EP3868629A1

EP3868629A1 - Passenger information system and passenger information system control method

Info

Publication number: EP3868629A1
Application number: EP19882658.8A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Shimin Li; Ping'an CHEN; Cheng Tang; Xuejian FAN; Guisen YANG; Yingbiao HE; Kai Zhao
Original assignee: CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive Co Ltd
Current assignee: CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive Co Ltd
Priority date: 2018-11-09
Filing date: 2019-08-28
Publication date: 2021-08-25
Also published as: WO2020093764A1; CN109334712A; EP3868629A4

Abstract

A passenger information system wherein, on the basis of the concept of redundant driver cab control main units (11) in the prior art, multiple passenger compartment control main units (21, 22...) are provided in passenger compartment control main unit assemblies (2) of each car, so as to achieve redundancy of the passenger compartment control main units (21, 22...). The driver cab control main unit (11) replaces a faulty passenger compartment control main unit (21, 22...) with a passenger compartment control main unit (21, 22...) in a normal state from the same assembly, so as to avoid a standstill of an entire train network caused by the interruption of information transmissions passing through the passenger compartment control main units (21, 22...), thereby improving redundancy of the passenger information system, and ensuring normal communication between each section of the passenger information system. Also disclosed is a passenger information system control method. The method has the described advantageous effects.

Description

This application claims the priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 201811332549.5 , titled "PASSENGER INFORMATION SYSTEM AND PASSENGER INFORMATION SYSTEM CONTROL METHOD", filed on November 9, 2018 with the China National Intellectual Property Administration, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to the field of passenger information management in rail vehicles, and in particular to a passenger information system and a method for controlling the passenger information system.

BACKGROUND

Rail vehicles, such as subway trains and trains, have become common travel tools in modern society. A passenger information system is configured to issue a vehicle control instruction and display passenger information to passengers. As a tool of information transmission, the passenger information system is significant in a rail vehicle including multiple carriages. Therefore, it is crucial to improve redundancy of the passenger information system, so as to avoid that the instruction and the information fail to be transmitted in time, and ensure normal communication of all links in the passenger information system.
The redundancy of the passenger information system according to the conventional technology is implemented by communication between two cab control hosts. That is, two cab control hosts respectively arranged in a front cab and a rear cab of the vehicle and carriage control hosts arranged in carriages of the vehicle are connected in series to each other. In a case that one of the two cab control hosts fails, the other of the two cab control hosts controls these carriage control hosts. However, in a case that one of these carriages control host fails, the passenger information system cannot function normally.
Therefore, how to improve the redundancy of the passenger information system and ensure the normal communication of all links of the passenger information system is a technical problem required to be solved by those skilled in the art.

