Patent Application
20210089858
The present invention relates to a magnetic marker to be laid in a road.
Conventionally, a magnetic marker to be laid in a road detectably by a magnetic sensor on a vehicle side has been known (for example, refer to Patent Literature 1). By using the magnetic marker, there is a possibility that in addition to, for example, various driving assists such as automatic steering control and lane departure warning using the magnetic marker laid along a lane, automatic driving can be achieved.
Patent Literature 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-202478
However, information that can be acquired by detection of a magnetic marker indicates the presence or absence of the magnetic marker, the shift amount of a vehicle in a width direction with respect to the magnetic marker, information about whether a magnetic polarity indicates the North Pole or the South Pole, and so forth. There is a problem in which the amount and type of information that can be acquired from the magnetic marker side cannot be said as sufficient.
The present invention was made in view of the above-described conventional problem, and is to provide a magnetic marker that can provide more information with high reliability.
One aspect of the present invention resides in a magnetic marker to be laid in a road, the magnetic marker including,
a wireless tag including a circuit which processes information transmitted and received by wireless communication and a first antenna provided to extend electrically from the circuit, and
a conductive layer provided on at least part of an outer peripheral surface of a main body forming a magnetism generation source, the conductive layer being not electrically continuous with the main body.
One aspect of the present invention resides in a magnetic marker system including the above-described magnetic marker which retains the wireless tag, wherein
frequency specifications of electric waves transmitted from the wireless tag are different between the magnetic marker laid as being buried at a position deep from a road surface of the road and the magnetic marker laid as being arranged on the road surface.
The magnetic marker according to the present invention includes the wireless tag. With the magnetic marker including the wireless tag, more information can be provided to a vehicle side by using wireless communication. In this magnetic marker, the conductive layer with conductivity is formed on at least part of the outer peripheral surface of the main body. The conductive layer functions as an external antenna of the wireless tag and effectively acts to improve reliability of wireless communication.
In the magnetic marker system according to the present invention, there are a buried magnetic marker and a magnetic marker arranged on the road surface. Between the buried magnetic marker and the magnetic marker arranged on the road surface, there is a difference as to whether a burying material such as, for example, resin or asphalt, is included in a route of electric waves transmitted from the wireless tag. If the burying material is present in the route of electric waves, a shift phenomenon, in which the frequency of passing electric waves is shifted can occur due to a difference between the permittivity of the burying material and the permittivity of air, or the like. If the frequency of electric waves transmitted from the wireless tag is set in view of the occurrence of this shift phenomenon, reliability of transmission between the wireless tag and the counterpart can be improved.
Embodiments of the present invention are specifically described by using the following examples.
The present embodiment is an example regarding magnetic marker 1 including RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification, wireless tag) 2. Details of this are described by using
Magnetic marker 1 is a marker for a road to be arranged, for example, along the center of a lane. Magnetic marker 1 is used for various vehicle controls such as, for example, lane departure warning, lane keep assist, and automatic driving. Magnetic marker 1 of
First, RFID tag 2 is, as in
Tag sheet 20 is a sheet-shaped member cut out from a PET (PolyEthylene Terephthalate) film. On the surface of tag sheet 20, antenna pattern 231 is formed, which is a conductive-ink printed pattern formed of silver paste. Antenna pattern 231 has a loop shape with a notch, and a chip arrangement region (not depicted) for arranging IC chip 27 is formed at a notched portion. When IC chip 27 is jointed to tag sheet 20, antenna pattern 231 is electrically connected to IC chip 27. With this, antenna 23 formed by antenna pattern 231 becomes in a state of electrically extending from IC chip 27 forming a circuit for processing information transmitted and received via wireless communication.
Antenna (first antenna) 23 formed by antenna pattern 231 has both of a role as power-feeding antenna where an exciting current is generated by electromagnetic induction from outside and a role as a communication antenna for wireless transmission of information. Note that as a conductive ink for printing antenna pattern 231, it is possible to use, in addition to silver paste, graphite paste, silver chloride paste, copper paste, nickel paste and so forth. Furthermore, it is also possible to form antenna pattern 231 by copper etching or the like.
