occur.
The management vehicle dispatch system 10B is a system that dispatches management vehicles PC such as road patrol cars to respond to on-site events (accidents, etc.) detected on roads by the above traffic control processing system 10A, and to handle accidents with a high probability. In principle, among multiple management vehicles PC on restricted roads, the management vehicle PC that is estimated to be able to quickly reach the location where the event has occurred is automatically dispatched, or the dispatch process is supported.

Next, the configuration of the traffic control processing system 10A will be described.
In the following description, for ease of understanding, illustration and description of a communication unit for communicating with external devices and equipment will be omitted.

The traffic control processing system 10A is composed of a plurality of computer devices, and is roughly divided into a processing unit 11A, a storage unit 12A, an input unit 13A, and a display unit 14A.
The processing unit 11A of the traffic control processing system 10A is roughly divided into an information acquisition unit 111, a traffic condition calculation unit 112, an event registration unit 114, and a display control unit 117A. In the following, the subject of operations other than the information acquisition unit 111, the traffic condition calculation unit 112, the event registration unit 114, and the display control unit 117A in the processing unit 11A will be described as the "processing unit 11A."

In this case, the processing unit 11A is configured as a so-called computer, for example, equipped with an MPU (Micro Processing Unit), a ROM (Read Only Memory), and a RAM (Random Access Memory).

The MPU controls the overall operation of the traffic control processing system 10A. The ROM is a storage medium that stores various programs and data. The RAM is a storage medium for temporarily storing various programs and rewriting various data.

The MPU then executes programs stored in the ROM, memory unit 12, etc., using the RAM as a work area.

The memory unit 12A of the traffic control processing system 10A is an external storage device such as a hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid state drive (SSD). The memory unit 12A includes a road information memory unit 121, an acquired information memory unit 122, a traffic condition memory unit 123, and an event memory unit 125.

The input unit 13A of the traffic control processing system 10A is an input device that accepts user operations on the traffic control processing system 10A. The input unit 13A is, for example, an input device such as a keyboard or a mouse.

The display unit 14A of the traffic control processing system 10A is a display unit realized by a liquid crystal display device (LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)), an organic EL (Electro-Luminescence) display device, or the like, and displays various information corresponding to the traffic control processing system 10A.

Next, the processing unit 11A of the traffic control processing system 10A will be described.
The information acquisition unit 111 is a storage unit that acquires various information from the vehicle detector (traffic counter) 2, the surveillance camera 3, the general vehicle 4, the management vehicle PC, or various external information servers (disaster information server, weather information server, etc.), and stores the acquired various information in the acquired information storage unit 122. The general vehicle 4 here refers to vehicles other than the management vehicle PC among the vehicles traveling on the expressway.

The traffic condition calculation unit 112 is a calculation unit that calculates the traffic conditions, including the degree of vehicle congestion on the expressway, based on at least one of information from vehicle detectors 2 installed on the expressway and information from general vehicles 4 (i.e., information stored in the acquired information storage unit 122), and stores the calculated traffic conditions in the traffic condition storage unit 123.

The event registration unit 114 is a registration unit that accepts an event registration operation based on information input by an operator using the input unit 13 when an event occurs on a highway, and stores the contents of the event in the event storage unit 125. Event registration information includes, for example, the date and time, location, and contents (traffic accident, broken-down vehicle, road obstacle, fire, etc.).

The display control unit 117A is a control unit that displays various information on the display unit 14.

Next, the memory unit 12A of the traffic control processing system 10A will be described.
The memory unit 12A is an external storage device such as a hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid state drive (SSD), and includes a road information memory unit 121 , an acquired information memory unit 122 , a traffic condition memory unit 123 , and an event memory unit 125 .

The road information storage unit 121 stores road information including information on locations on the expressway HW where the managed vehicle PC can turn around. The road information may also include information on the route and time required to turn around at locations where the managed vehicle PC can turn around.

In this embodiment, as an example, the only places on the expressway HW where turning around is possible are interchange ICs. In addition, the route and time required to turn around differs for each of the multiple interchange ICs due to their structure, and the road information storage unit 121 also stores this information.

The acquired information storage unit 122 is a storage unit that stores various information acquired by the information acquisition unit 111 from the vehicle detector 2, the surveillance camera 3, the general vehicle 4, the management vehicle PC, etc.

The traffic condition memory unit 123 is a memory unit that stores the traffic conditions calculated by the traffic condition calculation unit 112.

The event memory unit 125 is a memory unit that stores the contents of the event registration operation accepted by the event registration unit 114.

Next, the configuration of the management vehicle dispatch system 10B will be described.
The management vehicle dispatch system 10B is composed of one or more computer devices, and is broadly equipped with a processing unit 11B, a memory unit 12B, an input unit 13B, and a display unit 14B.

The processing unit 11B of the managed vehicle dispatch system 10B is broadly divided into a managed vehicle status calculation unit 113, a dispatch candidate information creation unit 115, a display control unit 117B, and a dispatch instruction unit 118. In the following, for processes in the processing unit 11B other than the managed vehicle status calculation unit 113, the dispatch candidate information creation unit 115, the display control unit 117B, and the dispatch instruction unit 118, the operating subject will be described as "processing unit 11B".

