Branch Track Departure Control to Prevent Vehicle Congestion
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing transport systems face issues of vehicle congestion and inefficiencies due to excess or shortage of transport vehicles, leading to reduced loading times and blocked departures, which hinder smooth load transportation.
Innovation Solution
A transport system with a controller that manages vehicle departures based on presence in specific sections of the track, prohibiting departures when necessary to prevent congestion and ensure timely loading, using fixed cycle controls and section-specific prohibitions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If transport vehicles depart frequently from branch tracks, then the utilization of branch tracks is improved, but congestion occurs in certain sections due to vehicle concentration
Solution Approach 1:
The controller monitors the presence of transport vehicles in predetermined sections of the track and uses this feedback information to dynamically adjust departure timing. When a section is detected to be congested, the controller prohibits departures from branch tracks until the section clears, preventing harmful concentration while maintaining high utilization through rapid resumption of departures once conditions improve
Solution Approach 2:
The departure control system transitions from static fixed-schedule departures to dynamic condition-based departures. The system continuously adapts departure timing based on real-time track conditions, allowing frequent departures when sections are clear while automatically reducing frequency when congestion is detected, thus balancing utilization and congestion prevention
2Object-generated harmful factors
If transport vehicles are prohibited from departing to prevent congestion, then vehicle concentration is reduced, but loading time is extended due to waiting
Solution Approach 1:
The system prohibits departures in advance when congestion is predicted or detected in predetermined sections, preventing harmful vehicle concentration before it occurs. This preemptive control accepts temporary loading delays but prevents more severe congestion-related disruptions, maintaining overall system efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
The departure prohibition operates in periodic cycles based on congestion detection. When congestion is detected, departures are prohibited temporarily; when the section clears, departures resume. This periodic on/off control pattern balances congestion prevention with minimizing loading time extensions
3Ease of operation
If transport vehicles stop at stop positions for loading, then loading operations are enabled, but departure is blocked when preceding vehicles are present
Solution Approach 1:
The track is divided into predetermined sections with specific stop positions assigned to each section. Vehicles are managed in segment-based groups, where departure permission for one segment is independent of others. This segmentation allows loading operations in one section while maintaining departure efficiency in cleared sections, resolving the contradiction between loading enablement and departure blocking
Data Source
AI summary
A transport system includes transport vehicles to travel along a track and transport a load, and a controller. The track includes a first main track and branch tracks connecting to the first main track via different confluence points. The controller is configured or programmed to execute departure control that causes the transport vehicles stopped at respective stop positions of the branch tracks to depart toward the first main track for each of the branch tracks. The departure control prohibits, in accordance with whether the transport vehicle is present in a certain section on the track, departure of at least one of the transport vehicles stopped at the respective stop positions of the branch tracks.