Data processing: generic control systems or specific application – Specific application – apparatus or process – Article handling
Reexamination Certificate
1995-12-28
2002-10-01
Picard, Leo (Department: 2125)
Data processing: generic control systems or specific application
Specific application, apparatus or process
Article handling
C700S232000, C340S935000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06459954
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to an arrangement for dispensing or providing luggage pushcarts in extensive and complex mass transportation facilities such as airports or train stations in which a sufficient quantity of luggage pushcarts must be provided for and made available to passengers of arriving mass transportation means at the location of arrival and at the time of arrival of the mass transportation means for a user fee or at least for a security deposit for transporting the passengers' luggage to individual means of transportation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In airports or train stations, as conventionally operated, the object of at least placing a luggage pushcart at the disposal of every passenger arriving with the mass transportation means at the proper time and place at the airport arrival gate or train platform is met in a more or less satisfactory manner in that a large number of employees are sent haphazardly, apart from a certain system drawn from experience, collectively or successively into some or all areas of the respective installation, train station or airport, to collect the luggage pushcarts deposited there and bring them to those assembly points, especially to the train platform or airport arrival gate, where the next mass transportation means to come in will arrive. Since the time and location of arrival and the number of passengers arriving with the mass transportation means, train or airplane, are known but the current location of the individual available luggage pushcarts which are spread out over the entire installation is only approximately known, the conventional method requires a considerable expenditure of time and personnel to seek out and gather the luggage pushcarts and to deliver them at the proper time to the individual cart stores which are set up at the arrival points of the mass transportation means, i.e., the airport gate or train platform, especially also since the respective state of fullness of these cart stores must be taken into account.
However, it is not only on the operator's or provider's side that the conventional method of providing luggage pushcarts is encumbered with considerable defects. Of no less gravity are the faults of the known systems which result from the fact that the luggage pushcarts which are stored in the cart stores can usually only be removed for a borrower fee or at least for a coin deposit using certain coins in the currency of the country in question. For this purpose, the stores containing the luggage pushcarts are outfitted with a coin-operated removal device such that a luggage pushcart can only be removed from the store at all by inserting one or more suitable coins into the coin-operated machine. Therefore, especially in international airports in countries with a less commonly used currency, arriving travelers very often have the problem that they are either carrying none of the country's currency or, if they are, that there is no possibility in the baggage pickup area to exchange larger notes for the coins needed to remove a luggage pushcart from the store.
Further, the arriving traveler is also confronted by a similar problem when he or she desires to use public transit upon leaving the airport or train station and tickets for such public transit, as are commonly used at present, are dispensed only by machines, in particular coin-operated machines.
It follows from the foregoing that conventional arrangements for providing and dispensing luggage pushcarts in airports and train stations or the like points of arrival of more or less regularly operating mass transportation means such as airplanes or trains are highly unsatisfactory both for the operators of the train station or airport and for the individual travelers because they are complicated, expensive and not user-friendly.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Proceeding from the set of problems described above, the object upon which the present invention is based is to provide an arrangement for providing and dispensing luggage pushcarts which solves the two problem groups described above simultaneously and equally advantageously in such a way that, on the one hand, a sufficient quantity of luggage pushcarts can be made available at the appropriate time at the respective point of arrival, a train platform or airport arrival gate, with the fewest possible total number of luggage pushcarts and the smallest possible expenditure of time and personnel and, on the other hand, the arriving travelers can also remove a luggage pushcart from a store when not in possession of specific coins in the currency of the country in question.
According to the invention, this object is met substantially by the features indicated in claim
1
. The use of a cart tracking system having transmitter/receiver units which are arranged alternately at the luggage pushcarts and at stationary arrangements in the installation makes it possible to collect luggage pushcarts which are scattered about the installation in the shortest possible time and with the smallest possible number of personnel and to bring them to the respective cart stores in due time for the arrival of the mass transportation means. At the same time, the use of cart stores which are outfitted with a programmable coin deposit accepting device which is at least partially independent of currency provides the individual travelers with the advantage that a luggage pushcart can be removed from the store even when the traveler is not in possession of suitable coins in the currency of the country in question. The surprising advantage of the proposed solution consists primarily in that both sets of problems are solved by an individual integrated arrangement which can be installed at a relatively modest expense resulting in a considerable savings for the operator of the train station or airport, while, at the same time, the individual traveler can also acquire the currency of the country practically without losses. For the most part, the individual traveler has the further advantage that he or she also acquires, at the same time, change in the country's currency suitable for subsequent use of public transit such as a streetcar or bus.
Since the active transponders forming the mobile receiver/transmitter carry a first group of unchangeable data unmistakably characterizing the individual carts and can send this data as a detection signal, the current location of the individual cart and other statistical data such as the frequency of use, if required, can be determined and information, e.g., concerning scheduled maintenance, can be derived therefrom. Since the active transponders forming the mobile receiver/transmitter also carry a second group of changeable data at the same time, every luggage pushcart can be provided with an identification for the deposited sum when removed from the cart store and this identification can activate the deposit return device of a cart store when the cart is returned, wherein the deposit return simultaneously transmits a cancel signal for the changeable data of the respective transponder so as to prevent multiple deposit returns. For the operators of the train station or airport, this results in the advantage that the dispensing and retrieving of luggage pushcarts is protected absolutely against criminal misuse. The unchangeable data stored in the active transponders can comprise specifics concerning the identification of the cart, e.g., the cart number, date information, e.g., initial date of use, maintenance deadlines, or the like.
In order to determine the current whereabouts of the individual carts with sufficient reliability, it is proposed that a device for detecting the movement direction of each cart be. arranged at all passageways and crossings between two areas of the installation so that it can be determined whether a cart passing a stationary transmitter/receiver unit located at these passageways and crossings is entering or has just exited the respective area of the installation. According to a special featu
Expresso Deutschland Transportgeräte GmbH
Garland Steven R.
Picard Leo
Sidley Austin Brown & Wood LLP
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