In this case, processing unit 11B is also configured as a so-called computer, just like processing unit 11A.

The managed vehicle status calculation unit 113 of the managed vehicle dispatch system 10B calculates the managed vehicle status, including the current location and work content (before work, the purpose of work), for multiple managed vehicles PCs on a highway, based on information acquired from the managed vehicle PCs by the information acquisition unit 111 of the traffic control processing system 10A (i.e., information stored in the acquired information storage unit 122).

The dispatch candidate information creation unit 115 of the managed vehicle dispatch system 10B calculates the required time to the predicted accident occurrence location or event occurrence location for each of the multiple managed vehicles PCs based on the calculated driving route and the traffic conditions (such as the average speed at each point on the driving route) calculated by the traffic condition calculation unit 112, based on the road information stored in the road information storage unit 121, the traffic conditions calculated by the traffic condition calculation unit 112, and the managed vehicle conditions calculated by the managed vehicle condition calculation unit 113. The dispatch candidate information creation unit 115 then creates dispatch candidate information including the required time.

The display control unit 117B of the management vehicle dispatch system 10B displays, for example, information on the accident occurrence probability calculated by the accident occurrence probability calculation unit 10C where the occurrence is at or above a predetermined level, dispatch information created by the dispatch candidate information creation unit 115, etc., on the display unit 14.

The dispatch instruction unit 118 of the management vehicle dispatch system 10B is an instruction unit that identifies the management vehicle PC that is deemed most suitable for dispatch based on the location of the predicted accident or event occurrence and the dispatch candidate information created by the dispatch candidate information creation unit 115, and automatically instructs the other management vehicle PCs to dispatch (dispatch). Note that dispatch (dispatch) instructions to the management vehicle PCs can be given not only automatically, but also manually by a traffic controller.

Next, the memory unit 12B of the management vehicle dispatch system 10B will be described.
The memory unit 12B is also an external storage device such as a hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid state drive (SSD), and includes a managed vehicle status memory unit 124 and a dispatch information memory unit 126 .

The managed vehicle status memory unit 124 is a memory unit that stores the status of the managed vehicle PC calculated by the managed vehicle status calculation unit 113.

The dispatch information storage unit 126 is a storage unit that stores information regarding the dispatch (dispatch) of the management vehicle PC instructed by the dispatch instruction unit 118.

The input unit 13B is an input device that accepts user operations on the management vehicle dispatch system 10B. The input unit 13B is, for example, an input device such as a keyboard or a mouse.

The display unit 14B is realized by a liquid crystal display device (LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)), an organic EL (Electro-Luminescence) display device, etc.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the accident occurrence probability calculation unit according to the embodiment.
The accident occurrence probability calculation unit 10C of this embodiment includes an accident occurrence pattern learning unit 131 and a prediction processing unit 132 as its main functional units.

The traffic information required for prediction processing in the accident occurrence probability calculation unit 10C includes, for example, the cumulative passing traffic volume per unit time (the number of vehicles traveling per unit time; hereafter referred to as traffic volume), the average speed per unit time, the occupancy rate, the rate of large vehicles, etc.

The control information required for prediction processing in the accident occurrence probability calculation unit 10C includes an occurrence flag at the time of accident occurrence, the occurrence time, the type of accident, etc. This control information may be manually entered by a controller using a man-machine interface.

The accident occurrence pattern learning unit 131 obtains past traffic information and control information from the acquired information storage unit 122 and the traffic condition storage unit 123, and learns the traffic information at the time of the accident stored in the event storage unit 125 as a pattern. The learning method is to obtain traffic information (e.g., traffic volume, average speed, occupancy rate, large vehicle inclusion rate, etc.) for the time period and route position (lane) corresponding to the accident occurrence information (accident occurrence location, accident occurrence time, accident type) stored in the event storage unit 125 as a base, and to learn the correspondence of these as a pattern at the time of the accident.

In addition, the accident occurrence pattern learning unit 131 may take into account environmental information such as weather, temperature, and road surface conditions (frozen road surface, fallen leaves) in addition to traffic information and control information, and learn accident occurrence patterns. As a result, accident occurrence patterns can be learned taking into account conditions that are more likely to cause accidents, such as rain, fog, and frozen road surfaces, which can contribute to more accurately calculating the probability of accidents occurring.

As an example of a method for calculating the probability of an accident, as described in Japanese Patent No. 6,045,846, there is a method in which accident cases are learned using a model such as a self-organizing map, and the accident probability (the degree of similarity of a situation to a situation in which an accident occurred in the past [e.g., the degree of congestion, road surface condition, temperature, weather, etc.]) is calculated for each condition on the road, time, weather, etc.
The simplest method of learning is to hold and accumulate these combinations, or to cluster these combinations through statistical processing to create data on similar cases.

The prediction processing unit 132 compares the traffic conditions at the time of prediction processing calculated by the traffic condition calculation unit 112 based on the information acquired by the information acquisition unit 111 with the traffic condition pattern at the time of accident occurrence learned by the accident occurrence pattern learning unit 131, and outputs an accident occurrence prediction result indicating a high probability of accident occurrence when the similarity is high.

