FR2877329A1 - Unit load e.g. sea freight container, transporting system, has points controlling station to control points based on destination address determined by controlling and monitoring center from identification codes - Google Patents

Abstract

The system has a controlling and monitoring center (13) to centralize transport request and to control traffic of self-propelled vehicles (5). A reader terminal (11) reads and transmits identifiers of the vehicles to the center. A points controlling station (15) is controlled by the center, and controls points based on destination address determined by the center from identification codes.

Description

The present invention relates to a system for conveying

individualized freight.

  It applies more particularly, but not exclusively, to the transport on a territory of intermodal freight containers known as "sea containers", by vehicles guided on a rail network or the like with its loading / unloading and transhipment terminals. from this network to other networks using other modes of transport and vice versa.

  In general, we know that the modes of transport of intermodal freight containers, by sea, by river, by air and by rail, require, with the exception of the road, their regrouping by destination to justify a charter. This grouping and unbundling takes place in intermodal terminals of several hundred hectares for storage, sorting by destination. Container rail transport is particularly penalized compared to road transport by these grouping / unbundling constraints. Intermodal terminals require large storage areas for both containers and wagons. Considerable handling facilities are required for sorting containers by destination and for loading them onto trains. All means of a marshalling yard are required for train formation. In addition to the costs of such installations, it is necessary to add the considerable losses of time related to the needs of grouping and unbundling. There are enough waiting containers to justify the formation of a convoy for a departure. Trains must be broken up and reformed at nodal points to serve specific geographical areas.

  The sharing of the same terrestrial, road and rail infrastructures by the transport of goods and people creates conflicts of priority and saturation of the networks. It is also a source of insecurity linked to the difference in speeds and the mass disproportion between trucks and light vehicles.

  In a completely different field of application and on a scale beyond measure, a system of self-propelled tanks is known in the space of factories, hospitals and offices to convey documents, medicines and all other low-volume charges. not exceeding a few tens of kilograms. This automatic transport system goes directly from one place to another by crossing buildings in their three dimensions, crossing walls and ceilings. Systems of this type are described in particular in patents FR 2 735 761, EP 751 052 and FR 2 733 215.

  It turns out that no mode of terrestrial freight forwarding allows today to associate: intermodality with other modes of transport such as the road, the 25 maritime, the fluvial, the air, the Transport container loads of about thirty tons on territories at the scale of a country and even a continent, the automation of the routing, The freight carrier today is faced with a choice: 2877329 -3 accept the constraints and disadvantages of the grouping and unbundling of rail transport: costs and deadlines, - accept the constraints of traffic restrictions on the road, agree to contribute to the saturation of road infrastructures, 5 agree to risk their congestion and their paralysis because of the nuisances generated.

  But this choice will be short-lived: the medium-term exhaustion of fossil fuels and environmental constraints will inevitably impose solutions to these questions.

  The present invention aims to combine the advantageous characteristics of rail freight transport with those of road transport of goods without their respective disadvantages, thanks to a process using: - rail: the circulation on a guided rolling road, weight loads with the possibility of using electrical energy.

  to the road: the individualized traffic of the freight which is conveyed on motorized vehicles and the possibility of the suppression of the load breaks.

  This combination authorizes: the automation of the freight forwarding, provided to have a network exclusively reserved for this mode of transport, the direct and immediate transfer without storage of containers from the road to the rail and vice versa.

  More specifically, the subject of the invention is a system for the individualized and automated routing of standardized unit loads involving: 2877329 4 - on the one hand, self-propelled carrier vehicles capable of receiving each at least one standardized unitary load - on the other hand, a specific network of tracks on which said self-propelled carriers can circulate, this network having switches and being designed to interconnect: É shipping or destination sites, É intermodal terminals equipped with equipment for transferring standardized unit loads from said specific network to other networks of the same nature or of a different nature (for example road, sea, river, air, etc.) or conversely of said other networks to the specific network.

  According to the invention, this system is characterized in that it also makes provision for: a management and monitoring center centralizing the routing requests and ensuring the management of vehicle traffic, reading means arranged to a predetermined distance upstream of each of the switches, these reading means being designed so as to read identification codes carrier vehicles and / or unit loads carried by these vehicles, when said vehicles are in the vicinity of said means for reading, said identification codes being transmitted in association with those of the corresponding switches, to the monitoring and management center by means of transmission associated with the reading means, control means of the switches controlled by the monitoring center and managing, so as to ensure the control of the points according to destination addresses determined by the monitoring center from the above identification codes, so that the carrier vehicles can reach their destination automatically without driver.

