EP3756972A1 - Vorläuferfahrzeug und verfahren zur fernsteuerung von zügen - Google Patents

Vorläuferfahrzeug und verfahren zur fernsteuerung von zügen Download PDF

Info

Publication number
EP3756972A1
EP3756972A1 EP20182081.8A EP20182081A EP3756972A1 EP 3756972 A1 EP3756972 A1 EP 3756972A1 EP 20182081 A EP20182081 A EP 20182081A EP 3756972 A1 EP3756972 A1 EP 3756972A1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
train
trolley
rail
sensor
rail trolley
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Pending
Application number
EP20182081.8A
Other languages
English (en)
French (fr)
Inventor
Christian CHAUMETTE
Jean-Paul ARCANJO
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Alstom Holdings SA
Original Assignee
Alstom Transport Technologies SAS
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Alstom Transport Technologies SAS filed Critical Alstom Transport Technologies SAS
Publication of EP3756972A1 publication Critical patent/EP3756972A1/de
Pending legal-status Critical Current

Links

Images

Classifications

    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B61—RAILWAYS
    • B61L—GUIDING RAILWAY TRAFFIC; ENSURING THE SAFETY OF RAILWAY TRAFFIC
    • B61L23/00—Control, warning or like safety means along the route or between vehicles or trains
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B61—RAILWAYS
    • B61L—GUIDING RAILWAY TRAFFIC; ENSURING THE SAFETY OF RAILWAY TRAFFIC
    • B61L23/00—Control, warning or like safety means along the route or between vehicles or trains
    • B61L23/04—Control, warning or like safety means along the route or between vehicles or trains for monitoring the mechanical state of the route
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B61—RAILWAYS
    • B61L—GUIDING RAILWAY TRAFFIC; ENSURING THE SAFETY OF RAILWAY TRAFFIC
    • B61L23/00—Control, warning or like safety means along the route or between vehicles or trains
    • B61L23/04—Control, warning or like safety means along the route or between vehicles or trains for monitoring the mechanical state of the route
    • B61L23/041—Obstacle detection

