FR2530568A1 - METHOD AND DEVICE FOR RECOGNITION AND POSITION CONTROL FOR TRANSPORT VEHICLES - Google Patents

Abstract

THIS PROCESS ALLOWS A VEHICLE TO LOCATE ON A GIVEN ROUTE AND TO IDENTIFY ITS SERVICE STOPS, IN A PUBLIC TRANSPORT SYSTEM: METROPOLITAIN, OMNIBUS TRAIN, TRAMWAY, ETC. THE DISTANCE TRAVELED BY THE VEHICLE BETWEEN TWO CONSECUTIVE STOPS IS MEASURED, AND THE DISTANCE MEASUREMENTS THUS CARRIED OUT ARE ANALYZED AUTOMATICALLY BY COMPARISON WITH THE VALUES, STORED IN MEMORY IN THE FORM OF A TABLE, OF THE KNOWN DISTANCES BETWEEN THE CONSECUTIVE STATIONS. THE RESULT OF THE COMPARISON ALLOWS TO DEDUCT THE STATION AT WHICH THE VEHICLE IS LOCATED. SPECIAL APPLICATION: AUTOMATIC ANNOUNCEMENT OF STATIONS TO PASSENGERS TRANSPORTED BY THE VEHICLE.

Description

"METHOD AND DEVICE FOR RECOGNITION AND CONTROL

  POSITION FOR TRANSPORT VEHICLES "

  The present invention relates to a method and a device for recognition and position control for transport vehicles, circulating in own site or not, but anyway called to follow a determined route in advance, with stops also in principle This method and this device make it possible for a vehicle to locate on a given route and identify its service stops in a public transport system, the stops being called "station", "station" or "bus stop" "according to whether

  a metropolitan / tram line, railway line or bus / tram line.

  leybus. Until now the recognition of a stop, or a singular point other than a stop, for these kinds of public transport vehicles, was realized using a sequential system initialized at a point of the line and incremented, along the path followed, by equipment provided on the ground (electromagnetic type of beacons, magnetic, radio, optical, electromagnetic loops, etc.) and / or by one or more information internal to the vehicle (action of the driver, opening

door, etc.).

  These existing devices present a number of

  In the event of a breakdown in the equipment on the ground, the system becomes

  inactive on all vehicles in the line.

  Partial operation of the line, or excluding stops,

  completely disorient these systems.

  The present invention overcomes these drawbacks by providing a method that allows equipment requiring position or station information to continuously and securely know the position of the vehicle on the line, without human intervention and without ground equipment. For this purpose, the subject of the invention is a method of recognition

  and position control for transport vehicles which essentially consists of

  to measure the distance traveled by the vehicle between two consecutive stops, and to automatically analyze the distance measurements made by comparing them with the values stored in the memory.

  distances between consecutive stations of the line traveled by the vehicle

  cule, the result of the comparison allowing to deduce the station

where the vehicle is.

  The invention is fundamentally based on the fact that the distances

  these between consecutive stations, or "interstations", are as a rule

  unequal lengths on a transit line, and that

  seems of the journey with stops made by a public transport vehicle is defined entirely by a unique and characteristic suite

  of distances that can be stored in tabular form.

  Thus, the distances measured between two consecutive stops being

  the values entered in the table, the system will establish the concordance

  between a distance traveled between two stops and an interstation

  given, and he will deduce the station where the vehicle is.

  To initially recognize its position, the vehicle will have to

  at least one interstation It will eventually traverse two or three interstations, in the case of certain applications with equal interstations or with certain repetitions in the range of distances stored, and for which a single measurement leads to an indeterminate result. If the system is to be used during the first interstation, it must be initialized using a pushbutton, a keypad, a beacon, an indication of the direction of travel, etc. Even if is thus initialized, the recognition system according to the invention retains all its interest for the control of the position, because it takes into account unexpected stops between two stations as well as steps "up-foot",

that is to say with stops swings.

