REAL-TIME VEHICLE SPACING CONTROL

• US 20140197967A1
• Filed: 01/11/2013
• Published: 07/17/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HERE Global B.V. (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Navteq B.V.
• Inventors: Stenneth, Leon, Modica, Leo
• Granted Patent: US 9,659,492 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/932
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0112 from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0133 for classifying traffic situation
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0141 for traffic information dissemination
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/09 Arrangements for giving variable traffic instructions railroad crossing signals B61L; reflectors E01F, G08B; indicating arrangements for variable information by selection or combination of individual elements G09F9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 where the origin of the information is a central station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096844 where the complete route is dynamically recomputed based on new data

Abstract

In an embodiment, a system detects when vehicle bunching is about to occur or is already occurring within a given transit system. The system resolves the bunching using an event and tone based system which regulates the arrival and departure times of vehicles at vehicle stops. Also, an embodiment includes a method for receiving location information for a plurality of vehicles along a route, determining a relative distance between a first vehicle of the plurality of vehicles and at least a second vehicle of the plurality of vehicles as a function of the received location information, and generating an action signal for at least one of the plurality of vehicles located on the route, wherein the action signal is in response to the determined relative distance.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving location information for a plurality of vehicles along a route;

determining, with a controller, a relative distance between a first vehicle of the plurality of vehicles and at least a second vehicle of the plurality of vehicles as a function of the received location information; and

generating an action signal for at least one of the plurality of vehicles located on the route, wherein the action signal is in response to the determined relative distance.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the determined relative distance correlates to a relative time between the first and second vehicles on the route.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the action signal is configured to achieve a preferred relative distance between the plurality of vehicles along the route.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

determining a vehicle capacity measure configured to trigger an action signal to at least one of the plurality of vehicles located on the route to achieve the preferred relative distance.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the action signal is an audible action signal.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the audible action signal includes at least one audible tone at a predetermined frequency.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the action signal comprises at least one of the actions of go, stop, wait, speed up, slow down, skip-stop, or pass.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the route is comprised of stop segments and regular segments, wherein stop segments correspond to locations with transit stops.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining when the at least one of the plurality of vehicles has not performed an action correlated to the action signal; and

repeating the action signal when the at least one of the plurality of vehicles has not performed an action correlated to the action signal.

10. A non-transitory computer readable medium including instructions that when executed are operable to:

receive current locations of a plurality of mobile devices currently on a route;

determine a relative distance between a first mobile device of the plurality of mobile devices and at least a second mobile device of the plurality of mobile devices as a function of the received current locations; and

generate an action signal for operation of a at least one vehicle associated with one of the plurality of mobile devices based on the determined relative distance.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 further comprising:

determining a time for the vehicle associated with one of the plurality of mobile devices to travel the determined relative distance, wherein the action signal for operation of the at least one vehicle associated with one of the plurality of mobile devices is further based on the determined time.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the action signal is selected from the group comprising go, stop, pass, wait, speed up, speed down, and take out of service.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 further comprising:

determining when the at least one of the vehicles associated with the plurality of mobile devices has not performed an action correlated to the action signal; and

repeating the action signal when the at least one of the vehicles associated with the plurality of mobile devices has not performed an action correlated to the action signal.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the action signal is an audible action signal or a visible action signal.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the action signal is comprised of audible language or audible tones.

16. An apparatus comprising:

a memory configured to store data representing a plurality of locations comprising a transit route, and data representing the current locations of a plurality of vehicles currently traveling along the transit route; and

a controller configured to determine a relative distance between a first vehicle of the plurality of vehicles and a second vehicle of the plurality of vehicles, and generate an action signal for operation of at least one of the plurality of vehicles based on the determined relative distance.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the action signal is comprised of a visible signal.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the action signal is an audible signal.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the controller is further configured to determine the location of a third vehicle of the plurality of vehicles, and the action signal is further based on the third vehicle location.

20. An apparatus comprising:

a communications interface configured to receive data indicative of a calculated relative distance between a first vehicle of a plurality of vehicles traveling along a route and at least a second vehicle of the plurality of vehicles traveling along the route;

position circuitry configured to determine the current location of the apparatus;

a controller configured to generate an action signal for operation of the first vehicle or the second vehicle based on the calculated relative distance and the current location; and

an output interface configured to present the action signal for the operation of the first vehicle or the second vehicle.