JPH11161334A - Vehicle branching method for automatic operation system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the system cost remarkably by enabling high-density operation and smooth operation without using a high-speed computer even if a branch guide number and the number of vehicle increase. SOLUTION: The automatic operation system which places a vehicle 6 in automatic operation up to the station 7 with a destination No. designated by reading a destination No. indicated by an operation managing device 5 and setting information of markers 3 provided on a road surface at fixed intervals previously holds branch information relating to the destination No. of the station 7 in the markers installed on the main line 1 and branch lines 2 where the vehicle 6 travels together with position information. The control system on the vehicle reads the branch information out of the markers 3 as the vehicle 6 travels, compares them with the destination No. designated by the operation managing device 5, and changes the route by pressing the vehicle 6 to the right or left according to the comparison result to guide the vehicle sequentially to the station 7 with the designated destination No.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle branching method in a branching section and a depot section of an automatic driving system for automatically driving an automobile.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, systems for automatically driving automobiles have been developed. FIG. 4 is a system configuration diagram of a branching section and a depot section of a conventional automatic driving system, and FIG. 5 shows a configuration of on-board equipment.

In a conventional automatic driving system, as shown in FIG. 4, a marker 3 for holding road surface position information and the like is embedded at regular intervals on a main line 1 and a branch line 2. In addition, ground communication equipment 4 is installed along the main line 1 and the branch line 2,
It is connected to the operation management device 5. The above ground communication equipment 4
The data is transmitted and received between the traveling vehicle 6 and the operation management device 5. The branch line 2 is branched toward a predetermined station 7 by another branch line.
In the station 7, for example, No.
1 to No. 6 are assigned.

On the other hand, a marker detection device 11 and a communication device 12 are installed in the vehicle 6 as shown in FIG. Marker detection device 11
Detects information stored in the marker 3 when passing over the marker 3 and inputs the information to the control device 13. The control device 13 sends the information read by the marker 3 to the operation management device 5 via the ground communication equipment 4 by the communication device 12. The operation management device 5 sends a control command to the vehicle 6 via the ground communication equipment 4 based on the information sent from the communication device 12. The control device 13 of the vehicle 6 accelerates according to a control command sent through the ground communication equipment 4,
Control such as deceleration and change of the course direction at the junction 8 is performed.

Next, the flow of control according to the conventional branching method will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 6 for a case where the vehicle 6 is guided to the station 7 of the destination No. 4, for example.
First, a request for a destination No. is issued from the control device 13 of the vehicle 6 to the operation management device 5 (step A1). When receiving the request for the destination No. (step B)
1) Search for an empty station 7 (step B)
2). Here, assuming that the station 7 of the destination No. 4 is empty, the operation management device 5 assigns the destination No. 4 to the vehicle 6 (step B3), and starts guidance control for the vehicle 6.

[0006] The control device 13 of the vehicle 6 includes an operation management device 5.
Is confirmed (step A2), the position information of the vehicle 6 is fetched from the marker 3 until arrival at the destination,
The transmission of the information to the operation management device 5 is repeated. That is, the control device 13 takes in the position information from the marker 3 (step A3) and transmits it to the operation management device 5 (step A4). Then, it is determined whether or not a control command has been sent from the operation management device 5 (step A5).
Is controlled (step A6).

Thereafter, it is determined whether or not the station 7 of the destination No. 4 has arrived (step A7). If it has not arrived, the flow returns to step A3 to repeat the above operation. If a control command has not been sent from the operation management device 5 in step A5, the process immediately proceeds to step A7 to determine whether or not the vehicle has arrived at the target destination.

The control device 13 repeatedly executes the above-described control processing, and when it determines in step A7 that the vehicle has arrived at the target destination, that is, the station 7 of the destination No. 4, ends the control operation.

On the other hand, when the operation management device 5 receives the position information of the marker 3 sent from the control device 13 of the vehicle 6 in the guidance control of the vehicle 6 (step B4), the operation management device 5 performs the control of the vehicle 6 based on the received information. (Step B)
5) Send necessary control commands to the vehicle 6. Further, the operation management device 5 determines whether or not the vehicle has approached the branch point (step B6). If the vehicle is not approaching the branch point, the process returns to step B4 to repeatedly execute the above operation.