SUMMARY

A passenger information system and a method for controlling a passenger information system are provided according to the present disclosure, to improve the redundancy of the passenger information system and ensure normal communication of all links of the passenger information system.
To solve the above technical problem, a passenger information system is provided according to the present disclosure. The passenger information system includes a cab control host arranged in a cab, a carriage control host group arranged in a carriage and having a one-to-one correspondence with the carriage, and a train-level Ethernet bus. The carriage control host group includes multiple carriage control hosts. Each of the multiple carriage control hosts is configured to control display of passenger information. Cab control hosts are connected to each other via the train-level Ethernet bus. The cab control host is connected to each of the multiple carriage control hosts via the train-level Ethernet bus. The cab control host is configured to: send the passenger information to the carriage control host; and switch from a failed carriage control host to a carriage control host operating normally in a carriage control host group including the failed carriage control host.
In an embodiment, the number of the train-level Ethernet bus is more than one.
In an embodiment, the cab control host includes a first switch for accessing a train control network, a second switch for accessing a train maintenance network and a third switch for accessing a carriage network. The train control network, the train maintenance network and the carriage network all communicate based on the train-level Ethernet bus.
In an embodiment, the passenger information system further includes a carriage Ethernet bus. The multiple carriage control hosts in the carriage control host group are connected to each other via the carriage Ethernet bus.
In an embodiment, the passenger information system further includes a display screen, a camera, a dynamic map, an alarm and a loudspeaker that are arranged in the carriage and connected to each of the multiple carriage control hosts.
In an embodiment, the display screen is an LCD display screen.
In an embodiment, each of the multiple carriage control hosts further includes a wireless communicator for communicating with a terminal device.
In an embodiment, the wireless communicator is a Wi-Fi communicator.
To solve the above technical problem, a method for controlling a passenger information system is further provided according to the present disclosure. The method includes: transmitting, by a cab control host, passenger information to a carriage control host; transmitting, by the carriage control host in receipt of the passenger information, feedback information to the cab control host, and displaying, by the carriage control host in receipt of the passenger information, the passenger information; and switching, by the cab control host when receiving no feedback information in a preset time period, from a failed carriage control host to a carriage control host operating normally in a carriage control host group including the failed carriage control host. The carriage control host group has a one-to-one correspondence with the carriage, and includes multiple carriage control hosts.
In an embodiment, the number of the train-level Ethernet bus is more than one.
Based on the concept of a redundant cab control host in the conventional technology, in the passenger information system according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, multiple carriage control hosts are arranged in the carriage control host group of each carriage, to implement the redundancy of the carriage control host. The cab control host switches from the failed carriage control host to the carriage control host operating normally in the carriage control host group including the failed carriage control host, to avoid a failed passenger information system caused by interruption of information transmission to the carriage control host, thereby improving the redundancy of the passenger information system, and ensuring the normal communication of all links of the passenger information system. A method for a passenger information system is further provided according to the present disclosure, and has the same beneficial effects, which are not repeated here.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to illustrate technical solutions in embodiments of the present disclosure or the conventional technology more clearly, drawings to be used in the description of the embodiments or the conventional technology are introduced simply hereinafter. It is apparent that the drawings described below show only some embodiments of the present disclosure. For those skilled in the art, other drawings may be obtained based on the provided drawings without any creative work.

