Vehicle travel route control system and fleet management server

• US 10,089,873 B2
• Filed: 12/25/2014
• Issued: 10/02/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi Construction Machinery Company Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi Construction Machinery Company Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: Yamasaki, Ryota, Ookura, Yoshinori, Hamada, Tomoyuki, Yamada, Tsutomu
• Primary Examiner(s): Wiltey, Nicholas K
• Application Number:
  US14/917,349
• Publication Number:
  US 20160217690A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,377 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: E02F 9/2045 Guiding machines along a predetermined path for graders E02F3/841; machines for construction of roads E01C19/004
• CPC Class Codes: E02F 9/205 Remotely operated machines, e.g. unmanned vehicles E02F3/8866 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: E02F 9/2054 Fleet management
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0297 by controlling means in a control room
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]

Abstract

To provide a technology that enables dump trucks to travel smoothly even in a mine where electromagnetic wave conditions are bad. The invention is a vehicle travel system in which haulage vehicles 20 traveling in a premise of a mine along predetermined travel routes 60 and a fleet management server for managing operations of haulage vehicles are connected in communication together via wireless communication network and that sets a travel-permitted segment n+1 so that difference between a communication timing at which the haulage vehicle 20-1 transmits permission request information to the fleet management server from a provisional permission-requesting point RP and communication timing at which other haulage vehicle transmits the permission request information to the same wireless base station may become more than or equal to a predetermined threshold value.

Claims

1. A vehicle travel route control system comprising:

a plurality of haulage vehicles which travel along predetermined travel routes; and

a fleet management server which is wirelessly connected by one or more wireless base stations with the plurality of haulage vehicles and which controls movement of the plurality of haulage vehicles along the predetermined travel routes,

wherein each of the plurality of haulage vehicles includes a respective processor that is programmed to;

control movement of the respective haulage vehicle, and

calculate a current position of the respective haulage vehicle,

wherein the fleet management server includes a respective processor that is programmed to;

set, for each of the plurality of haulage vehicles, a partial segment on the predetermined travel routes as a travel-permitted segment where the respective haulage vehicle is permitted to travel, and

calculate, for each of the plurality of haulage vehicles, a permission-requesting point that is in the travel-permitted segment of the respective haulage vehicle and is a point to transmit permission request information for the respective haulage vehicle to request setting of a respective next travel-permitted segment located in front of the respective travel-permitted segment of the respective haulage vehicle,

calculate, for each of the plurality of haulage vehicles, a respective communication timing at which the permission request information is transmitted from the respective haulage vehicle to the fleet management server via the wireless base stations, and

determine whether a difference between the respective communication timing at which one haulage vehicle among the plurality of haulage vehicles transmits the permission request information and the respective communication timing at which another haulage vehicle among the plurality of haulage vehicles transmits the permission request information to a same one of the wireless base stations is more than or equal to a predetermined threshold value,

wherein the respective processor of the fleet management server is further programmed to;

temporarily set the travel-permitted segment for the one haulage vehicle, and calculate a provisional permission-requesting point corresponding to the temporarily-set travel-permitted segment for the one haulage vehicle,

calculate the respective communication timing at which the permission request information is transmitted from the provisional permission-requesting point by the one haulage vehicle,

determine whether the difference between the respective communication timing at which the one haulage vehicle transmits the permission request information from the provisional permission-requesting point and the respective communication timing at which the other haulage vehicle transmits the permission request information is more than or equal to the predetermined threshold value, and

set the temporarily-set travel-permitted segment as a normal travel-permitted segment for the one haulage vehicle when the difference of the respective communication timings is more than or equal to the predetermined threshold value, and

wherein the respective processor in each of the plurality of haulage vehicles is further programmed to;

control the movement of the respective haulage vehicle along the respective travel-permitted segment, and

stop the movement of the respective haulage vehicle when the current position of the respective haulage vehicle has passed over the respective travel-permitted segment.

2. The vehicle travel route control system according to claim 1, wherein the respective processor of the fleet management server is further programmed to:

temporarily set a front boundary point of the travel-permitted segment for the one haulage vehicle,

calculate the provisional permission-requesting point according to predetermined conditions on the basis of the front boundary point,

when the difference between the respective communication timing at which the one haulage vehicle transmits the permission request information from the provisional permission-requesting point and the respective communication timing at which the other haulage vehicle transmits the permission request information is less than the predetermined threshold value, temporarily set a point that is different from the temporarily-set front boundary point as a new front boundary point of the travel-permitted segment for the one haulage vehicle,

calculate a new provisional permission point according to the predetermined condition on the basis of the temporarily-set, new front boundary point, and

when the difference between a respective communication timing at which the one haulage vehicle transmits the permission request information from the new provisional permission-requesting point and the respective communication timing at which the other haulage vehicle transmits the permission request information is more than or equal to the predetermined threshold value, set the partial segment that incorporates the temporarily-set, new front boundary point as the front end part as the normal travel-permitted segment for the one haulage vehicle.

