Communications: electrical – Traffic control indicator – Pacing
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-30
2001-11-06
Wu, Daniel J. (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Traffic control indicator
Pacing
C340S436000, C340S903000, C701S023000, C701S029000, C701S301000, C701S200000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06313758
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic following travel system wherein, among a plurality of queued vehicles, a leading vehicle positioned at the front is operated by an operator, and the following vehicles positioned behind the leading vehicle automatically follow the leading vehicle so as to travel in a procession.
This application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 11-153106, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is commonly known, systems have been proposed wherein small electric vehicles are used in common by a plurality of users in a defined region, and thereby, efficient use of the vehicles is achieved, and by means of this, problems such as congestion and insufficient space are relieved, and a savings in resources and energy, as well as an improvement in environmental contamination, are achieved.
In other words, dedicated parking, termed ports, is established at a number of places within a limited region, and users are able to freely borrow vehicles from these ports, and furthermore, after the use of the vehicles, the vehicles may be returned to the ports. By means of this, users are able to employ the vehicles only when they are required. Furthermore, if there are large number of ports, it will not be necessary to search for parking space or to park along the side of the road, and it is thus possible to alleviate congestion.
However, in such a system, as a result of the locations at which the ports are established or the like, there are concerns that vehicles may become concentrated at some ports, while at other ports, vehicles will become insufficiently available.
Techniques have been proposed for moving a plurality of vehicles efficiently between ports so as to easily remedy this imbalance of vehicles existing between ports (for example, in Japanese Patent Application, First Publication, No. Hei 5-170008). In this technique, among a plurality of queued vehicles, only the leading vehicle, which is positioned at the front, is manually operated by an operator, and the operation of the following vehicles is automatically controlled based on data relating to the amount of driving operation of the leading vehicle which is transmitted from the leading vehicle. By means of this, driving is controlled so that the following vehicles trace the same track as the leading vehicle, and as a result, a state is realized in which a series of vehicles travel in such a manner as to form a procession with the leading vehicle in the front (processional travel). At this time, because the operation of the following vehicles is automatically controlled, unmanned operation is possible, and it is possible to reduce the number of humans involved.
However, because following vehicles are driven in an unmanned state while traveling in a procession, emergency measures cannot be immediately taken if an accident occurs in the following vehicles.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a processional travel control apparatus which can take emergency measures if an abnormality occurs in one of the vehicles, in particular, in a succeeding vehicle.
In a first aspect of the invention, the processional travel control apparatus allows processional travel with a leading vehicle driven by a driver and at least one succeeding vehicle automatically following the leading vehicle. Each of the vehicles comprises: a communicator (vehicle-to-vehicle radio communicator
30
, and vehicle-to-vehicle antenna
10
) for communicating with other vehicles; a condition detector (laser radar
7
, acceleration sensor
22
, and yaw rate sensor
23
) for detecting the condition of an object vehicle; an abnormality determining device (
40
) for determining the occurrence of an abnormality in the object vehicle, based on condition information detected by the condition detector; an abnormality signal transmitter (
42
) for transmitting an abnormality signal, indicating that the abnormality has occurred in the object vehicle, via the communicator; and an abnormality stop device (
44
) for stopping the processional travel of at least a part of the vehicles, which includes the vehicle which has transmitted the abnormality signal, when the abnormality signal has been transmitted from one of the vehicles.
When an abnormality has occurred in one of the vehicles traveling in a procession, the processional travel of the vehicles which include the abnormal vehicle is stopped. Therefore, appropriate emergency measures can be taken.
In a second aspect of the invention, when the abnormality signal has been transmitted from one of the vehicles, the processional travel of the vehicles in front of the vehicle which has transmitted the abnormality signal continues, and the vehicle which has transmitted the abnormality signal and the vehicles behind that vehicle stop their travel.
The vehicles behind the abnormal vehicle stop as the preceding vehicle (which is the abnormal vehicle) stops, and maintains their stopped conditions. Therefore, there is no further problem even if an abnormality has occurred in the vehicles.
The vehicles in front of the abnormal vehicle keep following the leading vehicle, and continue the processional travel.
In a third aspect of the invention, each of the vehicles comprises: a recognition device (vehicle number storage device
31
) for recognizing its sequence number from the head of the procession when starting the processional travel, the abnormality signal including the vehicle number of the vehicle which has transmitted the abnormality signal; and a processional travel stop/continuation determining device (steps
15
,
18
, and
19
) for determining whether the object vehicle stops or continues, based on a comparison of the number of the object vehicle with the number of the vehicle which has transmitted the abnormality signal.
According to this structure, the vehicles behind the abnormal vehicle can immediately and appropriately make a determination as to whether to stop or continue traveling.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5680122 (1997-10-01), Mio
patent: 5934399 (1999-08-01), Iiboshi
patent: 6128559 (2000-10-01), Saitou
patent: 6169940 (2001-01-01), Jitsukata
Arent Fox Kintner Plotkin & Kahn
Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
La Anh
Wu Daniel J.
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