VEHICLE TRAVEL CONTROL SYSTEM AND FLEET MANAGEMENT SERVER

• US 20160217690A1
• Filed: 12/25/2014
• Published: 07/28/2016
• 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
• Granted Patent: US 10,089,873 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 control system in which a plurality of haulage vehicles traveling in a premise of a mine along predetermined travel routes and a fleet management server for controlling operations of the plurality of haulage vehicles are connected in communication to one another via wireless base stations, comprising:

a travel-permitted segment setting unit that sets a partial segment on the travel routes as a travel-permitted segment where each haulage vehicle is permitted to travel for each of the plurality of haulage vehicles, and calculates a permission-requesting point that is in the travel-permitted segment and is a point to transmit permission request information for requesting setting of a next travel-permitted segment located in front of the travel-permitted segment;

a communication timing calculation unit for calculating a communication timing at which the permission request information is transmitted from the each haulage vehicle to the fleet management server via the wireless base station; and

a communication timing determination unit for determining whether difference between the communication timing at which one haulage vehicle among the plurality of haulage vehicles transmits the permission request information and the communication timing at which the other haulage vehicle among the plurality of haulage vehicles transmits the permission request information to the same wireless base station is more than or equal to a predetermined threshold value,

wherein the travel-permitted segment setting unit temporarily sets the travel-permitted segment to the one haulage vehicle, and calculates a provisional permission-requesting point corresponding to the temporarily set travel-permitted segment,

the communication timing calculation unit calculates the communication timing at which the permission request information is transmitted from the provisional permission-requesting point,

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

the travel-permitted segment setting unit sets the temporarily set travel-permitted segment as a normal travel-permitted segment when the difference of the communication timings is more than or equal to the predetermined threshold value.

2. The vehicle travel control system according to claim 1,

wherein the travel-permitted segment setting unit performs the following operations:

temporarily setting the front boundary point that is a front end part of the travel-permitted segment to the one haulage vehicle;

calculating the provisional permission-requesting point according to predetermined conditions on the basis of the front boundary point;

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

calculating a new provisional permission point according to the predetermined condition on the basis of the front boundary point being temporarily set again; and

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

3. The vehicle travel control system according to claim 1, wherein

the travel-permitted segment setting unit

temporarily sets the front boundary point that is the front end part of the travel-permitted segment and the rear boundary point that is a rear end part to the one haulage vehicle,

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

calculates a point that is between the front boundary point and the rear boundary point being temporarily set and is different from the provisional permission-requesting point as a new provisional permission-requesting point when the difference between the communication timing at which the permission request information is transmitted from the provisional permission-requesting point and the 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 front boundary point and the rear boundary point being temporarily set as a normal travel-permitted segment when the difference between the communication timing at which the one haulage vehicle transmit the permission request information and the communication timing of the other haulage vehicle is more than or equal to the predetermined threshold value.

4. The vehicle travel control system according to claim 1,

wherein when the plurality of adjacent wireless base stations use the same frequency, the travel-permitted segment setting unit temporarily sets the travel-permitted segment overriding communication areas of the plurality of adjacent wireless base stations.

5. The vehicle travel control system according to claim 1,

wherein the communication timing calculation unit calculates the communication timing based on a current position and a traveling speed of the each haulage vehicle.

6. A fleet management server that is connected in communication with a plurality of haulage vehicles traveling in a premise of a mine along predetermined travel routes via wireless base stations, comprising:

a travel-permitted segment setting unit that sets a partial segment on the travel routes as a travel-permitted segment where each haulage vehicle is permitted to travel to each of the plurality of haulage vehicles, and calculates a permission-requesting point that is in the travel-permitted segment and is a point to transmit permission request information for requesting setting of a next travel-permitted segment located in front of the travel-permitted segment;

a communication timing calculation unit for calculating the communication timing at which the permission request information is transmitted from the each haulage vehicle to the fleet management server via the wireless base station;

a communication timing determination unit for determining whether difference between a communication timing one haulage vehicle among the plurality of haulage vehicles transmits the permission request information and the communication timing of the other haulage vehicle among the plurality of haulage vehicles transmits the permission request information to the same wireless base station is more than or equal to the threshold value; and

a server-side communication control unit for transmitting the permission response information that indicates the travel-permitted segment being set by the travel-permitted segment setting unit to the each haulage vehicle,

wherein the travel-permitted segment setting unit temporarily sets the travel-permitted segment to the one haulage vehicle, and calculates a provisional permission-requesting point corresponding to the temporarily set travel-permitted segment,

the communication timing calculation unit calculates the communication timing at which the permission request information is transmitted from the provisional permission-requesting point,

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

the travel-permitted segment setting unit sets the temporarily set travel-permitted segment as a normal travel-permitted segment when the difference of the communication timings is more than or equal to the predetermined threshold value.