The implementation of a vehicle identification function for a longitudinal ranging system

This paper outlines a new method of implementing a vehicle identification function for a longitudinal ranging system. The longitudinal ranging system here is defined as a system which measures relative positions and directions of preceding vehicles using infrared beacons and image processing technology. To realize the vehicle identification function, the ranging system operation is synchronized with the communication system. The communication system operates synchronistically in a platoon and only one vehicle at a time has a right to transmit data during an allocated time slot. We introduced a "ranging time slot" notion into the ranging operation. A pair of infrared beacons from ranging markers are off when the ranging time slot number is the same as that for the communication time slot; as a result, each preceding vehicle blinks its beacons at different times. Therefore, the vehicle identification function is implemented by collating the ranging time slot information and the on/off status of the paired beacons.