IC chip 27 is an electronic part with semiconductor element 271 including a ROM (Read Only Memory) and a RAM (Random Access Memory) as memory means and so forth mounted on the surface of sheet-shaped base material 273. RFID tag 2 is fabricated by affixing this IC chip 27 onto the surface of the above-described tag sheet 20. To affix IC chip 27 of an interposer type provided with an electrode not depicted, various jointing methods can be adopted such as ultrasonic jointing, or swaging jointing in addition to a conductive bonding material.
As tag sheet 20 and base material 273 described above, a resin film made of polyethylene (PE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polypropylene (PP), or the like, paper, or the like can be adopted. The above-described IC chip 27 may be semiconductor element 271 itself or a chip with semiconductor element 271 packaged by a plastic resin or the like.
Magnet 10 (
Magnetic marker 1 including this magnet 10 has a magnetic flux density Gs of the surface of 45 mT (millitesla). The magnetic flux density of 45 mT is equal to or smaller than the magnetic flux density of the surface of, for example, a magnetic sheet for use as being affixed to a white board in an office or the like, a door of a refrigerator at home, or the like.
Part of the outer peripheral surface of magnet 10 is covered with metal foil 16 forming one example of a conductive layer with conductivity. This metal foil 16 is made of aluminum and has a thickness of 0.03 mm. As described above, since magnet 10 has a low electrical conductivity, metal foil 16 is in a state of being not electrically continuous with the main body of magnet 10.
To clarify a range where a conductive layer is formed by metal foil 16, the shape of metal foil 16 developed on a plane is depicted in
RFID tag 2 in magnetic marker 1 is arranged on the end face of magnet 10 forming the main body, in a state of having resin-made, sheet-shaped spacer 29 interposed therebetween as in
The above-described magnetic marker 1 is laid in a state of being accommodated in, for example an accommodation hole 31 bored in a road surface 30S, as in
In this magnetic marker 1, metal foil 16 covering the outer peripheral surface of magnet 10 is coupled with antenna 23 (
Here, to signify an advantageous communication characteristic of magnetic marker 1 of the present embodiment, a comparison results with the magnetic marker without metal foil 16 are depicted in Table 1.
In Table 1, a distance B (
As evident from Table 1, as for the magnetic marker in the single-body state without being buried in asphalt forming road surface 30S, a sufficient communication distance can be achieved with respect to the attachment height of the magnetic sensor of 100 mm to 250 mm in the vehicle, irrespective of the presence or absence of metal foil 16. On the other hand, in the state of being buried in road surface 30S, the communication distance of the magnetic marker without the metal foil 16 is significantly short. By contrast, magnetic marker 1 of the present embodiment including metal foil 16 can keep the communication distance even in the buried state.
In this manner, in magnetic marker 1 of the present embodiment with the outer peripheral surface covered with metal foil 16, even in the state of being buried in road surface 30S, the degree of impairing the communication characteristic of RFID tag 2 is small. Magnetic marker 1 of the present embodiment with RFID tag 2 attached thereto can perform communication with vehicle 3 side with high reliability and can provide more information to the vehicle side.
Note that in magnetic marker 1, resin-made spacer 29 is arranged between the end face of magnet 10 and RFID tag 2 (refer to
Note that, as RFID tag 2, as in
In RFID tag 2 of
As in
Furthermore, as for RFID tag 2 depicted in
While RFID tag 2 is arranged on the end face of magnetic marker 1 covered with metal foil 16 in the present embodiment, RFID tag 2 may be arranged on the outer peripheral side surface of magnetic marker 1. In this case, RFID tag 2 is preferably arranged on a portion of the outer peripheral side surface of magnetic marker 1 covered with the metal foil. Furthermore, RFID tag 2 may also be preferably buried inside magnet 10 by insert molding or the like. Also in this case, metal foil 16 provided on the outer periphery of magnet 10 can act as an external antenna of RFID tag 2.