When the vehicle 6 approaches the first branch point A, the operation management device 5 detects the state at step B6, and issues a branch guidance control command, in this case, the vehicle 6 to the left of the route. The control command for pressing is transmitted to the vehicle 6 (step B7). As a result, the vehicle 6 changes the course to the left and enters the next AB section. The operation management device 5 determines whether or not the vehicle 6 has completed the branch (Step B8), and when it is determined that the branch has been completed, determines whether or not it is the final branch point (Step B9). If not the last branch point, step B4
And the above operation is repeatedly executed. That is, every time the vehicle 6 approaches the branch point 8, the operation management device 5 sends a branch guidance control command, and follows the route of BD, DF to the station 7 of the destination No. 4. . In this case, when it is determined in step B9 that the vehicle 6 has reached the final branch point, the operation management device 5 further determines whether or not the vehicle 6 has reached the station 7 of the destination No. 4 (step B10). When the vehicle 6 arrives at the target station 7, all the guidance control operations are completed.

[0011]

Although the vehicle 6 can be automatically guided and controlled as described above, the guidance control by the conventional method is performed when a plurality of vehicles 6 undergo branch guidance at the same time. Guidance control must be performed according to the number of vehicles, and there are the following problems.

(1) The number of guidance control processes increases due to an increase in the number of branch guidances and the number of vehicles, and a high-speed and large-capacity computer must be used for operation management, thereby increasing the system cost.

(2) Since the operation management device 5 needs to guide the vehicle 6 from the start of the branch to the end of the branch, the ground communication equipment 4 must be installed along the branch line 2, which increases the cost. .

(3) An increase in the number of branch routes and the number of vehicles leads to an increase in sampling time of position information for guidance control, resulting in a reduction in processing speed of the system, and impeding high-density operation and smooth operation. Becomes

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems. Even if the number of branch guidance and the number of vehicles increase, high-speed operation and smooth operation can be performed without using a high-speed and large-capacity computer for operation management. It is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle branching method in an automatic driving system that enables operation and does not require terrestrial communication facilities along a branch line to significantly reduce system cost.

[0016]

According to the present invention, the destination No. designated by the operation management device and the setting information of the markers provided at regular intervals on the road surface are read and the designated destination N is designated.
In an automatic driving system for automatically driving a vehicle to a station of o., a marker installed on a main line and a branch line on which the vehicle travels holds in advance position information and branch information related to a destination No. of the station, With the travel of the vehicle, the branch information is read from the marker by the control system on the vehicle, and compared with the destination No. instructed by the operation management device, and the vehicle is pressed left or right according to the comparison result to change the course, It is characterized in that the vehicle is guided sequentially to the station of the designated destination No.

[0017]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a branching section and a depot section of the automatic driving system according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram expressing the system configuration diagram using a binary tree.

As shown in FIG. 1, the automatic driving system according to the present invention embeds a marker 3 for retaining road surface position information and branch information at regular intervals on the main line 1 and the branch line 2 and at the same time, embeds the main line 1 A terrestrial communication facility 4 is installed along the route, and is connected to the operation management device 5 by a cable 10. The branch line 2 is branched toward a predetermined station 7 by another branch line. In the station 7,
For example, destination numbers of No. 1 to No. 6 are assigned to the respective destinations. In the station 7, the vehicle 6 can communicate with the operation management device 5 via ground communication equipment.

The marker 3 is provided with branch information, for example, branch information (0) to (5) in the example of FIG. 1 in addition to the position information. In this example, the branch information of the main line 1 is always (0), and the branch information of the AB section is (3), BC
The branch information of the section is (1), the branch information of the BD section is (5), the branch information of the CE section is (2), and the branch information of the DF section is (4). The method for determining this branch information is as follows:
The largest destination No. on the left side of the branch destination (the pressing direction is right) is adopted. That is, in FIG. 2, the destination No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 are located on the left side of the branch destination in the AB section.
Exists, the largest (3) is set as branch information.
In the BC section, since only the destination No. 1 exists on the left side in the figure, (1) is set as the branch information. Similarly, in the BD section, the destination No. 4 and No. 5 exist on the left side, so the larger (5) is set. In the CE section, since only the destination No. 2 exists on the left side, (2) is set.
In the DF section, since only No. 4 exists on the left side, (4)
Set.

On the other hand, the marker detection device 11 and the communication device 12 are installed in the vehicle 6 as shown in FIG. The position information and the branch information held in the marker 3 are transmitted to the marker detecting device 1
1 and is input to the control device 13. The control device 13 controls the operation of the vehicle 6 in accordance with the destination No. designated by the operation management device 5 and the position information read from the marker 3, the branch information, etc., that is, acceleration, deceleration, change of the course direction at the branch point 8, etc. Perform

Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. When the vehicle 6 starts traveling on the main line 1, it sends a destination No. request to the operation management device 5 via the ground communication equipment 4 (step C).
1). When receiving the request from the vehicle 6 (step D1), the operation management device 5 determines an empty destination in the station 7 (step D2), allocates the destination No., and determines the destination No. of the vehicle 6. It is sent to the control device 13 (step D3).

