Patent Application
20230053704
A portion of this disclosure contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the photocopy reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure in exactly the form it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. 37 C.F.R 1.71(d).
These and/or other features and utilities of the present inventive concept will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:
The drawings illustrate a few example embodiments of the present inventive concept, and therefore are not to be considered limiting in its scope, as the overall inventive concept may admit to other equally effective embodiments. The elements and features shown in the drawings are to scale and attempt to clearly illustrate the principles of exemplary embodiments of the present inventive concept. In the drawings, reference numerals designate like or corresponding, but not necessarily identical, elements throughout the several views.
Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the present general inventive concept, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elements throughout. The embodiments are described below in order to explain the present general inventive concept while referring to the figures. Also, while describing the present general inventive concept, detailed descriptions about related well-known functions or configurations that may diminish the clarity of the points of the present general inventive concept are omitted.
It will be understood that although the terms “first” and “second” may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another element. Thus, a first element could be termed a second element, and similarly, a second element may be termed a first element without departing from the teachings of this disclosure.
Expressions such as “at least one of,” when preceding a list of elements, modify the entire list of elements and do not modify the individual elements of the list.
All terms including descriptive or technical terms which are used herein should be construed as having meanings that are obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art. However, the terms may have different meanings according to an intention of one of ordinary skill in the art, case precedents, or the appearance of new technologies. Also, some terms may be arbitrarily selected by the applicant, and in this case, the meaning of the selected terms will be described in detail in the detailed description of the invention. Thus, the terms used herein have to be defined based on the meaning of the terms together with the description throughout the specification.
Also, when a part “includes” or “comprises” an element, unless there is a particular description contrary thereto, the part can further include other elements, not excluding the other elements. In the following description, terms such as “unit” and “module” indicate a unit to process at least one function or operation, wherein the unit and the module may be embodied as hardware or software or embodied by combining hardware and software.
Hereinafter, one or more exemplary embodiments of the present general inventive concept will be described in detail with reference to accompanying drawings.
Example embodiments of the present general inventive concept are directed to a Traffic and Intersection Monitoring System (TIMS). An example Traffic and Intersection Monitoring System (TIMS) includes a Traffic Signal Light Monitor (T-SLM), a Traffic Volume Counter Device (T-VCD), a Device Communication Controller (DCC), a Cloud-based Application Server (CBAS), and a Subscriber Application (SA).
The Traffic Intersection Monitoring System (TIMS) may be installed at any single, signalized traffic intersection, and may be completely independent of the existing, legacy traffic controller. There may be one Traffic Signal Light Monitor (T-SLM) to monitor each distinct signal head, independent of the number of light-indications on the signal head. The signal head may house the multiple color light indications (for instance, Green, Yellow, Red, plus any turn indications) used to govern traffic movement. For instance, an intersection may include a single, four-sided signal head to govern the movement of traffic at an intersection. Each side of the signal light may face the oncoming traffic. A single T-SLM may monitor the light output from all four sides of the signal head and for each light in the signal head, independent of the direction of traffic the light is designed to provide its color indication. In another embodiment, a T-SLM may be installed in proximity to each signal head at an intersection including more than one signal head. Therefore, more than one T-SLM may be installed at each signalized intersection.
The T-SLM may include multiple diverse and redundant sensors to detect the illuminated light’s color and intensity values. The T-SLM may also include multiple, diverse and redundant sensors to detect a change in the orientation of the signal head. The T-SLM may provide local timing of each color and its time on phase. The T-SLM may also assemble a data message including the color phase, the time on phase, the indicating direction of the color phase, and the change in orientation of the signal head.
A Traffic Volume Counter Device (T-VCD) may be installed above the lane of travel such that vehicles will be detected and counted as they pass under the T-VCD as the vehicle drives through an intersection. The number of T-VCD’s at an intersection may be based on the number of lanes. The T-VCD may include multiple diverse and redundant sensors to detect passing vehicles and to classify the vehicle type. Possible vehicle classifications include motorcycle, automobile, van, pickup truck, delivery truck, semi-trailer truck, and bus, among other classification possibilities.