While magnetic marker 1 with one end face and the outer peripheral side surface covered with the metal foil 16 is exemplarily described in the present embodiment, metal foil 16 of
Note that to arrange RFID tag 2 on the inner peripheral side of loop-shaped metal foil 16, RFID tag 2 is preferably brought close to metal foil 16. By bringing it close, the degree of coupling between metal foil 16 forming a conductive layer and the antenna incorporated in RFID tag 2 can be increased, and wireless communication sensitivity of RFID tag 2 can be improved. Furthermore, it is also preferable that part of an inner peripheral edge part of loop-shaped metal foil 16 is dented to an outer peripheral side to form recessed part 160 and RFID tag 2 is arranged in this recessed part 160. With RFID tag 2 arranged in the recessed part 160 in this manner, the antenna incorporated in this RFID tag 2 can be surrounded by metal foil 16. In this case, of the outer perimeter of the antenna incorporated in RFID tag 2, a ratio of a portion close to metal foil 16 forming a conductive layer can be increased. If this ratio can be increased, the degree of coupling between metal foil 16 and the antenna incorporated in RFID tag 2 can be enhanced.
While the structure in the present embodiment is such that spacer 29 is interposed between RFID tag 2 and metal foil 16 covering magnetic marker 1, spacer 29 may be omitted. In this case, RFID tag 2 is arranged so that not the surface where IC chip 27 is mounted but the back surface on a tag sheet 20 side makes contact with the metal foil 16. Tag sheet 20 of RFID tag 2 is formed of a PET film or the like with a low electrical conductivity. If the mount surface of IC chip 27 is set outside as described above, the electrically insulated state between metal foil 16 and RFID tag 2 can be kept.
While magnetic marker 1 exemplarily depicted has a columnar shape, a sheet-shaped thin magnetic marker may be used. As for the sheet-shaped magnetic marker, it is preferable that metal foil 16 is formed on at least part of the surface and RFID tag 2 is arranged on a surface side of that metal foil 16.
While it is easy for, by way of example, columnar-shaped magnetic marker 1 or the like, to adopt a laying mode of being buried at a position deep from the road surface forming a surface of a road, it is easy for the sheet-shaped magnetic marker to adopt a laying mode of being arranged on the road surface by being affixed to or placed on the road surface, or the like. Meanwhile, when the magnetic marker is buried, in a route of electric waves from RFID tag 2 to tag reader 36, a medium is present, such as resin or asphalt (pavement material) for the magnetic marker to be buried. In this case, there is a possibility of occurrence of a shift phenomenon in which the frequency of passing electric waves is shifted due to, for example, a difference between the permittivity of the medium such as resin or asphalt and the permittivity of air. On the other hand, if the magnetic marker is affixed to the road surface or the like, the medium such as resin or asphalt is hardly present in the route of electric waves, and thus the fear of the frequency shift phenomenon as described above is less. Therefore, if the frequency specifications (specifications of frequency of electric waves such as carrier waves) of RFID tag 2 and tag reader 36 are the same irrespective of whether the frequency shift phenomenon tends to occur because the magnetic marker is buried in the road surface or the magnetic marker is arranged on the road surface and has less fear of the shift phenomenon, there is a fear that a difference in frequency of electric waves received by the tag reader 36 may occur or a difference in frequency of electric waves received by the RFID tag 2 may occur.
Thus, a magnetic marker system is preferable in which a buried magnetic marker and a magnetic marker arranged on the road surface have different specifications of electric waves, such as specifications of frequency (carrier frequency) of carrier waves when RFID tag 2 wirelessly transmits information or specifications of carrier frequency when electric power is fed to RFID tag 2. As for the buried magnetic marker, in consideration of the above-described frequency shift phenomenon, the frequency of electric waves (such as carrier waves) transmitted from RFID tag 2 is preferably set to be shifted by the shift amount of the frequency. Also, on a tag reader 36 side, the carrier frequency when operating power is transmitted (power supply by wireless communication) is preferably set to be shifted by the shift amount of the frequency. If the frequency of carrier waves is shifted by the amount of the shift phenomenon, the error rate when information is transmitted can be reduced, and power transmission efficiency can be improved.