  Interstations storage and analysis of distance measurements are advantageously not only

  absolute values but also in relative values, ie in terms of

  the ratio of consecutive interstations measured, and

  comparing this ratio with the various reports of consecutive interstations stored in memory, thereby implementing the method of the invention,

  the wear coefficient of the wheels of the vehicle can be determined

  to get rid of it, or error due to the distance measuring chain, and it also becomes very easy to make comparisons

  assuming a tolerance of 1% for example, between the values resulting from

  both measured distances and the theoretical values stored.

  The system works, of course, iteratively so that, if the position of the vehicle has not been recognized, or if this position previously determined has been "lost, for some reason the analysis is redone until that the vehicle recognizes its position Thus conceived, the system allows a permanent verification

  the position of the vehicle and its own operation.

  By combining the recognition of stations or other stops, and the measurement of distance traveled after a stop that has already been recognized, the system according to the invention allows, moreover, to know at any time

  the very precise position of the vehicle on the line.

  By making particular use of this last feature, the system can be used in particular in a metropolitan network

  to make an automatic announcement of the stations to

  transported goods, in particular an announcement made in advance, for

  60 meters before arrival at the station, which is easily achievable since the recognition of any station also allows, given the information stored in memory, to know the next station to perform a continuous speed control, imposing by example of the maximum speeds on the various sections of the line; to control a fully automatic driving system

of the vehicle.

  The device for implementing this method, which does not necessarily require equipment on the ground but can instead be fully mounted on the vehicle, comprises means for measuring the distance traveled by the vehicle, these means being connected to a electronic assembly including means for storing at least two distances measured between consecutive stops of the vehicle, a memory in which the distances between consecutive stations of the line traveled by the vehicle are stored, and a calculation and decision unit , connected to a user system of the recognition of

position performed.

  The means for measuring the distance traveled consist for example of a voice wheel mounted on one of the axles of the vehicle, and providing pulses whose interval corresponds to a distance

  This pulse is counted and the distance

  this measured of the first two interstations is thus determined and stored in memory The computing and decision unit establishes the ratio of these distances, and compares it with the different ratios in memory, to deduce the station at which the vehicle Quant is located. to the user system of the recognition of position carried out, it is obviously a function of the envisaged application: system of automatic announcement of the stations, system of continuous control of speed, system

automatic driving.

  In any case, the invention will be better understood by means of the

  description which follows, with reference to the attached schematic drawing

  as a non-limitative example, a form of execution of this

  recognition and position control system for transport vehicles

  port, and illustrating the operation of this device especially in the case of its application to the automatic announcement of the stations

  Figure 1 is a block diagram of this recognition device.

  position control; Figure 2 is a simplified flowchart of the operation of the device and its operation for the announcement of stations Figure 3 is a diagram showing a section of public transport line, constituting a numerical example illustrating more

  concretely the possibilities of the recognition system according to the

  tion. The position recognition and control device according to

  the invention comprises, compulsorily and as shown very schematically

  1, means (2) for measuring the distance traveled by the vehicle, or by a set of coupled vehicles such as a metropolitan train. These means can be constituted by a voice wheel mounted on one of the axles of the vehicle or of the set of vehicles, and supplying pulses each of which corresponds, for example, to an elementary distance traveled of 0.05 meter. The measuring means (2) are connected to a unit of measurement. calculation and

  decision-making system (3) belonging to an electronics assembly (4), which

  still takes a memory (5) connected to the calculation and decision unit (3) l In the memory (5) are stored in table form the values of the successive distances between stations of the line traversed by the

vehicle considered.

  Optionally, the electronic assembly (4) can also receive, as indicated respectively in (6, 7 and 8): information from fixed equipment, such as a loop or a beacon on the ground

  information from the vehicle's internal automatic

  cule; information from the driver's compartment of the vehicle

  the, and given by the driver using a keyboard or a button-

pusher (BP).