  Of course, the links between the monitoring and management center, the reading devices and the switching control means can be carried out by transmission network, for example cable or by radio transmission.

  Self-propelled vehicles available after unloading, can be directed, automatically, to the place of their next loading or in the absence of an immediate use to a storage area by means of a device for centralization of charter requests possibly equipping the monitoring and management center. The assignment and the destination of the vehicles can be modified at any time at the request of the customers and according to management criteria of the fleet of self-propelled carriers. This assignment can be made through the centralization device of charter requests, a central or a cluster, able to locate each vehicle already by its identification when crossing points, but possibly by other known means. Self-propelled vehicles can be remotely controlled by an operator, who controls the different operating modes, but also has the ability to control certain switches to direct the operation of vehicles on a terminal or storage area.

  The self-propelled platforms are preferably moved directly by an electric motor of one or more of their axles or bogies, without being able to exclude that they can not be drawn together by the combination of a tractor in the manner of a semi-trailer. road trailer or by a hitch of the tractor trailer type and use another source of energy. The power supply can come from a secure power supply on the ground or more conventionally catenary.

  2877329 6 This individualized and automated freight forwarding process is particularly suitable for the transport of intermodal containers known as maritime containers, but it is also compatible with the transport of all or part of a road vehicle in a piggyback mode and with the transport of pallets provided that for these different uses, the platform of self-propelled carriers is provided with appropriate means of securing containers and pallets or rigging for trucks, implemented manually or automatically. This individualized and automated freight forwarding process allows for both local applications between charter centers, or to transport trucks through a tunnel or natural obstacles, but it is particularly suitable for applications on the road. entire territory, or even a continent. From initially local applications that will be progressively interconnected, this type of network by its evolutionary character does not require the complete mesh of a territory to start being exploited.

  It is particularly advantageous to use railway technology for tracks and rolling stock, firstly because it is fully tested and because it allows the redevelopment of available rail infrastructure, but nothing precludes the use of other guiding means known as road technology with guidance by rail or wire-guided means or equivalent or mixed technology combining tire wheels and railway-type wheels.

  Standardized unit loads can be of various types. They may consist of boxes, namely, in particular: small boxes called "small boxes" (6.052 m up to 7.82 m) that can be twinned (or even tripled) on the same self-propelled vehicle; they allow a removal on the ground on retractable legs, 2877329 -7 "intermediate" boxes (around 9 m) which, too, can be twinned while allowing large loads (up to 35 t); these intermediate crates are particularly interesting for the transport of bulk (skips) and chemicals (tanks), crates large "large crates" (length generally ranging between 12.20 m and 13.60 m) which are built according to various ranges (van, tank, refrigerating / isothermal), they are suitable for any load, crates that are used for the transport of bulk products and generally comprising rear doors, sliding curtain boxes that are used more specifically for lateral handling from the ground, van boxes, - tank boxes which are intended for the transport of liquid products and can be compartmentalized, refrigerated boxes which are equipped with refrigerating units, silo boxes, designed in cylindrical shapes or cubic, flat boxes "flats" mainly for heavy products (sheet metal coils ), flat products (steel bars) or bulky goods (machine tools), bulk boxes intended for the transport of bulk goods.

  Standardized unit charges may also consist of ISO rail / road and maritime containers.

  They may further consist of semi-trailers gripped by clamps.

  An embodiment of the invention will be described below, by way of nonlimiting example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a schematic representation of a transport network for routing freight according to the system according to the invention.

  Figure 2 is a schematic plan view of a switch upstream of which is a self-propelled carrier vehicle and the mimic central office which controls the operation of this switch according to the destination address assigned to it.

  Figure 3 is an elevational view of a self-propelled carrier, powered by its axles and equipped with all the means allowing it to circulate in total autonomy.

  Figures 4, 5 and 6 are schematic representations illustrating the principle of three transfer modes used in the system according to the invention.

  In this example, the purpose of the system according to the invention is to provide a method for the individualized and automated routing of all loads that can be removed in one piece by means of handling means, such as intermodal cargo containers, swap bodies, pallets, gripper-mounted semitrailers or capable of being loaded and unloaded by means of their own motility as all or part of road vehicles.