Figure 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a passenger information system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;
Figure 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a part of a passenger information system in a carriage according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; and
Figure 3 is a flow chart of a method for controlling a passenger information system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A passenger information system and a method for controlling the passenger information system are provided according to the present disclosure, to improve the redundancy of the passenger information system, and ensure the normal communication of all links of the passenger information system.
The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present disclosure are described clearly and completely in conjunction with the drawings in the embodiments of the present disclosure hereinafter. It is apparent that the described embodiments are only some rather than all embodiments of the present disclosure. All other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the present disclosure without any creative work fall within the protection scope of the present disclosure.
Figure 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a passenger information system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in Figure 1, the passenger information system according to the embodiment of the present disclosure includes a cab control host 11 arranged in a cab, a carriage control host group 2 arranged in a carriage and having a one-to-one correspondence with the carriage, and a train-level Ethernet bus 3.
The carriage control host group 2 includes multiple carriage control hosts (such as a carriage control host 21, a carriage control host 22). The carriage control host (including the carriage control host 21, the carriage control host 22 and the like) is configured to control display of passenger information.
Cab control hosts 11 are connected to each other via the train-level Ethernet bus 3.
The cab control host 11 is connected to each carriage control host via the train-level Ethernet bus 3. The cab control host 11 is configured to transmit the passenger information to the carriage control host, and switch, in a case that a carriage control host being in operation fails, from the failed carriage control host to a carriage control host operating normally in the carriage control host group including the failed carriage control host.
In the conventional technology, cab control hosts arranged in front and rear cabs of the train and carriage control hosts in carriages of the train are connected in series to each other. One of the cab control hosts is in operation, and the other cab control host is redundant. In a case that one of these carriage control hosts fails, the entire passenger information system fails.
In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the cab control hosts 11 arranged in the front and rear cabs of the train are connected to each other via the train-level Ethernet bus 3. In a process of train traveling, one of the cab control hosts 11 is in operation, and the other cab control host 11 is redundant.
The carriage control host group 2 in each carriage is connected to the train-level Ethernet bus 3, so that in a case that one carriage control host group 2 fails, communication of other carriage control host groups 2 is not affected. Furthermore, the carriage control host group 2 includes the multiple carriage control hosts, so that the cab control host 11 switches from the failed carriage control host to a carriage control host operating normally in the carriage control host group including the failed carriage control host, to ensure normal display of passenger information in each carriage.
In order to further improve the redundancy of the passenger information system, the number of the train-level Ethernet bus 3 may be multiple. For example, the number of the train-level Ethernet bus 3 is two as shown in Figure 1, one train-level Ethernet bus 3 is in operation and the other train-level Ethernet bus 3 is redundant. In a case that the train-level Ethernet bus 3 being in operation fails, the other train-level Ethernet bus 3 is in operation for transmission.
The multiple carriage control hosts in the carriage control host group 2 are all connected to the train-level Ethernet bus 3. The cab control host 11 transmits information to the carriage control host and switches from the failed carriage control host to a carriage control host operating normally via the train-level Ethernet bus 3. In the case that the carriage control host fails, the passenger information system may further include a carriage Ethernet bus 4, to speed up transmission of the information and shorten recovery time period of the passenger information system, as shown in Figure 1. The multiple carriage control hosts in the carriage control host group 2 are connected to each other via the carriage Ethernet bus 4.
In a preferred embodiment, as shown in Figure 1, two cab control hosts 11, the carriage control hosts, the train-level Ethernet buses 3 and the carriage Ethernet buses 4 in the passenger information system form an "H"-shaped network structure. In a specific embodiment, a first cab control host 11 and a second cab control host 12 are respectively arranged in front and rear cabs of the train. The carriage control host group 2 of each carriage includes the carriage control host 21 and the carriage control host 22. The carriage control host 21 and the carriage control host 22 are respectively arranged at a front end and a rear end of the carriage. In the case that one train-level Ethernet bus 3 fails, information is transmitted via the other train-level Ethernet bus 3. A failed carriage control host in a carriage cannot result in a failed passenger information system.
Based on the concept of a redundant cab control host in the conventional technology, in the passenger information system according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, multiple carriage control hosts are arranged in the carriage control host group of each carriage, to implement the redundancy of the carriage control host. The cab control host switches from the failed carriage control host to the carriage control host operating normally in the carriage control host group including the failed carriage control host, to avoid a failed passenger information system caused by interruption of information transmission to the carriage control host, thereby improving the redundancy of the passenger information system, and ensuring the normal communication of all links of the passenger information system.
Based on the above embodiments, in order to further improve recovery ability of the network of the passenger information system, the cab control host includes a first switch for accessing a train control network, a second switch for accessing a train maintenance network and a third switch for accessing a carriage network.
The train control network, the train maintenance network and the carriage network all communicate based on the train-level Ethernet bus.
In the conventional technology, a train is provided with the train control network, the train maintenance network and the carriage network that are used to transmit different information. A node in each of the above networks is required to be provided with a switch since the networks are based on different protocols. Therefore, the passenger information system is required to be provided with a large number of switches, resulting in a complicated structure and inconvenient maintenance.
According to the embodiment of the present disclosure, based on the "H"-shaped network structure, the train control network, the train maintenance network and the carriage network are combined into one network. The cab control host 11, the carriage control host 21 and the carriage control host 22 serve as nodes to communicate with each other via the train-level Ethernet bus 3.
In a typical network, the recovery ability of the network mainly depends on response speeds of the train network and the carriage network. In the network structure according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the train control network, the train maintenance network and the carriage network are combined into one network, so that the recovery time period of the network is greatly shortened. Data can be exchanged between the train and the carriage by the cab control host 11, the carriage control host 21 and the carriage control host 22, to improve generality and reduce the number of switches, thereby greatly reducing maintenance cost.
The cab control host 11 includes three switches each connected to two train-level Ethernet buses 3. The carriage control host includes two switches each connected to the train-level Ethernet bus 3 that is in operation.