  These optional arrangements make it possible to initialize the system, or to provide it with additional information such as the direction of travel of the vehicle or its starting point, which can facilitate or accelerate the position recognition process described below.

  with reference to the flow chart of Figure 2.

  The calculation and decision unit (3) is finally connected to the system

  user (9), such as automatic station announcement system.

  After initialization of the system, the first interstations are measured by the means described above. At least the distances traveled on the first two interstations are determined and stored, and their ratio is compared with the various reports in memory in tabular form. If the ratio of measured distances corresponds to a characteristic ratio stored in memory, with a tolerance of 1% for example, the interstations already traveled,

  therefore the station at which the vehicle arrived, are recognized.

  The wear correction parameters of the wheels of the vehicle, corresponding to a reduction in their diameter, are also determined and set

in memory at this moment.

  If there is no agreement between the ratio resulting from the first distance measurements and one of the reports in memory, or if one is in a case of indeterminacy, a new distance measurement and a new comparison are carried out, until the definite identification

  the position of the vehicle on the line traveled.

  After a stop at a station, and if this station has been recognized, the measuring means of the distance traveled are reset to zero, and the distance traveled is thus measured and entered from the station in question. This distance traveled is compared with a value equal to X-60, in which X represents the length in meters of the interstation being traversed When there is equality of the two values compared, so when the vehicle is 60 meters before the arrival at the next station, the automatic announcement system makes this station known to the passengers transported, in the form of a sound announcement (voice recorded or reconstituted) and / or a

bright indication.

  Entering the distance traveled continues after the announcement

  from the next station until the vehicle stops.

  At each stop, the system checks whether the vehicle is in the station (with the tolerance allowed of 1% for example on the distance) If this control makes appear a correspondence of the distances, the measurement of distance is simply reset to zero, and the system continues to operate as described above, automatically announcing the next station, 60 meters before arrival at this station If there is no match, especially in case of stop between two stations or "jump" of a station, the entire recognition program is resumed

at its beginning.

  Thus, the system not only performs the position recognition of the vehicle, but it also continuously controls this position by finding it if it has been "lost", so that the disturbances are minimized for the user system, such as the system.

Automatic announcement of stations.

  Figure 3 partially shows a metropolitan line whose stations designated by the letters (A, B, C, etc.) are separated

  by the distances given by way of example and expressed in meters.

  Thus the table of distances stored in memory is the following

600 AB

420 BC

510 CD

420 DE

640 EF

  It is initially assumed that a train, traveling on the line in the direction indicated by the arrow, is stationary at the station (B), and that the system has not, at this time, yet recognized the position of

paddle.

  The first distance measurement, performed between the stations (B and C), gives a result of 423 m, which falls within the tolerance range of 420 m + 1%. However, despite the concordance that may then be noted, the position of the rame remains indeterminate because the interstation

  (DE) is also equal to 420 m.

  A second measurement of distance must therefore be made between the stations (C) and (D) This measurement gives a result of 514 m, which falls within the tolerance of 514 m + 1% The succession of values

  measured is then characteristic of the position of the train on the

  On arrival at station (D), the system recognizes this station.

  The system then determines the wear coefficient of the

  wheels, from substantially equal ratios 423/420 or 514/510.

  Knowing that the next station (E) is distant 420 m from the station (D =), the system then measures the distance traveled after the departure of the station (D), and compares this distance with the value 420 60 = 360 m, to detect when the train is 60 m from the station (E) The name of this station (E), corresponding to the next stop, is then announced in the passenger compartments At the time of arrival at the station (E), the counting is reset to zero The next interstation (EF) representing a course of 640 m, the station (F) will be announced when the rame part of the station (E) has traveled 640 60 = 580 m, and so on - If during the first interstation traveled the train must stop 220 m from the station (B), so between stations (B) and (C), the first two distances measured will be 220 m and 200 m, which does not correspond to the distances inscribed in memory, nor to the relations between these distances. In this case, the osition will be performed on the following interstations (CD) and (DE) Arrival at the station (E), the train will recognize its position and the station (F) can be announced.

m in advance.