  This system uses, on the one hand, self-propelled carriers having sensor means, actuator means, signaling means, security means and an identification device, to circulate on a specific rail network in such a way as to entirely autonomous and, on the other hand, a system which, from the recognition of a self-propelled carrier by an identifier reader, placed upstream of each referral, controls these latter successively according to the destination address which will have been assigned to the 2877329 9 identified vehicle, the assembly contributing to the fact that the carriers go to their destination automatically without driver.

  The rail network interconnects: - directly freight forwarders and consignees and groupings thereof, for example in a site or an industrial area, intermodal terminals equipped with equipment for transferring freight directly from this transport mode to another: road, sea, river, air or vice versa, without intermediate storage, self-propelled storage areas, available for all charter requests.

  Freight can also be transported without shifting loads from one shipper to the consignee or on one or more other modes of transport via intermodal terminals upstream and downstream of its journey.

  The mesh of the rail network is double lane when the traffic intensity justifies it or when existing infrastructures with double lane are taken over and single lane equipped with crossing devices when the traffic density authorizes it.

  The intermodal terminals are equipped with handling means such as self-propelled cranes or gantry cranes to transfer the loads directly from the platform of a vehicle to the other, the railway and road vehicles parked parallel one on the track and the other on a dock adjoining the track.

  But these intermodal terminals can also be advantageously designed so that the transfer of load from one vehicle to another is done, the road vehicle parked back in the extension of the railway vehicle, the latter at the end of the track , the first on a platform closing the way, so that the gantry mounted rails and moving alternately over the one and the other vehicle raises the load of a vehicle then the translate while moving on its rails to deposit it on the other vehicle.

  These gantries can be equipped with sensor and actuator means to operate in automatic or semi-automatic in the manner of Cartesian robots.

  FIG. 1 is a simplified schematic representation of a network that interconnects a loading terminal 1, an unloading terminal 2 and two intermodal terminals 3, 4.

  The loading and unloading terminals 1 and 2 may consist of private terminals respectively located in the senders and recipients.

  These terminals are limited to a lane serving directly a production site (factory) or storage, provided with their own handling means such as cranes or gear. These terminals can also serve an industrial or commercial site grouping several companies. Their organization is their sole responsibility.

  Maneuvering of railway self-propelled vehicles in terminals may be supported by means of a remote control available to an operator on the spot. Beyond the limit of the terminal (an identification terminal for example), the control of the vehicle will be taken over by the centralized management system of the routes.

  The intermodal terminals 3, 4 are equipped with means for transferring loads such as for example containers, mobile boxes, semi-trailers directly from the road to the rail or vice versa without going through a sorting or a storage.

  Of course, these intermodal terminals 3, 4 may be designed to provide transfers on networks other than the road network, such as the maritime network, fluvial, air.

  Upon loading, the railroad self-propelled vehicle can immediately leave the terminal 3, 4 without having to wait for the formation of a train.

  Nevertheless, the intermodal terminals 3, 4 as well as the loading / unloading terminals 1, 2 may include self-propelled carrier storage areas available for all charter requests. The rail network itself may include storage areas at points carefully selected to best meet these charter requests.

  In the example shown in FIG. 1, the rail network comprises: a direct line LI (without pre or post-routing) between the loading terminal, a pre-routing line L 2 at the intermodal terminal 3, this pre-routing line being able for example to borrow the road network and use a road tractionnaire, a line L3 connecting the two intermodal terminals 3, 4, a L5 post-routing line connecting the intermodal terminal 4 to the unloading terminal 2; as well as the L2 pre-routing line, this L5 post-routing line may use the road network and a road tractor, a line L6 connecting the loading terminal 1 to the intermodal terminal 4, a line L7 connecting the intermodal terminal 3 to the unloading terminal 2.

  The lines L1, L3, L6, L7 consist of railroads that can be part of an Automated Automated Goods Transport Network (RITMA) specially designed to implement the system according to the invention.

  On this RITMA network motorized self-propelled vehicles are able to receive each one at least a standardized unit load and are driven: - either directly by the motorization of one or more of their axles or bogies, or indirectly: É by association of a tractor in the manner of a road semi-trailer, É via a tractor vehicle coupled to the towing vehicle without driver in a tractor / trailer type coupling mode.

  In one case as in the other, the traction may be electric, the engine taking its source of energy from a secure power supply on the ground or by catenaries.

