JPH023745B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an operation control system for a plurality of vehicles traveling along a predetermined guideway.

Systems are being developed in which vehicles are operated unmanned to transport people or cargo from station to station along predetermined guideways. In such a transportation system, the operation of vehicles is centrally controlled by a control center, and all vehicles run based on instructions from the center.
In order to increase the transportation efficiency of the system, it is necessary to operate a large number of vehicles simultaneously and to reduce the distance between the vehicles. However, if the distance between vehicles is shortened and the number of vehicles running is increased, a huge amount of data must be processed in a short period of time, which means that the control equipment installed at the center becomes huge, making it uneconomical in terms of equipment and maintenance costs. management becomes difficult.

This invention allows a large number of vehicles to run as a single formation without being physically connected, and only the leading car of each formation is controlled by a control center, while the following cars maintain a constant distance from the preceding car. The aim is to reduce the control burden at the center by controlling the running of each vehicle independently.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an operation control system in which the order of vehicles to be assembled can be set arbitrarily, which enables free vehicle organization, and which allows even one vehicle to travel independently.

The present invention is a system for controlling the operation of a plurality of vehicles, each of which has a vehicle address and travels along a predetermined guideway. It consists of a vehicle detector installed at the center to detect the passage of vehicles and their addresses, and a central control unit installed at the control center.

The vehicle running control device includes an inter-vehicle distance measuring device that measures the inter-vehicle distance to a preceding vehicle, a means for detecting the presence or absence of a preceding vehicle and determining whether it is a leading vehicle or a following vehicle;
storage means for storing speed control commands given by specifying the own vehicle address from the control center;
A vehicle speed detector measures the traveling speed of the vehicle, and in the case of the leading vehicle, the speed detected by the vehicle speed detector is used to drive the vehicle at a constant speed commanded by the speed control command stored in the storage means. to do,
In the case of a following vehicle, the vehicle receives commands from the acceleration/deceleration control device and the control center, which use the distance detected by the distance measuring device to control the traveling speed so that the distance between the vehicle and the preceding vehicle is constant. It is also equipped with a communication device that transmits vehicle data to the control center.

The central control device attaches a vehicle address to the vehicle and transmits travel control commands including travel speed data, and also includes a communication device that receives vehicle data from the vehicle, and stores vehicle data from the vehicle and data from the vehicle detector. and a display device for displaying the stored data.

According to the operation control system of the present invention having the above configuration, the operation status of all vehicles can be grasped at the control center, and the destination, formation, stop position, running speed, etc. can be commanded to any vehicle, The vehicle can be driven according to this command. Furthermore, all vehicles have a function to determine whether they are the leading vehicle or the following vehicle, and if the vehicle is the leading vehicle, constant speed control is performed according to commands from the control center, while if the vehicle is following, the detected inter-vehicle distance is used. Constant inter-vehicle distance control is performed. Therefore, it is possible to operate multiple vehicles as a single formation without physically linking them; in this case, the leading vehicle travels at the speed commanded by the center, and the following vehicles follow the leading vehicle. Follow the vehicle and maintain a constant following distance. Since each vehicle determines its position in the formation order, it is possible to form the cars freely, and even one car can run alone.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an overview of the entire operation system for a plurality of vehicles. An organized vehicle group consisting of a leading vehicle 1 and a plurality of vehicles 2 following the leading vehicle 1 and a vehicle 3 traveling alone are shown. The leading vehicle 1 and the following vehicle 2 are not physically connected. These vehicles 1-3 travel along a predetermined guideway. The leading vehicle 1 and the solo vehicle 3 of the assembled vehicles are controlled to travel at a constant speed instructed by the control center 8, as will be described later. Following vehicle 2
The vehicle is controlled to maintain a constant distance from the vehicle in front. However, the cruise control devices installed in all vehicles have exactly the same configuration. The center 8 is provided with a central control device 9.