  For the simplicity of the explanation we have so far considered a vehicle traveling on a line, in a given direction In the usual case of a public transport vehicle describing trips back and forth on

  the same line, the system can of course operate cyclically

  that, and it is not necessary in this case to restart the whole process of recognition after each departure from a terminus of

line.

  It goes without saying that the invention is not limited to the sole embodiment of this recognition and position control device which has been described above, by way of example; it embraces, on the contrary, all variants of implementation and application, regardless of the type of vehicle or network (metropolitan, train

  omnibus, tramway, etc.) equipped with the system, and whatever the

  position recognition, all uses being

  possible even when combined (for example: simultaneous use of

  born for announcing stations and speed control).

9 t

Claims (7)

  1 Recognition and position control method for   transport vehicles, in particular enabling a vehicle to be located   traveling on a given route and identifying service stops in a public transport system, characterized in that it essentially consists in measuring the distance traveled by the vehicle between two consecutive stops, and in automatically analyzing the distance measurements performed by comparing them with the values stored in the   distances between consecutive stations of the line traveled by the vehicle   cule, the result of the comparison allowing to deduce the station where the vehicle is.   2 Recognition and position control method according to   Claim 1, characterized in that the storage of the distances   these between stations and the analysis of the measurements of distances carried out are not only in absolute values but also in relative values, that is to say by determining the ratio of the consecutive interstations   measured and comparing this relationship with the various reports of inter-   consecutive stations stored.   Position recognition and control method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the comparisons between the values resulting from the distance measurements and the values stored in the memory are made by admitting a tolerance, for example of 1%. 4 Recognition and position control method according to   any of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that, in   cases of mismatch between the values resulting from the measurements of   these between the first stops of the vehicle and the values stored in memory,   a new distance measurement and a new comparison are made   killed, iteratively, until the position of the vehicle is recognized.   Position recognition and control method according to   any of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that at least   position recognition of the vehicle, is also deter-   mined and put in memory the coefficient of wear of the wheels   of the vehicle and error due to the distance measuring chain.   6 Recognition and position control method according to   any of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that after   Recognition of the position of the vehicle, the distance traveled by the vehicle with reset after each stop is continued, and at each stop the conformity of the measured distance with a stored value is checked, and in the event of a discrepancy , we   starts again the entire recognition program.   7 Method of recognition and position control according to   any of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that it is   used for the automatic announcement of -stations to transported travelers * by the vehicle.   8 Method of recognition and position control according to   all of claims 6 and 7, characterized in that the advertisement   automatic of each station is made in advance, before the arrival of the vehicle to this station, by comparing the distance traveled, measured since the stop at the previous station, with a value equal to the length of the interstation which is being traveled, diminished by a certain distance. 9 Position recognition and position control device for transport vehicles, intended for implementing the method according to   any of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that   takes means (2) for measuring the distance traveled by the vehicle, said means (2) being connected to an electronic assembly (4) including means for storing at least two distances measured between consecutive stops of the vehicle , a memory (5) in which are stored the distances between consecutive stations of the line traveled by the vehicle, and a calculation and decision unit (3), connected to a   system (9) user of the position recognition performed.   Position recognition and control device according to claim 9, characterized in that the measuring means (2) of the distance traveled are constituted by a mounted sound wheel.   on one of the axles of the vehicle, and providing impulses whose   valle corresponds to a determined elementary distance.   11 recognition and position control device according to claim 9 or 10, characterized in that the electronic assembly   (4) above is further provided for receiving information from   fixed equipment, such as a loop or beacon on the ground (6) and / or information from the internal automation of the vehicle (7) and / or information from the driver's cab of the   -vehicle (8), given using a keyboard or a push button.