Transit planning system

• US 6,654,682 B2
• Filed: 01/11/2001
• Issued: 11/25/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Trapeze Its USA LLC
• Original Assignee: Siemens Transportation Systems, Inc. (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Krueger, David C., Kane, Roland J., Strope, Gareth R., Stanek, Richard A., Reed, Chad
• Primary Examiner(s): Cuchlinski, Jr., William A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hernandez, Olga
• Application Number:
  US09/758,692
• Publication Number:
  US 20010049581A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,048 Days
• Field of Search: 701/202, 701/201, 701/206, 701/207, 701/209, 340/988
• US Class Current: 701/202
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/123 indicating the position of vehicles, e.g. scheduled vehicles; Managing passenger vehicles circulating according to a fixed timetable, e.g. buses, trains, tramstransmission of navigation instructions to vehicles G08G1/0968

Abstract

An off-line transit planning and management system is disclosed. The off-line transit planning and management system is to be integrated into an on-line transit and management planning system. The process disclosed includes logging timepoints and generating route, pattern, block, and schedule information therefrom to be supplied to a database that is connected to a real-time transit management system.

Claims

1. A method of creating a navigation database, the method comprising:

generating a first navigation point while situated at a first location;

storing the first navigation point in the navigation database;

moving from a first location to a second location;

generating a second navigation point while situated at a second location;

storing the second navigation point in the navigation database;

generating a segment between the first and the second navigation points;

storing the segment with a group of segments in the navigation database;

generating a path segment from the group of segments;

storing the path segment with a list of path segments in the navigating database; and

generating a path from the list of path segments,

wherein the method is carried out by a single integrated computer program.

2. The method of creating a navigation database according to claim 1 wherein the generating a navigation point step comprises:

obtaining a position from a positioning signal.

3. The method of creating a navigation database according to claim 2 wherein the generating a navigation point step further comprises:

providing a set of attributes corresponding to the position to generate a navigation point.

4. The method of creating a navigation database according to claim 3 wherein the attributes include at least one of a descriptive name, a departure radius, and an arrival radius.

5. The method of creating a navigation database according to claim 1 wherein the segment includes a start navigation point pointer and an end navigation point pointer.

6. The method of creating a navigation database according to claim 1 wherein the path segment includes a start waypoint pointer, an end waypoint pointer, and a list of segments.

7. A method of creating a transit schedule, the method comprising:

generating a first transit point while situated at a first location;

generating a second transit point while situated at a second location;

generating a street segment between the first and second transit points;

generating a route segment from a group of street segments;

generating a route from a group of route segments; and

storing at least one of the transit point, the street segment, the route segment, and the route in a transit schedule database;

wherein the method is carried out substantially by a single integrated computer program.

8. The method of creating a transit schedule according to claim 7 further comprising:

generating a pattern from a group of route segments.

9. The method of creating a transit schedule according to claim 8 further comprising:

generating a block from a group of patterns.

10. The method of creating a transit schedule according to claim 9 further comprising:

generating a schedule from a group of blocks.

11. The method of creating a transit schedule according to claim 10 further comprising:

storing at least one of the pattern, the block, and the schedule in the transit schedule database.

12. The method of creating a transit schedule according to claim 9 wherein the generating a transit point step comprises:

receiving a position signal from a position signal source.

13. The method of producing a transit schedule according to claim 12 further comprising:

generating a mobile display terminal (MDT) file from the transit schedule database.

14. The method of creating a transit schedule according to claim 12 wherein the position signal source is a global positioning system (GPS) satellite and the position signal is a global positioning system (GPS) signal.

15. A scheduling system comprising

a position signal receiver to receive a position signal;

an information processing unit coupled to the position signal receiver, the information processing unit including a memory, a storage device, and a processor;

wherein the information processing unit runs a single integrated program to receive position data from the position signal receiver, to receive corresponding position data, and to generate at least one of navigation points, segments, path segments, and paths and stores at least one of navigation points, segments, path segments, and paths to be used to generate a transit schedule; and

the navigation points are transit points, the segments are street segments, the path segments are route segments, and the paths are routes and at least one of the transit points, the street segments, the route segments, and the routes are stored in a database.

16. The scheduling system of claim 15 wherein the information processing unit is a computer.

17. The scheduling system of claim 16 wherein the position signal receiver is a global positioning system (GPS) receiver.

18. The scheduling system of claim 15 wherein the database is downloadable into a dispatch computer.

19. The scheduling system of claim 15 wherein a schedule is generated from the database.

20. The scheduling system of claim 19 wherein the schedule is downloaded to at least one transit computer.

21. The scheduling system of claim 20 wherein the transit computer is coupled to a position signal receiver to receive position signals.

22. The scheduling system of claim 21 wherein the transit computer is coupled to a transmitter to transmit signals to the dispatch computer.

23. The scheduling system of claim 15 wherein the information generated is communicated to a dispatch computer.

24. The scheduling system of claim 23 wherein the dispatch computer operates in a learning mode to generate a database file.