Cooperative guidance
A cooperative vehicle-highway communication system allows vehicles and pedestrians to determine their location by sensing selected coatings on roadways, sidewalks, and other paved surfaces in both indoor and outdoor environments. The systems recognize intelligent materials under sensors to determine geo-location. The intelligent materials are incorporated into paints on the roadway surface to mark key locations. Additionally, vehicles recognize highway paint/markings and signs with intelligent paint that provide specialized message content to support driver information and control applications. The intelligent paint materials include a coating that absorbs light while converting the absorbed light to electromagnetic energy. This electromagnetic energy is read by sensors to recognize the materials. The sensors transform the electromagnetic energy into processing signals to determine operating characteristics of the vehicle, including position and motion characteristics, and to provide operation actions of the vehicle. For mobility impaired pedestrians, the precisely defined geo-locations.
1. A surface-coating composition comprising:
a first crystalline rare earth phosphor;
a second crystalline rare earth phosphor; and
a polymeric material as a binder,
wherein the first and second crystalline rare earth phosphors are capable of absorbing infrared light, and
wherein the first and second crystalline rare earth phosphors have different decay times.
2. The surface-coating composition of claim 1 , wherein the polymeric material is a hydrocarbon or plant based resin.
3. The surface-coating composition of claim 1 , wherein the rare earth containing material is a type selected from the group consisting of an oxysulfide, an oxide, a halide, and a garnet, where the material has been modified with at least one rare earth material.
4. The surface-coating composition of claim 3 , wherein the rare earth containing material is a single pure crystalline phase.
5. The surface-coating composition of claim 1 , wherein the composition is capable of absorbing at least one first wavelength of light and emitting a second wavelength of light in at least one range selected from the group consisting of x-ray, UV, visible, infrared, microwave, and radio wave.
6. The surface-coating composition of claim 1 , wherein the composition is absorbing a first wavelength of light and emitting a second wavelength of light capable of being detected by a sensor on a ground, aerial, or water vehicle.
7. The surface-coating composition of claim 6 , wherein the first wavelength is a LIDAR wavelength.
8. A surface coated with a surface-coating composition according to claim 1 .
9. The surface of claim 8 , wherein the surface is at least one surface selected from the group consisting of a roadway, a sidewalk, a crosswalk, industrial flooring, a tarmac, a building, a sign, a vehicle, or clothing.
10. A cooperative guidance system comprising:
a sensor coupled to a vehicle configured to detect at least one of a rise time or power density from composition according to claim 1 applied to a surface and transforms the at least one of a rise time or power density into a processing signal, the composition having at least one rare earth containing material where the composition absorbs light and converts the absorbed light to electromagnetic energy having at least a measurable rise time and power density; and
a processor that identifies the processing signal and determines at least one of an operating characteristic of the vehicle or a characteristic of the surface based upon the identified processing signal.
11. The cooperative guidance system of claim 10 , wherein the surface is at least one surface selected from the group consisting of a roadway, a sidewalk, a crosswalk, industrial flooring, a tarmac, and a highway sign.
12. The cooperative guidance system of claim 10 , wherein the electromagnetic energy includes energy in at least one spectrum selected from the group consisting of the visible light spectrum, the infrared spectrum, and the radio frequency spectrum.
13. The cooperative guidance system of claim 10 , wherein the processor identifies the processing signal and determines a location of the vehicle or a pedestrian based upon the processing signal.
14. The cooperative guidance system of claim 10 , wherein the processor is further configured to provide at least one operational action to the vehicle based upon the identified processing signal, the at least one operational action selected from the group consisting of accelerating, decelerating, maintaining a constant speed, braking, stopping, turning, reversing, and providing a warning signal.
15. The cooperative guidance system of claim 10 , further comprising:
an image processing unit that converts spatial information received by the sensor into a plane image and calculates a spatial relationship between the vehicle and a travel path of the vehicle; and
a position unit that calculates the location of the vehicle in global coordinates.
16. A method of utilizing signals on surfaces to provide information to a vehicle, comprising the steps of:
detecting at least one of a rise time or power density from a composition of claim 1 , the composition being located on a surface;
transforming the at least one of a rise time or power density into a processing signal; and
identifying the processing signal and determining at least one of an operating characteristic of a vehicle or a characteristic of the surface based upon the identified processing signal.
17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising pulsing at least one wavelength of radiation onto the surface such that the rare earth containing material absorbs the at least one wavelength of radiation and emits at least one second wavelength of radiation.
18. The cooperative guidance system of claim 10 , wherein the operating characteristic of the vehicle or a characteristic of the surface is a position, speed, or direction.
19. The cooperative guidance system of claim 1 , wherein the first and second crystalline rare earth phosphors have different morphologies.