EP1048789B1 - Method of securing, monitoring and management of the ski area of wintersportplaces - Google Patents

Abstract

Ski resort is divided in homogeneous zones memorized in data processing system situated in central terminal and linked throu remote data transmission means to mobile means, such as vehicles, and to emergency services. When vehicle is placed in one homogeneous zone, data processing system provides immediate information to that zone so as to know actions needed to be taken.

Description

The invention relates to a method for securing, monitoring maintenance and management of the resorts ski area winter sports.

Winter sports resorts are confronted with problems of securing and managing their domain skiable due to increasing attendance and of an increasingly demanding clientele as well from the point in terms of safety and value for money. The winter sports resorts have mobile means, security, control and maintenance, which must be ensured security and manage the conditions of employment and means fixed which must be maintained and checked operating state. For example, a mobile medium concerns ski-grooming machines; the grooming is done there night so that the tracks can be used by skiers the next morning; the present grooming of numerous risks due to the relative isolation of groomer operators, conditions weather and the nature of the terrain; he is difficult whether the work was done properly and in satisfactory economic conditions. Maintenance of security installations, which constitute the fixed means, such as the state of the barriers delimiting the zones safety nets or protective nets, request means of precise diagnosis and localization. We need know the operating condition of the snow cannons or avalanche triggers, which are fixed means remotely. Likewise, relief interventions to accident skiers must be carried out quickly and precision.

We know the means of computer access to mapping from the scanning of geographic sites, such that they are described in documents WO 9516228À and US 5761095À.

We know the means of locating the position and vehicle guidance from satellite networks using digital mapping as described in the WO 9528524A: the driver of a vehicle has a computer screen displaying the map of the region where it is located and on which the vehicle position is represented, in real time, as well as the indication of best way to get to a destination he has previously registered; the control center of a transport company can know at all times, through a video screen, the position of its fleet of vehicles and for a given vehicle, the situation of its loading so that it can be rerouted if it is empty to go and load a new freight.

Aircraft navigation can be done automatically at from the direction from which received signals originate at least three tags located on the ground and which we know precisely the geographic position.

We know the radio or cable means of remote transmission for transmitting digital data between multiple computers and computer terminals such as described in document US 528518A.

The object of the invention is to provide stations for winter sports a treatment collection method and re-broadcasting of information, allowing a reaction in time real in order to secure and better manage their domain ski.

The method of securing, monitoring maintenance and management of the ski area of a winter sports resort. according to the invention, consists in dividing the site of a station winter sports in homogeneous zones compared to at least one criterion from a series of coherent criteria; these areas homogeneous are stored in a computer system located in a central station connected, by means of remote transmission, to mobile means equipped with means of tracking and intervention services; when a way mobile, equipped with locating means, is positioned in a homogeneous area of the domain, the IT resources of the central station allow to know immediately the criteria applied to this homogeneous area and to deduce mission orders, observations or actions to be taken at the central station and / or at the mobile means and / or at the level of maintenance or intervention services.

Several independent sets of criteria are defined consistent on the one hand, security and / or guidance and / or control, movement and / or execution conditions of a mission, in the field of intervention of mobile means equipped means of marking, such as tamping machines or such as people traveling in the ski area, by their own means or with motorized vehicles and, on the other hand, the control of the good functioning and / or the state of means fixed like, for example, trip devices avalanches, snow cannons, ski lifts, or the checking the good condition of safety nets or the presence effective information signs or barriers to security. Each set of consistent criteria defines a virtual division of the site of the winter sports resort and in particular of the ski area in homogeneous zones whose contours generally do not overlap with clipping winter sports resort site generated by each of the other sets of criteria used; each set of criteria is intended to generate, automatically or by voluntary act of one or more persons, orders intervention or alarms concerning all or part of the personnel moving or likely to intervene on the winter sports resort site.