For example, if the correlation between the traffic information at the time of prediction processing and any of the accident occurrence patterns learned by the accident occurrence pattern learning unit 131 is, for example, 0.85 or more, the accident occurrence probability is calculated to be 85%.

In other words, the accident occurrence probability calculation unit 10C regards the correlation with any of the learned traffic condition patterns at the time of an accident as the accident occurrence probability (possibility of an accident occurring or tendency of an accident occurring) and calculates this as the accident occurrence prediction result.
Then, for example, the accident occurrence probability is divided into 10 levels corresponding to the priority in increments of 10% (level 10 being the highest priority and level 1 being the lowest priority).

In this way, the accident probability calculation unit 10C can prepare for an accident by having the management vehicle PC wait based on the calculated accident probability, or by having it patrol areas where accidents are highly likely to occur, or by using information boards to warn passing vehicles.

The management vehicle status calculation unit 113 may calculate the management vehicle status, including the current location and whether or not the vehicle is being worked on, for multiple management vehicles PC on the expressway. In this case, the dispatch candidate information creation unit 115 excludes management vehicles that are being worked on from dispatch candidates based on the management vehicle status calculated by the management vehicle status calculation unit 113.

FIG. 4 is a process flowchart of the first embodiment.
First, the information acquisition unit 111 of the traffic control system 10 acquires various information from the vehicle detector (traffic counter) 2, the surveillance camera 3, the management vehicle PC or various external information servers, and stores the acquired various information in the acquired information storage unit 122 (step S11).

As a result, the traffic condition calculation unit 112 calculates the traffic conditions, including the degree of vehicle congestion on the expressway HW, based on information from the vehicle detectors 2 installed on the expressway HW, and stores the calculated traffic conditions in the traffic condition memory unit 123 (step S12).

In addition, the management vehicle status calculation unit 113 detects the management vehicle status (current location, work content, etc.) including the current location and work content (before work, the purpose of the work) based on information acquired by the information acquisition unit 111 from a management vehicle PC that has already been dispatched, and stores the detected management vehicle status in the management vehicle status memory unit 124 (step S13).
As a result, the accident occurrence probability calculation unit 10C calculates the accident occurrence probability (step S14).

Specifically, the accident probability calculated by the accident probability calculation unit 10C prediction processing unit 132 is calculated as a similarity by comparing the traffic conditions at the time of prediction processing calculated by the traffic condition calculation unit 112 based on the information acquired by the information acquisition unit 111 with the traffic condition pattern at the time of accident occurrence learned by the accident occurrence pattern learning unit 3.

In other words, if the traffic conditions at the time of prediction processing are exactly the same as the traffic conditions pattern at the time of past accidents learned in the pattern learning unit 3, the similarity is set to 100% (accident prediction level, stage 10), and if the traffic conditions are completely (or almost) different from the traffic conditions pattern at the time of past accidents, the similarity is set to 0% (accident prediction level, stage 1).

Next, the dispatch instruction unit 118 determines whether the accident occurrence probability calculated by the accident occurrence probability calculation unit 10C exceeds a predetermined threshold value, for example, 79% (accident occurrence prediction level 8) (step S15).

If it is determined in step S15 that the accident occurrence probability calculated by the accident occurrence probability calculation unit 10C does not exceed the predetermined threshold (step S15; No), the dispatch instruction unit 118 transitions the process back to step S11 and repeats the above-mentioned processing procedure.

If, in the judgment of step S15, the accident occurrence probability calculated by the accident occurrence probability calculation unit 10C exceeds a predetermined threshold value (step S15; Yes), the dispatch instruction unit 118 proceeds to a dispatchable managed vehicle extraction process to extract a dispatchable managed vehicle PC (step S16).

FIG. 5 is a process flowchart of the dispatchable managed vehicle extraction process.
The vehicle allocation instruction unit 118 first determines whether or not there is a management vehicle that is not performing work and can be a target for allocation, based on the vehicle allocation candidate information created by the vehicle allocation candidate information creation unit 115 (step S21).
Here, a management vehicle that can be a target for dispatch means a management vehicle that is capable of carrying out processing related to an accident that is predicted to occur with a high probability.

In the determination of step S21, if there is no managed vehicle that can be a dispatch target (step S21; No), the dispatch instruction unit 118 determines that dispatch is not possible and ends the process.
In the determination in step S21, if there are management vehicles that can be dispatched (step S21; Yes), the dispatch instruction unit 118 sets one of those management vehicles as a management vehicle to be processed (step S22).

Next, for the set target vehicle, it is determined whether the direction of travel to the destination, which is a location with a high probability of accident occurrence, is correct based on the dispatch candidate information created by the dispatch candidate information creation unit 115 (step S23).
More specifically, the dispatch instruction unit 118 determines whether or not a destination, which is a predicted accident location, is located ahead of the target managed vehicle in the direction of travel on the expressway HW in order to determine whether or not dispatching the vehicle can be easily performed.

