Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha

Norihiro Tamiya

Tadatomi Ishigami

Toyofumi Tani

Tadamasa Fukae

Mitsuo Shimotani

Hiroshi Sato

Noriyuki Inoue

Minoru Nishida

Yoshihiko Utsui

Kazuma Kaneko

Yoshiharu Morihiro

Yuichi Fudewaki

Yoshihiro Utsui

Shouichi Washino

A vehicle borne transmitter transmits a spread spectrum transmit signal which is pseudo (PN) encoded. The transmitted signal is reflected off of a reflector on known position which may be a highway guardrail, tunnel wall, or the like. The reflected signal is detected by a receiver in the vehicle and a pseudo noise code (PN code) is synchronized to the reflected signal to accomplish maximum correlation. The phase delay between the transmitted PN code and received PN code is thereby utilized to determine the distance between the vehicle and reflector to maintain the vehicle in the center of a roadway lane. Roadway transponders may be periodically located adjacent the roadway and will be responsive to the vehicle borne interrogation signal. The periodically located transducers produce a reply signal including a PN code and imbedded data which data may represent transponder ID and position, roadway or map data, or other data which is desirable to transmit between the transducer and the vehicle travelling the highway.

Automated highway tracking and communication system and method

In an automated roadway system having transponders or data-stations spaced at known positions along the roadway, a vehicle mounted system determines the position of a vehicle moving along the roadway. A vehicle borne transmitter transmits a spread spectrum transmit signal which is pseudo (PN) encoded. The transmitted signal is received by the transponder which emits a reply signal back to a vehicle borne receiver. The receiver also receives a second signal which may be a reply signal from the same transponder or a reply signal from an adjacent transponder. The system then measures a time difference between transmission of the vehicle originated interrogation signal and receipt of its corresponding reply signal to determine the distance between the vehicle and the transponder or reflector. Based on the determined distances, the positions of the transponders and the distance that the vehicle has traveled during its communications, the position of a vehicle is determined using triangulation methods. The interrogation signals may be spread spectrum signals that are pseudo-random (PN) encoded. When the signal is detected by a receiver in the transponder or in the vehicle receiver, the PN code is synchronized to the incoming signal to accomplish maximum correlation. The phase delay between the transmitted PN code and received PN code is used to determine the distances between the vehicle and the transponder. The periodically located transponders produce a reply signal including a PN code and embedded data which represents the transponder identification and its position, or other data which is desirable to transmit between the transponder and the vehicle traveling the roadway.

Moving object high-accuracy position locating method and system

The present invention relates to a danger avoidance system capable of avoiding the collision of a vehicle against obstacles and of reducing the effect of collision on a vehicle. A traveling condition deciding unit decides whether or not the vehicle is in a dangerous traveling condition on the basis of the respective outputs of a vehicle monitoring system and an ambient condition monitoring system. A danger recognition confirming unit decides whether or not the driver is aware of the dangerous traveling condition on the basis of the respective outputs of a driver monitoring system, the ambient condition monitoring system and the vehicle monitoring system. When the traveling condition deciding unit decides that the vehicle is in the dangerous traveling condition, measures to avoid danger or to reduce the effect of collision on the vehicle are taken only when the driver is not aware of the dangerous traveling condition. Therefore, a danger avoidance effecting unit does not execute the measures to avoid danger or to reduce the effect of collision on the vehicle when the driver is aware of the dangerous traveling condition.

Danger avoidance system for a vehicle

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Norihiro Tamiya