Patent Application
20140081718
This application claims priority to European Patent Application No. 12 184 676.0, filed on Sep. 17, 2012, the entirety of which is incorporated by reference herein.
1. Technical Field
The present patent application relates to a method for generating a parking fee transaction for a vehicle, which comprises an onboard unit having an identifier. The present patent application further relates to a radio beacon and to an onboard unit for carrying out this method.
2. Background Art
Onboard units (OBUs) are electronic devices carried by vehicles so as to be able to identify the vehicles in a wireless manner via radio, for example for the purpose of settling tolls in electronic road toll systems. OBUs can be implemented in the form of active or passive radio transponders, radio frequency identification (RFID) chips, near field communication (NFC) chips, dedicated short range communication (DSRC) transceivers, wireless access in vehicular environments (WAVE) and wireless local area network (WLAN) nodes, or the like. EP 2 299 409 A1 describes the use of an RFID chip in a vehicle in order to identify the vehicle when entering and exiting a parking space and thereby determine the time difference as the overall parking duration of the vehicle.
It is an object of the present application to render such OBUs usable for settling parking fees. In a first aspect, this object is achieved by a method for generating a parking fee transaction for a vehicle, which comprises an onboard unit having an identifier, comprising the following steps:
wirelessly polling the identifier by a roadside radio beacon as a current identifier;
generating a parking fee transaction for the identifier if the current identifier is identical to a stored old identifier;
storing the current identifier as the old identifier;
waiting a predetermined time period; and
repeating the above steps.
The present application is based on the finding that, by comparing the identifiers of OBUs located in the radio coverage range of the beacon—wherein the identifiers can be wirelessly polled at a particular time—to identifiers polled at an earlier time, it is possible to establish those identifiers, and consequently those OBUs and the vehicles thereof, which were present in the radio coverage range at both times and therefore almost certainly parked there. An astoundingly simple method for generating parking fee transactions is thus created, which can be scaled for any arbitrary number of parking spaces in the radio coverage range of a radio beacon.
According to an embodiment, a position of the onboard unit is wirelessly polled together with the identifier and the parking fee transaction is only generated if, in addition to said identifiers being identical, the position is located in a predetermined area. This allows excessive radio coverage ranges of the radio beacon to be dealt with, for example when the parking area is smaller than the radio coverage range of the radio beacon.
A status of the onboard unit may also be wirelessly polled together with the identifier, and the parking fee transaction is only generated if, in addition to said identifiers being identical, the status is also identical to a predetermined value. It can thus be assured that parking fee transactions are only generated for those OBUs that have set a corresponding “parking status”. For example, OBUs of vehicles located only temporarily in the radio coverage range of the radio beacon because they are temporarily stopped next to parked vehicles in a traffic jam may be ignored; and conversely, by deliberately setting the parking status on the OBU, a user can indicate that he is now parked and would like to pay the parking fees.
The generated parking fee transactions can be further processed and settled in a wide variety of ways. In a first embodiment, the parking fee transactions are wirelessly transmitted from the radio beacon to the onboard unit, where they are charged, for example, against a credit balance that is kept in the onboard unit (an “electronic wallet”) as a debit transaction. According to an alternative embodiment, the generated parking fee transactions are transmitted from the radio beacon to a back office, for example a toll back office of a road toll system, a bank computer, a credit card billing center or the like, and are charged there against a bank, credit or debit account of the user associated with the OBU identifier.
The method operates in steps of the predetermined waiting time period and can accordingly charge fees for parking durations in these time units. For instance, the predetermined time period may be 1 to 30 minutes, including being a predetermined time period of 5 to 20 minutes, which further includes a predetermined time period of 10 minutes, whereby short durations of less than 10 minutes remain free of charge and sufficient precision in terms of time is achieved for longer durations.
In a second aspect, a radio beacon is created for generating a parking fee transaction for a vehicle, which comprises an onboard unit having an identifier, wherein the radio beacon has a radio coverage range covering at least a parking space and is configured
to wirelessly poll the identifier of an onboard unit located in the radio coverage range as a current identifier;
to generate a parking fee transaction for the current identifier if the current identifier is identical to a stored old identifier;
to store the current identifier as the old identifier; and
to repeat these steps after a predetermined time period.
The radio beacon is advantageously configured to also wirelessly poll a position of the onboard unit together with the identifier and to generate the parking fee transaction only if, in addition to said identifiers being identical, the position is located in a predetermined area.
