Vehicle longitudinal control and collision avoidance system for an automated highway system
First Claim
1. A vehicle longitudinal control and collision avoidance system, for vehicles operating on a multilane highway, comprising:
- a plurality of permanent magnets distributed along the highway in a specified pattern and embedded in the highway surface, each said permanent magnet having a specified orientation,permanent magnet sensing means, emplaced on board each vehicle, that provide indications of proximity to, and orientation of, said permanent magnets, when said permanent magnets are overpassed by each vehicle,computation means at the wayside that are provided with an initial longitudinal position for each vehicle, and with speed limits, and receive, via vehicle-to-wayside data transmission means, outputs of said permanent magnet sensing means, and generate the longitudinal position of each vehicle and longitudinal control outputs comprising vehicle speed commands, and vehicle braking commands to protect a trailing vehicle against collision with a leading vehicle, andvehicle control means included in each vehicle that receive, via wayside-to-vehicle data transmission means, said longitudinal control outputs and execute said vehicle speed commands, and said vehicle braking commands, by generating inputs to automatically control the vehicle propulsion system and the vehicle braking system of each vehicle.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
This invention provides automatic longitudinal control of vehicles on highways, including speed control and protection against collision. The invention also provides for lane changing, following highway directional changes, route control, and transitions between the operator-controlled and the automatically controlled states. The invention is ideally configured to be employed jointly and cooperatively with previously developed means of automatic lateral control. Groups of permanent magnets are embedded in the highway surface at regular intervals. Permanent magnet sensors are installed in vehicles so that proximity and polarity indications of embedded magnets are obtained as a vehicle proceeds along the highway. Each group of magnets encodes a pseudo-random number that is sensed by the vehicle equipment and transmitted, via a radio link, to wayside computing equipment which determines vehicle longitudinal position and vehicle separation distances that are used as the basis of safety commands which are transmitted to the vehicles from the wayside. The system is configured to provide the highest possible reliability and fail-safe operation through employment of triply redundant communication and computation elements.
149 Citations
46 Claims
-
1. A vehicle longitudinal control and collision avoidance system, for vehicles operating on a multilane highway, comprising:
-
a plurality of permanent magnets distributed along the highway in a specified pattern and embedded in the highway surface, each said permanent magnet having a specified orientation, permanent magnet sensing means, emplaced on board each vehicle, that provide indications of proximity to, and orientation of, said permanent magnets, when said permanent magnets are overpassed by each vehicle, computation means at the wayside that are provided with an initial longitudinal position for each vehicle, and with speed limits, and receive, via vehicle-to-wayside data transmission means, outputs of said permanent magnet sensing means, and generate the longitudinal position of each vehicle and longitudinal control outputs comprising vehicle speed commands, and vehicle braking commands to protect a trailing vehicle against collision with a leading vehicle, and vehicle control means included in each vehicle that receive, via wayside-to-vehicle data transmission means, said longitudinal control outputs and execute said vehicle speed commands, and said vehicle braking commands, by generating inputs to automatically control the vehicle propulsion system and the vehicle braking system of each vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
-
-
38. A vehicle longitudinal control and collision avoidance system, for vehicles operating on a multilane highway, comprising:
-
odometers at the wheels of each vehicle, the outputs of said odometers providing measures of incremental wheel rotations, computation means at the wayside that are provided with an initial longitudinal position for each vehicle, and with speed limits, and receive, via vehicle-to-wayside data transmission means, the outputs of said odometers, and generate the longitudinal position of each vehicle and longitudinal control outputs comprising vehicle speed commands, and vehicle braking commands to protect a trailing vehicle against collision with a leading vehicle, and vehicle control means included in each vehicle that receive, via wayside-to-vehicle data transmission means, said longitudinal control outputs and execute said vehicle speed commands, and said vehicle braking commands, by generating inputs to automatically control the vehicle propulsion system and the vehicle braking system of each vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (39)