Definitions

  • the present invention generally refers to systems for driving trains on a railway network.
  • the present invention relates to a railway trolley and a method for the remote guidance of trains along a predefined route on a railway network.
  • ICT Information and Communication
  • driverless trains have been used for several years.
  • a main aim of the present invention is to provide a solution offering substantial improvements over the known state of the art, in particular having minimal impact on train control systems to be guided autonomously and allowing, at the same time, to meet the highest possible safety standards.
  • an object of the present invention is to provide a solution which can be used easily, with new trains and also with trains already in service.
  • Another object of the present invention is to provide a solution for putting into service guided trains in an autonomous manner, highly reliable, relatively easy to produce and at competitive costs.
  • suitable or “arranged” or “configured” is used herein to refer to any component as a whole, or any part of a component, or a combination of components, it is to be understood that it means and includes either the structure and / or the configuration and / or the shape and / or the positioning of the component or of the part that this term designates, including for electronic means, electronic circuits as well as software codes and / or algorithms or complete programs stored or running.
  • the figure 1 schematically illustrates an example of a railway trolley according to the present invention, designated by the reference number 100.
  • the rail trolley 100 is designed to guide trains 150 having one or more freight cars or passenger cars, on a rail network 200.
  • train 150 is a freight train having one locomotive 151 and four cars 152.
  • the train 150 to be guided by the rail trolley 100 can be of any type, for example a passenger train, and can include any number of wagons or cars; it can even consist of a single railcar.
  • control-command device 30 is configured to emit, on the basis of at least one signal received from one or more first sensor (s) 10, control signals capable of remote control. walking the train 150 identified by the identification device 1, along the predefined route.
  • the rail trolley 100 also comprises one or more second (s) sensor (s) 20 for monitoring, during travel, an area located behind (B) the rail trolley 100 with respect to the direction of travel.
  • the control device 30 is operatively connected to the second sensor (s) 20 and is configured to send the control signals capable of remotely controlling the running of the train 150 identified by the identification device 1, along the predefined route, further on the basis of at least one signal received from one or more second sensor (s) 20.
  • At least one communication device 40 is provided on board the rail trolley 100, which communication device 40 is operatively connected to the I&C device 30 and is configured to wirelessly send the control signals. command sent to the control system 153 of the train 150 guided along the predefined route, via a mobile communication network 202.
  • the communication between the trolley 100 and the control system on board a train 150 is carried out in unicast manner, that is to say by point to point, and provided by the network 202.
  • the identification device 1 can consist of any system capable of detecting an element representative of a train and of sending it to the control-command device 30 to be analyzed and to make it possible to verify whether the detected train is indeed the one to be detected. guide.
  • the identification device 1 may include a video camera capable of capturing an image of the train 150, a reader for bar codes attached to the train or a radio transceiver associated with radio tags (RFID) placed. on train 150.
  • RFID radio tags
  • control-command device 30 validates the train 150 to be guided along the predefined route on the rail network 200, for example by combining the element representative of a train received by the identification device 1 , with mission profiles prerecorded in a memory specific to the control system.
  • the control device 30 used in the rail trolley 100 comprises a processor-based system, of a commercially available type, suitably provided with electronic circuits and programmed with software code to perform the control-command functionalities of the associated train. 150, these functionalities being designed for the rail trolley 100 according to the present invention.
  • control device 30 is configured to hold the train 150 at a dynamically adjustable distance (D) while running.
  • control device 30 is configured to dynamically adjust the distance (D) between the trolley 100 and the guided train 150, as a function of one or more parameter (s) relating to at least one of the trains to be guided to the predefined route, and / or rail trolley 100 itself.
  • control device 30 is configured to dynamically adjust the distance (D) by considering the actual speed, the weight, the braking capacity of the trolley 100, the worst possible slope profile between the trolley 100 and the train associated 150, the characteristics of the track of the railway network which will be traversed, for example the slope, as well as the presence and the characteristics of the curves.
  • the first sensor (s) 10 used on board the rail trolley 100 include (s) at least one infrared sensor 11.
  • the first sensors 10 comprise a plurality of different sensors and, in particular, in addition to the infrared sensor 11, at least one additional sensor selected from the group including a sonar, a radar and a lidar.
  • the first sensors include an infrared sensor 11, a sonar 12, a radar 13 and a lidar 14.
  • the second sensor (s) 20 used on board the rail trolley 100 also include at least one infrared sensor 21.
  • the second sensors 20 comprise a plurality of different sensors and, in particular, in addition to the infrared sensor 21, at least one additional sensor selected from the group including a sonar, a radar and a lidar.
  • the second sensors 20 comprise an infrared sensor 21, a sonar 22, a radar 23 and a lidar 24.
  • the set of first (s) and / or second (s) sensors installed on board the trolley 100, in combination with software stored in the control-command device 30, constitutes a system for detecting and recognizing the environment and, in particular of the front zone (A) and of the rear zone (B) of the trolley 100, around and along the rails, based on multi-physical detection, that is to say based on several phenomena physical.
  • This multi-physical detection uses the signals from the diversified sensors which are sent to the control-command device 30 which processes them in real time for the detection of obstacles or of any dangerous situation for the safety of the guided train 150.
  • the command and control device 30 considers the extended visible infrared channel as a priority and supplemented by radar vision and detection by sonar and / or lidar for the respective detection at long and short distance.
  • the combination of channels is carried out to build, for example, a global obstacle detection based on the merger and the vote according to a formula defined by the designer.
  • the rail trolley 100 comprises an autonomous power unit 5 for powering the trolley 100 autonomously while walking along said predefined route.
  • this autonomous power supply unit 5 comprises one or more rechargeable batteries.
  • the batteries can be charged when the trolley 100 is parked in a charging station or during the service journey by transmitting energy from the guided train 150 to the trolley 100, for example with wireless remote charging systems.
  • the trolley is advantageously equipped on each of its ends with a secure connection device to a recharging socket located on dedicated fixed power supply terminals themselves judiciously located on the rail network.
  • the power supply terminals are communicating in order to establish, under safety conditions, the connection of the trolley to the terminal socket.
  • the bollard has an absorption capacity to cushion any excessively rapid contact of the trolley.
  • the process of recharging the trolley on the motor power supply terminals is completely autonomous.
  • the trolley assesses whether its level of autonomy is sufficient to carry out its next mission. If this is not the case, the trolley proceeds freely, that is to say without driving any train, in a service maneuver having as its object the recharging of motricity energy.
  • the choice of the charging station is made by the trolley itself based on criteria of proximity and operational status of the stations in the vicinity of the trolley. As the stations are connected objects, their availability is checked remotely before initiating the charging service maneuver.
  • the rail trolley 100 comprises a first manual driving system 45, that is to say with a driver who guides the trolley 100, and a second autonomous driving system 50, c ' that is, driverless.
  • the second autonomous driving system 50 can be controlled remotely, for example by an operator located in a control room of the network 200.
  • the manual driving system 45 and that of autonomous driving are operatively connected to said command and control device 30, so that said second autonomous driving system 50 is inhibited at least until the train 150 at guide along said predefined route is uniquely identified.
  • a method 300 for driving trains 150 having one or more wagons 152 on a railway network 200 according to the present invention will be described below with reference to figure 3 .
  • said step 305 or the trolley 100 is univocally associated with the train 150 to be guided, is carried out under the direct control of an operator who for example uses the manual driving system 45 and drives the trolley 100 at most. possible close to train 150 so that there are no ambiguities about which train to take charge of.
  • said step 310 of remotely guiding the associated train 150 with the trolley 100 comprises dynamically adjusting the distance (D) between the rail trolley 100 supplied and the guided train 150 as a function of one or more parameters (s) relating to at least one of said guided train 150, and / or to a predefined route, and / or to the rail trolley 100 provided.
  • the trolley and in particular the command and control device 30 is configured so that the maximum distance between the trolley and the train controlled by the trolley is less than a maximum threshold.
  • the train control system 153 150 is suitable for determining the position of the train and for defining, advantageously by interacting with the signaling infrastructure at the edge of the track, a safety envelope around the train, said envelope including at least the train, the trolley and the distance between the train and the associated trolley.
  • the signaling infrastructure comprises several zone controllers, or ZC, for “Zone Controller” in English.
  • the rail network is subdivided into a plurality of zones, a ZC is associated with each of these zones.
  • a ZC is notably in charge, on the one hand, of monitoring the presence of trains in the associated zone and, on the other hand, of providing movement authorizations to trains, which are likely to guarantee their movement safety, c 'that is to say for example not to provide a train with an authorization movement that would lead him to go beyond the train in front of him.
  • Each zone is subdivided into a plurality of townships.
  • the ZC places the “occupied” value in a first state, the blocks having an intersection with the security envelope.
  • the first state of the blocks in which no train is found at the current time that is to say of the blocks which do not have an intersection with a safety envelope, takes the value "free".
  • occupancy information for each block of a zone is determined by the ZC and movement authorizations can be issued to the train while ensuring the safe movement of trains.
  • the train 150 control system 153 is thus able to extend the safety envelope at least to the trolley.
  • the trolley is coupled / connected to the train with which it is associated via a magnetic coupling system.
  • the train and the trolley are therefore coupled to each other and represent a single vehicle for the signaling infrastructure.
  • the autonomous and remote guidance is performed outside the control-command system installed on board the train 150, which limits intrusion into the architecture of the trains to be guided, which must simply provide a capacity of remote control.
  • the rail trolley 100 and the method 300 according to the present invention can achieve very high level performance and can be reused from one train to another since each trolley 100 can be used for an entire fleet of trains. , simply by means of adequate computer programming of its own software with a huge advantage on management costs.
  • the method 300 and the rail trolley 100 are subject to modifications and variations.
  • communication with the various trains at guide can be carried out with any secure communications system, for example encrypted
  • the data integrity check can be carried out by conventional redundancy techniques and according to any applicable protocol.