An antenna 6 for communication between the vehicles 1 to 3 and the center 9 is installed along the guideway. Furthermore, vehicle detectors 5 are arranged at required locations on the guideway, such as at stations. Each of the vehicles 1 to 3 is assigned a vehicle address (vehicle number) in advance. Vehicle detector 5
detects the vehicle address of a vehicle passing through or stopping at the installation location and sends it to the center 8. For example, a vehicle address code is written on the body of each vehicle, or a magnet or a light emitting element representing the code is provided on the body of the vehicle, and these are read by the detector 5. Each vehicle detector 5 is assigned a point number indicating its position.

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of a vehicle travel control device. The travel control device includes an inter-vehicle distance measuring device that uses ultrasonic waves to measure the inter-vehicle distance between preceding and following vehicles;
An acceleration/deceleration drive circuit 22 that controls the running speed of the vehicle according to acceleration/deceleration commands, a communication device 23 for transmitting and receiving commands and data to and from the center 8, and a communication device 23 that detects the running speed of the vehicle and is proportional to the running speed. It consists of a vehicle speed detector 24 that outputs a series of pulses, and a main controller that controls these.
The inter-vehicle distance measuring device includes ultrasonic transmitters 11 and 14 and a receiver 1 provided at the front and rear of the vehicle body, respectively.
2, 15, and transmitting/receiving circuits 10, 13 that control these transducers. The main control device is
Two central control units (called CPUs) 17, 20,
ROM1 that stores the execution program of this CPU
9, and a RAM 18 for storing various data. A microprocessor is preferred as the CPU. The CPU 17 controls the transmission and reception of ultrasonic waves, calculates the distance between vehicles, and determines whether the vehicle is the leading vehicle or the following vehicle. The CPU 20 performs communication control and acceleration/deceleration control processing. Transmission/reception circuits 10, 13,
The acceleration/deceleration drive circuit 22, the communication device 23, and the speed detector 24 are connected to the CPUs 17 and 20 via interfaces 16 and 21, respectively.

A transmitter 11 is driven by the transmitter/receiver circuit 10, and ultrasonic waves having a frequency (f1) (for example, 25 KHz) are transmitted forward. When there is a preceding vehicle ahead and this ultrasonic wave is received by the receiver 15, the transmitter/receiver circuit 13 immediately sends an ultrasonic wave of frequency (f2) (for example, 20 KHz) to the rear from the transmitter 14. waves are transmitted towards. When this ultrasonic wave of frequency (f2) is received by the receiver 12 of the following vehicle, the ultrasonic wave of frequency (f1) is transmitted forward from the transmitter 11 by the transmitter/receiver circuit 10 again. be waved. In this way, ultrasonic waves with frequencies (f1) and (f2) travel back and forth between successive vehicles. This method of repeatedly transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves between vehicles is called the sing-around method. Different frequencies (f1) (f2)
The reason why ultrasonic waves are used is to prevent mutual interference.

Ignoring the time delay between receiving and transmitting ultrasonic waves by the transmitting/receiving circuit, the transmission period (T) of the ultrasonic waves by the transmitting/receiving circuit 10 is equal to the time required for the ultrasonic waves to travel back and forth between successive vehicles. equal. Therefore, the inter-vehicle distance (L) from the following vehicle to the preceding vehicle is
Using the transmission period (T), it is expressed as L=T/2·W. Here (W) is the speed of sound.
The CPU 17 uses the transmitter and reception signals from the transmitter/receiver circuit 10 to calculate the inter-vehicle distance to the preceding vehicle, as will be described later. Similarly, the distance between the vehicle and the following vehicle can also be calculated using the transmitted and received signals from the transmitting/receiving circuit 13.

The transmitter 11 may not transmit the ultrasonic waves immediately after the receiver 12 receives the ultrasonic waves, but the transmitting/receiving circuit 10 may transmit the ultrasonic waves at regular intervals. Alternatively, the transmitted ultrasonic waves from the transmitter 11 may be reflected by the rear surface of the preceding vehicle, and the reflected waves may be received by the receiver 12. However, the single-around method is advantageous because the transmission period of the ultrasonic waves changes depending on the distance between vehicles, and as the distance between vehicles becomes smaller, the transmission period becomes shorter and more distance information can be obtained.

