Railways – Selective delivery – Electrical control
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-28
2001-11-20
Morano, S. Joseph (Department: 3617)
Railways
Selective delivery
Electrical control
C104S124000, C104S125000, C180S167000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06318274
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to a PRT (personal rapid transit) system allowing PRT vehicles to run along dedicated guideway networks at high speeds and, more particularly, to a computer-based PRT system utilizing both course reservation and branch stop technologies and having tunnel-type dedicated guideways located aboveground, groundlevel or underground and being computer-controlled, thus allowing small-sized and standardized PRT vehicles to run along the guideways at high speeds without having any congestion delays and thereby radically solving traffic congestion in a large metropolitan region.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As well known to those skilled in the art, traditional public transit systems, such as subways and light electric railways running on fixed schedule, are problematic in that they require long station wait times and are less likely to allow passengers to reach their destinations through shortest courses. Another problem experienced in such public transit systems is that the systems force passengers to make a long distance walk so as to transfer from a train to another train at a transfer station, thus being inconvenient to the passengers, especially to people who transfer. In the above transit systems, each train has to be stopped at every station to debark/embark passengers at the stations, thus being delayed and time-consuming. A further problem of the traditional transit systems resides in that a plurality of trains, with a fixed-passenger carrying capacity, require running along the rails regardless of peak or off-peak hours. Therefore, the trains are unoccupied with passengers during off-peak hours and are highly crowded with passengers during peak hours, thus being run inefficiently. Such transit systems also increase construction costs and require a lengthy period of construction time, causing congestion of urban traffic to become worse.
In an effort to overcome the problems experienced in such traditional public transit systems, several types of automated people mover (APM) systems and personal rapid transit (PRT) systems, such as PRT 2000 and Skycar, have been proposed and feasibly tested in some counties of the world. However, such typical APM or PRT systems are problematic in that they are limited in their passenger carrying capacities in comparison with the traditional public transit systems and cause congestion of urban traffic during rush hour. Such known APM or PRT systems utilize an off-line stop technology and have series platforms, thus reducing transit capacity. The above APM or PRT systems do not allow APM or PRT vehicles to change their lanes on the guideways and so each of the APM or PRT vehicles has to run along a dedicated and fixed lane and this remarkably reduces the transit capacity. In addition, the guideways of the above systems consist of one-way paths, thereby forcing vehicles on the guideways to make detours prior to reaching destinations. A further problem experienced in the above APM or PRT systems is that they fail to provide sufficient vehicle storage areas due to both large-sized vehicles and the structural limit of stations.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a computer-based PRT system, which includes a guideway network consisting of multi-layered guideways located aboveground, groundlevel or underground and is automatically controlled by computers, thus allowing small-sized and standardized PRT vehicles to run along one-way guideways at high speeds without any congestion delays and thereby providing a rapid transit system, having a large passenger carrying capacity and radically solving traffic congestion in a large metropolitan region.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a computer-based PRT guideway network, which consists of multi-layered guideways suitable for allowing small-sized and standardized PRT vehicles to effectively start, stop, be branched from and merge with a main guideway, and change lanes through an integrated computer control process, thus allowing the vehicles to run along the guideways at high speeds without having any congestion delays and increasing transit efficiency, and which utilizes both course reservation and branch stop technologies capable of preventing the PRT vehicles from being delayed due to embarking or debarking, and which effectively reduces the loading, unloading and parking areas at stations while maximizing the platform capacity.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a computer-based PRT vehicle, which is equipped with a plurality of sensors, such as running reference line sensors and control signal unit sensors, and is standardized in its width and height, thus being automatically operated on a dedicated PRT guideway network without any human drivers under the control of computers using various sensor signals.
In order to accomplish the above objects, the present invention provides a PRT system utilizing both course reservation and branch stop technologies and comprising a fully coupled PRT guideway network located aboveground, groundlevel or underground. The network includes main and branch guideways, each of which has a rectangular or arcuate tunnel-shaped cross-section and is arrayed into a two-layered structure with the guideway on each layer being designed to be exclusively used as a one-way path. The branch guideway is branched from the main guideway and extends to a group of terminals. A running reference line is arrayed along the longitudinal center of the ceiling or bottom of each of the main and branch guideways, thus being used as a reference line for PRT vehicles running on the network.
A plurality of control signal units are installed at appropriate positions around the running reference line and are used for outputting control signals for the PRT vehicles running along the guideways. The control signals from the above control signal units indicate reference points of the guideways, designate a desired speed of a vehicle or express the start and end points of a lane changeable area.
Each of the PRT vehicles is standardized in its width and height and includes a running reference line sensor for sensing the running reference line of the PRT network, a control signal unit sensor for sensing a control signal unit of the PRT network, an infrared sensor for sensing any obstacle in front of the vehicle running on the network, a side sensor for sensing side traffic conditions of the vehicle, infrared emitter and receiver for sensing running speeds of vehicles next ahead and behind, and an on-board computer having various programs and data for automatically operating the PRT vehicle on the PRT network.
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Jules Frantz F.
McDermott & Will & Emery
Morano S. Joseph
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