Management system and control system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11079246-B2
Application number	US-201916256559-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 24, 2019
Priority date	Jan 24, 2018
Publication date	Aug 3, 2021
Grant date	Aug 3, 2021

Abstract

A management system according to the present disclosure is a management system that manages a travel plan of a vehicle that is capable of traveling on a road and a railway track, and includes controller that creates the travel plan of the vehicle. In a case where there is a route candidate track that is a railway track that is possibly used as a travel route of the vehicle, the controller acquires a railway operation schedule for the route candidate track, and determines whether the route candidate track can be used as the travel route of the vehicle, based on the operation schedule. In the case where the route candidate track can be used as the travel route of the vehicle, the controller creates a travel plan according to which the vehicle travels along the travel route including the route candidate track.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A management system that manages a travel plan of a vehicle, the management system comprising a controller comprising at least one processor configured to create the travel plan of the vehicle, wherein
the controller
determines, based on map data including a current position of the vehicle and a destination of the vehicle, whether there is a route candidate track that is a railway track and a road that is possibly used as a travel route of the vehicle, the vehicle is capable of traveling on the road and on the railway track,
acquires a railway operation schedule for the route candidate track, in a case where presence of the route candidate track is determined, and
determines whether the route candidate track can be used as the travel route of the vehicle, based on the railway operation schedule for the route candidate track acquired, and

in a case where the route candidate track is determined as usable as the travel route of the vehicle, a travel plan is created such that the vehicle travels along the travel route including the route candidate track.

2. The management system according to claim 1 , further comprising distributor that distributes, over a network, a travel schedule of the vehicle on the railway track that is made the route candidate track, in a case where the vehicle is to travel along the travel route including the route candidate track according to the travel plan created by the controller.

3. A control system that controls a vehicle that is a management target of the management system according to claim 1 , the control system comprising travel controller that causes the vehicle to perform autonomous traveling according to the travel plan of the vehicle created by the controller.

4. A control system that controls a vehicle that is a management target of the management system according to claim 1 , the control system comprising mode controller that places a control mode of a predetermined device in a road travel mode, when the vehicle is to travel on a road, and in a track travel mode, when the vehicle is to travel on a railway track, where the predetermined device is provided in the vehicle and is used to control a traveling state of the vehicle.

5. The control system according to claim 4 , wherein
the predetermined device is a vibration damping mechanism that damps vibration of the vehicle,
the mode controller is damping controller that performs vibration damping control by controlling the vibration damping mechanism, and
a control cycle of the vibration damping control is different between the road travel mode and the track travel mode.

6. The control system according to claim 4 , further comprising travel controller that performs collision avoidance control for avoiding collision between the vehicle and an object, based on a sensing result of a sensor that performs sensing with respect to a surrounding state of the vehicle, wherein
the predetermined device is the sensor,
the mode controller is sensor controller that controls the sensor, and
a sensing level of the sensor is different between the road travel mode and the track travel mode.

7. A management method of managing a travel plan of a vehicle, the management method comprising the steps of:
determining, based on map data including a current position of the vehicle and a destination of the vehicle, whether there is a route candidate track that is a railway track and a road that is possibly used as a travel route of the vehicle, the vehicle is capable of traveling on the road and on the railway track;
acquiring a railway operation schedule for the route candidate track, in a case where presence of the route candidate track is determined;
determining whether the route candidate track is usable as the travel route of the vehicle, based on the railway operation schedule for the route candidate track; and
creating a travel plan according to which the vehicle travels along the travel route of the vehicle including the route candidate track, in a case where the route candidate track is determined as usable as the travel route of the vehicle.

8. A program for causing a computer to perform a management method of managing a travel plan of a vehicle, a non-transitory computer usable medium having computer readable instructions embodied therein, the computer readable instructions, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a management method, the management method comprising the steps of:
determining, based on map data including a current position of the vehicle and a destination of the vehicle, whether there is a route candidate track that is a railway track and a road that is possibly used as a travel route of the vehicle, the vehicle is capable of traveling on the road and on the railway track;
acquiring a railway operation schedule for the route candidate track, in a case where presence of the route candidate track is determined;
determining whether the route candidate track is usable as the travel route of the vehicle, based on the railway operation schedule for the route candidate track; and
creating a travel plan according to which the vehicle travels along the travel route of the vehicle including the route candidate track, in a case where the route candidate track is determined as usable as the travel route of the vehicle.

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd
• Denso Corp

Inventors

• Yamamuro Naoki
• Adachi Shinichi
• Hattori Ryo
• Amakasu Taichi
• HIRUMA Keigo

Classifications

• B60F1/043 Primary

  Vehicles comprising own propelling units · CPC title

• B61L27/20

  Trackside control of safe travel of vehicle or train, e.g. braking curve calculation · CPC title

• B61L27/40

  Handling position reports or trackside vehicle data · CPC title

• G06Q50/26

  Government or public services (business processes related to the transportation industry G06Q50/40) · CPC title

• G08G1/13

  the indicator being in the form of a map · CPC title