It is also preferable, for example, that code information indicating whether the magnetic marker is a buried magnetic marker or a magnetic marker arranged on the road surface is included in information to be transmitted from RFID tag 2. For example, for a head magnetic marker (positioned on the most upstream side in the traveling direction of the vehicle) in a buried section where magnetic markers are buried or in a road-surface arrangement section where magnetic markers are arranged on the road surface, an RFID tag which transmits code information indicating the head of the buried section or the road-surface arrangement section may also be combined. Furthermore, for example, information identifying whether the section is a buried section where magnetic markers are buried or a road-surface arrangement section where magnetic markers are arranged on the road surface may also be included in a map database included in the vehicle side or the like.
Tag reader 36 is preferably provided with, for example, a frequency switching part which selectively sets any of carrier frequencies of a plurality of types. When the magnetic marker is identified as a buried magnetic marker or a magnetic marker arranged on the road surface or the section is identified as the above-described buried section or road-surface arrangement section, tag reader 36 preferably switches the carrier frequency at the time of power transmission.
When the setting of the frequency (frequency specifications) is changed in accordance with the laying mode of the magnetic marker, the above-described adverse effect due to the shift phenomenon can be avoided before it happens. In this case, the difference in reception frequency of electric waves due to the difference in laying mode as to whether the magnetic marker is a buried magnetic marker or a magnetic marker arranged on the road surface can be brought close to zero. As described above, this difference in reception frequency is a difference in frequency of electric waves (carrier waves) received by tag reader 36 side, a difference in frequency of electric waves (carrier waves) received by RFID tag 2 side, or the like.
Note that the laying mode of the magnetic marker is not limited to the above. A columnar-shaped magnetic marker may be placed or the like on the road surface, or a sheet-shaped magnetic marker may be buried in the road surface.
Furthermore, the degree of the above-described shift phenomenon varies in accordance with the burying depth of the magnetic marker and the type of a burying material. Thus, buried-type magnetic markers of a plurality of types with different settings of the frequency of transmission electric waves may be prepared in accordance with the burying depth and the burying material.
While the conductive layer by metal foil 16 is provided directly on the outer peripheral surface of magnet 10 forming the main body in the present embodiment, a resin layer made of a resin material may be provided on the outer periphery of magnet 10 and a conductive layer may be further provided on the outside of the resin layer. Alternatively, the outer periphery of magnet 10 provided with metal foil 16 forming a conductive layer is coated with a resin material and RFID tag 2 may be arranged on the surface of the coating layer.
In place of the conductive layer formed of metal foil 16, a conductive layer may be formed by metal plating. That is, the conductive layer may be a plated layer formed by metal plating.
The magnetic marker may have a magnet accommodated in a metal container. In this case, a coating layer made of a resin material is preferably provided on the outer perimeter of the metal container. If a conductive layer (such as metal foil) is formed on the outer periphery of this coating layer, an electrical contact between the metal container forming the main body of the magnetic marker and the conductive layer is avoided, and a state in which both do not have electrical continuity can be achieved.
In the foregoing, specific examples of the present invention are described in detail as in the embodiments, these specific examples merely disclose examples of technology included in the scope of claims for patent. Needless to say, the scope of claims for patent should not be restrictively construed based on the configuration, numerical values and so forth of the specific examples. The scope of claims for patent includes techniques acquired by variously modifying, changing, or combining as appropriate the above-described specific examples by using known techniques, knowledge of a person skilled in the art and so forth.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-244294 | Dec 2017 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2018/045770 | 12/12/2018 | WO | 00 |
