Vehicle control system, travel management device, resource management device, vehicle control method, and program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11110944-B2
Application number	US-201615778331-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 24, 2016
Priority date	Nov 25, 2015
Publication date	Sep 7, 2021
Grant date	Sep 7, 2021

Abstract

A travel management device is configured to transmit a reservation request for a block section to be reserved based on track information indicating a plurality of block sections constituting a track on which a vehicle travels and a connection relationship between the block sections, the block section to be reserved being among the block sections included in the track on which the vehicle travels. A resource management device is configured to record the block section to be reserved indicated by the reservation request as a reserved block section of the vehicle which has transmitted the reservation request in case where the block section to be reserved indicated by the reservation request is not reserved by a vehicle other than the vehicle which has transmitted the reservation request at a time at which the reservation request is received.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A vehicle control system configured to control a vehicle to run along a track including a plurality of block sections including branching block sections and non-branching block sections, comprising:
an onboard signaling device mounted on the vehicle and configured to control the vehicle to run according to track information for associating each of the plurality of block sections with a corresponding identification;
a travel management device configured to transmit a reservation request to indicate reserved block sections existing ahead of the vehicle to run along the track according to the track information, wherein when the reservation request includes a branching block section, the branching block section indicates whether a branch is positioned in either a normal position or a reverse position; and
a resource management device disposed outside of the vehicle and configured to record the reserved block section indicated by the reservation request with a reservation management table, wherein the reservation management table is configured to record an association between an identification of the vehicle and an identification of the reserved block section as well as a management state for each block section and a branched state for each branching block section, and wherein the reservation management table is configured to change the management state of the reserved block section from a non-reserved state to a reserved state when the reserved block section indicated by the reservation request is not reserved by another vehicle at a time of receiving the reservation request, thus sending reservation-completion information to the onboard signaling device, which is configured to calculate a limit speed pattern for reserved block sections reserved by the vehicle based on the reservation-completion information and to control the vehicle not to exceed the limit speed pattern.

2. The vehicle control system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the travel management device is installed in the onboard signaling device,
wherein the resource management device is located in a predetermined range of the track, and
wherein the travel management device is configured to transmit the reservation request to the resource management device located in the predetermined range of the track including the reserved block sections, indicated by the reservation request.

3. The vehicle control system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the travel management device is configured to notify the resource management device of a passaged block section having its identification which the vehicle has already passed through, and
wherein the resource management device is configured to update the reservation management table to release the passed block section by changing its management state from the reserved state to the non-reserved state.

4. The vehicle control system according to claim 1 ,
wherein, the travel management device is configured to perform stop control of the vehicle upon acquiring from a host device a cancellation request for cancelling a certain range of reserved block sections existing ahead of the vehicle and to thereby transmit a reservation abandonment for abandoning reservation with respect to the certain range of reserved block sections to the resource management device after the vehicle stops.

5. The vehicle control system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the travel management device is installed in the onboard signaling device,
wherein the resource management device is configured to store a range of the track solely including the non-branching block sections continuously connected together among the plurality of block sections without storing reservation or non-reservation with respect to each of the non-branching block sections and to thereby store a travel order for the vehicle to travel along the range of the track solely including the non-branching block sections, and
the travel management device is configured to acquire, after the vehicle mounted with the travel management device enters the range of the track solely including the non-branching block sections, identification information of an immediately preceding vehicle traveling immediately ahead of the vehicle from the resource management device, to detect a position of the immediately preceding vehicle via communication with the immediately preceding vehicle, and to thereby request braking control based on the position of the immediately preceding vehicle and a position of the vehicle according to the travel order.

6. The vehicle control system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the travel management device is configured to acquire the reservation status from the resource management device in advance in order to determine the reserved block section.

7. The vehicle control system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the resource management device is configured to perform, when the reserved block section is the branching block section, switching control for the branching block section according to a travel direction of the vehicle.

8. The vehicle control system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the travel management device is configured to perform, when the reserved block section is the branching block section, switching control for the branching block section according to a travel direction of the vehicle.

9. The vehicle control system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the reservation management table is configured to record a reservation time for reservation of the reserved block section, and
wherein the travel management device is mounted on the vehicle and configured to determine a travel start timing of the vehicle not to overlap the reservation time of another vehicle having already reserved the reserved block section indicated by the reservation request.

10. A travel management device interlocked with an onboard signaling device mounted on a vehicle and configured to carry out a travel control over the vehicle, comprising:
transmitting a reservation request to indicate reserved block sections existing ahead of the vehicle to run along a track according to track information for associating each of a plurality of block sections, including branching block sections and non-branching block sections, with a corresponding identification, wherein when the reservation request includes a branching block section, the branching block section indicates whether a branch is positioned in either a normal position or a reverse position, thus causing the onboard signaling device to carry out;
calculating a speed limit pattern for the vehicle to run through a range of reserved block sections according to reservation completion information which is sent from a resource management device when the reserved block section indicated by the reservation request is not reserved by another vehicle at a time of transmitting the reservation request.

11. A resource management device disposed outside of a vehicle to run along a track including a plurality of block sections including branching block sections and non-branching block sections, comprising:
receiving from a travel management device installed in an onboard signaling device mounted on the vehicle a reservation request to indicate reserved block sections existing ahead of the vehicle to run along the track according to track information for associating each of the plurality of block sections with a corresponding identification, wherein when the reservation request includes a branching block section, the branching block section indicates whether a branch is positioned in either a normal position or a reverse position;
recording the reserved block sections indicated by the reservation request with a reservat

Assignees

• Mitsubishi Heavy Ind Eng Ltd

Inventors

• Yanai Noritaka
• Yamada Masahiro
• Miyajima Yutaka
• Nonaka Hiroki
• Wakasugi Kazuyuki

Classifications

• B61L23/14 Primary

  automatically operated · CPC title

• B61L27/12 Primary

  Preparing schedules · CPC title

• B61L15/0027

  Radio-based, e.g. using GSM-R · CPC title

• B61L15/0072

  On-board train data handling · CPC title

• G06Q10/02

  Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events · CPC title