The T-SLM’s and the T-VCD’s may be powered through a wired connection to a Device Communication Controller (DCC). The DCC may be powered by the municipal power source used to power the signal lights. In a typical embodiment, there may be a single DCC per traffic intersection, though the architecture of the system allows for multiple DCC’s at a single traffic intersection. The T-SLM’s and the T-VCD’s may communicate data by wire or wirelessly to the DCC. Wireless communication may occur on a dedicated, shortrange local area network. The LAN may be constructed with WiFi, BLUETOOTH®, ANT, or any other secure wireless communication architecture. The DCC may include a processor and storage memory sufficient to process the data communicated by multiple T-SLM’s and T-VCD’s. The DCC may collect the measured color phase times from each T-SLM and calculate an algorithm to predict the next cycle of phase colors and associated time on phase. These predicted phase timings may be correlated to the detected lane by lane traffic counts and may be populated in a data message format suitable for publishing said data to a Cloud-based Application Server (CBAS).
The Device Communication Controller (DCC) may also include a Global Positioning Satellite (GNSS) receiver. The GNSS receiver may provide a common date and time indication for all DCC’s located in a geographical region such as a traffic grid. The common date and time indication provide synchronization to all monitors and controllers in a TIMS network. Since the DCC is installed at a fixed location, it is possible to survey the fixed location and calculate highly accurate latitude and longitude coordinates of the DCC location. These fixed coordinates may be retained in the DCC memory as the Ground Truth location. Received GNSS satellite signals and the calculated inference location from these signals may be compared over time with the Ground Truth location. It is established that GNSS readings vary over time, and the DCC may use an algorithm to measure the variance to the Ground Truth and publish this real-time variance to the Cloud-based Application Server (CBAS). The variance information may be subscribed to by vehicles utilizing GNSS navigation systems to either correct for on-board location errors or to alert when a GNSS signal error creates unsafe routing information to the vehicle, particularly with autonomous vehicles which are completely reliant on the accuracy of GNSS guidance data.
There are multiple Subscriber Applications (SA) based on the subscriber classification. One subscriber classification may be the fixed, signalized traffic intersection location equipped with a TIMS system. This arrangement allows adjacent TIMS-equipped intersection locations to communicate and publish their real-time status to a cloud-based computer and database. Each subscribing TIMS-equipped intersection location may receive timely status conditions for all neighboring TIMS-equipped intersection locations. The status conditions for neighboring TIMS-equipped intersection locations may be concatenated with the local TIMS-equipped intersection location.
The traffic intersections 110-1, 110-2, 110-3, and 110-4 may be equipped with multiple sensors blocks 450-1, 450-2, 450-3, and 450-4 respectively which may be installed on the existing signal light posts 120-1, 120-2, 120-3, and 120-4 in this example embodiment. The sensor blocks 450-1, 450-2, 450-3, and 450-4 communicate with DCC 6001, 600-2, 600-3, and 600-4 respectively, through wireless communication interfaces 125-1, 125-2, 125-3 and 125-4 and/or by using wired interfaces. In the example embodiment, the wireless communication takes place in the 900 MHz ISM band, however, other communication bands and techniques may also be used. The data generated from the diverse sensor blocks 450-1, 450-2, 450-3, and 450-4 includes raw values of, three-axis accelerometer, a three-axis magnetometer, and a three-axis gyroscope from nine-axis Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) for orientation determination, signal light intensity and color information from a light sensor for signal health, image from vision sensor for traffic signal light viewability and orientation, a video feed from the camera module, and vehicle distance, size and direction from LIDAR and/or RADAR for vehicle count and type determination, GNSS health and coordinate information for GNSS signal outage and location correction, and other data related to signal light integrity or useful for applicable subscribers. The DCC 600-1 processes the sampled sensor data from the local sensor block 450-1 and the information reported from the neighboring DCCs 600-2, 600-3, and 600-4 and provides actionable information to the applicable subscribers, including pedestrian 130, vehicle 100, and infrastructure 140. The applicable subscribers having a V2X (vehicle to everything) interface 440, and in the communication range of the DCC 600-4 may receive the subscribed information from the DCC 600-4 directly. For the other subscribers not in the direct communication range of any of the DCC 600-1, 600-2, 6003, and 600-4 or without having a V2X interface, the information published to the CBAS 150 may be retrieved by the pedestrian 130, vehicle 100 and infrastructure 140 through any compatible network interface; some of the example interfaces may include 4G/5G cellular network interface 430, 4G/5G cellular network interface or Wi-Fi 161 and 4G/5G cellular network interface or Wi-Fi or Ethernet 160.