The whole site of the winter sports resort is, initially, mapped by digitization under form of points whose coordinates are defined with respect to a coordinate system which can be longitude, latitude and altitude above sea level but which can be a landmark in three specific axes of the station winter sports ; the digital cartography is stored in memory in a central station computer so that carry out, from the mapping of the terrain, a mesh virtual in the form of plane polygons, for example in the form small squares a few meters long; each planar polygon is small enough to be considered as if it were plan and according to the desired precision considered as a horizontal plane spotted by coordinates, for example, of its central point taken vertical projection or as a following inclined plane the average slope of the land identified, for example, by three points or by two points and the angle of greater slope. Each homogeneous zone consists of the assembly of these polygons having at least one side in common. In what follows and to facilitate understanding, we uses terminology based on a mesh in the form of squares, but all explanations can apply to a mesh. for example, in the form of triangles and / or hexagons and / or rectangles.

Each square is assigned corresponding criteria each with a series of criteria characterizing one of the zones homogeneous which includes the square considered. For example, for mobile means such as tamping machines, defines three homogeneous zones which are the "zones of authorized traffic "," dangerous traffic areas " and "prohibited traffic areas": each square of the winter sports resort site is affected by a criterion of this series of three criteria which is set memory in the central station; we can split the site of the winter sports resort in two homogeneous zones made up of "ski areas" and "non-ski areas" and the ski area can be affected by a series of sub criteria such as "currently ski area", "no area currently skiable due to lack of snow "," non skiable zone currently because it is not groomed "," area to be groomed ", with sub-criteria to distinguish on a "zone to be groomed" during grooming the "groomed squares" of the "squares remaining at tamp. " Similarly, we can assign a homogeneous area that will call "critical area" to fixed means allowing to identify them; this "critical area" is assigned specific criteria characterizing the nature and condition of operation of the fixed means; for example in the case of a snow cannon, criteria may be "tall snow cannon pressure in normal operation "," high snow cannon stationary pressure "," high pressure snow cannon with a dysfunction ": the assignment of a criterion to a square of this critical area leads to the assignment of the criterion to the whole critical area.

We associate this division of the station site with means for locating the position of the moving means or fixed. These locating means equipping the mobile means can be implemented, on the one hand. from tags fixtures positioned at various points in the resort area whereby. from all parts of the domain, we can find their bearings in relation to at least three fixed beacons and, on the other hand, by using the means of remote transmission with IT resources located in the central station. The network of fixed beacons can advantageously be replaced through the use of an existing satellite network, preferably associated with a fixed tag placed at a point geodetic including geographic coordinates and altitude are known with precision allowing to locally limit the margin of error systematically introduced for military security reasons.

The means of remote transmission make it possible to route to the central station the information concerning the position of each mobile means, equipped with tracking means, at the same time as coded information on the situation of means that it implements to execute its mission; these information, such as the number of operating hours of the motor of the movable means, are introduced automatically either using a keyboard or simple push buttons allowing the driver to signal manually, by example, the state of a fixed means when the mobile means enters a critical area: the IT resources of the central station to analyze the information received in relation to the criteria and possibly to the sub-criteria which are assigned to the square in which the means is located mobile, which will be called hereinafter "position square" to deduce and distribute alarms and / or orders and / or economic data which are accumulated and stored.

As an example, we will describe some typical series criteria allowing different operations others.

A first standard series of criteria concerns security mobile means such as tamping machines and includes a first criterion characterizing a "circulation zone authorized ”, a second criterion characterizing an“ area of dangerous traffic ", a third criterion characterizing a "prohibited traffic area", for example but not exclusively. Knowledge of the point where the object is located grooming, equipped with tracking means, allows thanks to IT means of transferring the position measured on the digital mapping, to locate the tamping machine by relation to the mesh so as to define the square of position in which the tamping machine is located, which allows know the criterion of the first standard series which is assigned to the square corresponding to the square of position and whether it is in an "authorized traffic zone", a "Dangerous traffic area" or "traffic area traffic prohibited ”: according to the criterion found, for the position square, an alarm can be triggered automatically at the central station to alert the supervisory staff assigned to the central station and / or the driver at the level of the tamping machine concerned if the machine grooming entered a dangerous or prohibited area; for example, a simple alarm at the level of the tamping machine, if it is a danger zone and the alerting of emergency means if the tamping machine enters a prohibited area. We can have for the same set of criteria defining traffic zones authorized, dangerous traffic or traffic prohibited, cutouts of the site of the sports station winter in homogeneous zones different by nature of means mobile and by the nature of the missions assigned to them for identical mobile means; for example, gear individual motorized vehicles, hereinafter called “snowmobiles”. reserved for rescuers may not have the same areas evolution as snowmobiles reserved for the visit of protective nets, pylons, ski lifts and / or snow cannons.