  However, the invention is not limited to this solution: The power supply may for example come from the vehicle itself: As is the case in the hybrid propulsion of current cars or diesel locomotives, the energy source electric may be derived from a heat engine rotating a generator. It may also come from a fuel cell.

  Furthermore, the carrier vehicles and / or the loads they support are equipped with identification means readable remotely without physical contact such as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) or equivalent and optionally: - 13 - geolocation means by GPS type example (Global Positioning System), cell phone type transmission means, possibly coupled to geolocation means for periodically transmitting to a monitoring center the position of the carrier vehicle and / or the load that it transports: thus, to have a traceability of the load the messages issued periodically by these means of transmission may include both an identifier of the carrier vehicle and an identifier of the load that it carries.

  For example, in Figure 3, there is shown a self-propelled carrier vehicle 5 in the form of a wagon equipped with an electric motor in direct engagement with the axle of the front axle 9 or the rear axle 10 of the vehicle 5.

  In this example, the load 11 of the vehicle consists of a standardized container of maritime type. This vehicle 5 further comprises a control cabinet 12 in particular to perform the functions of forward-reverse, speed control, braking, using signaling means placed along the track like railway vehicles to automatic driving.

  These self-propelled vehicles 5 may also include sensor means 9 such as obstacle detectors, means for actuating a braking system and all the usual means of signaling (for example headlights) and security ( emergency stop) necessary for their circulation in total autonomy.

  Their automatic movement on the network to their destination is ensured by a monitoring center at the cluster that receives the load requests and successively orders the direction of each switch encountered on the route, depending on the address. destination assigned to the vehicle, from an identification reading terminal, located in the vicinity of the track upstream of the switch.

  Thus, in Figure 2, there is shown a switch A on which a self-propelled carrier vehicle 5 upstream on the track, will soon engage. This carrier vehicle 5 passes in front of a reading terminal 11 of the identifier of the vehicle accessible for reading at block 12 and possibly the load that it carries. The reading of this identifier can be carried out in multiple ways such as optical, electromagnetic, radio waves, RFID, etc. After reading the identifier, the terminal transmits to the monitoring center 13 a message including identification data of the vehicle 5 and / or the load, identification data of the terminal 11 and possibly other data such as, for example, vehicle speed, time data and geolocation data.

  Previously, the monitoring center 13 received a charter request (terminal 14) indicating the address of the sender and the addressees, assigned a carrier for the freight and drew up a waybill. Thus, once he has identified the carrier vehicle 5 presented to the switch A, this monitoring center determines according to the waybill as well as possibly other information such as for example the size of the tracks. , the direction to be given to the switch A. It accordingly develops a switch control command that it transmits through a usual transmission network (eg telephone) to the control station 15 of the switch A. The control station 15 then executes the order it has just received by arranging the switch in the direction determined by the monitoring center 13. The carrier vehicle 5 then engages on the switch A without have suffered disturbance.

  In view of the fact that the loads transported by the self-propelled transport vehicles 5 are unitized standardized loads, the transhipments can be carried out quickly using conventional means that are inexpensive.

  Figures 4, 5 and 6 show three types of transshipment feasible at low costs.

  In the example illustrated in FIG. 4, the load 16 to be transshipped is a load of standardized container type. Transhipment takes place laterally, the self-propelled transport vehicle 17 and the truck 18 being arranged side by side. The transhipment device can then consist of a conventional crane, an elevator or a transhipment gantry oriented perpendicularly to the track 19.

  In the example illustrated in FIG. 5, the transfer takes place "cul-end", the self-propelled transport vehicle 20 and the truck 21 being arranged coaxially with respect to each other. The transhipment vehicle here consists of a gantry 22 mobile coaxially with the two vehicles and the track 23, on two rails 24, 25 located on either side of said track 23.

  In the example illustrated in FIG. 6, the load to be transshipped 26 is carried by a semitrailer 27. In this case, no transhipment vehicle is necessary: The semitrailer 27 moves back with its load in the axis from the track 28 until the trailer rides on the self-propelled transport vehicle 29. In this case, the latter carries both the load 26 and the trailer of the semitrailer 27. Once the loading is carried out, the tractor 30 of the semi-trailer detelles and leaves without its trailer.

  According to an alternative embodiment of the invention, the self-propelled carrier vehicle may consist of a tractor associated with a trailer either in the manner of a road semi-trailer, or in the tractor / rail car mode. .

