Railways – Derailment guards – Supplemental car wheels and rails
Patent
1999-03-19
2000-12-19
Le, Mark T.
Railways
Derailment guards
Supplemental car wheels and rails
104247, B61B 1200
Patent
active
06161484&
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to public transport installations using a track that is specific or "dedicated" to the installation, which comprises a roadway and vehicles on pneumatic tires, with at least the front axle of a vehicle serving for steering or guidance. An important application of the invention lies in urban and sub-urban areas for carrying volumes of traffic that are smaller than those which would justify transport units of great length.
Such installations are already known which are guided optically, and in which the road carries, at least on certain segments thereof, longitudinal marking constituting a reference for the nominal path to be followed by a vehicle, and each vehicle carries an assembly for guiding the vehicle by controlling its steering axle, which assembly includes a module for forming an image of the road ahead of the vehicle and for making use of the marking, and an optical guidance module which steers the wheels of the steering axle. The servomotor for applying steering force to the wheels is generally an electric torque motor so as to enable the driver to override optical guidance when necessary. However such optical guidance does not absolutely guarantee the necessary levels of accuracy and safety, particularly at high speed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention seeks in particular to provide a public transport installation of the kind defined above that makes it possible to reduce the ground area occupied by its road, where that is useful, to guarantee clearances when optical guidance becomes insufficient, and to improve vehicle safety. To this end, the invention proposes an installation in which certain segments of the roadway are provided with at least one lateral guide, and the vehicles are provided, at least on the steering axle, for vertical-axis guide wheels that engage the lateral guide if the vehicle departs excessively from a nominal path on the road.
One or more lateral guides can be provided whenever it is essential to reduce the amount of land required for the road, and in particular at high speed. The road may also be defined merely by elements on the ground, such as speed reducer or vibration strips.
Longitudinal marking will generally be provided in the land area over which the vehicle travels. It can be provided in particular: in station approaches, such that the guidance reduces the gap between the platform (which can also constitute a guide) and the deck of the vehicle; wherever precision guidance is important, such as pole-engagement zones when electricity is provided by two catenaries and a pole; and on approaching zones that have lateral guides in order to avoid striking the guides, and then in order to travel between them.
By means of the optical guidance, contact between the guide wheels and the lateral guides can be caused to be exceptional under normal operating conditions, apart from in zones where the road follows a bend of small radius and in zones where the lateral guides are brought close together so as to further reduce the amount of land occupied by the road. In such zones, optical guidance can be disabled. This can be achieved by putting markings on the road indicating that optical guidance is coming to an end or is about to start, with such markings being identifiable by the image processing module.
Apart from zones of small radius of curvature or of close guidance, the guide wheels will make contact with the guides only exceptionally, thereby reducing wear on the running equipment. Nevertheless, the guide improves safety wherever it is provided, particularly in the event of an accident, such as a tire being punctured or in the event of emergency braking that might cause skidding.
Marks additional to those constituting the reference may be provided on the roadway, carrying information relating to the longitudinal travel of the vehicle. These marks are decoded and communicated to the driver by audible or visual means or by any other device for transmitting information.
The above characteristics and
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Ferbeck Daniel
Rebuffet Michel
Le Mark T.
Matra Systemes et Information
Matra Transport International
Nath Gary M.
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