A second standard set of criteria consists of "Under criteria" allowing to create one or more under homogeneous zones located within a homogeneous zone at as tasks are performed there in order to be able to monitor its progress; each square in this area includes in addition to the homogeneous area criterion, sub assignable criteria if certain conditions are met; this concerns, for example, a grooming area located usually inside a traffic area authorized tamping machines, possibly in an area dangerous traffic for the most difficult ski slopes difficult; each tamping machine is equipped with a device capable of grooming snow across a width constant taken perpendicular to the direction of movement of the tamping machine: the same tamping machine can set up works a different grooming width according to the power absorbed by grooming depending on the nature of the terrain to groom; for example, we determine the position of the tamping machine, equipped with tracking means, close intervals, which sets with respect to the previous measure a certain number of crossed squares; we agree, for example, that the squares crossed by the craft of grooming and the position square where it is, are groomed taking into account the direction of movement of the machine and the distance traveled between two position measurements: count given the width of the tamping used, a certain number of adjacent squares are also damned, neglecting, by example, squares that are only partially groomed near the edges of the tamping device, the squares of the grooming area initially has the sub-criterion "square to grooming "which has been placed over the entire grooming area by the central station when the order to tamper with this area of grooming has been given: when the squares are groomed after the passage of the tamping machine within the meaning of the rules previously described, they are assigned the sub criterion "Groomed square" and constitute a homogeneous sub-area; they don't change more sub-criteria if the machine passes a second times in the same place; if the craft passes an area which is not not a grooming area, the squares not including the sub grooming area criteria are not counted; knowing the total distance traveled by the machine for groom the grooming area and the width of the damage, we can know the surface swept by the machine; we can also count the area groomed in relation to the surface to be groomed and deduce production and production indices productivity ; we can visualize on a screen the part of the area that is actually groomed and possibly detect the parts of the area to be groomed that would have been forgotten so to be able to finish the grooming work. The driver of the tamping machine can, for example, have in its cabin a control screen which allows him to control his work and to move even in full fog.

The determination of the zones can be done once for all, but in general it is scalable depending on the season and especially, for example, summer when the use of ski area is made in a completely different way compared to winter.

One way to draw an area can be to do travel by mobile means, equipped with locating means, the perimeter of the area to be identified in order to register it computerized so as to assign it a series of criteria and possibly squares included in this area; zoning work can also be done directly on the screen at the central station from from a plotter or using a mouse with a suitable software: it can be initiated in the field and finalized on screen.

Winter sports resorts include means fixed which should be checked regularly; he is relatively simple to automatically control from a distance a big installation because the means to put in artwork can constitute a small part of initial investment: but number of fixed installations or semi-fixed cannot be controlled that way because that this constitutes an excessive cost; for example it is impossible at minimum cost to automatically detect the disappearance of a protective mattress for skiers initially attached to the base of a pylon. A way of solving this type of problem consists in associating an area critical to each fixed means to be checked; inside of the latter any mobile operator, equipped with a locating device comprising manual coding means information, as previously described, can choose and code a criterion among a series of criteria concerning the state of the fixed medium and transmit the information by associated remote transmission means.

For example, when placing a net in a danger zone, it must be regularly checked that this net is still in place and able to fulfill its function; for this it suffices, once the net laid, to determine a critical zone preferably located on a natural passageway of a mobile means equipped with a tracking device and coding means and to associate with this critical zone the following sub-criteria : "net in condition", "net to be repaired", "net to be changed", "missing net". When a mobile means enters the critical zone associated with the net, it suffices to press a suitable button on a preprogrammed keyboard associated with the on-board computer means itself coupled with the remote transmission means, constituting the coding means, so that the central station immediately knows what state the net is in and where it is located and can decide what action to take; when a repair has been carried out, at a fixed means and in particular a net, by a maintenance team equipped with a mobile means equipped with locating means and with coding means, it suffices to 'save in place of the previous sub-criterion, which was for example "net to be repaired", the sub-criterion "net in condition". The critical zones are not materialized on the ground. a signal may indicate to the driver of the mobile means that he is in the critical zone of a fixed means; he can also have a screen allowing him to display all the critical zones of the place where he is in order to get there methodically, not to forget them and even to find critical zones which would no longer be identifiable on the ground because the fixed means characterizing them would have disappeared.

