Safety-Compliant Multiple Occupancy of a Channel in Intelligent Transportation Systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016155333-A1
Application number	US-201615012975-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Feb 2, 2016
Priority date	Aug 15, 2013
Publication date	Jun 2, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

An efficient implementation of intelligent transportation systems is provided. A control unit for a vehicle is designed to receive and/or to transmit a safety-relevant vehicle cooperation message via a physical channel of a communication unit of the vehicle. The control unit is designed to determine an indication of the vehicle having a reduced risk of conflict with another road user in a first period of time. The control unit is designed to receive and/or to transmit a non-safety-relevant vehicle cooperation message via the physical channel of the communication unit of the vehicle in the first period of time.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A control unit for a vehicle, wherein the control unit is configured to:
receive and/or transmit a safety-related vehicle cooperation message via a physical channel of a communication unit of the vehicle; determine an indicator that the vehicle has a reduced risk of conflict with another road user in a first time period; and receive and/or transmit a non-safety-related vehicle cooperation message via the physical channel of the communication unit of the vehicle in the first time period.

2 . The control unit according to claim 1 , wherein the control unit is further configured to:
receive sensor data from one or more sensors of the vehicle; determine the indicator of the reduced risk of conflict on the basis of the received sensor data.

3 . The control unit according to claim 2 , wherein the control unit is configured to determine one or more of the following indicators:
an indicator of a stopping of the vehicle in the first time period; an indicator of a stopping of another vehicle in front and/or behind the vehicle in the first time period; an indicator that the vehicle is located in a traffic jam in the first time period; an indicator that the vehicle is located in front of a red traffic light in the first time period; an indicator that the vehicle is located in a non-public area in the first time period; and an indicator that the vehicle is located on a road section on which no oncoming traffic, no crossing traffic and/or no traffic merging onto the road is to be expected.

4 . The control unit according to claim 1 , wherein the control unit is configured to:
administer a logical control channel for receiving and/or transmitting one or more safety-related vehicle cooperation messages; administer a logical service channel for receiving and/or transmitting one or more non-safety-related vehicle cooperation messages; and assign the physical channel of the communication unit either to the logical control channel for receiving and/or transmitting one or more safety-related vehicle cooperation messages or to the logical service channel for receiving and/or transmitting one or more non-safety-related vehicle cooperation messages.

5 . The control unit according to claim 4 , wherein the control unit is configured to assign the physical channel of the communication unit at least partially to the logical service channel in the first time period.

6 . The control unit according to claim 5 , wherein the control unit is configured to:
predict a reception time period for receiving a periodic safety-related vehicle cooperation message of another ITS station; determine that the predicted reception time period occurs in the first time period; and assign the physical channel of the communication unit to the logical control channel in the predicted reception time period.

7 . The control unit according to claim 4 , wherein the control unit is configured to:
predict a reception time period for receiving a periodic safety-related vehicle cooperation message of another ITS station; determine that the predicted reception time period occurs in the first time period; and assign the physical channel of the communication unit to the logical control channel in the predicted reception time period.

8 . The control unit according to claim 1 , wherein the control unit is configured to:
transmit periodic safety-related vehicle cooperation messages via the physical channel of the communication unit; and reduce a frequency of the periodic safety-related vehicle cooperation messages in the first time period.

9 . The control unit according to claim 6 , wherein the control unit is configured to:
transmit periodic safety-related vehicle cooperation messages via the physical channel of the communication unit; and reduce a frequency of the periodic safety-related vehicle cooperation messages in the first time period.

12 . The control unit according to claim 1 , wherein the communication unit of the vehicle has only one physical channel for transmitting vehicle cooperation messages.

11 . The control unit according to claim 1 , wherein the safety-related vehicle cooperation message is one of:
a “Cooperative Awareness Message” of a vehicle-to-X network; a “Decentralized Environmental Notification Message” of the vehicle-to-X network; or a “Basic Safety Message”.

10 . A method for transmitting vehicle cooperation messages, wherein the method comprises the acts of:
receiving and/or transmitting at least one safety-related vehicle cooperation message via a physical channel of a communication unit of a vehicle; determining at least one indicator that the vehicle has a reduced risk of conflict with at least one other road user in a first time period; and if at least one indicator has been determined, receiving and/or transmitting at least one non-safety-related vehicle cooperation message via the physical channel of the communication unit of the vehicle during the first time period.

Assignees

• Bayerische Motoren Werke Ag
• Denso Corp

Inventors

• Strassberger Markus
• Leinmueller Tim

Classifications

• G08G1/22

  Platooning, i.e. convoy of communicating vehicles · CPC title

• B60W10/00

  Conjoint control of vehicle sub-units of different type or different function (for propulsion of purely electrically-propelled vehicles with power supplied within the vehicle B60L50/00 - B60L58/00) · CPC title

• G08G1/161 Primary

  Decentralised systems, e.g. inter-vehicle communication · CPC title