JP2008302820A - Railway navigation system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To effectively utilize three-dimensional information obtained without using an altitude information database or the like in a railway navigation system for operation control of railway cars. <P>SOLUTION: The railway navigation system provide on a railway car for the railway car that travels on a railway track is provided with a GPS receiver 21 to receive electric waves from an artificial satellite so as to measure the latitude, the longitude, and the altitude of a current position, an operation part 22 to operate a gradient value between one point on the track 4 and another point on the track 4, and a display part 14 to display the gradient value operated by the operation part 22 with relation to three-dimensional information. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a railway navigation system, and more particularly to a system that supports operation management of a railway vehicle.

  In recent vehicle-mounted or portable navigation devices, a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver that outputs a current position by receiving radio waves from an artificial satellite is mounted. The GPS receiver measures the time required for radio waves transmitted from a plurality of artificial satellites to reach itself, calculates each distance from the plurality of artificial satellites based on these required times, and A process for calculating the current position is executed.

  Further, there is a publication that discloses a railway navigation system for a railway vehicle in which a GPS receiver as described above is mounted on a railway vehicle and travels on a track network (for example, Patent Document 1). In this patent document 1, the curvature value of the track on which the railway vehicle is traveling is calculated using the direction change rate indicator and the odometer, and the calculated curvature data and the positions of the curve and the branching device are included. The position of the railway vehicle relative to the curve of the track network and the turnout is calculated based on the comparison result with the data in the track database representing the position of the railroad track. In the railway navigation system of Patent Document 1, information obtained from the GPS receiver is handled as two-dimensional information, and there is no concept of three-dimensional processing.

  On the other hand, although it is not a device related to a railway vehicle, there is a publication that includes a GPS receiver and handles three-dimensional information in which altitude information is added to two-dimensional information of latitude and longitude (for example, Patent Document 2). 3).

  For example, in the position detection device disclosed in Patent Document 2, when the GPS reception processing unit performs three-dimensional positioning, the arithmetic processing unit is an altitude map of an area to which the current position belongs in a group of areas. Is updated using the longitude, latitude, and altitude of the current position that is three-dimensionally positioned, and when the GPS reception processing unit is performing two-dimensional positioning, the altitude of the area to which the current position belongs in a group of areas Processing to calculate altitude using a map is performed. The altitude map is created in advance by the arithmetic processing unit and stored in the altitude information storage unit. That is, the position detection device according to Patent Document 2 requires altitude information in the entire region to be measured.

  Further, in the positioning device disclosed in Patent Document 3, when the connection from the mobile terminal to the GPS server is established, information on the access point to which the mobile terminal is connected is transmitted to the GPS server, and the GPS server is transmitted by the mobile terminal. The process of acquiring the altitude information corresponding to the current position of the mobile terminal and transmitting it to the mobile terminal by searching the altitude table held in the database based on the information of the access point to which the mobile terminal is connected. Done. That is, even with the positioning device or the like according to Patent Document 3, the altitude information in the entire region to be positioned is required to calculate altitude information corresponding to the position of the mobile terminal.

JP 09-240470 A JP 2007-003195 A JP 2006-119006 A

  By the way, the position detection apparatus of the said patent document 2 and the positioning apparatus of the said patent document 3 are assumed to be used as a vehicle-mounted or portable device. For this reason, the range of action of users of these devices is often limited to roads and buildings located near the road. In particular, the road is an infrastructure means used by an unspecified number of people, and since it is extremely public, existing electronic data relating to road information has also been constructed. Therefore, in these apparatuses, it is possible to construct an advanced information database easily and at low cost, and it may be said that there are few factors that make the use of the advanced information database reluctant.

  On the other hand, in a system mounted on a railway vehicle, the range of action is limited to a railway track, and the laying location of the track includes not only a flat land but also a mountainous area. The track is used only by a railway company that uses the track. For this reason, it takes a lot of time and a lot of cost to create a database of altitude information of the laid track.

  On the other hand, the maintenance of a navigation system using three-dimensional information in a railway vehicle cannot be overlooked from the viewpoint of operation management in pursuit of economy and on-time arrival. For example, in the case of a long-distance train such as an express train, it is expected to support more economical operation management by using the gradient information of the laid track. In the case of a long-distance train such as a freight train, it is expected to support operation management that achieves both economic efficiency and on-time reachability by using the gradient information of the laid track.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above, and provides a railway navigation system capable of effectively utilizing three-dimensional information acquired without using an altitude information database or the like for operation management of a railway vehicle. For the purpose.

