US RE40,767 E1Granted

Unmanned integrated optical remote emissions sensor (RES) for motor vehicles

AssigneeEnvironmental Systems Products Holdings Inc.

InventorsJay Peterson, David R Nelson, Troy P. Bahan, George C. Polchin, Michael D. Jack

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Abstract

An unmanned integrated RES 12 integrates all of its components except the reflector 22 into a single console 30 that is positioned at the side of a road and has a CPU 36 that controls calibration, verification and data gathering. The RES's source 32 and receiver 34 are preferably stacked one on top of the other such that the IR beam 24 traverses a low and high path as it crosses the road 14. This allows the RES to detect both low and high ground clearance vehicles. To maintain the vehicle processing and identification throughput, the speed sensor 54 and ALPR 48,50 detect the passing vehicles at steep angles, approximately 20 to 35 degrees. In a preferred system, a manned control center 16 communicates with a large number of the unmanned integrated RES to download emissions data, perform remote diagnostics, and, if necessary, dispatch a technician to perform maintenance on a particular RES.

Claims21

Dependent claims

An unmanned optical emissions sensor for sensing a gas mixture composition of an exhaust plume of a motor vehicle travelling along a road , comprising:

a source for radiating a beam of light radiation along a path across a road such that the beam passes through the exhaust plume of a passing vehicle and otherwise passes through ambient air;
a receiver for sampling radiation levels at a plurality of predetermined wavelengths from the beam;
a canister for emitting a puff of calibration gas in the path of the beam between the source and the receiver, said calibration gas having a known reference composition of gas which absorbs radiation at the predetermined wavelengths;
a data processing computer for computing a gas mixture composition from the sensed sampled radiation levels in accordance with stored calibration curves;
a trigger device that produces a trigger signal when a vehicle passes through the beam causing the data processing computer to record the gas mixture composition of the vehicle's exhaust plume for a period of time;
an automated control computer that
a) calibrates the data processing computer by directing the canister to emit a puff of calibration gas, whereby the data processing computer recomputes computes the calibration curves in accordance with the known reference composition;
b) verifies the calibration by directing the canister to emit a puff of calibration gas, whereby the data processing computer computes a test composition from the radiation levels and accepts the calibration when the test composition is close enough to the known reference composition and otherwise rejects the calibration and initiates recalibration a new calibration;
and
c) monitors the gas mixture composition of the ambient air to control recalibration calibration of the data processing computer;
and
a vehicle identification device that responds to the trigger signal by recording a vehicle identification for the passing vehicle.

9 more elements

An integrated optical emissions sensor for sensing a gas mixture composition of an exhaust plume of a motor vehicle travelling along a road , comprising:

a single console that is positioned at one side of the road a detection space;
a vehicle detector in said console for sensing an oncoming a vehicle and computing its acceleration;
a source in said console for radiating a beam of light along a path across the road such that the beam passes through the exhaust plume of a passing the vehicle and otherwise passes through ambient air;
a reflector that is positioned on the other side of the road detection space such that the beam reflects off of the reflector and back to the console;
a receiver in said console sampling radiation levels at a plurality of predetermined wavelengths from the beam;
a data processing computer in said console for computing a gas mixture composition from the sensed sampled radiation levels in accordance with stored calibration curves;
a canister in said console for emitting a puff of calibration gas in the path of the beam between the source and the receiver to recompute compute the calibration curves;
a trigger device in said console that produces a trigger signal when a the vehicle passes through the beam causing the data processing computer to record the gas mixture composition of the vehicle's exhaust plume for a period of time, said data processing computer disabling the recordation of the composition of the vehicle's exhaust plume when the acceleration exceeds a threshold ;
and
a vehicle identification device in said console that responds to the trigger signal by recording a vehicle identification for the passing vehicle.

7 more elements

A remote emissions sensing system sensing gas mixture compositions of exhaust plumes for motor vehicles traveling along a network of roads, comprising:

a plurality of unmanned integrated optical emissions sensors positioned at different places in the network on a side of the road, each emissions sensor comprising:
a console;
a vehicle detector in said console for sensing an oncoming a vehicle and computing its acceleration;
a source in said console for radiating a beam of light along a path across the road such that the beam passes through the exhaust plume of a passing the vehicle and otherwise passes through ambient air;
a reflector that is positioned on the other side of the road such that the beam reflects off of the reflector and back to the console;
a receiver in said console that samples radiation levels at a plurality of predetermined wavelengths from the beam;
a data processing computer in said console for computing a gas mixture composition from the sensed sampled radiation levels in accordance with stored calibration curves;
a canister in said console for emitting a puff of calibration gas in the path of the beam between the source and the receiver, said calibration gas having a known reference composition of gas which absorbs radiation at the predetermined wavelengths;
a trigger device in said console that produces a trigger signal when a the vehicle passes through the beam causing the data processing computer to record the gas mixture composition of the vehicle's exhaust plume for a period of time, said data processing computer invalidating the recordation of the composition of the vehicle's exhaust plume when the acceleration exceeds a threshold ;
an automated control computer that
a) calibrates the data processing computer by directing the canister to emit a puff of calibration gas, whereby the data processing computer recomputes computes the calibration curves in accordance with the known reference composition;
b) verifies the calibration by directing the canister to emit a puff of calibration gas, whereby the data processing computer computes a test composition from the radiation levels and accepts the calibration when the test composition is close enough to the known reference composition and otherwise rejects the calibration and initiates recalibration a new calibration;
and
c) monitors the gas mixture composition of the ambient air to control recalibration calibration of the data processing computer;
and
a vehicle identification device in said console that responds to the trigger signal by recording a vehicle identification for the passing vehicle;
a manned control center;
and
a communications channel for communication between the emissions sensors and the manned control center, said emissions sensors responding to repeated calibration rejections by transmitting a help message to the manned control center, which in turn responds by performing diagnostics to determine a cause for the calibration rejection and then either remedy remedies the cause remotely or dispatch dispatches a technician to remedy the cause on site.

16 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.