In practical terms, the implementation of the means that just described, is to install in a computer located in a central station, the digital cartography with its mesh, to develop the series of criteria and under criteria, which may be associated with each element of the mesh, as a function of the homogeneous zones, homogeneous sub-zones and critical zones considered; this work is done with the managers of each station winter sports according to its specificities, then we install basic homogeneous zones and critical zones which are considered permanent; then we can add as the season progresses other homogeneous zones and other critical zones temporary which are created, for example, based on climatic hazards. We equip mobile means with means of identification associated with on-board IT resources and means for coding information. We can use the means existing teletransmission with mobile means for communicate their position to the central station and information concerning in particular the conditions operating the mobile medium, the observations made in critical areas; the central computer can then work out information received to generate orders or store economic management data or to visualize them, by example, on one or more screens.

Claims (9)

1. Method for protecting, following up maintenance and managing the field intended for skiing in a Winter sports resort using mobile protection, control and maintenance means equipped with means for marking the position and guiding vehicles from a satellite network or from fixed markers, using fixed devices which need to be controlled and maintained, using a digitized cartography, as well as radio or remote transmission cables for transmitting digital data between at least one computer situated in a central station and computer terminals situated in intervention services or on mobile means fully or partially associated with automatic or manual coding means, characterised in that the computer system situated in the central station is able to divide the site of the winter sports resort into homogenous zones with respect to at least one criterion from a series of coherent criteria zones stored in said computer system connected by remote transmission means to the mobile means and the intervention services so that when a mobile element is positioned in an homogenous zone of the skiing field, the computer system of the central station is able to immediately be aware of the criteria applied to this homogenous zone so as to deduce from this task orders, observations or action to be taken by the central unit and/or by the mobile element and/or by the intervention or maintenance services.
2. Method according to claim 1, characterised in that several independent series of coherent criteria are defined, each defining a virtual subdividing of the site of the winter sports resort and in particular of the skiing field into homogenous zones whose contours are not superimposed with the virtual subdividing generated by each of the other zones of the series of coherent criteria used.
3. Method according to claim 1 or 2, characterised in that the entire site of the winter sports station made into a map by digitization in the form of points is meshed in the shape of a polygon, each homogenous zone being formed from the assembling of said polygons having at least one common side.
4. Method according to claim 3, characterised in that the meshing is constituted by polygons having the shape of triangles and/or squares and/or rectangles and/or hexagons.
5. Method according to one of claims 1, 2, 3 and 4, characterised in that each polygon is allocated from criteria, each element of said criteria corresponding to a set of criteria characterising one of the homogenous zones formed in part by the polygon in question.
6. Method according to claim 5, characterised in that the fixed means are identified from homogenous zones known as critical zones inside which the presence of any mobile element equipped with coding means makes it possible for them to be identified by the computer of the central station.
7. Method according claim 5 or 6, characterised in that the polygons constituting a homogenous zone defined by a criterion of a coherent series can be allocated from a series of sub-criteria able to be modified by the mobile means equipped with coding devices.
8. Method according to claim 5 or 6, characterised in that the remote transmission means route to the central station the information concerning the polygons characterising the position of each mobile element and at the same time the information originating from the coding means concerning the situation of the means it uses to carry out its task or concerning the state of a fixed element when the mobile element is situated inside a polygon of the corresponding critical zone so that the data processing means of the central station are able to analyse the information received with respect to the criteria and possibly sub-criteria allocated to the polygon in which the mobile element is located so as to deduce and transmit alarms and/or orders and/or obtain economic data which are cumulated and stored.
9. Claim according to at least one of the claims 1, 2, 3, and 5, characterised in that one way of plotting a homogenous or critical zone consists of making a mobile element equipped with a marking element pass through the periphery of the homogenous or critical zone to be identified so as to either directly plot on the screen of the central station on the basis of a plotting table or by using a mouse, or by combining the two methods so as to record it by computer means and then allocate a series of criteria and possibly sub-criteria to the polygons included in this zone.