  In order to solve the above-described problems and achieve the object, a railway navigation system according to the present invention is a railway navigation system for a railway vehicle that is mounted on a railway vehicle and travels on a railway track, and includes a radio wave from an artificial satellite. A GPS receiver that measures the three-dimensional position information including the latitude, longitude, and altitude of the current position, and a point on the track based on the altitude information detected by the GPS receiver, And a display unit that displays the gradient value calculated by the calculation unit in association with the three-dimensional position information.

  According to the railway navigation system of the present invention, the radio wave from the artificial satellite is received to measure the three-dimensional position information including the latitude, longitude and altitude of the current position, and among the detected three-dimensional position information. Since the gradient value between one point on the track and the other point calculated based on the altitude information is displayed in association with the three-dimensional position information, a database or the like in which the altitude information is stored is displayed. There is an effect that the three-dimensional information acquired without using it can be effectively used for the operation management of the railway vehicle.

  Hereinafter, a rail navigation system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In addition, this invention is not limited by embodiment shown below.

Embodiment 1 FIG.
(System configuration)
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a railway navigation system according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, the railway navigation system according to the first embodiment includes a GPS antenna 20, a GPS receiver 21, a calculation unit 22, and a storage unit as components mounted on the leading vehicle (or rear vehicle) 2 of the railway vehicle 1. 23, a data processing device 12, a control console 18, a transmitter 11, a display 14, and a transmission antenna 10, and is received through a reception antenna 9 and a receiver 8 installed at a predetermined position near the line 4 and a transmission path 7. An operation management device 6 is provided which is connected to the device 8 and installed in a ground central station or a station building.

(Function of each component)
The GPS antenna 20 receives radio waves (GPS signals) transmitted from a plurality of satellites (preferably 4 or more). The GPS receiver 21 calculates the current position (latitude, longitude, altitude) of the railway vehicle and the time information at the current position from the GPS signal received via the GPS antenna 20 and transmits the information to the calculation unit 22. The calculation unit 22 calculates the track gradient based on the position (latitude, longitude, altitude) information transmitted from the GPS receiver 21. The calculated line gradient information is output to the storage unit 23 and the data processing device 12 together with the position and time information. The storage unit 23 accumulates the information related to the transmitted line gradient information, time and position information. The control console 18 installed in the cab 5 is a control unit such as an input unit for required information and the data processing device 12 and the display 14. The data processing device 12 transmits information such as the transmitted position, track gradient, and time to the display 14. Further, the data processing device 12 transmits necessary information to the operation management device 6 through the transmitter 11, the transmission antenna 10, the reception antenna 9, and the receiver 8 as necessary.

  In FIG. 1, the data processing device 12, the control console 18, the transmitter 11, the display device 14, the transmission antenna 10, the reception antenna 9, the receiver 8, and the operation management device 6 are existing facilities necessary for train operation management. System. That is, the railway navigation system of the present embodiment shows an example of an embodiment that uses the function of an existing system, transmits data to the data processing device 12 that is a processing unit of the existing train information management device, The required information is notified to the driver of the railway vehicle, the conductor, etc. by using the function of the display 14 which is a display unit of the existing train information management device.

(System operation)
Next, the operation of the railway navigation system according to the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the railway navigation system according to the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a detailed flow of the gradient detection process shown in FIG.

  In FIG. 2, first, the GPS receiver 21 is initialized by turning on the power of the GPS receiver 21 (step S11). Next, destination information (via route information if necessary) input through the control console 18 is set (step S12). The GPS receiver 21 detects the current position of the railway vehicle (step S13), and the calculation unit 22 executes a gradient value calculation process which is a subflow described later (step S14). The position information detected by the GPS receiver 21 and the gradient information calculated by the calculation unit 22 are transmitted to the data processing device 12, displayed using the display 14, and stored in the storage unit 23 (step S15). ). Note that display control for the display unit 14 and transmission control for the storage unit 23 can be performed through the control console 18.

In FIG. 3, the position at time t ₁ is the start point P (east longitude α ₁ °, north latitude β ₁ °, altitude h ₁ [m]), and the position at time t ₂ is end point R (east longitude α ₂ °, North latitude β ₂ °, altitude h ₂ [m]), the start point information and the end point information are input to the calculation unit 22 (step S101). Next, the calculation unit 22 calculates the horizontal distance L between the start point P and the end point R (step S102), and calculates the gradient value θ of the line 4 based on the following equation (step S103).

θ = tan ⁻¹ [(h ₂ −h ₁ ) / L] (1)

The time interval ΔT (= t ₂ −t ₁ ) between the time t ₂ when calculating the end point R and the time t ₁ when calculating the start point P is a processing interval when calculating the line gradient. Can be set arbitrarily.

(Effect of system use)
Next, effects of using the railway navigation system according to the first embodiment will be described.