The radio beacon may be configured to also wirelessly poll a status of the onboard unit together with the identifier and to generate the parking fee transaction only if, in addition to said identifiers being identical, the status is also identical to a predetermined value.
It may be favorable if the radio beacon has a radio coverage range covering at least two parking spaces and is configured
to wirelessly poll the identifiers of all onboard units located in the radio coverage range as current identifiers;
to generate a parking fee transaction for any current identifier that is identical to a stored old identifier;
to store the current identifiers as old identifiers; and
to repeat these steps after the predetermined time period.
To this end, the radio beacon can calculate a parking space occupancy status by comparing the number of current identifiers to the number of parking spaces in the radio coverage range.
Reference is made to the above comments regarding the method in terms of the advantages of the radio beacon.
In a third aspect, an onboard unit is created for a vehicle, having a unique identifier and a stored modifiable status and comprising a transceiver for transmitting the identifier and the status in response to a wireless poll of a radio beacon, the onboard unit being characterized by having a first operating mode and a second operating mode, between which the unit can be switched by way of a switch, wherein the status indicates the respective operating mode of the onboard unit.
The onboard unit is therefore suited in particular for those embodiments and of the radio beacon, in which these consider a status that is set in the OBU and generate parking fee transactions only for those OBUs for which the user has set the parking mode or parking status.
The onboard unit may be equipped with a position determination device for determining the current position of the onboard unit and is configured to transmit the position thereof in response to a wireless poll of the radio beacon.
According to an embodiment, the onboard unit can be equipped with a movement sensor, which switches the onboard unit to the first operating mode when a movement thereof exceeds a threshold value and/or switches the onboard unit to the second operating mode when no movement thereof is detected for a period that exceeds a minimum time period. Automatic, movement-controlled switching between the two operating modes, these being the first (tolling) mode for movement and the second (parking) mode for standstill over extended periods, can thus be achieved.
The tolling mode of the onboard unit, in which the same, for example, communicates as a conventional road toll OBU with tolling radio beacons on the way, can be utilized to settle a parking fee transaction, which was received in the parking mode from a parking radio beacon, using the infrastructure of the road toll system. After leaving the parking mode and the radio coverage range of the parking radio beacon, the OBU transmits the parking fee transaction to the first tolling radio beacon it encounters on the way, for example, so as to pay the parking fee via the settling system of the tolling radio beacon.
It is particularly favorable if the onboard unit has a power-saving third operating mode, which it temporarily enters from the second operating mode after receiving a wireless poll or parking fee transaction. Because the wireless polls of a parking radio beacon are issued comparatively infrequently, for example every 10 minutes, the onboard unit can thus save a considerable amount of power.
Embodiments will be described in more detail hereafter with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings:
Embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
In
Each of the vehicles 1 is equipped with an onboard unit (OBU) 5, which is able to carry out radio communication 8 with roadside radio beacons (roadside units, RSUs) 6, 7. The OBUs 5 can be separate devices or an integral part of the vehicle electronics system. The radio communication 8 is short range or dedicated short range communication (DSRC), such as according to the standards CEN-DSRC, ITS-G5, IEEE 802.11p, WAVE, WLAN, RFID, NFC or the like. The radio beacons 6, 7 thus have a respective locally delimited radio coverage range 9, 10.
Successful radio communication 8 with a passing OBU 5 substantiates that the OBU 5 is located in the locally delimited radio coverage range 9 of the tolling beacon 6, whereby a fee (“toll”) can be charged for usage of the location of the tolling radio beacon 6. For example, the tolled location usage can be the driving on a road section, the entering of a particular territory (“city toll”) or the like.
In contrast, “parking” radio beacons (parking roadside units, P-RSUs) 7 are employed in the parking scenario of
Because parked vehicles 1 are stopped, a parking radio beacon 7 can broadcast the wireless polls 11 thereof at considerably longer time intervals ΔT than the tolling radio beacon 6 of
The radio coverage range 10 of the parking radio beacon 7 can be adapted to the spatial expansion of the parking spaces 4 using optional measures, for example directional antennas, so as to avoid responses 12 of OBUs 5 of vehicles 1 that are not parked, for example passing vehicles. As an alternative or in addition, the OBUs 5 of the vehicles 1 can also be caused to assume different operating modes, which are adapted in each case to the scenarios of
Of course, the tolling radio beacons 6 and parking radio beacons 7 can also be implemented by one and the same physical unit, which alternately or simultaneously performs the functions of a tolling radio beacon and a parking radio beacon 6, 7. Such a combined unit 6, 7 can thus broadcast wireless polls 11 with the beacon identifier of a tolling radio beacon, for example continually at short intervals, and wireless polls 11 with the beacon identifier of a parking radio beacon 7 at longer intervals ΔT, which is to say occasionally “interspersed”. Such a radio beacon 6, 7 is then in charge of both charging a toll for a road section of the road 2 and charging a fee for a parking area P, for example.
