A method for loading an automobile onto or from a train wagon, a system, and an automobile

Abstract

A method for loading an automobile 10 onto or from a train wagon 12, comprising detecting an environment of the train wagon with at least one environmental sensor 14, detecting a state of the train wa

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of vehicles, in particular for combined travelling with an automobile and a train. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method for loading an at least partially autonomous automobile onto or from a train wagon. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a system for loading an automobile and a corresponding automobile. BACKGROUND INFORMATION

[0002] The choice to travel by rail or road requires an analysis of the relative advantages and disadvantages. Travelling by rail is often more environmentally sustainable per passenger than an equivalent journey via automobile. Furthermore, passenger trains require less space per passenger than their automotive equivalents. Thus, when passengers choose to travel by train instead of by automobile, they often help mitigate traffic for the region. On an individual level, rail passengers are able to enjoy their journey without being preoccupied with the task of driving, without worrying about traffic delays, and without the burden of parking and moving their vehicle at their destination.

[0003] Despite the considerable advantages of rail transport, many passengers choose to travel by road instead. A common reason is that public rail transportation is not cheap, accessible, fast, or convenient enough for their journey. However, another common reason is that passengers lose the comfort, privacy, safety and security of their private automobile. In fact, for many there is no argument that can outweigh the importance of safety and security.

[0004] For combined travel by bringing the automobile by train to the chosen destination, it is necessary to load and unload automobiles to / from the train. The current process for loading and unloading automobiles is designed to optimize space efficiency for shipping or carrying by train. Therefore, it is mostly used for shipping and is often decoupled from the passengers’ journey. Given the current process, it would be impractical for passengers to travel with their vehicles by rail because the stop times would be unacceptably long, particularly for train lines with many stops. In all, this setup is an efficient way to complete a long, manual, and laborious process, while this process is completely impractical for passengers to travel by rail alongside their automobiles. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0005] It is an object of the present invention to provide a method, a system, and an automobile for loading the automobile onto or from a train wagon, which provides a new loading and unloading process for passengers to travel by rail alongside their automobiles with ease of use.

[0006] This object is solved by a method, a system, and an automobile according to the present invention. Advantageous embodiments are presented in the dependent claims, the description, and the drawings.

[0007] A first aspect of the present invention relates to a method for loading an at least partially autonomous automobile onto or from a train wagon. The method according to the invention comprises of the following steps:

[0008] A first step is detecting an environment of the train wagon with at least one environmental sensor. A second step is detecting a state, in particular a loading state and / or a ramp state, of the train wagon by the at least one environmental sensor and / or another sensor device. A third step is detecting a position and / or a state of the automobile. A fourth step is determining a route for the automobile by which a parking position on the train wagon or in the environment is reachable wherein the termination of the route is performed by a control unit. The fifth step is providing a control signal for an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) of the automobile to follow the route.

[0009] The automobile is in particular a car, van, or truck, which is at least partially autonomously drivable or movable by the advanced driver assistance system. The environmental sensor may comprise a camera so that detecting the environment of the train wagon may be performed by creating images of that environment. A state of the train wagon could be a loading state, which means if there is parking space for the automobile or not, and a ramp state, wherein the ramp is used to drive on or off the train wagon with the automobile. For determining or calculating the route also detecting the position and / or state of the automobile is performed, wherein the position may contain also the orientation of the automobile and the state may comprise information about parking preferences. The control signal is provided by the control unit, which comprises at least one computing unit and may be part of the automobile, a train station, the train wagon, and / or an external cloud device.

[0010] The at least one environmental sensor may be a component of the automobile and / or the train wagon or railcar and / or the train station. The sensor device may also be a component of the automobile and / or the train wagon or railcar and / or the train station. With this flexibility, the method may also be used with a covered railcar, where the automobile may be out of the station’s environmental sensor’s line-of-sight.

[0011] The steps of the method may be performed in the shown or any other order, wherein the detection of the states and the environment may also be performed continuously while driving the automobile to the parking position via the ADAS.

[0012] The control unit may comprise one or more microprocessors. The method may be implemented, for example, as a program code or program instruction which may be stored in a data memory of the control unit and which may be arranged to perform the embodiments of the method according to the invention when executed by the at least one microprocessor.

[0013] In an embodiment of the method, the train station may provide its desired path for the vehicle or automobile, which is responsible for calculating and executing the necessary control signals to follow that path.