  First, according to the railway navigation system according to the first embodiment, since the gradient information of the track 4 can be displayed, the quality and amount of information given to the driver, the conductor, and the like can be increased as compared with the prior art. In other words, in addition to two-dimensional position information, three-dimensional information including gradient information can be obtained. For example, by more economical train traveling considering gradient information and setting of train speed considering track gradient It is possible to improve on-time reachability.

  Moreover, according to the railway navigation system concerning Embodiment 1, since required information is transmitted to the operation management apparatus 6 through the transmitter 11, the transmission antenna 10, the receiving antenna 9, and the receiver 8 as needed. For example, in a ground station such as a central monitoring station, detailed train information can be obtained, and the monitoring capability of the central monitoring station or the like can be improved. In particular, the operation of regularly transmitting data such as position information makes it possible to quickly and accurately grasp the situation of an accident when, for example, a train accident occurs.

  Further, in the railway navigation system according to the first embodiment, the map database information (two-dimensional information) is held in the data processing device 12 so that, for example, the travel position information and the operation information such as the delay time are visually displayed on the display 14. Can be displayed automatically, and warnings such as deceleration and acceleration, alerts, etc. can be issued based on the acquired track slope information. And the load on the driver and the conductor can be reduced.

  If the absolute position information of the main station is held in the data processing device 12, the current position information can be corrected every time it arrives at the main station. It is possible to reduce the increase.

Embodiment 2. FIG.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration of a railway navigation system according to the second embodiment of the present invention. The railway navigation system shown in the figure is configured to further include an orientation sensor 15 for detecting the traveling direction of the railway vehicle in the configuration of the railway navigation system shown in FIG. The azimuth sensor 15 is a azimuth sensor that can detect the traveling azimuth of the leading vehicle 2 and can be realized by, for example, a gyro compass, a vibration gyro, an optical fiber gyro, a magnetic compass, or the like. The other configuration is the same as or equivalent to the configuration of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1, and these common components are denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof is omitted. .

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a detailed flow of the gradient detection process in the railway navigation system of the second embodiment, and the same or equivalent parts as the process flow shown in FIG. 3 are denoted by the same reference numerals. .

In FIG. 5, the position at time t ₁ is the start point P (east longitude α ₁ °, north latitude β ₁ °, altitude h ₁ [m]), and the position at time t ₂ is end point R (east longitude α ₂ °, north latitude β ₂ °, altitude h ₂ [m]), the start point information and the end point information are input to the calculation unit 22 (step S101). The data processing device 12 detects the traveling azimuth φ _{1 at} the start point P and the traveling azimuth φ ₂ at the end point R based on the traveling azimuth information detected by the azimuth sensor 15, and notifies the arithmetic unit 22 of the detected azimuth information. (Step S201). In the configuration of FIG. 4, the output of the azimuth sensor 15 may be input to the calculation unit 22, and the calculation unit 22 may perform the process of step S <b> 201. Next, the calculation unit 22 sets a point Q that is a virtual point for calculation (in the example of FIG. 5, an intermediate point for calculation), and a distance PQ between the start point P and the point Q and the point Q A distance QR between the start point P and the end point R is calculated (step S202), and a horizontal distance L between the start point P and the end point R is calculated based on the following equation (step S203).

L = √ [PQ ² + QR ² + 2 · PQ · QR · cos (φ ₂ −φ ₁ )] (2)

Further, the calculation unit 22 calculates the gradient value θ of the line 4 using the above equation (1) based on the information on the horizontal distance L calculated by the above equation (2) (step S103).
θ = tan ⁻¹ [(h ₂ −h ₁ ) / L] (1) (repost)

The time interval ΔT (= t ₂ −t ₁ ) between the time t ₂ when calculating the end point R and the time t ₁ when calculating the start point P is a processing interval when calculating the line gradient. Can be set arbitrarily.

(Effect of system use)
According to the railway navigation system according to the second embodiment, the same effects as in the first embodiment can be obtained, and the following unique effects can be obtained.

  First, according to the railway navigation system according to the second embodiment, the horizontal distance L between the start point P and the end point R is calculated by setting the point Q, which is a virtual point in calculation, It is possible to suppress a calculation error in a calculation section in which the traveling direction greatly changes between the start point P and the end point R.

  In addition, according to the railway navigation system according to the second embodiment, by maintaining the information on the traveling direction and the information on the rate of change of the traveling direction, it is possible to perform deceleration, acceleration, etc. Since warnings, alerts, and the like can be performed, it is possible to more effectively reduce the load on the driver and the conductor.

