Transit planning system

• US 20010049581A1
• Filed: 01/11/2001
• Published: 12/06/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Trapeze Its USA LLC
• Original Assignee: Siemens Transportation Systems, Inc. (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Kane, Roland J., Strope, Gareth R., Stanek, Richard A., Reed, Chad, krueger, David C.
• Granted Patent: US 6,654,682 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/202
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/123 indicating the position of vehicles, e.g. scheduled vehicles; Managing passenger vehicles circulating according to a fixed timetable, e.g. buses, trains, tramstransmission of navigation instructions to vehicles G08G1/0968

Abstract

An off-line transit planning and management system is disclosed. The off-line transit planning and management system is to be integrated into an on-line transit and management planning system. The process disclosed includes logging timepoints and generating route, pattern, block, and schedule information therefrom to be supplied to a database that is connected to a real-time transit management system.

Claims

1. A method of creating a navigation database, the method comprising:

generating a navigation point;

generating a segment between two navigation points;

generating a path segment from a group of segments;

generating a path from a list of path segments; and

storing at least one of the navigation point, the segment, the path segment, and the path in a memory device;

wherein the method is carried out by a single integrated computer program.

2. The method of creating a navigation database according to

claim 1

wherein the generating a navigation point step comprises:

obtaining a position from a positioning signal.

3. The method of creating a navigation database according to

claim 2

wherein the generating a navigation point step further comprises:

providing a set of attributes corresponding to the position to generate a navigation point.

4. The method of creating a navigation database according to

claim 3

wherein the attributes include at least one of a descriptive name, a departure radius, and an arrival radius.

5. The method of creating a navigation database according to

claim 1

wherein the segment includes a start navigation point pointer and an end navigation point pointer.

6. The method of creating a navigation database according to

claim 1

wherein the path segment includes a start waypoint pointer, an end waypoint pointer, and a list of segments.

7. A method of creating a transit schedule, the method comprising:

generating a transit point;

generating a street segment between two transit points;

generating a route segment from a group of street segments;

generating a route from a group of route segments; and

storing at least one of the transit point, the street segment, the route segment, and the route in a memory device;

wherein the method is carried out substantially by a single integrated computer program.

8. The method of creating a transit schedule according to

claim 7

further comprising:

generating a pattern from a group of route segments.

9. The method of creating a transit schedule according to

claim 8

further comprising:

generating a block from a group of patterns.

10. The method of creating a transit schedule according to

claim 9

further comprising:

generating a schedule from a group of blocks.

11. The method of creating a transit schedule according to

claim 10

further comprising:

storing at least one of the pattern, the block, and the schedule.

12. The method of creating a transit schedule according to

claim 9

wherein the generating a transit point step comprises:

receiving a position signal from a position signal source.

13. The method of producing a transit schedule according to

claim 12

further comprising:

generating a mobile display terminal (MDT) file.

14. The method of creating a transit schedule according to

claim 12

wherein the position signal source is a global positioning system (GPS) satellite and the position signal is a global positioning system (GPS) signal.

15. A scheduling system comprising:

a position signal receiver to receive a position signal;

an information processing unit coupled to the position signal receiver, the information processing unit including a memory, a storage device, and a processor;

wherein the information processing unit runs a single integrated program to receive position data from the position signal receiver, to receive corresponding position data, and to generate at least one of navigation points, segments, path segments, and paths.

16. The scheduling system of

claim 15

wherein the information processing unit is a computer.

17. The scheduling system of

claim 16

wherein the position signal receiver is a global positioning system (GPS) receiver.

18. The scheduling system of

claim 17

wherein the navigation points are transit points, the segments are street segments, the path segments are route segments, and the paths are routes and at least one of the transit points, the street segments, the route segments, and the routes are stored in a database.

19. The scheduling system of

claim 18

wherein the database is downloadable into a dispatch computer.

20. The scheduling system of

claim 18

wherein a schedule is generated from the database.

21. The scheduling system of

claim 20

wherein the schedule is downloaded to at least one transit computer.

22. The scheduling system of

claim 21

wherein the transit computer is coupled to a position signal receiver to receive position signals.

23. The scheduling system of

claim 22

wherein the transit computer is coupled to a transmitter to transmit signals to the dispatch computer.

24. The scheduling system of

claim 15

wherein the information processing unit is a transit computer.

25. The scheduling system of

claim 24

wherein the information generated is communicated to a dispatch computer.

26. The scheduling system of

claim 25

wherein the dispatch computer operates in a learning mode to generate a database file.