JPH0769214A - Obstacle detecting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To accurately specify a spot where a hindrance is caused and detect a failure of a device itself. CONSTITUTION:A light emitter and a light receiver of each of spot information transmitting and reseiving devices 2a-2n installed at a specified distance in a detection section are used to all the time transmit and receive optical signals between mutually adjoining spot information transmitting and receiving devices to connect the detection section through optical signals. When processors 1a, 1b detect that an obstacle enters this detection section and cuts off the optical signal, generation of abnormality in the detection section is judged to output an abnormality signal. The optical signals transmitted and received between the adjoining spot information transmitting and receiving devices contain spot information, and the spot is specified based on the signals received by the processors 1a, 1b when the optical signal is cut off.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an obstacle detecting device for line protection of tracks on which trains and vehicles run.

In order to prevent a second accident caused by a derailment of a train or a vehicle or a car falling on a track from a road or the like, a curved section with a radius of a certain radius or a place where the car may fall An obstacle detection device is provided.

As shown in FIG. 6, a conventional obstacle detection device has a detection pole 60 in which a detection wire 61 is wound around a wooden pole 62 and fixed with a plastic concrete insulator 63, or a detection pole containing a mercury switch. As shown in FIG. 7, 60 are installed in the detection section at a predetermined interval and the detection columns 60 are connected one after another by a cable 64 to form a detection circuit, or as shown in FIG. A detection wire is provided along a block wall 65 or the like provided along the line to form a detection circuit. This detection circuit is connected in series with the detection relay and the power supply, and the detection relay is constantly excited. When the detection pole 60 tilts at a certain angle to operate the mercury switch, or when the detection pole 60 is damaged and the built-in detection electric wire is disconnected,
When the detection wire 66 along the line is broken, the detection relay is de-excited to clarify that an obstacle exists in the detection section, and protect the train in the event of an abnormality.

[0004]

However, when the mercury switch is used, the mercury switch needs to be replaced as appropriate in order to prevent malfunction due to deterioration of the contact that is always energized, which is a disadvantage that maintenance and inspection are not easy. there were.

Further, when the detection pole having the detection electric wire fixed therein is used, it is unnecessary to replace the built-in detection electric wire. The number of connection points with the cable is very large, and in some cases a disconnection may occur due to poor construction of the connection points, which makes maintenance difficult.

Further, in the case of using a detection pole and in the case of forming a detection circuit by arranging a detection wire along a line, even if it is possible to detect the presence of an obstacle, the point where the obstacle has occurred is accurately determined. Could not be specified.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above disadvantages, and provides an obstacle detecting device capable of accurately specifying a point where a failure has occurred and also accurately detecting a defect of the device itself. The purpose is to obtain.

[0008]

An obstacle detecting device according to the present invention has a plurality of spot information transmitting / receiving devices and a processor, and each spot information transmitting / receiving device has a plurality of light emitters, a plurality of light receivers, and a controller. And a plurality of light emitters are installed in the detection section at predetermined intervals, and the plurality of light emitters transmit optical signals in the forward and reverse directions,
The plurality of light receivers receive the optical signals transmitted from the forward direction and the reverse direction, the control unit determines whether or not the optical signals are received, and the light receiving is performed when at least one of the light receivers receives the optical signal. The optical information including the spot information is judged from each light emitter, and when the light receiving signal is not sent from a part of the light receiver, each light emitter transmits the spot information including the content. When all the light receivers do not receive the received signal, the light emitters stop the transmission, and the processors are provided at both ends of the detection section to activate the point information transmitter / receiver and to transmit and receive the point information transmitter / receiver. It is characterized in that it detects an abnormality by receiving an optical signal from the device.

[0009]

According to the present invention, the optical signal is constantly transmitted and received between the point information transmitting and receiving apparatuses adjacent to each other of the point information transmitting and receiving apparatuses installed at the predetermined intervals in the detecting section, and the detecting section is connected by the optical signal. When the processor detects that an obstacle has entered this detection section and interrupted the optical signal, it is determined that an abnormality has occurred in the detection section, and the processor outputs an abnormality signal.