When it is determined in step S23 that the travel direction of the target managed vehicle to the destination is correct (step S23; Yes), the dispatch instruction unit 118 transitions to step S25.
In the judgment of step S23, if the direction of travel to the destination for the management vehicle to be processed is not correct (step S23; No), the dispatch instruction unit 118 judges, based on the dispatch candidate information created by the dispatch candidate information creation unit 115, whether the management vehicle to be processed can turn around to change its direction at a nearby interchange IC (step S24).

If it is determined in step S24 that the target vehicle cannot turn around to change direction at a nearby interchange (step S24; No), the process proceeds to step S27.

If it is determined in step S24 that the target managed vehicle can turn around to change direction at a nearby interchange (step S24; Yes), the dispatch instruction unit 118 calculates the arrival time of the target managed vehicle to the destination, which is the predicted accident location (step S25).

Next, the dispatch instruction unit 118 registers (or updates) the list of the managed vehicles to be processed, whose arrival time to the destination was calculated in step S25, in order of shortest arrival time to the destination, i.e., highest dispatch priority (step S26).
Hereinafter, this list will be referred to as the dispatch priority list.

The vehicle allocation instruction unit 118 then determines, based on the vehicle allocation candidate information created by the vehicle allocation candidate information creation unit 115, whether or not there is a managed vehicle to be processed that is not registered in the vehicle allocation priority list (step S27).
In the judgment of step S27, if there is a managed vehicle to be processed that has not yet been registered in the dispatch priority list (step S27; Yes), the dispatch instruction unit 118 will transition the processing back to step S22 and perform the above-mentioned processing.
If it is determined in step S27 that there is no managed vehicle to be processed that is not registered in the vehicle allocation priority list, the process proceeds to step S17 in FIG.

Returning to FIG. 4, the vehicle allocation instruction unit 118 then determines whether or not there is a managed vehicle available for allocation based on the vehicle allocation priority list (step S17).
If it is determined in step S17 that there is no management vehicle available for dispatch (step S17; No), since this is the stage of predicting the occurrence of an accident, no vehicle is dispatched and the process returns to step S11.

If it is determined in step S17 that a management vehicle is available for dispatch (step S17; Yes), the dispatch instruction unit 118 automatically sends a dispatch instruction to the corresponding management vehicle PC, updates the dispatch instruction list, and displays the dispatch instruction list on the display screen of the display unit 1001 and the terminal device 1002 (step S18).

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a vehicle dispatch instruction list.
The dispatch instruction list 200 includes a vehicle ID display unit 201 that displays a vehicle ID for identifying the managed vehicle that is the subject of the dispatch instruction, a dispatch reason display unit 202 that displays the reason for the dispatch instruction, a dispatch destination display unit 203 that displays the dispatch destination, a dispatch instruction date and time display unit 204 that displays the dispatch instruction date and time, and a processing status display unit 205 that displays the processing status.

Specifically, the managed vehicle with vehicle ID = PC3 was automatically instructed by the dispatch instruction unit 118 to head to dispatch destination Px (see Figure 1) at 13:06 on November 12th because the accident prediction result was at stage 9, and the process was completed at 13:42.

In this case, the tasks of the management vehicle PC at the dispatch destination Px include, for example, issuing warnings using an electronic bulletin board mounted on the management vehicle, and rushing to the scene and handling the response if an accident actually occurs at the predicted accident location.

In addition, the managed vehicle with vehicle ID = PC4 was automatically instructed by the dispatch instruction unit 118 to head to dispatch destination "△△△△△" at 14:11 on November 12th due to a rear-end collision, and is currently rushing to the scene with an estimated arrival time of 14:23.

As explained above, according to the first embodiment, when the probability of an accident occurring is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, a management vehicle is automatically dispatched in advance, which makes it possible to perform accident prevention processing such as issuing warnings, and to speed up on-site response and prevent secondary disasters in the event that an accident does actually occur.

[2] Second embodiment In the above first embodiment, the case where the accident occurrence probability exceeds a predetermined threshold at one location has been described. However, there may be cases where multiple locations occur where the accident occurrence probability exceeds the predetermined threshold. In this case, it is assumed that there are fewer managed vehicles that can be dispatched than the number of locations where the accident occurrence probability is equal to or greater than the predetermined value. The second embodiment is an embodiment for a case where there are fewer managed vehicles that can be dispatched than the number of locations where the accident occurrence probability is equal to or greater than the predetermined value.
FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a state of a restricted road in the second embodiment.
In FIG. 7, the same parts as those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the detailed description thereof will be referred to.

In FIG. 7, there is a location Px1 on road RT3o near interchange IC2 where the accident probability is estimated to be 82% (accident prediction level 9). In addition, there is a location Px2 on road RT3o behind management vehicle PC3 in the direction of travel where the accident probability is estimated to be 92% (accident prediction level 10).

In this case, if management vehicle PC2 is the only management vehicle currently capable of heading to the predicted accident location, when there are multiple predicted accident locations and there are not enough management vehicles heading to the predicted accident location, the dispatch instruction unit 118 will compare the predicted accident levels and instruct the dispatch unit 118 to dispatch the vehicle to the location with the higher predicted accident level.