FIG. 3 shows the configuration of the central controller 9. As shown in FIG. This control device 9 also includes a CPU 30.
The CPU 30 includes a communication device 31 that transmits control commands to the vehicle and receives data from the vehicle, a memory 32 that stores vehicle data, a display device 33 that displays stored vehicle data, and a communication device 31 that transmits control commands to the vehicle and receives data from the vehicle. A control console 34 for input and the above-mentioned vehicle detector 5 are connected. Display device 33
It is preferable to display a diagram of the guideway, the location of the vehicle, and the vehicle address on this diagram.

FIG. 4 shows part of the contents of the vehicle RAM 18. The RAM 18 stores an area that stores the measured vehicle speed (V) and the following distance from the preceding vehicle (L), as well as the predetermined maximum and minimum allowable distances (Lmax) and (Lmin) for constant following distance control. area used as the leading vehicle flag F1 and following vehicle flag F2, an area for storing the vehicle address of the vehicle, and a constant speed parameter (VO) and stop position parameter in constant speed control commanded from the center 8. There is an area to remember.

FIG. 5 shows part of the contents of the memory 32 of the center 8. This memory 32 includes data storage locations having storage locations numbered from 0 to N.
There is a table, and each memory location has a vehicle address, data that distinguishes whether the vehicle indicated by this address is the leading vehicle or the following vehicle (corresponding to flags F1 and F2),
Vehicle position (point number) and vehicle speed (V)
are respectively memorized. The memory 32 also has an area used as a processing counter C.

Figure 6 shows ultrasonic wave transmission and reception control by the CPU 17.
The procedure for calculating the inter-vehicle distance (L) and determining whether the vehicle is the leading vehicle or the following vehicle is shown. First, transmitter 11
The ultrasonic wave of frequency (f1) is transmitted from the CPU 1 (step (40)), and the time corresponding to the measurable distance is
7 (step (41)). Then, it is checked whether the receiver 12 has received the ultrasonic wave of the frequency (f2) (step (42)), and if the ultrasonic wave has been received, the following distance from the preceding vehicle (L ) and RAM18
(Step (45)). Since the inter-vehicle distance (L) is proportional to the time from ultrasonic wave transmission to ultrasonic wave reception, this time may be stored in the RAM 18 as distance (L). The fact that the receiver 12 receives the ultrasonic wave of frequency (f2) means that there is a preceding vehicle, so this vehicle is the following vehicle, and the following vehicle flag F2 is turned on (step (46)).

If the ultrasonic wave of frequency (f2) is not received even after the preset time preset in the timer has elapsed (NO in step (42), YES in step (43)),
Since this means that there is no preceding vehicle within the measurable distance, this vehicle is the leading vehicle, and the leading vehicle flag F1 is turned on (step (44)). After processing steps (44) and (46), return to step (40) and
Repeat ultrasonic transmission.

When the receiver 15 receives ultrasonic waves of frequency (f1) from the following vehicle, this received signal is sent to the CPU
17, and the CPU 17 executes interrupt processing. When the ultrasonic wave is received (step (47)), the ultrasonic wave of frequency (f2) is transmitted from the transmitter 14 (step (48)), and the interrupt processing is completed.

After transmitting the ultrasonic wave from the transmitter 14, by inspecting whether the receiver 15 has received the ultrasonic wave within a certain period of time (processing similar to steps (40) to (44)), It is possible to determine whether there is a following vehicle. If there is neither a preceding vehicle nor a following vehicle, this vehicle is traveling alone.

Although illustration of the procedure for measuring the vehicle speed is omitted, the vehicle speed (V) is determined by counting the time interval of pulses input from the speed detector 24 or the number of pulses input within a certain period of time. This speed (V) is stored in RAM18.
The vehicle speed measurement process is performed at regular intervals.