[0014] In yet another implementation, the train station may provide the vehicle’s pose and states of all obstacles in the vehicle’s environment. In that implementation, the vehicle itself is responsible for calculating the optimal path and the control signals to follow that path.

[0015] In another implementation, the train station or railcar may just pass on the data from its environmental sensor(s).

[0016] An advantage of the present invention is that the advantages of travelling by train and automobile can be combined, without having the hassle to load an automobile on or off the train. The invention seeks to fuse the two modes of transportation by autonomously loading and unloading automobiles onto railcars.

[0017] Therefore, another advantage is that the method enables different benefits depending on the railcar or train wagon configuration. Some railcar configurations may enable passengers to remain inside their automobiles while travelling. If passengers can remain inside their vehicles, they can enjoy comfort, privacy, safety, and security while travelling sustainably. If passengers are not able to remain in their vehicles, but can travel with their vehicles in a passenger train wagon, they can still reduce the time or distance that they were travelling on the road.

[0018] In an embodiment of the present invention, the automobile performs the route in dependence of the control signal provided by the control unit.

[0019] In another embodiment of the present invention, the control unit forms a component of the automobile or a component of a train station.

[0020] In still another embodiment of the present invention an identification feature, such as a QR-Code, is attached to the train wagon, by which the position of the automobile relative to the train wagon is determined.

[0021] In still another embodiment of the present invention, mechanical chocks, such as parking wedges, are provided on the train wagon, which are moved after reaching the parking position so that the automobile could be locked in place on the train wagon.

[0022] A second aspect of the present invention relates to a system for loading an at least partially autonomous automobile onto or off a train wagon. The system according to the invention comprises at least one sensor unit, for example the environmental sensor or another vehicle sensor or a train station sensor, for detecting an environment of the train wagon and / or for detecting a state of the train wagon and / or for detecting a position and / or state of the automobile. The system further comprises a control unit for determining a route for the automobile by which a parking position on the train wagon or in the environment is reachable and for providing a control signal to an advanced driver assistance system of the automobile for travelling alone the route.

[0023] The environmental sensor or another vehicle sensor may comprise a camera and / or a RADAR and / or LIDAR for example. Therefore, sensor data for example may comprise images and / or 3d point clouds. This allows an image or model of the environment to be captured or created and objects to be detected and positioned, including the automobile and the train wagon and wagon, and their position relative to each other.

[0024] Advantageous embodiments and advantages of the first aspect of the invention are to be regarded as advantageous embodiments and advantages of the second aspect of the invention and vice versa.

[0025] In an embodiment of the present invention the at least one sensor unit is arranged at a platform, in particular of the train station, and / or forms are component of that train station.

[0026] In another embodiment of the present invention, at least one communication device is provided which can exchange data between the advanced driver assistance system and the control unit. The at least one communication device may be a component of the automobile, the train wagon and / or the train station. In particular, the automobile, the train wagon and the trian station each comprise their own communication equipment, each of which is configured to exchange data and communicate with each other.

[0027] A third aspect of the present invention relates to an at least partially autonomous automobile comprising an advanced driver assistance system configured to perform a method according to the first aspect of the present invention and / or comprising a system according to the second aspect of the present invention.

[0028] Advantageous embodiments and advantages of the third aspect of the invention are to be regarded as advantageous embodiments and advantages of the first and second aspect of the invention and vice versa.

[0029] Further advantages, features, and details of the invention derive from the following description of preferred embodiments as well as from the drawings. The features and feature combinations previously mentioned in the description as well as the features and feature combinations mentioned in the following description of the figures and / or shown in the figures alone can be employed not only in the respectively indicated combination but also in any other combination or taken alone without leaving the scope of the invention. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0030] The novel features and characteristic of the disclosure are set forth in the appended claims. The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this disclosure, illustrate exemplary embodiments and together with the description, serve to explain the disclosed principles. The same numbers are used throughout the figures to reference like features and components. Some embodiments of system and / or methods in accordance with embodiments of the present subject matter are now described below, by way of example only, and with reference to the accompanying figures.