The train control network is used for the cab control host 11 to transmit a train control signal and train operation information to each carriage control host 21 or each carriage control host 22, so that the carriage control host 21 or the carriage control host 22 can display, broadcast or monitor passenger information. The train maintenance network is used for the cab control host 11 to transmit fault information of the train to the carriage control host 21 or the carriage control host 22, so that the carriage control host 21 or the carriage control host 22 can display, broadcast or monitor passenger information in response to a fault type. The carriage network is used to transmit data information.
In the passenger information system according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, based on the "H"-shaped network structure, the train control network, the train maintenance network and the carriage network are combined into one network, so that the recovery time period of the network is greatly shortened. Data can be exchanged between the train and the carriage by the cab control host and the carriage control hosts, to improve the generality and reduce the number of switches, thereby greatly reducing the maintenance cost.
Figure 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a part of a passenger information system in a carriage according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in Figure 2, based on the above embodiments, in another embodiment, the passenger information system further includes a display screen 5, a camera 6, a dynamic map 7, an alarm 8 and a loudspeaker 9 that are arranged in the carriage and connected to each of the multiple carriage control hosts.
In a specific embodiment, the display screen 5 is configured to display passenger information for passengers in the carriage. The dynamic map 7 is configured to display real-time operation status on a route for passengers. The camera 6 is configured to monitor the carriage. The alarm 8 is configured to issue an alarm for passengers or receive an alarm from passengers. The loudspeaker 9 is configured to broadcast for passengers. In order to ensure that all passengers in the carriage can obtain the passenger information, the display screen 5, the camera 6, the dynamic map 7, the alarm 8 and the loudspeaker 9 are evenly arranged in the carriage.
In an embodiment, the display screen 5 is an LCD display screen.
The passengers may not be able to obtain the passenger information from the display screen 5 or the dynamic map 7 due to problems such as an area of the carriage, and passenger density in the carriage. Therefore, the carriage control host may transmit the passenger information to terminal devices of the passengers, to ensure that the passengers can obtain the passenger information. Base on this, the carriage control host may further include a wireless communicator for communicating with the terminal devices.
In an embodiment, the wireless communicator is a Wi-Fi communicator.
The passenger information system according to the embodiment of the present disclosure further includes the display screen, the camera, the dynamic map, the alarm and the loudspeaker that are arranged in the carriage and connected to each of the multiple carriage control hosts, so that the passenger information system has abundant functions, thereby improving the passenger experience.
The passenger information system according to the embodiments is described in detail above. Based on this, a method for controlling a passenger information system corresponding to the above passenger information system is further provided according to the present disclosure.
Figure 3 is a flow chart of a method for controlling a passenger information system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in Figure 3, the method for controlling a passenger information system includes the following steps S30 to S32.
In step S30, a cab control host transmits passenger information to a carriage control host.
In step S31, in receipt of the passenger information, the carriage control host transmits feedback information to the cab control host and displays the passenger information.
In step S32, in a case that the cab control host receives no feedback information in a preset time period, the cab control host switches from a failed carriage control host to a carriage control host operating normally in the carriage control host group including the failed carriage control host.
The carriage control host group has a one-to-one correspondence with the carriage. The carriage control host group includes multiple carriage control hosts.
Based on the above embodiments, the number of the train-level Ethernet bus is more than one.
Since the embodiments of the method for controlling a passenger information system correspond to the embodiments of the passenger information system, the embodiments of the method for controlling a passenger information system may refer to the description in the embodiments of the passenger information system, and are not described in detail herein.
In the embodiments of the present disclosure, it should be understood that the system, and method described herein may be implemented in other ways. The system embodiments described above are illustrative only. For example, the modules are divided merely in logical functions, and may be divided by another way in actual implementation. For example, multiple modules or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be ignored or not performed. In addition, coupling, direct coupling or communication among shown or discussed parts may be via some interfaces, and the direct coupling or communication connection among devices or modules may be in electrical, mechanical or other forms. The module described as a separate component may be or may be not separate physically. The component displayed as a module may be or may be not a physical module, that is, may be located at one place or may be distributed in multiple network modules. The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present disclosure may be achieved by selecting a part or all of the modules according to actual requirements.
Furthermore, functional modules in embodiments of the present disclosure may be separate physical modules respectively or may be integrated into one processing module. Alternatively, two or more modules may be integrated into one module. The integrated module may be implemented in a form of hardware, or may be implemented in a form of software functional module.
In a case that the integrated module is implemented in the form of software functional module and serves as an independent product for sale or use, the integrated module may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understandings, all the technical solutions or part of the technical solutions disclosed in the present disclosure that makes contributions to the conventional technology or part of the technical solutions may be embodied in the form of a software product. The software product may be stored in a storage medium. The software product includes a number of instructions that allow a computer device (for example, a personal computer, a function calling device, or a network device) to perform all or part of the steps of the method provided in the embodiments of the present disclosure. The above storage medium includes various mediums capable of storing program code, for example, a U disk, a mobile hard disk, a read only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.
The passenger information system and the method for controlling the passenger information system according to the present disclosure are described in detail above. The embodiments in this specification are described in a progressive way, each of which emphasizes the differences from others, and the same or similar parts among the embodiments can be referred to each other. Since the device disclosed in the embodiments corresponds to the method therein, the description thereof is relatively simple, and for relevant matters references may be made to the description of the method. It should be noted that those skilled in the art may make various improvements and modifications to the present disclosure without departing from the principle of the present disclosure. Those improvements and modifications should also be included in the protection scope of the present disclosure.
It should be further noted that the relationship terminologies such as first, second or the like are only used herein to distinguish one entity or operation from another, rather than to necessitate or imply that the actual relationship or order exists between the entities or operations. Furthermore, terms of "include", "comprise" or any other variants are intended to be non-exclusive. Therefore, a process, method, article or device including a series of elements includes not only the elements but also other elements that are not enumerated, or also includes the elements inherent for the process, method, article or device. Unless expressively limited otherwise, the statement "comprising (including) one..." does not exclude the case that other similar elements may exist in the process, method, article or device.