Specifically, the dispatch instruction unit 118 can determine that the management vehicle PC2 can reach location Px1 more quickly than it can reach location Px2.

However, if the dispatch instruction unit 118 determines that once management vehicle PC2 is dispatched to location Px1, there are no other management vehicles available for dispatch to location Px2, which has a higher accident prediction level, the dispatch instruction unit 118 will temporarily reserve dispatch to location Px1 and instruct management vehicle PC2 to be dispatched to location Px2.

As explained above, according to the second embodiment, even if the number of locations where the accident probability is equal to or greater than a predetermined value exceeds the number of managed vehicles that can be dispatched, managed vehicles are automatically and pre-dispatched to locations with a higher accident prediction level. This allows accident prevention processing, such as issuing warnings, to be performed at locations where accidents are predicted to occur, which is considered to be more effective, thereby speeding up on-site response in the event of an accident and preventing secondary disasters.

[3] Third embodiment In the above embodiments, the response is to an accident that is predicted to occur based on the calculation result of the accident occurrence probability. In other words, the case where no event such as an accident or fire has occurred has been described as an example. However, if an event such as an accident or fire has already occurred, the response to the event that has already occurred (accident/fire, etc.) is urgent, and the operation of the allocation of management vehicles also changes.
Therefore, the third embodiment is an embodiment for taking into consideration a case where an event has actually occurred, and in parallel, a location with a high accident occurrence prediction level has been detected.
FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a state of a restricted road in the third embodiment.
In FIG. 8, the same parts as those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the detailed description thereof will be referred to.

In Figure 8, a location Px with an accident probability of 82% (accident prediction level 9) exists near interchange IC3 on road RT3i, and an event IVx such as an accident has occurred near interchange IC2 on road RT2i.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of event priority.
In FIG. 9, the events include accident occurrence prediction information in which the accident occurrence probability is equal to or greater than a predetermined value.

In the example of FIG. 9, the priority is lower than the event from "earthquake/tsunami" to "caution (watch out for accidents)," but is higher than the event from "construction schedule" to "required time."
Therefore, when events ranging from "earthquake/tsunami" to "warning (watch out for accidents)" occur, priority will be given to dispatching management vehicles to these events.

FIG. 10 is a process flowchart of the third embodiment.
First, the information acquisition unit 111 acquires various information from the vehicle detector (traffic counter) 2, the surveillance camera 3, the management vehicle PC, or various external information servers, and stores the acquired various information in the acquired information storage unit 122 (step S31).

As a result, the traffic condition calculation unit 112 calculates the traffic conditions, including the degree of vehicle congestion on the expressway HW, based on information from the vehicle detectors 2 installed on the expressway HW, and stores the calculated traffic conditions in the traffic condition storage unit 123 (step S32).

The management vehicle status calculation unit 113 detects the management vehicle status (current location, work content, etc.) including the current location and work content (before work, the purpose of work) for multiple management vehicle PCs on the expressway based on information acquired by the information acquisition unit 111 from the management vehicle PCs, and stores the detected management vehicle status in the management vehicle status storage unit 124 (step S33).

Next, the event registration unit 114 determines whether or not any of the various events shown in FIG. 9 has occurred (step S34).
In the determination in step S34, if any of various events has occurred (step S34; Yes), the process proceeds to step S37.
When it is determined in step S34 that an event has not occurred (step S34; No), the accident occurrence probability calculation unit 10C calculates the accident occurrence probability in the same manner as in the first embodiment (step S35).
Specifically, the prediction processing unit 132 of the accident occurrence probability calculation unit 10C compares the traffic conditions at the time of prediction processing calculated by the traffic condition calculation unit 112 based on the information acquired by the information acquisition unit 11 with the pattern of traffic conditions at the time of an accident learned by the accident occurrence pattern learning unit 3, and calculates the similarity.

Next, the dispatch instruction unit 118 determines whether or not the accident occurrence probability calculated by the accident occurrence probability calculation unit 10C exceeds a predetermined threshold value (step S36).
In the judgment of step S36, if the accident occurrence probability calculated by the accident occurrence probability calculation unit 10C does not exceed the predetermined threshold value (step S36; No), the processing proceeds again to step S31, and the above-mentioned processing procedure is repeated.

If any of the various events occurs in the judgment of step S34 (step S34; Yes) and if the accident occurrence probability calculated by the accident occurrence probability calculation unit 10C in the judgment of step S36 exceeds a predetermined threshold value (step S36; Yes), the event registration unit 114 registers the event in the event memory unit 125 and proceeds to the dispatchable management vehicle extraction process, which extracts dispatchable management vehicle PCs (step S37).

Here, reference will be made again to FIG.
The dispatch instruction unit 118 refers to the event storage unit 125 and processes the event with the highest priority among the events for which dispatch processing has not yet been performed.

Specifically, the dispatch instruction unit 118 determines whether or not there is a management vehicle that is not performing work and can be a dispatch target (step S21).
If it is determined in step S21 that there is no managed vehicle that can be dispatched (step S21; No), the dispatch instruction unit 118 notifies the operator that dispatch is not possible, and waits for instructions from the operator.