Depending on the operating mode TM or PM of the OBU 5, and depending on the received beacon identifier, the OBU 5 can, for example, respond only to tolling radio beacons 6 if the OBU is in the tolling mode TM or only to parking radio beacons 7 if the OBU is in the parking mode PM.
The operating mode of an OBU 5 can further be encoded as a data message (status) st and transmitted as part of the response 12. A radio beacon 6, 7 can appropriately evaluate the status st received in a response 12, so that tolling radio beacons 6 only charge tolls for the passage of OBUs 5 where status st=“TM”, and parking radio beacons 7 only charge fees for the parking of those OBUs 5 where status st=“PM”. Moreover, the OBUs 5 can also measure their own respective positions p and transmit these to the parking radio beacons 7, which compare the received positions p to the respective parking areas P and only charge fees for the parking of those OBUs 5, the positions p of which are within the respective parking area P. This will be described in more detail hereafter with reference to
The OBU 5 can optionally also comprise a movement sensor 18, for example in the form of a satellite navigation receiver for a global navigation satellite system (GNSS), such as GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO and the like; instead of a GNSS receiver, it is also possible to use any other type of movement sensor 18, for example an inertia sensor (inertial measurement unit, IMU) or a sensor that is connected to components of the vehicle 1, for example a connection to the speedometer or engine of the vehicle 1.
In the simplest case, the movement sensor 18 can also be only a connection to the vehicle electronics system, for example the ignition lock of the vehicle, so that the position of the key (engine running-not running), for example, indicates the (anticipated) movement or parking status of the vehicle.
The OBU 5 can optionally also be equipped with a position determination device 18′, which is able to determine the current position p of the OBU 5—in response to a poll, periodically or continuously. The position determination device 18′ can operate in any manner that is known in the art, for example by way of radio triangulation in a network of geographically distributed radio stations, which can be formed directly by the radio beacons 6, 7 or by base stations of a mobile communication network, for example, or by way of evaluation of the cell identifiers of a cellular mobile communication network, and the like. The position determination device 18′ may be a satellite navigation receiver for position determination in a GNSS and in particular can also be formed by the same GNSS receiver that is used for the movement sensor 18.
In addition to the appropriate application and control programs and data, the memory 15 of the OBU 5 includes a unique identifier id of the OBU 5, which is established and saved, for example, during the output or user-specific initialization of the OBU 5 and which uniquely identifies the OBU 5 and/or the user thereof and/or the vehicle 1 and/or a settlement account of the user. The OBU identifier id is transmitted together with every response message 12 from the OBU 5 to a radio beacon 6, 7 so as to uniquely identify the OBU 5 with respect to the radio beacon 6, 7.
The memory 15 can further include the status st, which indicates the operating mode TM or PM of the OBU 5 for the corresponding scenario of
In the parking mode PM, the OBU 5 can temporarily assume a power-saving sleep mode (“sleep”), and more particularly as soon as it has received a wireless poll 11 of a parking radio beacon 7 and sent a response 12. The OBU 5 can also wake up from the sleep mode after a predetermined time period Δt has lapsed and return to the parking mode PM. The time period Δt may be shorter than the time period Δt between consecutive wireless polls 11 of a parking radio beacon 7. As an alternative or in addition, the OBU 5 could also be awakened again by receiving a subsequent wireless poll 11.
In a first step 19, a wireless poll 11 is broadcast by the parking radio beacon 7 so as to request the OBUs 5 located in the radio coverage range 10 to provide responses 12. In step 20, the responses 12 arriving from the OBUs 5 are received, wherein each response 12 includes at least the respective identifier idi of the OBU 5 with the index i and—optionally—the status sti thereof and/or the position pi thereof determined by the position determination device 18′. The received identifiers idi, statuses sti and positions pi are temporarily stored in the parking radio beacon 7 as a current dataset setcurr.