3. The vehicle travel route control system according to claim 1, wherein the respective processor of the fleet management server is further programmed to:

temporarily set a front boundary point and a rear boundary point of the travel-permitted segment for the one haulage vehicle,

calculate the provisional permission-requesting point on the basis of the temporarily-set front boundary point or the temporarily-set rear boundary point,

calculate a point between the temporarily-set front boundary point and the temporarily-set rear boundary point and is different from the provisional permission-requesting point as a new provisional permission-requesting point when the difference between the respective communication timing at which the one haulage vehicle transmits the permission request information from the provisional permission-requesting point and the respective communication timing at which the other haulage vehicle transmits the permission request information is less than the predetermined threshold value, and

sets a partial segment between the temporarily-set front boundary point and the temporarily-set rear boundary point as the normal travel-permitted segment when the difference between the respective communication timing at which the one haulage vehicle transmits the permission request information and the respective communication timing at which the other haulage vehicle transmits the permission request information is more than or equal to the predetermined threshold value.

4. The vehicle travel route control system according to claim 1, wherein the respective processor of the fleet management server is further programmed to:

when adjacent ones of the wireless base stations use a same frequency, temporarily set, for at least the one haulage vehicle among the plurality of haulage vehicles, the travel-permitted segment to span communication areas of the adjacent ones of the wireless base stations.

5. The vehicle travel route control system according to claim 1, wherein the respective processor of the fleet management server is further programmed to:

calculate, for each of the plurality of haulage vehicles, the respective communication timing based on the current position and a traveling speed of the respective haulage vehicle.

6. The vehicle travel route control system according to claim 1, wherein the respective processor of the fleet management server is further programmed to:

instruct the one haulage vehicle to stop when the difference of the respective communication timings is less than the predetermined threshold value and the temporarily-set travel-permitted segment is unchangeable.

7. A fleet management server to control movement of a plurality of haulage vehicles traveling along predetermined travel routes via one or more wireless base stations, comprising:

a communication interface that is in wirelessly communication with the plurality of haulage vehicles via the one or more base stations; and

a processor connected with the communication interface and which is programmed to;

set, for each of the plurality of haulage vehicles, a predetermined partial segment on the travel routes as a travel-permitted segment where the respective haulage vehicle is permitted to travel t, and

calculate, for each of the plurality of haulage vehicles, a permission-requesting point that is in the travel-permitted segment of the respective haulage vehicle and is a point to transmit permission request information for the respective haulage vehicle to request setting of a respective next travel-permitted segment located in front of the respective travel-permitted segment of the respective haulage vehicle,

transmit, to each of the plurality of haulage vehicles, the respective travel-permitted segment and the respective permission-requesting point,

calculate, for each of the plurality of haulage vehicles, a respective communication timing at which the permission request information is transmitted from the respective haulage vehicle to the communication interface via the wireless base stations;

determine whether a difference between the respective timing at which one haulage vehicle among the plurality of haulage vehicles transmits the permission request information and the respective communication timing at which another haulage vehicle among the plurality of haulage vehicles transmits the permission request information to a same one of the wireless base stations is more than or equal to a predetermined threshold value; and

wherein the respective processor of the fleet management server is further programmed to;

temporarily set the travel-permitted segment for the one haulage vehicle, and calculate a provisional permission-requesting point corresponding to the temporarily-set travel-permitted segment for the one haulage vehicle,

calculate the respective communication timing at which the permission request information is transmitted from the provisional permission-requesting point by the one haulage vehicle,

determine whether the difference between the respective communication timing at which the one haulage vehicle transmits the permission request information from the provisional permission-requesting point and the respective communication timing at which other haulage vehicle transmits the permission request information is more than or equal to the predetermined threshold value, and

set the temporarily-set travel-permitted segment as a normal travel-permitted segment for the one haulage vehicle when the difference of the respective communication timings is more than or equal to the predetermined threshold value,

wherein each of the plurality of haulage vehicles is configured to;

move along the respective travel-permitted segment, and

stop when a current position of the respective haulage vehicle has passed over the respective travel-permitted segment.

8. The fleet management server according to claim 7, wherein the processor is further programmed to:

instruct the one haulage vehicle to stop when the difference of the respective communication timings is less than the predetermined threshold value and the temporarily-set travel-permitted segment is unchangeable.