Deconfliction operations as departure and arrival triggers

A method of operating a transportation system, comprising:

• at a control system configured to determine respective paths for respective vehicles and to provide the respective paths to the respective vehicles:
• detecting arrival of a vehicle at an input buffer position of a boarding zone, the input buffer position defining a predefined position in the boarding zone;
• causing the vehicle to pause at the input buffer position;
• determining a proposed trajectory segment from the input buffer position to a parking spot at the boarding zone;
• determining whether the proposed trajectory segment will cause the vehicle to contact other respective vehicles traversing other respective trajectory segments in the boarding zone;
• and
• in response to determining that the proposed trajectory segment will not cause the vehicle to contact the other respective vehicles traversing the other respective trajectory segments in the boarding zone, causing the vehicle to depart the input buffer position and travel to the parking spot.

A method of operating a transportation system, comprising:

• at a control system configured to determine respective paths for respective vehicles and to provide the respective paths to the respective vehicles:
• detecting arrival of a vehicle at a buffer position proximate an intersection of a first trunk lane and a second trunk lane, the buffer position defining a predefined position in a first segment of the first trunk lane;
• causing the vehicle to pause at the buffer position;
• selecting a moving position-target from a set of candidate moving position-targets associated with a second segment of the first trunk lane;
• determining a proposed trajectory segment from the buffer position, through the intersection, and to the selected moving position-target;
• determining whether the proposed trajectory segment will cause the vehicle to contact other respective vehicles traversing other respective trajectory segments through the intersection;
• and
• in response to determining that the proposed trajectory segment will not cause the vehicle to contact the other respective vehicles traversing the other respective trajectory segments through the intersection, causing the vehicle to depart the buffer position and travel along the proposed trajectory segment to the moving position-target.