US-12620312-B2 - Management system

US12620312B2US 12620312 B2US12620312 B2US 12620312B2US-12620312-B2

Abstract

A management system includes a management server capable of wirelessly communicating with a vehicle in a parking lot, and an alarm provided on or near the vehicle and configured to emit sound or light or both in response to an instruction from the management server. The management server executes control for operating the alarm corresponding to the vehicle when detecting occurrence of an event requiring confirmation of a state of the vehicle via wireless communication with the vehicle.

Inventors

Tetsuro Sugiura
Nobutsugu MARUIWA
Tatsuya Sugano
Soichiro Oura
Hiroya Chiba
Ryuji Okamura

Assignees

TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA

Dates

Publication Date: 20260505
Application Date: 20240701
Priority Date: 20230801

Claims (4)

1 . A management system for managing a parking lot providing an automated parking service to a vehicle, the management system comprising: a management server that is separate from the vehicle and configured to wirelessly communicate with the vehicle in the parking lot, a first alarm that is provided on the vehicle and emits sound or light or both in response to an instruction from the management server, and a second alarm that is provided as infrastructure installed in the parking lot and that is configured to identify a parking frame in which the vehicle is parked in the parking lot by emitting sound or light or both in response to an instruction from the management server, wherein the management server is configured to: (i) wirelessly transmit a request to the vehicle to respond to the request; (ii) cause neither of the first and second alarms to activate when the vehicle wirelessly responds to the request by indicating that a state of the vehicle is normal; (iii) wirelessly transmit the instruction to one or both of the first and second alarms to cause one or both of the first and second alarms to activate to emit the sound or the light or both when the vehicle wirelessly responds to the request by indicating that the state of the vehicle is abnormal; and (iv) wirelessly transmit the instruction to only the second alarm to cause only the second alarm to activate to emit the sound or the light or both when no response is received from the vehicle in response to the request.
2 . The management system according to claim 1 , wherein the vehicle is configured to activate the first alarm when the vehicle has not received the request from the management server after a predetermined time period has elapsed and the state of the vehicle is abnormal.
3 . The management system according to claim 1 , wherein the management server is configured to change an operation mode of one or both of the first and second alarms in accordance with a degree of failure of the vehicle.
4 . The management system according to claim 1 , wherein the management server is configured to transmit information on a vehicle position of the vehicle to a portable terminal carried by a staff of the parking lot when one or both of the first and second alarms are instructed to activate.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION The present application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 to Japanese Patent Application No. 2023-125824, filed on Aug. 1, 2023, the contents of which application are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. BACKGROUND Technical Field The present disclosure relates to a technique for managing a parking lot in which an automated parking service is provided to a vehicle. Background Art JP 2018505488 A discloses a system for detecting a person in an automated valet parking (AVP) vehicle. In this prior art, vehicle sensors are used to determine whether a person is in the AVP vehicle. By ensuring that no persons remain in the AVP vehicle, automatic parking is prevented from being disturbed. SUMMARY In the AVP system, when a vehicle to be controlled needs to be moved by a person due to a failure or the like, a staff member in a parking lot needs to identify the failed vehicle. In this case, it may be difficult for the staff to identify the failed vehicle. In particular, in a parking lot where vehicles of the same vehicle type are parked side by side, it is difficult to make a determination based on the vehicle number or the parking frame. Therefore, it may take a long time to search for the failed vehicle. The above-mentioned JP 2018505488 A is a system that monitors an AVP vehicle by a system and detects a person inside the vehicle, and does not provide a solution to this problem. An object of the present disclosure is to provide a technique that can easily find a failed vehicle even when an AVP vehicle is failed and it is difficult to identify the location of the vehicle. A first aspect of the present disclosure relates to a management system that manages a parking lot in which an automated parking service to a vehicle. The management system includes a management server capable of wirelessly communicating with the vehicle in the parking lot, and an alarm provided on or near the vehicle and configured to emit sound or light or both in response to an instruction from the management server. The management server is configured to activate the alarm corresponding to the vehicle when detecting occurrence of an event requiring confirmation of a state of the vehicle via wireless communication with the vehicle. A second aspect of the present disclosure further has the following features in addition to the first aspect. The vehicle is configured to activate the alarm when the communication with the management server is in an unstable state. A third aspect of the present disclosure further has the following features in addition to the first aspect. The alarm is an infrastructure equipment installed in the parking lot. A fourth aspect of the present disclosure further has the following features in addition to the first aspect. The management server is configured to change an operation mode of the alarm in accordance with a content of the event. A fifth aspect of the present disclosure further has the following features in addition to the first aspect. The management server is configured to transmit information on a vehicle position where the event is detected to a portable terminal carried by a staff of the parking lot. According to the present disclosure, when an event that requires confirmation of the state of the vehicle occurs, control is performed to cause the alarm corresponding to the vehicle to operate so as to emit sound or light or both. This makes it possible to notify the surroundings of the presence of the vehicle in which the event has occurred. Therefore, the location of the vehicle in which the event has occurred can be quickly identified, and thus the time required to find the vehicle can be shortened. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining an outline of a management system according to an embodiment; FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining an outline of the management system according to the embodiment; FIG. 3A is a diagram for explaining a specific example of the management system according to the embodiment; FIG. 3B is a diagram for explaining a specific example of the management system according to the embodiment; FIG. 4A is a sequence diagram showing an example of processing of the management system according to the embodiment; FIG. 4B is a sequence diagram showing an example of processing of the management system according to the embodiment; FIG. 4C is a sequence diagram showing an example of processing of the management system according to the embodiment; FIG. 5A is a sequence diagram showing an example of processing of the management system according to the embodiment; FIG. 5B is a sequence diagram showing an example of processing of the management system according to the embodiment; FIG. 6A is a flowchart showing an example of processing of the management system according to the embodiment; and FIG. 6B is a flowchart showing an example of processing of the management system according to the embodiment. DESCRIPTION OF EMBODI