-
-
40. A vehicle longitudinal control and collision avoidance system, for vehicles operating on a multilane highway, comprising:
-
a plurality of permanent magnets distributed along the highway in a specified pattern and embedded in the highway surface, each said permanent magnet having a specified orientation, permanent magnet sensing means, emplaced on board each vehicle, that provide indications of proximity to, and orientation of, said permanent magnets, when said permanent magnets are overpassed by a vehicle, odometers at the wheels of each vehicle, the outputs of said odometers providing measures of incremental wheel rotations, computation means at the wayside that are provided with an initial longitudinal position for each vehicle, and with speed limits, and receive, via vehicle-to-wayside data transmission means, the outputs of said odometers, and generate, therefrom, the longitudinal position of each vehicle and longitudinal control outputs comprising vehicle speed commands, and vehicle braking commands to protect a trailing vehicle against collision with a leading vehicle, and vehicle control means, included in each vehicle, that receive, via wayside-to-vehicle data transmission means, said longitudinal control outputs and execute said vehicle speed commands, and said vehicle braking commands, by generating inputs to automatically control the vehicle propulsion system and the vehicle braking system of each vehicle, said vehicle control means further receiving outputs of said permanent magnet sensing means, and the outputs of said odometers, to generate calibration corrections for said odometers, which are applied by said vehicle control means to the outputs of said odometers. - View Dependent Claims (41)
-
-
42. A vehicle longitudinal control and collision avoidance system, for vehicles operating on a multilane highway, comprising:
-
means, on board each vehicle, to measure the incremental longitudinal motion of the vehicle, computation means, at the wayside, that are provided with an initial longitudinal position for each vehicle, and with speed limits, and receive, via vehicle-to-wayside data transmission means, outputs of said on-board means to measure the incremental longitudinal motion of the vehicles, and generate the longitudinal position of each vehicle and longitudinal control outputs comprising vehicle speed commands, and vehicle braking commands to protect a trailing vehicle against collision with a leading vehicle, and vehicle control means included in each vehicle that receive, via wayside-to-vehicle data transmission means, said longitudinal control outputs and execute said vehicle speed commands, and said vehicle braking commands, by generating inputs to automatically control the vehicle propulsion system and the vehicle braking system of each vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (43, 44, 45)
-
-
46. A vehicle longitudinal control and collision avoidance system, for vehicles operating on a multilane highway, comprising:
-
means, on board each vehicle, to measure the incremental longitudinal motion of the vehicle, gyroscope means, mounted in each vehicle, to measure the incremental motion of the vehicle around its vertical axis, computation means, at the wayside, that are provided with an initial longitudinal position for each vehicle, and with speed limits, and receive, via vehicle-to-wayside data transmission means, outputs of said means to measure the incremental longitudinal motion of the vehicles, and generate the longitudinal position of each vehicle, and longitudinal control outputs comprising vehicle speed commands and vehicle braking commands to protect a trailing vehicle against collision with a leading vehicle, and lateral control outputs comprising vehicle steering commands causing vehicles to follow highway changes in direction and to effect vehicle transitions from a first highway lane to a second highway lane, and vehicle control means that receive, via wayside-to-vehicle data transmission means, said longitudinal control outputs and execute said vehicle speed commands, and said vehicle braking commands, by generating inputs to automatically control the vehicle propulsion system and the vehicle braking system of each vehicle, and receive said lateral control outputs and execute said vehicle steering commands by generating inputs for a vehicle lateral control system, said vehicle control means, further, receiving outputs of said gyroscope means and said means to measure the incremental longitudinal motion of the vehicle and generating measures of the longitudinal and lateral displacement of the vehicle from a reference point, when the vehicle departs from said first highway lane to enter said second highway lane, said measures of longitudinal and lateral displacement being communicated from said vehicle control means to said computation means via said vehicle-to-wayside data transmission means.
-
Specification