TRAVELING VEHICLE SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING TRAVELING BY TRAVELING VEHICLE SYSTEM
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Abstract
In a traveling vehicle system, traveling vehicles travel along a travel route under the control of at least one controller. Each of the traveling vehicles includes a first traveling vehicle position determining section arranged to determine a position of the respective traveling vehicle, and a second traveling vehicle position determining section arranged to determine a position of at least one other of the traveling vehicles by communication, and a distance sensor arranged to detect a distance between the respective traveling vehicle and the at least one other of the traveling vehicles. The at least one controller and the traveling vehicles are configured to control velocities of the traveling vehicles in an inter-vehicle control area by determining inter-vehicle distances between the traveling vehicles based on the position of the at least one other of the traveling vehicles obtained by the communication in the second traveling vehicle position determining section, and the position of the respective traveling vehicle determined by the first traveling vehicle position determining section, and to control the velocities of the traveling vehicles in areas of the traveling route other than in the inter-vehicle control area based on distances detected by the distance sensor.
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Citations
9 Claims
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1-5. -5. (canceled)
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6. A traveling vehicle system comprising:
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a plurality of traveling vehicles; a travel route including at least one diverging section and at least one merging section; and at least one controller;
whereinthe traveling vehicles are arranged to travel along the travel route under control of the at least one controller; each of the plurality of traveling vehicles includes a first traveling vehicle position determining section arranged to determine a position of the respective traveling vehicle, and a second traveling vehicle position determining section arranged to determine a position of at least one other of the traveling vehicles by communication, and a distance sensor arranged to detect a distance between the respective traveling vehicle and the at least one other of the traveling vehicles; an inter-vehicle distance control area in the travel route includes a blocking area, an entrance of a diverging section, an exit of a diverging lane of the diverging section, a curved entrance to the merging section, an exit from the merging section, and a curved segment; the blocking area includes the diverging section and the merging section; the at least one controller and the traveling vehicles are configured to control velocities of the traveling vehicles in the inter-vehicle control area by determining inter-vehicle distances between the traveling vehicles based on the position of the at least one other of the traveling vehicles obtained by the communication in the second traveling vehicle position determining section, and the position of the respective traveling vehicle determined by the first traveling vehicle position determining section, to control the velocities of the traveling vehicles in areas of the traveling route other than in the inter-vehicle control area based on distances detected by the distance sensor instead of the position of the least one other of the traveling vehicles obtained by communication, and to enter the blocking area after obtaining permissions from the controller. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8)
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9. A travel control method in a traveling vehicle system for a plurality of traveling vehicles traveling along a travel route including at least one diverging section and at least one merging section under control of at least one controller, the method comprising the steps of:
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designating an area of the travel route, including a diverging section and a merging section, as a blocking area; designating an area including the blocking area, an entrance of the diverging section, an exit of a diverging lane of the diverging section, a curved entrance to the merging section, an exit from the merging section, and a curve segment as an inter-vehicle distance control area; allowing the traveling vehicles to travel along the travel route, each of the traveling vehicles including a first traveling vehicle position determining section arranged to determine a position of the respective traveling vehicle, and a second traveling vehicle position determining section arranged to determine a position of at least one other of the traveling vehicles by communication, and a distance sensor arranged to detect a distance between the respective traveling vehicle and the at least one other of the traveling vehicles; allowing the traveling vehicles in the inter-vehicle distance control area to determine inter-vehicle distances between the traveling vehicles from the position of the at least one other traveling vehicle obtained by the communication in the second traveling vehicle position determining section and the position of the respective vehicle determined by the first traveling vehicle position determining section to implement velocity control of at least one of the traveling vehicles to avoid interference with others of the traveling vehicles; allowing the traveling vehicles to request permissions from the at least one controller before entering into the blocking area, and allowing the traveling vehicles to enter the blocking area after obtaining the requested permissions; and allowing the traveling vehicles in the travel route other than the inter-vehicle distance control area to implement velocity control based on the distance detected by the distance sensor to avoid interference with the least one other of the traveling vehicles.
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Specification