Landscapes

  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
  • Train Traffic Observation, Control, And Security (AREA)
  • Electric Propulsion And Braking For Vehicles (AREA)
EP20182081.8A 2019-06-24 2020-06-24 Vorläuferfahrzeug und verfahren zur fernsteuerung von zügen Pending EP3756972A1 (de)

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
FR1906775A FR3097516B1 (fr) 2019-06-24 2019-06-24 Trolley ferroviaire et procede pour le guidage a distance de trains

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP3756972A1 true EP3756972A1 (de) 2020-12-30

Family

ID=68581898

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP20182081.8A Pending EP3756972A1 (de) 2019-06-24 2020-06-24 Vorläuferfahrzeug und verfahren zur fernsteuerung von zügen

Country Status (2)

Country Link
EP (1) EP3756972A1 (de)
FR (1) FR3097516B1 (de)

Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO2022232433A1 (en) * 2021-04-28 2022-11-03 Parallel Systems, Inc. System and/or method for platooning

Citations (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP0117763A2 (de) * 1983-03-01 1984-09-05 Tai-Her Yang Zug mit Vorläufer
US5786750A (en) * 1996-05-10 1998-07-28 The United States Of America As Represented By The Secretary Of The Navy Pilot vehicle which is useful for monitoring hazardous conditions on railroad tracks
WO2008017821A2 (en) * 2006-08-07 2008-02-14 Powell, Stephen, David Mobile threat detection
WO2020030510A1 (en) * 2018-08-07 2020-02-13 Bombardier Transportation Gmbh Railway drone vehicle and railway vehicle system

Patent Citations (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP0117763A2 (de) * 1983-03-01 1984-09-05 Tai-Her Yang Zug mit Vorläufer
US5786750A (en) * 1996-05-10 1998-07-28 The United States Of America As Represented By The Secretary Of The Navy Pilot vehicle which is useful for monitoring hazardous conditions on railroad tracks
WO2008017821A2 (en) * 2006-08-07 2008-02-14 Powell, Stephen, David Mobile threat detection
WO2020030510A1 (en) * 2018-08-07 2020-02-13 Bombardier Transportation Gmbh Railway drone vehicle and railway vehicle system