Each of the T-SLM 400-1, 400-2, and 400-3 monitors signal light intensity, color, ON/OFF duration, orientation, and viewability from the perspective of a pedestrian 130 and vehicle 100 for the traffic signal lights red 340, yellow 350 and green 360, respectively. The T-SLM 400-1, 400-2, and 400-3 may be attached to the bottom surface of the sun visor 345, 355, and 365, respectively, in such a way that it is directly in the path of light emitting from the signal lights 340, 350 and 360. The traffic volume counter device T-VCD 500, attached to the signal light post 120, may perform various functions such as vehicle detection, vehicle profiling, and counting the vehicular traffic.
The T-VCD 500 may utilize a combination of diverse sensors including a camera module, LIDAR, and RADAR. In this example embodiment, one T-VCD monitors traffic on one lane only. However, in another embodiment, one T-VCD may monitor traffic on one or more than one lane. Each of the traffic signal light monitors T-SLM 400-1, 400-2, and 400-3 may communicate directly with the DCC 600 through a wired or wireless communication interface 330. The TVCD 500 may also communicate directly with the DCC 600 through a wired or wireless communication interface 320. The DCC 600 processes the received information from the local sensors and the neighboring DCCs to determine actionable information for applicable subscribers. The DCC 600 may upload the actionable information to a CBAS 150 through any wired or wireless internet connection 165. The DCC 600 may directly communicate actionable information to the vehicles 100 over a C-V2X interface, the cellular network 430, or directly through PC5 or any other direct device-to-device communication interface 440. The applicable subscribers, such as vehicle 100, pedestrian 130, and infrastructure 140 may also receive actionable information from the CBAS 150 through any wired or wireless internet connection 160.
Still referring to
The T-SLM 400 comprises various sensors including an inertial measurement unit (IMU) 720, a light sensor 730, and a vision sensor 725. T-SLM 400 may monitor the orientation of the signal light from the perspective of a pedestrian 130 and vehicle 100 and for this purpose, it may use a nine (9) axis IMU 720. The nine (9) axis output from the IMU 720 includes three (3) axis gravitational acceleration from an accelerometer 715, three (3) axis angular velocity from a gyroscope 710, and three (3) axis magnetic field measurement from a magnetometer 705. T-SLM 400 processes the nine (9) axis output from the IMU 720 and computes the precise orientation of the signal light on which T-SLM 400 is installed. The reference orientation of signal light is stored, both locally on the T-SLM 400 and the DCC 600, as a reference to determine any change in the orientation of the traffic signal light.
The T-SLM 400 may include the light sensor 730 to sense multiple color lights and clear light intensity during different lighting conditions. The light sensor 730 provides a digital light intensity 735, color light wavelength 740, and light ON/OFF status 741 for a particular colored signal light on which it is installed. This information is used to determine whether the signal light intensity is within a normal sensing range. In an example embodiment of this disclosure, the value of signal light intensity measured in lumens by light sensor 730 is compared to a predetermined threshold of luminous intensity in candela for an LED signal module (e.g., as specified by Transport Canada Engineering Standards for LED Signal Modules or the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association (AREMA) standard for LED signal modules). In this example embodiment, predetermined thresholds for signal light viewability, integrity, and conspicuity may be stored as a reference on the T-SLM 400 and DCC 600. One or more predetermined thresholds may be converted to lumens before comparing with the values measured by the light sensor 730. For example, the measured light intensity values for each color signal light may be compared to the minimum luminous intensity values for the three different colored lights as pre-configured on the TSLM 400.
A vision sensor 725 available on the T-SLM 400 is simultaneously oriented on the signal light monitor with other sensors. The vision sensor 725 is oriented such that it has a full view of the road in front of the signal light on which the T-SLM 400 is installed. Image data 726 captured by vision sensor 725 may be used to determine whether the signal light view is unobstructed and that no change in orientation of signal light has occurred.
In some example embodiments, the T-SLM 400 may provide partial or fully processed sensors data such as precise signal light orientation calculated from the IMU 720, or it may be configured to offload all the computations to the DCC 600 and provide only raw sensors data 715, 710, 705, 735, 740, 741, 85, 755, 760 and 761 to the DCC.