Further, the optical signal transmitted / received between the adjacent point information transmitting / receiving devices includes the point information at which each point information transmitting / receiving device is installed, and the point is detected by the signal received by the processor when the optical signal is cut off. Identify.

Further, a plurality of light emitters and light receivers are used to transmit and receive optical signals to and from each other between adjacent point information transmitters / receivers, and the contents of the received optical signals are judged to determine some light emitters and light receivers. When a failure occurs in a vessel, identify the equipment where the failure occurred and its location.

[0012]

1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the obstacle detection device is directly connected to the processing device 1a and the processing device 1b provided at both ends of the detection section, and the point information transmission / reception devices 2a and 2n installed at both ends of the detection section, It has a plurality of spot information transmission / reception devices 2b to 2m arranged at regular intervals along the line of the detection section. The spot information transmitter / receivers 2a and 2n installed at both ends of the detection section include one light emitter 3, light receiver 4 and control unit 5.
And the spot information transmitters / receivers 2b to 2m arranged at regular intervals in the detection section each include two light emitters 3a,
3b, light receivers 4a and 4b, and a control unit 5a.

As shown in the block diagram of FIG. 2, each of the light emitters 3, 3a and 3b has a transmission control section 8 having a signal conversion section 6 and a modulation section 7, a transmission amplifier 9 and, for example, an emission wavelength of 850 nm. Light emitting device 1 composed of near infrared light emitting diode
And a light emitting unit 11 having 0. As shown in the block diagram of FIG. 3, the light receivers 4, 4a and 4b are light receiving elements 1 including a photodiode and a phototransistor.
2, a band-pass filter 13, a reception amplifier 14, and a reception control unit 18 having a demodulation unit 16 and a signal conversion unit 17. The control units 5 and 5a are shown in FIG.
As shown in the block diagram of FIG.
0, a point information writing unit 21 and an output unit 22. The input unit 19 is connected to the light receiver 4 or the light receivers 4a and 4b and inputs a signal based on the received optical signal. The signal determination unit 20 determines the presence or absence of a signal from the light receiver 4 or the light receivers 4a and 4b and the content of the received signal. The point information writing unit 21 writes the point information in the signal to be transmitted. The output unit 22 drives each light emitter 3 or 3a, 3b and sends a signal to be transmitted to each light emitter 3 or 3a, 3b. Further, the input unit 19 and the output unit 22 of the control unit 5 of the spot information transmitter / receivers 2a and 2n installed at both ends of the detection section are also connected to the processors 1a and 1b, respectively.

The light emitter 3 and the light receiver 4 of the spot information transmitter / receivers 2a and 2n installed at both ends of the detection section are shown in FIG.
As shown in the layout drawing, the detection column 2 faces inward of the detection section.
3, the light emitters 3a and the light receivers 4a of the spot information transmitters / receivers 2b to 2m, which are arranged at regular intervals in the detection section, are respectively attached to the detection pillars 23 facing the forward direction, and the light emitters 3b and the light receivers 3b are received. The vessels 4b are attached to the detection columns 23 in the opposite directions.

The processors 1a and 1b are the point information transmitter / receiver 2
a to 2n are activated and the point information transmitter / receiver 2
Abnormalities are detected by receiving optical signals from a and 2n.