If it is determined in step S21 that there are management vehicles that can be dispatched (step S21; Yes), the dispatch instruction unit 118 sets one of those management vehicles as the management vehicle to be processed (step S22).

Next, the dispatch instruction unit 118 determines whether or not the travel direction of the set target managed vehicle to a destination point with a high accident occurrence probability is correct (step S23).
More specifically, the vehicle dispatch instruction unit 118 determines whether or not a destination that is an event occurrence point or an accident occurrence point is present ahead of the target managed vehicle in the direction of travel on the expressway HW in order to determine whether or not dispatching the vehicle can be easily performed.

When it is determined in step S23 that the travel direction of the target managed vehicle to the destination is correct (step S23; Yes), the dispatch instruction unit 118 transitions to step S25.
In the judgment of step S23, if the direction of travel to the destination for the management vehicle to be processed is not correct (step S23; No), the dispatch instruction unit 118 judges whether the management vehicle to be processed is capable of turning around to change its direction at a nearby interchange IC (step S24).

If it is determined in step S24 that the target managed vehicle cannot turn around to change direction at a nearby interchange (step S24; No), the dispatch instruction unit 118 transitions the process to step S27.

If it is determined in step S24 that the target managed vehicle is capable of turning around to change direction at a nearby interchange (step S; Yes), the dispatch instruction unit 118 calculates the arrival time of the target managed vehicle to the destination, which is the predicted accident location (step S25).

Next, the dispatch instruction unit 118 registers the managed vehicles to be processed, whose arrival times to the destination were calculated in step S25, in a dispatch priority list in order of shortest arrival time to the destination, i.e., highest dispatch priority ( or updates the dispatch priority list) (step S26).

The vehicle dispatch instruction unit 118 then determines whether or not there is a management vehicle to be processed that is not registered in the vehicle dispatch priority list (step S27).
In the judgment of step S27, if there is a managed vehicle to be processed that has not yet been registered in the dispatch priority list (step S27; Yes), the dispatch instruction unit 118 will transition the processing back to step S22 and perform the above-mentioned processing.

If it is determined in step S27 that there is no managed vehicle to be processed that is not registered in the list, the dispatch instruction unit 118 transitions the process to step S38 in FIG. 9.

Next, the vehicle dispatch instruction unit 118 determines whether or not there is a managed vehicle that can be dispatched based on the list (step S38).
In the determination of step S38, if there is no managed vehicle available for dispatch (step S38; No), the dispatch instruction unit 118 notifies the operator that dispatch is not possible if the event to be processed has a priority that exceeds the accident occurrence prediction information, and enters a state of waiting for instructions from the operator.

If the processing target has a priority level lower than that of the accident occurrence prediction information, the process returns to step S31 without dispatching a vehicle.
If it is determined in step S38 that a management vehicle is available for dispatch (step S38; Yes), the dispatch instruction unit 118 sends a dispatch instruction to the corresponding management vehicle PC, updates the dispatch instruction list, and displays the dispatch instruction list on the display screen of the display unit 1001 and the terminal device 1002 (step S39).

As a result of the above processing, in the example of Figure 8, even if the accident prediction result is, for example, the ninth stage, the accident prediction point Px will not be set as the dispatch destination by the dispatch instruction unit 118 for the management vehicle PC4, and a dispatch instruction will be issued to set the occurrence point of an event IVx, such as an accident, which has a higher priority, as the dispatch destination.
In this case, even if a dispatch instruction has already been issued for an event with a ninth-stage accident prediction result, when an event IVx such as an accident with a higher priority occurs, the dispatch destination of the management vehicle PC4 will be changed as necessary so that it can respond to the event with the higher priority.

As explained above, according to the third embodiment, management vehicles can be automatically dispatched according to the priority of the event, making it possible to speed up on-site response and prevent secondary disasters for events that should be handled with higher priority.

Although the embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the above embodiment is merely an example and is not intended to limit the scope of the invention. The above embodiment can be implemented in various forms, and various omissions, substitutions, and modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the invention. The above embodiment is included in the scope and gist of the invention, and is included in the scope of the invention and its equivalents described in the claims.

For example, in the above explanation, the traffic control processing system 10A, the management vehicle dispatch system 10B, and the accident occurrence probability calculation unit 10C have been explained as separate entities, but it is also possible to configure some or all of them as an integrated unit.
In this case, it is also possible to combine the common components. For example, it is also possible to combine the processing unit 11, the storage unit 12, the display control unit 117, the input unit 13, the display unit 14, and the like, which are provided in plurality in FIG. 2, into one each.
Furthermore, the events are not limited to those mentioned above, and any event that is subject to the dispatch of a management vehicle can be set.
Similarly, the event priorities are merely examples and can be set appropriately according to actual operations.

Furthermore, dispatch instructions can be updated in real time, and it is also possible to give priority to dispatching to events with higher priorities.
In addition, the roads covered are not limited to expressways, but include any restricted roads that have restrictions on the inflow and outflow of vehicles and the change of direction of vehicles, regardless of whether they are toll roads or free roads.

In addition, although it has been stated that management vehicles PCs in operation are excluded from dispatch candidates, this is not limited to the above. For example, even if a management vehicle PC is in operation, if the operation is nearing completion, it does not have to be excluded from dispatch candidates.