[0031] The drawings show in:

[0032] Fig. 1 a schematic diagram of a method for loading an automobile onto or from a train wagon; and

[0033] Fig. 2 a schematic view of a train wagon in an environment with an automobile and a system for loading an automobile onto or from a train wagon. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0034] In the present document, the word "exemplary" is used herein to mean "serving as an example, instance, or illustration". Any embodiment or implementation of the present subject matter described herein as "exemplary" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments.

[0035] While the disclosure is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawing and will be described in detail below. It should be understood, however, that it is not intended to limit the disclosure to the particular forms disclosed, but on the contrary, the disclosure is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of the disclosure.

[0036] The terms “comprises”, “comprising”, or any other variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion so that a setup, device or method that comprises a list of components or steps does not include only those components or steps but may include other components or steps not expressly listed or inherent to such setup or device or method. In other words, one or more elements in a system or apparatus preceded by “comprises” or “comprise” does not or do not, without more constraints, preclude the existence of other elements or additional elements in the system or method.

[0037] In the following detailed description of the embodiment of the disclosure, reference is made to the accompanying drawing that forms part hereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration a specific embodiment in which the disclosure may be practiced. This embodiment is described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the disclosure, and it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. The following description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense.

[0038] The currently commonly used process to load or unload automobiles onto railcars is a long, manual, and laborious process. Therefore, it is mostly used for shipping and is often decoupled from the passengers’ journey. Given the currently commonly used process, it would be impractical for passengers to travel with their vehicles by rail because the stop times would be unacceptably long, particularly for train lines with many stops. However, performing this operation autonomously would reduce the time and labor required. This may enable passengers to travel with their vehicles by rail for a wider variety of trips.

[0039] Therefore, Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a method for loading an at least partial autonomous automobile 10 onto or from a train wagon 12. The method comprises the following steps S1 to S5:

[0040] S1 is detecting or scanning an environment of the train wagon 12 by an environmental sensor 14. S2 is detecting or sensing a state of the train wagon 12 by the environmental sensor 14 and / or another sensor device 16. S3 is detecting or sensing a position and / or a state of the automobile 10. S4 is determining or calculating a route for the automobile 10 by which a parking position 18 on the train wagon 12 or in the environment is reachable by a control unit 20. S5 is providing or deploying a control signal for driver assistance for an advanced driver assistance system 22 of the automobile 10 to follow the route.

[0041] The method aims for at least a level 3 or level 4 autonomous vehicle according to SAJ3016 level of driving automation. For the shown method it does not matter, if the parking position 18 is on the train wagon or in the environment, and therefore if the automobile 10 has to be loaded onto or from the train wagon 12. Fig. 2 shows in a schematic side view the loading onto the train wagon 12. The automobile 10 performs the route in dependence on the control signal in an at least partially autonomous state, which may be provided or performed by the advanced driver assistance system 22.

[0042] Shown in fig. 2 is a system 30, which may be part of a train station for performing the method according to fig. 1 or for loading the at least partial autonomous automobile 10 onto or off the train wagon 12. The system 30 comprises at least one sensor unit, for example the environmental sensor 14 ora vehicle sensor 24 or the other sensor device 16 for detecting the environment of the train wagon the state of the train wagon 12 or for detecting the position and / or state of the automobile 10. The system 30 further comprises the control unit 20 for determining the route for the automobile 10 by which the parking position 18 on the train wagon 12 or in the environment is reachable and for providing a control signal to the advanced driver assistance system 22 or the automobile 10 for travelling along the calculated or determined route.

[0043] The shown automobile 10 may be built to perform the shown method or to comprise the system 30 so the sensors could be part of for example the train station or the automobile 10 itself. The at least one environmental sensor 14 may be a component of the automobile 10 and / or the train wagon 12 or railcar and / or the train station. The sensor device 16 may also be a component of the automobile 10 and / or the train wagon 12 and / or the train station.

[0044] The shown control unit 20 could form a component of the train station but could also be component of the automobile 10. An identification feature 26 may be attached to the train wagon 12, by which the position relative to the train wagon 12 is determinable. The identification feature 26 may for example comprise a code, such as a QR code. A parking wedge or mechanical chock 28 could be provided on the train wagon 12, which could be moved after the automobile 10, which is a parking position 28 to fix the automobile 10 in the parking position 18.