The Traffic Volume Counter Device (T-VCD) 500 comprises multiple sensors, such as a camera module 750 and a range sensor 751, which may be a LIDAR and/or RADAR or any other sensor to detect vehicle distance 755, vehicle size 760, and vehicle direction 761. Camera module 750 is positioned such that incoming and outgoing vehicular traffic of the crossing intersection is in the view of the camera module 750. A video feed 745 from the camera module 750 may be used to determine the type and count of incoming vehicular traffic towards the traffic crossing intersection. The camera module 750 may also be used to determine the direction of the vehicles, such as left-turn, right-turn, U-turn, or straight movement. Furthermore, for accuracy and redundancy, the range sensor 751 may provide additional information such as vehicle distance 755, vehicle size 760, and vehicle direction 761. T-VCD 500 may be configured to provide processed sensors data such as a count of the vehicular traffic at the traffic intersection or it may be configured to offload partial or all the computation to the DCC 600 and provide only raw sensors data 745, 755, 760, and 761 to the DCC 600.
The DCC 600 may receive time-stamped information from the T-SLM 400 which comprises raw or (partially) processed three (3) axis accelerometer data 715, three (3) axis gyroscope data 710, three (3) axis magnetometer data 705, light intensity 735, color light wavelength 740, light ON/OFF status 741 and image data 726. DCC 600 may also receive video feed 745, vehicle distance 755, vehicle size 760, and vehicle direction 761 from the TVCD 500. The DCC 600 may implement data analytics on the information it receives from multiple sensors and may produce traffic signal analytics 765 and traffic volume analytics 785. Traffic signal analytics 765 may be based on the information received from the local TSLM 400 which comprises signal light visibility 770 status, signal light orientation 775, and signal real-time light ON/OFF status 741 for every individual signal light. The traffic volume analytics 785 may be based on the information received from the T-VCD 500 in addition to the information received from multiple DCCs installed nearby. Traffic volume analytics 785 comprises current traffic volume 790 and predicted traffic volume 795 calculated based on the input from the T-VCD 500 in addition to traffic volume count and expected time of arrival reported by the neighboring DCCs. Traffic volume analytics 785 may also involve vehicle statistics 799 which may include the count of the different types of vehicles passing through the traffic intersection.
In some embodiments, the pre-installed external sensors at the traffic intersections, having a compatible communication interface with the DCC 600, may also be used for data analytics. For example, loop sensors are widely used for vehicle counting and presence detection may provide information to the DCC 600 to augment current traffic volume 790 and vehicle direction 761.
The DCC 600 may compute Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) statistics 721 from the information received from an onboard GNSS module. The DCC 600 may publish GNSS availability 722, GNSS accuracy 723, and GNSS location coordinates 724 directly to the vehicle 100 or the CBAS 150 for applicable subscribers. The applicable subscribers, such as self-driving cars, may utilize this information and may take appropriate driving actions such as avoiding the intersections where the GNSS accuracy may be compromised.
The DCC 600 may publish traffic signal analytics 765, traffic volume analytics 785, and GNSS statistics 721 directly to the vehicles through a vehicle communication interface 440. The vehicle communication interface 440 may be a C-V2X or any other supported interface by the vehicle 100. Traffic signal analytics 765, traffic volume analytics 785, and GNSS statistics 721 may also be made available to any applicable subscribers, such as pedestrians 130, infrastructure 140, and vehicles 100 through CBAS 150 using any wired or wireless internet connection 160.
The DCC 600 maintains separate counters for each of northbound, southbound, eastbound, and westbound traffic. The DCC 600 increments the traffic counter for northbound traffic whenever a straight moving northbound vehicle is detected and reported by both of the T-VCD 500-6 and 500-3, or by the T-VCD 500-5 and 500-4. In addition, the traffic counter for northbound traffic is incremented if a westbound vehicle takes a right turn and is detected and reported by the T-VCD 500-3 but no detection reported by the T-VCD 500-1. The traffic counter for northbound traffic is also incremented in case of an eastbound vehicle turning taking left and being detected and reported by both of the traffic volume counter devices T-CVD 500-7 and 500-4, or by the T-CVD 500-8 and 500-4 respectively. The DCC 600 increments the traffic counter for southbound traffic whenever a straight moving southbound vehicle is detected and reported by both of the T-VCD 500-1 and 500-7, or by the T-CVD 500-2 and 500-8. In addition, the traffic counter for southbound traffic is incremented if an eastbound vehicle takes a right turn and is detected and reported by the T-VCD 500-7 but no detection reported by the T-VCD 500-6. The traffic counter for southbound traffic is also incremented in case of a westbound vehicle turning taking left and being detected and reported by both of the traffic volume counter devices T-CVD 500-3 and 500-8, or by the T-CVD 500-4 and 500-8 respectively. The DCC 600 increments the traffic counter for eastbound traffic whenever a straight moving eastbound vehicle is detected and reported by both of the T-VCD 500-7 and 500-6, or by the T-CVD 500-8 and 500-5. In addition, the traffic counter for eastbound traffic is incremented if a northbound vehicle takes a right turn and is detected and reported by the T-VCD 500-6 but no detection is reported by the T-VCD 500-3. The traffic counter for eastbound traffic is also incremented in case of a southbound vehicle turning taking left and being detected and reported by both of the traffic volume counter devices T-CVD 500-1 and 500-5, or by the T-CVD 500-2 and 500-5 respectively. The DCC 600 increments the traffic counter for westbound traffic whenever a straight moving westbound vehicle is detected and reported by both of the T-VCD 500-3 and 500-1, or by the T-CVD 500-4 and 500-2. In addition, the traffic counter for westbound traffic is incremented if a southbound vehicle takes a right turn and is detected and reported by the T-VCD 500-1 but no detection is reported by the T-VCD 500-7. The traffic counter for westbound traffic is also incremented in case of a northbound vehicle turning taking left and being detected and reported by both of the traffic volume counter devices T-CVD 500-6 and 500-2, or by the T-CVD 500-5 and 500-2 respectively.
