VEHICLE CONTROL SYSTEM

• US 20150206433A1
• Filed: 01/20/2015
• Published: 07/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi Construction Machinery Company Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi Construction Machinery Company Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: HAMADA, Tomoyuki, KANAI, Masaki
• Granted Patent: US 9,483,056 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0297 by controlling means in a control room
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/165 for passive traffic, e.g. including static obstacles, trees

Abstract

A vehicle control system is provided in which, if a position requiring caution for the contact with an oncoming vehicle on a track road is found also on an ex-post facto basis, the information thereof is easily fed back to the control of each vehicle. This vehicle control system has a GPS receiver 101 for detecting the position of each vehicle, an encoder 72 and an IMU 73 mounted on each vehicle, a specific spot setting unit 87 for setting a position requiring caution for the passing with an oncoming vehicle as a specific spot on the basis of a vehicle position, a slip ratio and a curvature that are computed from the values output therefrom, and a storage device for storing the positional information on a place set as a specific spot by a specific spot detecting unit.

Claims

1. A vehicle control system for controlling a plurality of vehicles traveling along a plurality of track roads, the system comprising:

a plurality of position detecting devices installed on each of the plurality of vehicles and configured to detect a position thereof;

a plurality of parameter detecting devices installed on each of the plurality of vehicles and configured to detect a parameter indicative of a possibility for a vehicle installed with the position detecting device, the vehicle traveling on one of two adjacent track roads in a two-way traffic area formed by the two adjacent track roads different in vehicle traveling direction, to enter the other of the two adjacent track roads;

a specific spot setting unit configured to execute, on a basis of positions of the plurality of vehicles output from the plurality of position detecting devices, parameters output from the plurality of parameter detecting devices, and thresholds related with the parameter, a processing for setting a position at which the parameters have been output as a specific spot; and

a storage device configured to store positional information on a place set as the specific spot by the specific spot detecting unit.

2. The vehicle control system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a specific area setting unit configured to set, on a basis of positional information on each specific spot stored in the storage device, a specific area where traveling of another vehicle is not permitted while one of the plurality of vehicles is traveling, the specific area being a closed area set over the two track roads in the two-way traffic area.

3. The vehicle control system according to claim 2, wherein:

the plurality of track roads are each divided by multiple segments;

the storage device stores the positional information on the specific spot and information on a time at which the parameter was detected; and

the specific area setting unit sets a first segment where a number of times the specific spot is set within a predetermined period exceeds a threshold and a second segment arranged beside the first segment in which the threshold was exceeded, the first segment being related with one of the two track roads in the two-way traffic area among the plurality of segments, the second segment being related with the other of the two track roads in the two-way traffic area among the plurality of segments.

4. The vehicle control system according to claim 3, wherein the parameters include at least one of slip ratios of the plurality of vehicles, curvature of curves of the plurality of track roads, and distances from the plurality of vehicles to berms.

5. The vehicle control system according to claim 4, further comprising:

a traveling permitted segment setting unit configured to execute a processing of allocating at least one of the plurality of segments as a traveling permitted segment to each of the plurality of vehicles without overlapping segments of other vehicles in accordance with a track road and a position of each of the plurality of vehicles, wherein;

if one of the plurality of vehicles is present in a segment related with one of the two track roads in the specific area among the plurality of segments, the traveling permitted segment setting unit sets the segment related with one of the two track roads as a traveling permitted segment for the one of the plurality of vehicles; and

the traveling permitted segment setting unit excludes a segment related with the other track road of the two track roads in the specific area among the plurality of segments from a traveling permitted segment of the other vehicles than the one of the plurality of vehicles among the plurality of vehicles.

6. The vehicle control system according to claim 5, wherein the traveling permitted segment setting unit further sets a segment related with the other track road of the two track road in the specific area as a traveling permitted segment for the one of the plurality of vehicles present in a segment related with one of the two track roads in the two-way traffic area.