Cited By (6)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO2022232433A1 (en) * 2021-04-28 2022-11-03 Parallel Systems, Inc. System and/or method for platooning
US11548542B2 (en) 2021-04-28 2023-01-10 Parallel Systems, Inc. System and/or method for platooning
US11708102B2 (en) 2021-04-28 2023-07-25 Parallel Systems, Inc. System and/or method for platooning
US11926355B2 (en) 2021-04-28 2024-03-12 Parallel Systems, Inc. System and/or method for platooning
US12091070B2 (en) 2021-04-28 2024-09-17 Parallel Systems, Inc. System and/or method for platooning
US12258056B2 (en) 2021-04-28 2025-03-25 Parallel Systems, Inc. System and/or method for platooning

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
FR3097516A1 (fr) 2020-12-25
FR3097516B1 (fr) 2023-01-06

Similar Documents

Publication Publication Date Title
US11062414B1 (en) System and method for autonomous vehicle ride sharing using facial recognition
US12050460B1 (en) Autonomous vehicle remote disablement
US10688991B2 (en) Systems and methods for unprotected maneuver mitigation in autonomous vehicles
US20220083060A1 (en) Autonomous driving vehicle
EP3395642B1 (de) Verbessertes system zur automatischen kontrolle von zügen, und entsprechendes verfahren
US20210200207A1 (en) Autonomous vehicle sensor security system
EP3408721B1 (de) Automatisches transportsystem
EP2310924B1 (de) Automatisiertes kollektives transportsystem
US20170300053A1 (en) Self-driving vehicle systems and methods
US11024162B2 (en) Traffic management system
US10487564B2 (en) Door actuator adjustment for autonomous vehicles
US12055936B2 (en) Autonomous rideshare rebalancing
US20180224860A1 (en) Autonomous vehicle movement around stationary vehicles
US20220050475A1 (en) Autonomous vehicle signaling system
FR2974936A1 (fr) Systeme de guidage automatique de vehicule electrique dans un espace dedie au stationnement, vehicule et procede associes
EP3756972A1 (de) Vorläuferfahrzeug und verfahren zur fernsteuerung von zügen
US20230234561A1 (en) Method and apparatus for providing route guidance
US12367492B2 (en) Proximity-based token issuance system
CA2962887A1 (fr) Procede de gestion de circulation d'un vehicule ferroviaire avec protection anticollision laterale
CN114435352A (zh) 用于野生动物园放养区的无人游览车的自动驾驶系统
JP7807535B2 (ja) デュアルモードの自動式公共／個人輸送システム
EP4453512A1 (de) Verfahren zur modellierung einer taktischen umgebung eines kraftfahrzeugs

Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
PUAI Public reference made under article 153(3) epc to a published international application that has entered the european phase

Free format text: ORIGINAL CODE: 0009012

STAA Information on the status of an ep patent application or granted ep patent

Free format text: STATUS: THE APPLICATION HAS BEEN PUBLISHED

AK Designated contracting states

Kind code of ref document: A1

Designated state(s): AL AT BE BG CH CY CZ DE DK EE ES FI FR GB GR HR HU IE IS IT LI LT LU LV MC MK MT NL NO PL PT RO RS SE SI SK SM TR

AX Request for extension of the european patent

Extension state: BA ME

STAA Information on the status of an ep patent application or granted ep patent

Free format text: STATUS: REQUEST FOR EXAMINATION WAS MADE

17P Request for examination filed

Effective date: 20210127

RBV Designated contracting states (corrected)

Designated state(s): AL AT BE BG CH CY CZ DE DK EE ES FI FR GB GR HR HU IE IS IT LI LT LU LV MC MK MT NL NO PL PT RO RS SE SI SK SM TR

STAA Information on the status of an ep patent application or granted ep patent

Free format text: STATUS: EXAMINATION IS IN PROGRESS

17Q First examination report despatched

Effective date: 20230406

P01 Opt-out of the competence of the unified patent court (upc) registered

Effective date: 20230823

RAP1 Party data changed (applicant data changed or rights of an application transferred)

Owner name: ALSTOM HOLDINGS

GRAP Despatch of communication of intention to grant a patent

Free format text: ORIGINAL CODE: EPIDOSNIGR1

STAA Information on the status of an ep patent application or granted ep patent

Free format text: STATUS: GRANT OF PATENT IS INTENDED

INTG Intention to grant announced

Effective date: 20251212

GRAS Grant fee paid

Free format text: ORIGINAL CODE: EPIDOSNIGR3

GRAA (expected) grant

Free format text: ORIGINAL CODE: 0009210

STAA Information on the status of an ep patent application or granted ep patent

Free format text: STATUS: THE PATENT HAS BEEN GRANTED