In addition, the location where turning back is possible is not limited to interchange ICs, but may be other locations. Also, there may be interchange ICs where turning back is not possible. In such cases, turning back may be achieved by exiting the interchange IC and then re-entering it. In such cases, such information may be stored in the road information storage unit 121.

In addition, the restricted roads in question may include junctions, branching points, junctions, etc.

In addition, if the road in question has multiple lanes on each side, the traffic conditions may be determined by the degree of congestion, accidents, etc. for each lane.

10 Traffic control system 10A Traffic control processing system 10B Managed vehicle dispatch system 10C Accident occurrence probability calculation unit 11A, 11B Processing unit 12A, 12B Memory unit 13 Input unit 14 Display unit 111 Information acquisition unit 112 Traffic condition calculation unit 113 Managed vehicle status calculation unit 114 Event registration unit 115 Dispatch candidate information creation unit 117 Display control unit 118 Dispatch instruction unit 121 Road information storage unit 122 Acquired information storage unit 123 Traffic condition storage unit 124 Managed vehicle status storage unit 125 Event storage unit 126 Dispatch information storage unit 131 Accident occurrence pattern learning unit 132 Prediction processing unit 200 Dispatch instruction list 201 Vehicle ID display unit 202 Dispatch reason display unit 203 Dispatch destination display unit 204 Dispatch instruction date and time display unit 205 Processing status display unit 1000 Traffic control room 1001 Display unit 1002 Terminal device HW Expressway IVx Event IC, IC1 to IC3 Interchange PC, PC1 to PC5 Managed vehicle Px1 Location Px2 Location RT1i to RT3i, RT1o to RT3o Road

Claims (9)