[0045] At least communication device 32 could be provided which can exchange data between the advanced driver assistance system 22 and the control unit 20 for example via a communication network. The communication device 32 may part of an infrastructure, such as a mobile network. The automobile 10 may comprise communication means, such as the communication device 32 or another communication device, to enable the advanced driver assistance system 22 to communicate with the control unit 20. If the control unit is part of the automobile 10, the communication means may comprise a CAN bus. The sensors unit 14, 16, 24 may each comprise communication means, such as the communication device 32 or another communication device. Furthermore, the train wagon 12 may comprise another communication device 32. Communication link(s) between the train station, automobile(s) 10, and railcar(s) are established, in particular via the communication devices 32, to exchange data and commands. The subsequent distribution of the sensing, processing, and control responsibilities between the train station, automobile(s) 10, and railcar(s) are implementation-specific.

[0046] The communication may also be performed between the sensors and / or the control unit 20 and could be realized by vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology, which can be used to enable higher levels of driving automation for the automobile 10. Vehicle-to-everything technology refers to the ability for a vehicle, the automobile 10, to directly communicate with other entities around it, for example the sensors.

[0047] The exchanged data may be for example real time sensor data, perception output, state estimates, status updates, and environment modus, planning, and control signals. V2X is a term that includes vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) technology. While V2X technology is very powerful, it needs the right spot to be placed at, a train station as an environment as shown in Fig. 2 is such a place.

[0048] Therefore, with the shown method, the shown system 30, and the autonomous automobile 10 loading and unloading with vehicle infrastructure technology is achieved. The train station could be equipped with the sensing, processing, internal communication pipeline infrastructure necessary for the autonomous operation. This can drastically reduce the technological burden required for the passenger’s vehicle, the automobile 10. A configuration is possible for example, as Fig. 2 shows, wherein the train station comprises the environmental sensor 14 and the control unit 20 as well as the communication device 32 and therefore the system 30. Therefore, the train station may sense and process everything at first so that the automobile 10 only needs to receive and execute the control signal.

[0049] The train station infrastructure can also assist in a more passive manner. For example, the train wagon 12 can be augmented with unique identifiers, such as the identification feature 26 so that the autonomous vehicles localize and maneuver themselves into the designated parking positions 18. Signs first step second step third step fourth step fifth step automobile train wagon environmental sensor sensor device parking position control unit advanced driver assistance system vehicle sensor identification feature mechanical chock system communication device

Claims

1. A method for loading an at least partially autonomous automobile (10) onto or froma train wagon (12), comprising the steps of:detecting an environment of the train wagon (12) with at least oneenvironmental sensor (14); (S1)detecting a state of the train wagon (12) by the at least one environmental sensor (14) and / or a sensor device (16); (S2)detecting a position and / or a state of the automobile (10); (S3)determining by a control unit (20) a route for the automobile (10) by which a parking position (18) on the train wagon (12) or in the environment is reachable;(S4) andproviding a control signal for an advanced driver-assistance system (22) of the automobile (10) to follow the route. (S5)2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in thatthe automobile (10) performs the route in dependence on the control signal provided by the control unit (20).

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in thatthe control unit (20) forms a component of the automobile (10) or a component of a train station or the train wagon (12) or an external cloud device.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in thatan identification feature is attached to the train wagon (12), by which the position relative to the train wagon (12) is determined.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in thatmechanical chocks (28) are provided on the train wagon (12), which are moved after reaching the parking position (18).

6. A system (30) for loading an at least partially autonomous automobile (10) onto or off a train wagon, comprising:at least one sensor unit (14, 16, 24) for detecting an environment of the train wagon (12) and / or for detecting a state of the train wagon (12) and / or for detecting a position and / or a state of the automobile (10);a control unit (20) for determining a route for the automobile (10) by which a parking position (18) on the train wagon (12) or in the environment is reachable and for providing a control signal to an advanced driver assistance system (22) of the automobile (10) for travelling along the route.

7. The system (30) according to claim 6, characterized in thatthe at least one sensor unit (14, 16, 24) is arranged at a platform and / or forms a component of a train station.

8. The system (30) according to claim 6 or 7, characterized in thatat least one communication device (32) for exchanging data between the advanced driver assistance system (22) and the control unit (20) is provided for the automobile (10), the train wagon (12) and / or the train station.

9. An at least partially autonomous automobile (10) comprising an advanced driverassistance system (22) configured to perform a method according to any one of claims 1 to 5 and / or comprising a system (30) according to any one of claims 6 to 8.

Images