Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Automatic route guidance vehicle
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-30
2001-08-28
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Automatic route guidance vehicle
C701S024000, C701S026000, C701S096000, C340S425500, C180S168000, C180S169000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06282468
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 following vehicles positioned behind the leading vehicle automatically follow the leading vehicle so as to conduct travel in file.
This application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 11-90263, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Background 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 a large number of ports, it will not be necessary to search for parking spaces 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 file with the leading vehicle in the front (travel in file). 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.
In order to realize the travel in file described above, it is necessary to recognize a series of vehicles as a group of vehicles, and to conduct automatic operation control with respect to the vehicles recognized as being members of the group of vehicles by means of data related to the amount of driving operation similar to that of the leading vehicle, or to conduct positional control for maintaining a constant distance between vehicles.
Accordingly, when travel in file is terminated, if the recognition of a series of vehicles as vehicles within a single group is canceled, then simultaneously, the automatic operation control and the positional control of the following vehicles is also canceled, and in particular, in cases such as that in which traveling in file is terminated in an inclined traveling path, it becomes impossible to maintain a constant position of the following vehicles.
Furthermore, in the automatic operation control such as that described above, in order that the following vehicles be satisfactorily able to trace the track of the leading vehicle, during travel in file, operations identical to predetermined operations in the leading vehicle are carried out in the following vehicles when the following vehicles pass through a position which is the same as that at which the predetermined operations were conducted in the leading vehicle. However, when this type of control is applied to operations such as parking braking, then during the formation of the traveling in file, even if the leading vehicle releases its parking braking so as to initiate forward progress, the following vehicles are incapable of releasing their parking braking until they reach the position of the leading vehicle, and they are not capable of initiating forward progress. Furthermore, if, in order to avoid this problem, control content is simply added in which the following vehicles release their parking braking at the same time at which a leading vehicle releases its parking braking, then if travel in file is to be initiated on an inclined path, when a state is produced in which the parking braking of the leading vehicle is released prior to the initiation of the control by which a constant distance is maintained by the following vehicle, then a constant position of the following vehicles cannot be maintained.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an automatic following travel system which is capable of conducting forward progress and stoppage during the initiation and termination of travel in file while maintaining a fixed distance between vehicles, particularly on an inclined path.
In a first aspect of the present invention, in the automatic following travel system (for example, the automatic following travel system
1
in the embodiment), among a plurality of queued vehicles (the vehicles
3
), a leading vehicle (the leading vehicle
3
′) positioned at the front is driven by an operator, and following vehicles (the following vehicles
3
″) positioned behind the leading vehicle automatically follow the leading vehicle, and are made to travel in file.
Each vehicle has a vehicle position maintaining device (the electrically operated parking operation part
22
) for maintaining a constant position during stoppage, a communicator (the communication unit
5
) for conducting communications with other vehicles, and a controller (the travel ECU
6
) for controlling operations of the vehicle position maintaining device and communicator and for controlling travel of the vehicle.
During the initiation of travel in file, the controller of the leading vehicle (the travel ECU
6
′) sends a directive to the following vehicles via the communications mechanism indicating that travel in file is to be conducted (step Sa
5
).
Controllers of the following vehicles (the travel ECUs
6
″) make a determination as to the possibility of travel of their own vehicles, based on the directive from the leading vehicle (step Sb
3
), control the operation of their own vehicles so as to maintain an approximately constant distance between their vehicle and another vehicle positioned in front (control by means of inter-vehicle distance maintaining part
21
in step Sb
4
), and communicate the results of the determination of the possibility of travel to the leading vehicle (step Sb
5
).
When a determination that travel is possible has been communicated from all following vehicles, the controller of the leading vehicle sends a directive canceling the operation of the vehicle position maintaining device to all following vehicles (step Sa
7
).
The controllers of the following vehicles cancel the operation of the vehicle position maintaining device based on the directive canceling operation thereof (step Sb
6
), and initiate forward progress of the following vehicles in response to the initiation of forward progress of the leading vehicle, and thereby, travel in file is conducted.
By means of this invention, during the initiation of travel in file, when the operation of the vehicle position maintaining device in the following vehicles is canceled, the controller constantly maintains a constant distance between each vehicle and the vehicle in front of it, so that even if the following vehicles are on an inclined path, it is possible to m
Beaulieu Yonel
Blackman William D.
Carrier Joseph P.
Carrier Blackman & Associates P.C.
Cuchlinski Jr. William A.
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