A traffic control system for dispatching management vehicles for managing restricted roads on which there are restrictions on the inflow, outflow, and change of direction of vehicles, comprising:
a road information storage unit that stores road information including information on locations on the restricted road where the management vehicle can turn around;
a traffic condition calculation unit that calculates a traffic condition including a degree of traffic congestion of vehicles on an expressway;
a probability calculation unit that calculates a probability of an event occurring based on the traffic conditions calculated by the traffic condition calculation unit and past occurrences of the event;
a management vehicle dispatch system that instructs a dispatch of a dispatchable management vehicle to deal with the event when the event occurs or when the occurrence probability calculated by the probability calculation unit becomes equal to or greater than a predetermined value;
Equipped with
The management vehicle dispatch system includes:
a management vehicle status calculation unit that calculates a management vehicle status including a current location and a work content of the management vehicle on the restricted road;
a vehicle allocation candidate information creation unit that, when the event occurs or there is an event whose occurrence probability is calculated by the probability calculation unit to be equal to or greater than a predetermined value, calculates a required time to a location where the event occurs or a predicted occurrence location of the calculated event whose occurrence probability is equal to or greater than a predetermined value based on the road information stored in the road information storage unit, the traffic conditions calculated by the traffic condition calculation unit, and the management work status of the managed vehicle calculated by the managed vehicle status calculation unit, and creates vehicle allocation candidate information including the required time;
and a vehicle dispatch instruction unit that determines whether the traveling direction of a vehicle to be dispatched on the restricted road is correct based on a predicted accident occurrence location or an event occurrence location, calculates an arrival time for a managed vehicle whose traveling direction is correct, and further calculates an arrival time for a managed vehicle whose traveling direction is not correct as a required time for the managed vehicle to turn around and travel at a location where turning around is possible that is stored in the road information storage unit, and outputs a dispatch instruction to the managed vehicle that is determined to be optimal for dispatch based on the arrival time.
Traffic control system . the vehicle dispatch instruction unit registers the management vehicle in a vehicle dispatch priority list in association with the calculated arrival time, and outputs the vehicle dispatch instruction to the management vehicle identified as dispatchable among the management vehicles registered in the vehicle dispatch priority list.
The traffic control system according to claim 1 . A traffic control system as described in claim 1 or claim 2, further comprising a display unit that displays a dispatch instruction list for the managed vehicles identified as available for dispatch, the dispatch instruction list including a vehicle ID for identifying the managed vehicle, a dispatch reason for displaying the reason for the dispatch instruction, a dispatch destination for displaying the dispatch destination, a dispatch instruction date and time for displaying the dispatch instruction date and time, and a processing status including the processing end time at the dispatch destination and the scheduled arrival time at the dispatch destination. If the number of dispatchable managed vehicles is less than the number of occurrence locations of the event whose occurrence probability calculated by the probability calculation unit is equal to or greater than a predetermined value,
the vehicle allocation instruction unit outputs the vehicle allocation instruction by giving priority to an event calculated by the probability calculation unit to have a higher occurrence probability.
The traffic control system according to claim 1 . the vehicle dispatch instruction unit is set with a ranking of importance for each event, including an event that has occurred and an event that is predicted to occur, and when the occurrence of an event or the probability of the occurrence of an event reaches or exceeds a predetermined value, the vehicle dispatch instruction is issued to a specified management vehicle in order of importance of the event;
The traffic control system according to claim 1 . the probability calculation unit calculates the occurrence probability of the event based on a degree of coincidence of a traffic condition or an environmental condition when the event occurred in the past;
A traffic control system according to any one of claims 1 to 3. The event is a traffic accident.
A traffic control system according to any one of claims 1 to 4. a traffic information storage unit that stores road information including information on locations where a management vehicle can turn around on a restricted road where there are restrictions on the entry and exit of vehicles and changes in direction of travel; a traffic condition calculation unit that calculates traffic conditions including the degree of vehicular congestion on an expressway; a probability calculation unit that calculates the traffic condition calculated by the traffic condition calculation unit and the occurrence probability of an event based on past occurrences of the event; and a management vehicle allocation system that, when the event occurs or the occurrence probability calculated by the probability calculation unit becomes equal to or greater than a predetermined value, issues an instruction to allocate a management vehicle that is available to be allocated to deal with the event, the traffic information storage unit stores road information including information on locations where a management vehicle can turn around on a restricted road where there are restrictions on the entry and exit of vehicles and changes in direction of travel;
a road information storage unit storing road information including information on a location on the restricted road where the management vehicle can turn around;
A step of calculating a traffic condition including a degree of congestion of vehicles on an expressway by a traffic condition calculation unit;
a step of calculating an occurrence probability of an event based on the traffic conditions calculated by the traffic condition calculation unit and past occurrence cases of the event, by a probability calculation unit;
a step of instructing a management vehicle dispatch device to dispatch a dispatchable management vehicle to deal with the event when the event occurs or the occurrence probability calculated by the probability calculation unit becomes equal to or greater than a predetermined value,
The process of instructing the vehicle dispatch device to dispatch a vehicle includes:
a step of calculating a management vehicle status including a current location and a work content of the management vehicle on the restricted road by a management vehicle status calculation unit;
a step in which, when the event occurs or there is an event whose occurrence probability is calculated by the probability calculation unit to be equal to or greater than a predetermined value, the vehicle allocation candidate information creation unit calculates a required time to a location where the event occurs or a predicted location where the event whose occurrence probability is equal to or greater than a predetermined value is expected to occur based on the road information stored in the road information storage unit, the traffic conditions calculated by the traffic conditions calculation unit, and the management work conditions of the managed vehicles calculated by the managed vehicle status calculation unit, and creates vehicle allocation candidate information including the required time;
a dispatch instruction unit determining whether the traveling direction of the vehicle to be dispatched on the restricted road is correct based on the predicted accident occurrence location or the event occurrence location, calculating an arrival time for the managed vehicle whose traveling direction is correct, and further calculating an arrival time for the managed vehicle whose traveling direction is not correct as the required time for the managed vehicle to turn around at a location where turning around is possible stored in the road information storage unit, and outputting a dispatch instruction to the managed vehicle that is determined to be optimal for dispatch based on the arrival time;
A vehicle management dispatch method comprising the steps of: a road information storage unit that stores road information including information on locations where a management vehicle can turn around on a restricted road where there are restrictions on the entry and exit of vehicles and changes in direction of travel; a traffic condition calculation unit that calculates traffic conditions including the degree of vehicular congestion on an expressway; a probability calculation unit that calculates the traffic condition calculated by the traffic condition calculation unit and the occurrence probability of an event based on past occurrences of the event; and a management vehicle dispatching system that, when the event occurs or the occurrence probability calculated by the probability calculation unit reaches a predetermined value or more, issues an instruction to dispatch a management vehicle that can be dispatched to deal with the event, and a traffic control system that dispatches management vehicles to manage the restricted road, the traffic control system comprising:
The computer,
a means for storing road information including information on a location on the restricted road where the management vehicle can turn around in the road information storage unit;
A means for calculating a traffic situation including a degree of vehicle congestion on an expressway;
a means for calculating a probability of occurrence of an event based on the traffic conditions calculated by the means for calculating the traffic conditions and past occurrences of the event;
a means for instructing a dispatch of a dispatchable management vehicle to handle the event when the event occurs or when the occurrence probability calculated by the means for calculating the occurrence probability reaches or exceeds a predetermined value;
and make it work.
The means for instructing vehicle dispatch,
A means for calculating a management vehicle status including a current location and a work content of the management vehicle on the restricted road;
a means for calculating a required time to a location where the event has occurred or where an event whose occurrence probability has been calculated to be equal to or greater than a predetermined value based on the road information stored in the road information storage unit, the traffic conditions calculated by the means for calculating the traffic conditions, and the management operation status of the managed vehicle calculated by the means for calculating the managed vehicle status, and creating vehicle dispatch candidate information including the required time;
a means for determining whether the traveling direction of a vehicle to be dispatched on the restricted road is correct based on a predicted accident occurrence location or an event occurrence location, calculating an arrival time for a managed vehicle whose traveling direction is correct, and further calculating an arrival time for a managed vehicle whose traveling direction is not correct as the required time for the managed vehicle to turn around at a location where turning around is possible that is stored in the road information storage unit, and outputting a dispatch instruction to the managed vehicle that is determined to be optimal for dispatch based on the arrival time;
A program that functions as a

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