  According to another variant, the self-propelled transport vehicle is designed to ensure the automated transport of all or part of a road vehicle. However, in this case, unlike a piggyback system, the loading / unloading can be carried out from a platform 29 at the end of the rail on a self-propelled carrier which can immediately leave for its destination.

Claims (12)

-17-Claims   1. System for individualized transport of standardized unit loads involving: - on the one hand, self-propelled carrier vehicles (5) able to each receive at least one standardized unit load (11), - on the other hand, a network specific of raceways on which said self-propelled carriers (5) can circulate, this network having turnouts (A) and being designed to interconnect: É shipping or destination sites, É intermodal terminals (3, 4) equipped with equipment for transferring the standardized unit loads of said specific network to other networks of the same nature or of a different nature (for example road, sea, river, air, etc.) or conversely of said other networks to the specific network , characterized in that it also involves: - a management and monitoring center (13) centralizing the routing requests and ensuring the management of traffic flows. s vehicles (5), - reading means (11) arranged at a predetermined distance upstream of each of the switches (A), these reading means being designed to perform the reading of identification codes (12) of carrier vehicles (5) and / or unit loads (11) carried by these vehicles (5), when said vehicles (5) are in the vicinity of said reading means (11), said identification codes being transmitted in association with those of the switches (A) corresponding to the monitoring and management center through transmission means associated with the reading means (11), - 18 - control means (15) switches (A) controlled by the center of monitoring and management (13), so as to ensure the control of the switches according to destination addresses determined by the monitoring center (13) from the aforementioned identification codes, so that the carrier vehicles ( 5) can end to their destination automatically without driver.   System according to Claim 1, characterized in that the connections between the monitoring and control center (13), the reading devices (11) and the control means (15) of the switches (A) are effected by means of transmission network, for example cable or radio transmission.   3. System according to one of claims 1 and 2,   characterized in that the monitoring and management center (13) comprises a centralizing device for chartering requests for automatically directing the self-propelled carrier vehicles (5) available after unloading to the place of their next loading or, failing this, 'immediate use, to a storage area.   4. System according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the monitoring and management center (13) comprises means for changing at any time the destination of the self-propelled carrier vehicles (5), when crossing points.   5. System according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises means for remote control of self-propelled carrier vehicles (5) by operators.   6. System according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the self-propelled carrier vehicles (5) consist of self-propelled platforms driven directly by an electric motor of one or more of their axles or bogies.   7. System according to one of claims 1 to 5,   characterized in that the self-propelled self-propelled vehicles (5) are constituted by the combination of a tractor in the manner of a semi-trailer or by a hitch of the tractor trailer type.   8. System according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the carrier vehicles and / or the loads they support are equipped with identification means remotely readable without physical contact such as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) or equivalent and that eventually: geolocation means for example of GPS (Global Positioning System) type, cell phone type transmission means, possibly coupled to the geolocation means for periodically transmitting, to a monitoring center the position of the vehicle carrier and / or the load he carries.   9. System according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the remote reading of the identifier is effected optically, electromagnetic, wireless, or RFID.   10. System according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the load transfers carried out by the aforesaid equipment are performed laterally by means of transloading equipment 2877329 - which may consist of cranes, elevators or gantry cranes. transhipment oriented perpendicular to the raceways.   1. Systems according to one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the said load (26) is carried by a tractor-trailer (27) towed by a tractor (30), in that the loading is carried out reversing the semitrailer (27) in the axis of the raceway (28) until the trailer (26) rides on the self-propelled transport vehicle (5), and in that, once the loading is completed, the tractor (30) of the semitrailer (27) detaches and leaves without its trailer (26).   12. System according to one of claims 1 to 9,   characterized in that the load transfers carried out between the self-propelled vehicles (5) and the trucks by means of the aforesaid equipment are carried out "cul-cul", the self-propelled transport vehicles (5) and the trucks being arranged coaxially with each other. to others, transhipment being effected by means of a gantry (22) movable coaxially with the two vehicles and the raceways (23), on rails (24, 25) situated on either side of said raceway (23).   13. System according to one of claims 1 to 12,   characterized in that the aforesaid unitary loads (11) consist of small boxes called "small boxes", intermediate boxes, large boxes called "large boxes", crates tarpaulins, boxes with sliding curtains, box bodies, tank boxes, refrigerated boxes, silo boxes, flats and / or bulk boxes.   14. System according to one of claims 1 to 12,   characterized in that said unit loads (11) consist of standardized containers and / or semi-trailers.