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US 9,002,546 B2Granted
Control of automatic guided vehicles without wayside interlocking
AssigneeThales Canada Inc.
InventorsFirth Whitwam, Abe Kanner
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A vehicle management system for automatic vehicles running on a guideway independent of wayside signals or interlocking devices includes intelligent on-board controllers on each vehicle for controlling operation of the vehicle. The on-board controllers communicate with each other as well as individual wayside devices and a data storage system to identify available assets needed to move along the guideway and to reserve these assets for their associated vehicle.
Claims38
A vehicle management system for guided vehicles running on a guideway, comprising:
- a) intelligent on-board controllers associated with each vehicle for controlling operation of the vehicle and negotiating movement needs of the vehicle with other vehicles in potential conflict;
- b) stationary wayside devices located beside the guideway directly responsive to commands from the intelligent on-board controllers to control guideway assets facilitating safe movement of the vehicle along the guideway along a desired route and associated with the wayside devices and required for the vehicles to move along the guideway, said wayside devices having a reserved and unreserved state, wherein in the reserved state the wayside devices and guideway assets associated therewith are reserved exclusively for use by a particular vehicle and respond only to commands from the particular vehicle, and wherein in the unreserved state said wayside devices are available for reservation by other vehicles running on the guideway;
- c) a data storage system for storing system data including the reserved and unreserved state of said wayside devices;
- wherein the intelligent on-board controllers are configured to:
- i) continually communicate with on-board controllers on other vehicles in their vicinity to determine the availability of guideway assets needed for their associated vehicle to move along a section of the guideway,
- ii) to reserve the wayside devices associated with the needed assets for the exclusive use of their associated vehicle by communicating with the on-board controllers on other vehicles, the wayside devices and the data storage system, and
- iii) to release the reserved wayside devices into the unreserved state for use by other vehicles when no longer required by their associated vehicle.
4 more elements
A method of managing guided vehicles running on a guideway, comprising:
- operating intelligent on-board controllers on each vehicle to control operation of the vehicle and negotiate movement needs of the vehicle with other vehicles in potential conflict;
- stationary wayside devices located beside the guideway directly responding to commands from the intelligent on-board controllers to control guideway assets facilitating safe movement of the vehicle along the guideway along a desired route and associated with the wayside devices and required for the vehicles to move along the guideway, said wayside devices having a reserved and unreserved state, wherein in the reserved state the wayside devices and guideway assets associated therewith are reserved exclusively for use by a particular vehicle and respond only to commands from the particular vehicle, and wherein in the unreserved state said wayside devices are available for reservation by other vehicles running on the guideway
- operating a data storage system to store system data including the reserved and unreserved state of said wayside devices;
- and
- the intelligent on-board controllers:
- a) continually communicating with on-board controllers on other vehicles in their vicinity to determine the availability of guideway assets needed for their associated vehicle to move along a section of the guideway,
- b) communicating with the on-board controllers on other vehicles, the wayside devices and the data storage system to reserve the wayside devices associated with the needed assets for the exclusive use of their associated vehicle, and
- c) releasing the reserved wayside devices into the unreserved state for use by other vehicles when no longer required by their associated vehicle.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.