Embodiment 3 FIG.
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a configuration of a railway navigation system according to the third embodiment of the present invention. The railway navigation system shown in the figure is configured by configuring the railway navigation system according to the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1 as D-GPS (differential-GPS). In FIG. 6, a transmitter / receiver 8a equipped with a GPS receiver functioning as a D-GPS reference station, which will be described later, is provided, a transmitting / receiving antenna 9a for transmitting a correction signal generated by the transmitter / receiver 8a, and a correction signal are received. Is provided so that the generated correction signal is input to the GPS receiver 21. The other configuration is the same as or equivalent to the configuration of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1, and these common components are denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof is omitted. .

(D-GPS concept)
Here, the concept of D-GPS will be briefly described. D-GPS is a technique for improving accuracy by correcting errors in GPS measurement results using radio waves such as FM broadcasts transmitted from a reference station whose position is known. At the reference station, a GPS survey is performed, and the difference between the actual position and the position calculated by the GPS is transmitted by terrestrial waves such as FM broadcast, thereby correcting the result measured by the signal from the GPS satellite. In normal GPS, a position error of about 100 m occurs, but the error is reduced to about 5 m (horizontal direction) by D-GPS. However, the position error of 100m occurred because noise was intentionally mixed into the GPS provided by the US Department of Defense for security reasons. Even if GPS is not adopted, the error is said to be within 10 m. On the other hand, at the present time when no noise is mixed, the position error, which is a horizontal positioning error, can be reduced to an accuracy of ± 1 m by using D-GPS. It is shown in Patent Document 4.

Special table 2002-509603 gazette

(Positioning error in the vertical direction of GPS)
By the way, in the case of GPS, it is said that the altitude error indicating the positioning error in the vertical direction is very large compared to the position error indicating the positioning error in the horizontal direction. However, in the following Non-Patent Document 1, the GPS altitude measurement error is defined as about 1.5 times the horizontal positioning error, and it is possible to improve the GPS positioning error in the vertical direction.

Global Positioning System Standard Positioning Service Performance Performance Standard, Department of Defence, Oct. 2001. Global Positioning System Standard Positioning Service Performance Performance Standard, Department of Defence, Oct. 2001.

(Effect of system use)
According to the railway navigation system according to the third embodiment, since it is configured as a system capable of D-GPS processing, the same effects as those of the first embodiment can be obtained, and economic efficiency and on-time reachability can be obtained. It is possible to effectively support operation management that balances the two.

  In addition, although the railway navigation system concerning Embodiment 3 showed the example which comprises the railway navigation system concerning Embodiment 1 shown in FIG. 1 as D-GPS, the railway according to Embodiment 2 shown in FIG. The present invention can also be applied to a navigation system, and the effect according to the second embodiment can also be obtained.

  As described above, the railway navigation system according to the present invention is useful as an invention that can effectively utilize the three-dimensional information acquired without using an altitude information database or the like for operation management of railway vehicles.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the railway navigation system concerning Embodiment 1 of this invention. 3 is a flowchart for explaining an operation of the railway navigation system according to the first exemplary embodiment; It is a flowchart which shows the detailed flow of the gradient detection process shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the structure of the railway navigation system concerning Embodiment 2 of this invention. 6 is a flowchart showing a detailed flow of a gradient detection process in the railway navigation system of the second embodiment. It is a figure which shows the structure of the railway navigation system concerning Embodiment 3 of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Rail vehicle 2 Lead vehicle 4 Track 5 Driver's cab 6 Operation management device 7 Transmission path 8 Receiver 8a Transmitter / receiver 9,17 Reception antenna 9a Transmission / reception antenna 10 Transmitting antenna 11 Transmitter 12 Data processing device 14 Display 15 Direction sensor 18 Control Console 20 GPS antenna 21 GPS receiver 22 Calculation unit 23 Storage unit

Claims (3)

A railway navigation system for a railway vehicle mounted on a railway vehicle and traveling on a railway track,
A GPS receiver for positioning three-dimensional position information including the latitude, longitude and altitude of the current position by receiving radio waves from an artificial satellite;
Based on altitude information detected by the GPS receiver, a calculation unit that calculates a gradient value between one point on the line and another point on the line;
A display unit that displays the gradient value calculated by the calculation unit in association with the three-dimensional position information;
A railway navigation system characterized by comprising: Further comprising an orientation sensor for detecting the traveling direction of the railway vehicle;
The said calculating part calculates the said gradient value in consideration of the information of the traveling azimuth | direction of the said one point detected by the said azimuth | direction sensor, and the traveling azimuth | direction of the said other point. Railway navigation system. A transmitter / receiver equipped with a GPS receiver installed at a predetermined position near the track and functioning as a D-GPS reference station;
The railway navigation system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a correction signal generated by a GPS receiver in the transceiver is transmitted to a GPS receiver in the railway vehicle. .

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