Thereafter, a check is carried out within a loop 21 covering all received identifiers idi as to whether or not the respective status sti is set to the parking mode “PM”, see decision 22. In addition (or as an alternative), it can be checked in the decision 22 whether or not the respective position pi—provided this was transmitted—falls within a predetermined geographical region, more particularly the parking area P of the parking radio beacon 7. If only some of the conditions that are checked in decision 22 are met (branch “n” of 22), the subsequent steps 23 and 24 are skipped and the loop 21 is continued or exited for step 25 upon completion. In contrast, if all the conditions are met, which is to say in the present case: sti=PM and piεP (branch “y” of 22), it is checked in a further decision 23 whether the respective identifier idi corresponds to a previously stored “old” identifier idi,last, which is to say whether or not it occurs in a dataset setlast{idi,last} of old identifiers idi,last. These “old” identifiers idi,last were determined during an earlier execution of the method and stored in the dataset setlast as will be described hereafter.
If the respective current identifier idi does not agree with any old identifier idi,last, which is to say does not occur in the dataset setlast (branch “n” of 23), the loop 21 is continued or exited for step 25 after it is completed; if there is agreement (branch “y” of 23), the method branches to step 24, in which a parking fee transaction ta(idi) is generated for the current identifier idi, as will described in greater detail later.
After step 24, the loop 21 is continued or, after completion thereof, a transition is made to step 25.
In step 25, the current identifiers idi determined in step 20 are resaved as “old” identifiers idi,last, which is to say the current dataset setcurr is (now) stored as an “old” dataset setlast.
Thereafter, in step 26, a wait is carried out for the predetermined time period ΔT, which is between the individual wireless polls 11 of the parking radio beacon 7, and then the method is repeated (loop 27).
During the next repetition in the loop 27, the previously determined current identifiers idi now constitute the “old” identifiers idi,last, and if in step 20 again “new” current identifiers idi are determined, these can then be compared in step 23 to the “old” identifiers idi,last from the last dataset setlast. As a result, it is checked during each loop execution 27 whether or not an OBU identifier idi determined by a parking radio beacon 7 based on a wireless poll 11 was already present during a wireless poll 11 dating back by the time period ΔT; if so, a vehicle 1 comprising an OBU 5 having this identifier idi has obviously spent at least the time period ΔT in the radio coverage range 10 of the parking radio beacon 7, so that a corresponding parking fee transaction ta(idi) can be generated for the OBU identifier idi for parking over the time period ΔT (step 24).
The parking fee transactions ta(idi) generated in step 24 can be settled directly by the radio beacon 7, for example by charging these to a user account that is kept in the radio beacon 7. Alternatively, the parking fee transactions ta(idi) can be forwarded by the radio beacon 7 to a remote back office (not shown), which keeps user accounts, toll accounts, bank accounts, credit accounts and the like under the identifiers idi, so that the parking fee transactions ta(idi) can be charged there against a corresponding settlement account. However, it is also possible for the generated parking fee transaction(s) ta(idi) to be returned from the radio beacon 7 to the OBU 5 with the identifier idi and to be charged there against a settlement account (an “electronic purse”) that is kept in the OBU 5.
Another option is to temporarily store the parking fee transaction(s) ta(idi) returned from the parking radio beacon 7 to the OBU 5 in the OBU 5 and, when the OBU 5 returns to the tolling mode TM, have the OBU 5 send it/them to a tolling radio beacon 6 on the way for settlement purposes, as if it were a toll transaction.
The procedures shown in
A parking radio beacon 7, the radio coverage range 10 of which covers several parking spaces 4, at the same time receives a complete overview of the occupancy status of the parking spaces 4 in its parking area P as a result of the responses 12 of the OBUs 5 in step 20. For this purpose, the beacon only needs to compare the number of identifiers idi received in step 20 to the number of parking spaces 4 in the area P, so as to obtain a proportional or percentage-based utilization rate of the parking spaces 4, for example “80%” if 4 out of 5 parking spaces are occupied, and so forth. The parking space occupancy status thus determined can be sent to a back office for parking area management measures, for example.
The invention is thus not limited to the shown embodiments, but encompasses all variants and modifications that are covered by the scope of the accompanying claims. While various embodiments have been described above, it should be understood that they have been presented by way of example only, and not limitation. It will be apparent to persons skilled in the relevant art that various changes in form and detail can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the embodiments. Thus, the breadth and scope of the described embodiments should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments, but should be defined only in accordance with the following claims and their equivalents.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12184676.0 | Sep 2012 | EP | regional |