Claims

A passenger information system, comprising:
a cab control host arranged in a cab;

a carriage control host group arranged in a carriage and having a one-to-one correspondence with the carriage; and

a train-level Ethernet bus, wherein

the carriage control host group comprises a plurality of carriage control hosts, and each of the plurality of carriage control hosts is configured to control display of passenger information;

cab control hosts are connected to each other via the train-level Ethernet bus; and

the cab control host is connected to each of the plurality of carriage control hosts via the train-level Ethernet bus, wherein the cab control host is configured to:
transmit the passenger information to the carriage control host; and

switch from a failed carriage control host to a carriage control host operating normally in a carriage control host group comprising the failed carriage control host.
The passenger information system according to claim 1, wherein the number of the train-level Ethernet bus is more than one.
The passenger information system according to claim 1, wherein the cab control host comprises:
a first switch for accessing a train control network;

a second switch for accessing a train maintenance network; and

a third switch for accessing a carriage network, wherein

the train control network, the train maintenance network and the carriage network all communicate based on the train-level Ethernet bus.
The passenger information system according to claim 1, further comprising a carriage Ethernet bus, wherein
the plurality of carriage control hosts in the carriage control host group are connected to each other via the carriage Ethernet bus.
The passenger information system according to claim 1, further comprising: a display screen, a camera, a dynamic map, an alarm and a loudspeaker that are arranged in the carriage and connected to each of the plurality of carriage control hosts.
The passenger information system according to claim 5, wherein the display screen is an LCD display screen.
The passenger information system according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of carriage control hosts comprises a wireless communicator for communicating with a terminal device.
The passenger information system according to claim 7, wherein the wireless communicator is a Wi-Fi communicator.
A method for controlling a passenger information system, comprising:
transmitting, by a cab control host, passenger information to a carriage control host;

transmitting, by the carriage control host in receipt of the passenger information, feedback information to the cab control host, and displaying, by the carriage control host in receipt of the passenger information, the passenger information; and

switching, by the cab control host when receiving no feedback information in a preset time period, from a failed carriage control host to a carriage control host operating normally in a carriage control host group comprising the failed carriage control host, wherein

the carriage control host group has a one-to-one correspondence with a carriage, and comprises a plurality of carriage control hosts.
The method for controlling a passenger information system according to claim 9, wherein the number of a train-level Ethernet bus is more than one.