A technical effect of the systems and methods described herein is achieved by performing at least one of the operations described herein. It will be appreciated that embodiments of the disclosure described herein may be comprised of one or more conventional processors and unique stored program instructions that control the one or more processors to implement, in conjunction with certain non-processor circuits, some, most, or all of the functions of the traffic and intersection monitoring system described herein. As used herein, the term processor refers to central processing units, microprocessors, microcontrollers, reduced instruction set circuits (RISC), application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), logic circuits, and any other circuit or processor capable of executing the functions described herein. The non-processor circuits may include, but are not limited to, a radio receiver, a radio transmitter, signal drivers, clock circuits, power source circuits, and user input devices. As such, these functions may be interpreted as steps of a method of monitoring traffic and/or an intersection with another computing device. Various data disclosed within may be stored in any format on any storage device in or in communication with the computing devices described herein.
As will be appreciated based on the foregoing specification, the above-described embodiments of the disclosure may be implemented using computer programming or engineering techniques including computer software, firmware, hardware or any combination or subset thereof. Any such resulting program, having computer-readable code means, may be embodied or provided within one or more computer-readable media, thereby making a computer program product, i.e., an article of manufacture, according to the discussed embodiments of the disclosure. Example computer-readable media may be, but are not limited to, a flash memory drive, digital versatile disc (DVD), compact disc (CD), fixed (hard) drive, diskette, optical disk, magnetic tape, semiconductor memory such as read-only memory (ROM), and/or any transmitting/receiving medium such as the Internet or other communication network or link. By way of example and not limitation, computer-readable media comprise computer-readable storage media and communication media. Computer-readable storage media are tangible and non-transitory and store information such as computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules, and other data. Communication media, in contrast, typically embody computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in a transitory modulated signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and include any information delivery media. Combinations of any of the above are also included in the scope of computer-readable media. The article of manufacture containing the computer code may be made and/or used by executing the code directly from one medium, by copying the code from one medium to another medium, or by transmitting the code over a network.
In this document, relative relational terms such as first and second, top and bottom, and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions. The device components, system elements, and method steps described herein have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present disclosure so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.
The terms “comprises,” “comprising,” or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or device that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or device. An element proceeded by “comprises” does not, without more constraints, preclude the existence of additional identical elements in the process, method, article, or device that comprises the element.
The systems and processes are not limited to the specific embodiments described herein. In addition, components of each system and each process can be practiced independent and separate from other components and processes described herein. Each component and process also can be used in combination with other assembly packages and processes. It is expected that one of ordinary skill, notwithstanding possibly significant effort and many design choices motivated by, for example, available time, current technology, and economic considerations, when guided by the concepts and principles disclosed herein will be readily capable of generating such software instructions and programs and ICs with minimal experimentation.
Having described aspects of the disclosure in detail, it will be apparent that modifications and variations are possible without departing from the scope of aspects of the disclosure. As various changes could be made in the above constructions, products, and methods without departing from the scope of aspects of the disclosure, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description and shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.
This application claims priority from Provisional Application No. 63/234,041, filed on Aug. 17, 2021, in the U.S. Pat. and Trademark Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
Not applicable.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63234041 | Aug 2021 | US |