In the obstacle detecting device constructed as described above, the processing units 1a and 1b constantly send drive signals to the control units 5 of the point information transmitting / receiving devices 2a and 2n installed at both ends of the detection section. And the point information transmitter / receiver 2a, 2n
An optical signal is sent from the light emitting device 3 of. The optical signal sent from the light emitter 3 of the spot information transmitter / receiver 2a is received by the light receiver 4a of the adjacent spot information transmitter / receiver 2b, converted into an electric signal, subjected to predetermined signal processing, and sent to the controller 5a. . When the control unit 5a receives the signal from the light receiver 4a, the control unit 5a sends a signal including the spot information of the installation spot to the light emitters 3a and 3b.
Send to. The light emitters 3a and 3b transmit the optical signal based on the signal sent from the control unit 5a to the adjacent point information transmitter / receiver 2a,
Send to 2c. The optical signal sent from the point information transmitter / receiver 2n is also received by the adjacent point information transmitter / receiver 2m,
Similarly to the above, the light emitter 3 of the spot information transmitter / receiver 2m
An optical signal is sent to the adjacent point information transmitter / receiver at a and 3b. In this manner, in a steady state, optical signals are constantly transmitted and received between the point information transmitters / receivers 2a to 2n installed in the detection section and adjacent to each other, and the detection section is connected by the optical signal.

In this state, for example, the point information transmitter / receiver 2
When a car or the like falls on the line between the point information transmitter / receiver 2c and the point information transmitter / receiver 2c and the optical signal between the point information transmitter / receiver 2b and the point information transmitter / receiver 2c is cut off, the point information transmitter / receiver 2b transmits the point information. Only the optical signal sent from the light emitter 3 of the transmitter / receiver 2a is received by the light receiver 4a, and only that signal is sent to the controller 5a of the spot information transmitter / receiver 2b. Further, only the signal from the light receiver 4b facing in the opposite direction is sent to the controller 5a of the point information transmitter / receiver 2c. When the signal determination unit 20 of the control unit 5a of the spot information transmitter / receiver 2b determines that the input signal is only the signal from one of the light receivers 4a, it sends the fact that an abnormality has occurred to the spot information writing unit 21.
When the spot information writing unit 21 receives a signal indicating that an abnormality has occurred, it sends a signal in which the abnormality information is written to the light emitter 3a, and the light emitter 3a sends an optical signal containing the abnormality information to the spot information transmitter / receiver 2a. Send. The spot information transmitter / receiver 2a converts the optical signal including the abnormality information sent from the spot information transmitter / receiver 2b into an electric signal by the control unit 5 and sends the electric signal to the processor 1a. Processor 1
When receiving the signal including the abnormality information, the a transmits the point information and the abnormality information to the processor 1b on the opposite side.

Similarly, when the signal judging section 20 of the control section 5a of the spot information transmitter / receiver 2c judges that the input signal is only the signal from one of the light receivers 4b, it indicates that an abnormality has occurred. Send it to the insert section 21. Point information writing unit 21
When receiving a signal indicating that an abnormality has occurred, sends a signal in which abnormality information is written to the light emitting device 3b, and transmits an optical signal including the abnormality information from the light emitting device 3b to the adjacent point information transmitting / receiving device 2d. The optical signal sent to the spot information transmitter / receiver 2d is sent to the spot information transmitter / receiver 2n via the spot information transmitter / receiver arranged continuously. Point information transmitter / receiver 2n
The control unit 5 converts the sent optical signal containing the abnormality information into an electrical signal and sends it to the processor 1b. When the processor 1b receives the signal including the abnormality information, the processor 1b sends the spot information and the abnormality information to the processor 1a on the opposite side.

When the processor 1a receives a signal including abnormality information at the same time from the processor 1b on the opposite side of the point information transmitter / receiver 2a, it determines that a failure has occurred. Similarly, the processor 1b
Determines that a failure has occurred when a signal containing abnormality information is simultaneously received from the processor 1a on the opposite side of the point information transmitter / receiver 2n. Then, the section in which the failure has occurred is specified by the point information sent at the same time, and the failure occurrence signal is output. In this way, it is possible to specify that a failure has occurred at both ends of the detection section and the section in which the failure has occurred.