FIG. 7 shows the procedure of communication control and acceleration/deceleration control processing by the CPU 20. First, it is checked whether the communication device 23 has received a message from the center (step (50)). The message sent and received between the center and the vehicle includes the address of the source or destination vehicle. If a message has been received, it is checked whether the vehicle address in the message matches the own vehicle address stored in the RAM 18 (step (51)). If the two addresses match, the message is directed to the own vehicle, and its contents are decoded (step (52)). If this message is for data collection (step (53))
In response to this, the host vehicle address, measured vehicle speed (V), and contents of flags F1 and F2 stored in the RAM 18 are edited and sent to the center 8 (step (54)). . If it is not a message for data collection, it is a message for travel control command, and this message contains a constant speed parameter (VO) and a stop position parameter indicating the point number of the stop position. of
Store in RAM 18 (step (55)).

No message was received (NO at step (50)),
Or, if the address in the received message does not match the own vehicle address (NO in step (51)),
Move on to acceleration/deceleration control processing. In this process, first, it is sequentially checked whether the leading vehicle flag F1 is on (step (56)) and whether the following vehicle flag F2 is on (step (58)). If flag F1 is on, this vehicle is the leading vehicle, so
Constant speed control is performed so that the vehicle travels at a constant speed represented by the constant speed parameter (VO) stored in the RAM 18 (step (57)). Since the answer in step (56) is YES for a solo vehicle, this constant speed control is performed.

If the flag F2 is on, this vehicle is the following vehicle, so acceleration/deceleration control is performed so that the distance between the vehicle and the preceding vehicle is constant. The measured inter-vehicle distance (L) and the allowable maximum and minimum distances (Lmax) (Lmin) stored in the RAM 18 are read out (step (59)) and these distances are compared. If L>Lmax (YES in step (60)), the vehicle is too far away from the preceding vehicle, so an acceleration command is output to the drive circuit 22 to accelerate it (step (61)). L＜Lmin
In this case (YES in step (62)), the vehicle is getting too close to the preceding vehicle, so a deceleration command is output to decelerate (step (63)). If Lmax≧L≧Lmin (NO in both steps (60) and (62)), the inter-vehicle distance is within the allowable range, so the vehicle is allowed to travel at the same speed. In this way, the following vehicle has an inter-vehicle distance of (Lmax) ~
(Lmin). In the acceleration/deceleration control of the following vehicle, if the traveling speed (V) of the vehicle is taken into consideration and the acceleration/deceleration is performed in multiple stages, more accurate constant inter-vehicle distance control becomes possible. The process shown in FIG. 7 is repeated at regular intervals.

FIG. 8 shows the procedure of data collection processing by the CPU 30 at the center. First, set the processing counter C to 0 (step (70)), and then
The contents of address the storage location of the vehicle data table in memory 32. The vehicle address stored in the specified address is read out (step (71)), and a data collection message including this read address is edited and transmitted (step (72)).
Then, vehicle data is sent from the vehicle with the vehicle address that matches the address in the message through the above process (Figure 7, step (54)), and when this is received (YES at step (73)). ), the received speed (V) and flag F1 or F2
is stored in the corresponding memory location of the vehicle data table (step (74)). And counter C
After adding 1 to the contents of counter C (step (75)), it is checked whether the contents of counter C have become N+1 (step (76)). If the content of the counter C is less than or equal to N, the process returns to step 71), addresses the next storage location with the updated content of the counter C, collects data of other vehicles in the same manner, and stores the data in the memory 32.
to be memorized. The above process is repeated and when the content of counter C reaches N+1 (step (76))
(YES), writing of data for all storage locations of the vehicle data table in memory 32 has been completed. Vehicle data changes every moment, so return to step (70) and set address 0.
Data collection is repeated again from the storage location.

FIG. 9 shows a procedure for processing a vehicle detection signal from the vehicle detector 5 by the CPU 30. This process is an interrupt process that uses the vehicle detection signal as an interrupt signal. When the detection signal from the vehicle detector 5 is received (step (77)), the point number and vehicle address of the detector 5 contained in this signal are read. Then, the point number is stored in the vehicle data table of the memory 32 as a vehicle position in correspondence with the read vehicle address (step (78)).