When the control device 13 of the vehicle 6 receives the destination No. (step C2), the control device 13 executes the branch control operation independently after that. Here, a case where the destination is the station 7 of No. 2 will be described.

The vehicle 6 on the main line 1
Acquires the position information from the marker 3 and performs the travel control. Then, when the vehicle 6 approaches the branch point to the branch route 2, branch information is acquired from the marker 3 (step C3),
The controller 13 determines whether the destination No. is larger than the marker branch information (step C4). If the destination No. is larger than the marker branch information, the process proceeds to the left pressing process shown in step C5. If the destination No. is smaller than the marker branch information, the process proceeds to the right pressing process shown in step C6.

The branch information on the main line 1 is (0). When compared with the destination No. 2, the destination No. 2 is larger than the destination No. 2; Is changed from the main line 1 to the branch line 2, and the vehicle enters the AB section. Thereafter, the control device 13 determines whether or not the vehicle has arrived at the target destination (step C7). If the vehicle has not arrived, the process returns to step C3 and repeats the above operation. At this point, since the vehicle has not arrived at the target destination, the control device 13 acquires the branch information (3) of the AB section shown in FIG. Destination No.2
Is smaller than the branch information (3), the process proceeds from step C4 to step C6, and rightward pressing is performed. The control device 13 changes the course of the vehicle 6 and enters the BC section. Also in this BC section, after the arrival determination of step C7 is similarly performed, branch information (1) is obtained from the marker 3, and
Make a course decision. In this case, since the destination No. 2 is larger than the branch information (1), the left pressing is performed in step C5, and the control device 13 changes the course of the vehicle 6 and enters the CE section. In this CE section, the destination No. 2
Is not larger than the branch information (2),
6, the control device 13 changes the course of the vehicle 6 and enters the target destination No. 2 section to reach the station 7. At this time, the control device 13 of the vehicle 6 detects that the vehicle 6 has arrived at the target destination No. 2 in step C7, and notifies the operation management device 5 of the arrival (step C8). When the operation management device 5 receives the arrival notification sent from the vehicle 6 (step D4),
The operation management for the vehicle 6 ends.

When the vehicle 6 enters the branch line 2 from the main line 1 as described above, the control system on the vehicle detects the branch information given to the marker 3 in advance, and determines the destination No. and the branch information. By making the comparison, it is possible to arrive at the target destination station 7 while controlling the branch autonomously. Therefore, even when the number of branch roads and the number of vehicles increase, there is no possibility that the number of guidance processes in the operation management device 5 increases, and there is no need to perform operation management using a high-speed and large-capacity computer.

[0026]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, the branching vehicle receives the destination No. from the operation management device via the ground communication equipment while traveling on the main line, and receives the destination No. and the marker branch information. The branch control is performed autonomously by comparing the size with the above, so that the branch processing by the guidance of the operation management device, which is indispensable in the past, becomes unnecessary. On the other hand, the control device on the vehicle side compares the marker branch information with the destination No.
Only execution work such as branch control based thereon is increased. Therefore, even if the number of branch roads and the number of vehicles increase, the branch guidance processing of the operation management device is unnecessary, and it is not necessary to use a high-speed, large-capacity computer for operation management, and system cost can be significantly reduced. . In addition, according to the present invention, since it is not necessary to guide the vehicle by the operation management device, the ground communication equipment along the branch line is not required. By autonomously performing branch control as described above,
Frequent communication of vehicle position information between the vehicle and the operation management device is not required, and the sampling time of the control device and the operation management device provided in the vehicle can be reduced, and high-density and smooth operation in branch control is possible. Becomes

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an automatic driving system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating the system according to the embodiment using a binary tree.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a guidance control operation in the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a system configuration diagram of a branch unit and a depot unit in a conventional automatic driving system.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a control system provided in the self-driving vehicle.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a guidance control operation by a conventional automatic driving system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Main line 2 Branch line 3 Marker 4 Ground communication equipment 5 Operation control device 6 Vehicle 7 Station 8 Branch point 10 Cable 11 Marker detection device 12 Communication device 13 Control device

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An automatic driving system for reading a destination No. designated by an operation management device and setting information of markers provided at regular intervals on a road surface and automatically driving a vehicle to a station of the designated destination No. Markers installed on the main line and the branch route on which the vehicle travels are made to hold position information and branch information related to the destination No. of the station in advance, and the control system on the vehicle branches from the marker as the vehicle travels. The information is read, the size is compared with the destination No. instructed by the operation management device, and the vehicle is pressed left or right according to the comparison result to change the course, and sequentially guided to the station of the specified destination No. A vehicle branching method in an automatic driving system characterized by the above-mentioned.