Further, when optical signals are constantly transmitted / received between the point information transmitter / receivers 2a to 2n adjacent to each other installed in the detection section and the detection section is connected by the optical signal, for example, the point information transmitter / receiver 2b is connected. When the light emitter 3b fails and the optical signal is not input to the light receiver 4a of the spot information transmitter / receiver 2c, the spot information transmitter / receiver adjacent to the light emitter 3b of the spot information transmitter / receiver 2c is processed in the same manner as above. An optical signal including abnormality information is transmitted to 2c. When the processor 1b receives the signal including the abnormality information, the processor 1b sends the spot information and the abnormality information to the processor 1a on the opposite side. At this time, since the light receiver 4b of the spot information transmitter / receiver 2b receives the optical signal from the light emitter 3a of the spot information transmitter / receiver 2c, the spot information transmitter / receiver 2b does not include any abnormality information in the spot information transmitter / receiver 2a. An optical signal is sent, and the spot information transmitter / receiver 2a sends a signal containing no abnormality information to the processor 1a. The processor 1a sends a signal containing no abnormal information to the processor 1b on the opposite side. The processors 1a and 1b determine that a failure or the like has occurred in the device when a signal including the abnormality information and a signal not including the abnormality information are sent at the same time, and the point information transmitter / receiver 2b in which the failure occurs from the point information included in the abnormality information. Specify. In this way, each point information transmitting / receiving device 2a-
It is also possible to reliably detect the occurrence of a failure in the 2n light emitting device or the light receiving device.

Even in this case, for example, if a problem occurs in the section between the spot information transmitter / receiver devices 2b and 2c, the light between the light emitter 3a of the spot information transmitter / receiver device 2c and the light receiver 4b of the spot information transmitter / receiver device 2b. Since the signal is cut off, it is possible to reliably detect that a trouble has occurred.

[0022]

As described above, according to the present invention, optical signals are constantly transmitted and received between the point information transmitters and receivers adjacent to each other of the point information transmitters and receivers installed at predetermined intervals in the detection section, and the detection section is optically transmitted. Since the connection is made by the signal, it is possible to surely detect the occurrence of the obstacle by the processor detecting that the obstacle enters the detection section and interrupts the optical signal.

Further, since it is not necessary to connect each point information transmitting / receiving device with a cable or the like, the obstacle detecting device can be easily installed.

Further, by including the point information where each point information transmitter / receiver is installed in the optical signal transmitted / received between the adjacent point information transmitter / receivers, the faulty section can be surely specified, and the train or train The safety of the vehicle can be secured.

In addition, since a plurality of light emitters and light receivers are used to transmit and receive optical signals between adjacent point information transmitters / receivers to judge the content of the received optical signals, some light emitters and light receivers are used. When a failure occurs in a vessel, the failed apparatus and its location can be specified, and maintenance and inspection can be facilitated.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a light emitter.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a light receiver.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a control unit.

FIG. 5 is a layout drawing of the above embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a conventional detection column.

FIG. 7 is a layout view of conventional detection columns.

FIG. 8 is a layout showing another conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1a, 1b Processor 2a-2n Point information transmitter / receiver 3,3a, 3b Light emitter 4,4a, 4b Light receiver 5,5a Control part

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of spot information transmitters / receivers and a processor, each spot information transmitter / receiver has a plurality of light emitters, a plurality of light receivers, and a controller, and is installed at a predetermined distance in a detection section. The plurality of light emitters transmit the optical signals in the forward and reverse directions, the plurality of light receivers receive the optical signals transmitted in the forward and reverse directions, and the control unit determines whether or not the optical signal is received. However, when at least any one of the light receivers receives the light signal, the contents of the received light signal are judged, and the light information including the point information is transmitted from each light emitter, and received from a part of the light receiver. When no signal is sent, the point information including the contents is sent to each light emitter, and when no received signal is sent from all the light receivers,
The transmission from each light emitter is stopped, and the processors are provided at both ends of the detection section to activate the point information transmitter / receiver and receive an optical signal from the point information transmitter / receiver to detect an abnormality. Obstacle detection device.