FIG. 10 shows an example of vehicle operation command processing at the center 8. The display device 33 displays vehicle data stored in the data table of the memory 32. Therefore, the operator can grasp the status of all vehicles traveling along the guideway. Therefore, if you want to set or change the operating status of a certain vehicle, use the console 34 to specify the vehicle address of that vehicle (step (80)), and then set the traveling speed parameter (VO), stopping position parameter, etc. Input the travel command (step (81)). Then the CPU
30 edits and transmits these travel control command messages (step (82)). As a result, the addressed vehicle receives the travel control command and uses the RAM
18 (FIG. 7, step (55)), and the vehicle runs according to this command (step (57)).

In this embodiment, the details of the control for stopping the vehicle at the commanded position are not shown, but it is sufficient to provide a position detector in the vehicle and stop the vehicle when the detected position and the commanded position match. Can be easily configured. If necessary, a command to forcibly turn on flag F1 or F2 can be included in the travel control command from the center, so that a vehicle in the formation can be separated from the formation, or conversely, it can be disconnected from a group of cars in the formation. It is possible to add Also, the first
In the processing procedure shown in Figure 0, the operator inputs travel control commands, but it is also possible to incorporate vehicle operation data into the CPU 30 in advance and send commands to the vehicle based on this operation data. can.

As described above, in the operation control system of the present invention, the operation status of all vehicles can be grasped at the center, and the destination, formation, stop position, running speed, etc. can be commanded to any vehicle, and this command can be The vehicle can then be driven. Furthermore, all vehicles have a function to determine whether they are the leading vehicle or the following vehicle, and constant speed control is performed for the leading vehicle, and constant inter-vehicle distance control is performed for the following vehicle. Therefore, it is possible to operate multiple vehicles as a single formation without physically connecting them, and in this case, the leading vehicle travels at a speed commanded from the center, and the following vehicles run at the speed instructed by the leading vehicle. The vehicle follows the vehicle and maintains a constant distance between vehicles. Since each vehicle determines its formation order position, it is possible to freely form a vehicle, and
It can also be run independently on a stand.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is a diagram showing the operation status of multiple vehicles traveling along a guideway, Figure 2 is a block diagram showing the travel control device of each vehicle, and Figure 3 is the configuration of the central control device at the center. Figure 4 is a block diagram showing the contents of the vehicle's RAM, Figure 5 is a diagram showing the contents of the vehicle's RAM.
The figure shows the contents of the center memory, and Figure 6 shows the contents of the center memory.
Figure 7 is a flow chart showing the procedure of inter-vehicle distance measurement and vehicle discrimination processing by the vehicle's CPU.
A flow chart showing the communication control and acceleration/deceleration control processing procedure by the vehicle's CPU. Figure 8 is a flow chart showing the vehicle data collection processing procedure at the center.
FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing the vehicle detection interrupt processing procedure, and FIG. 10 is a flow chart showing the travel control command processing procedure. 1, 2, 3...vehicle, 5...vehicle detector, 8...
...Control center, 9...Central control unit,
10, 13... Transmission/reception circuit, 11, 14... Ultrasonic wave transmitter, 12, 15... Ultrasonic wave receiver, 17,
20, 30...CPU, 18...RAM, 22...
Acceleration/deceleration drive circuit, 23, 31...Communication device, 24
...Traveling speed detector, 32...Memory, 33...
Display device.

[Claims]

1. A boss to be fitted to the steering shaft is divided into upper and lower parts, an engagement groove is formed in at least one mating surface of the upper and lower boss bodies, and the center part of the spoke core metal is engaged with this engagement groove. A steering wheel core material characterized by a spoke core metal sandwiched between upper and lower boss bodies.

Claims (1)

The central control device is equipped with an acceleration/deceleration control device that controls the traveling speed so that the vehicle distance is constant, and a communication device that receives commands from the control center and transmits vehicle data to the control center. a communication device that transmits a travel control command including travel speed data with an address and receives vehicle data from the vehicle; a storage device that stores vehicle data from the vehicle and data from a vehicle detector; An operation control system for multiple vehicles, which is equipped with a data display device.