Ground Controller Inter-Vehicle Distance Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle systems rely on obstacle sensors for inter-vehicle distance control and may experience interference or communication failures between vehicles and controllers, leading to potential safety issues.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle system where vehicles periodically report their statuses to a ground controller, and upon detecting failed reception of instructions, they stop and report their status, allowing the ground controller to send instructions to prevent interference and ensure safety, enabling automatic restoration when communication returns.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If obstacle sensors are used for inter-vehicle distance control, then detection capability is improved, but reliability deteriorates due to possible detection errors and communication failures
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a ground controller as an intermediary between vehicles to manage communication and coordinate inter-vehicle distances. The ground controller receives status reports from all vehicles, detects communication failures, and sends coordinated travel instructions to maintain safe distances, thereby improving reliability while reducing dependence on individual vehicle sensors.
2Productivity
If vehicles continuously report status and receive instructions from ground controller, then inter-vehicle distance control is improved, but vulnerability to communication failure worsens
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a preliminary action by having vehicles periodically report their status even when communication is functional, so that the ground controller has up-to-date information ready. More importantly, when communication failure is detected, the system has pre-established protocols for vehicles to stop and for the ground controller to send recovery instructions, ensuring reliable operation despite communication interruptions.
3Reliability
If vehicle stops upon communication failure, then safety is improved, but system restoration complexity worsens
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the ground controller continuously monitors whether vehicles have received their instructions. When a vehicle stops due to communication failure, the ground controller detects this through lack of status reports or acknowledgment, and automatically sends travel instructions to resume movement. This closed-loop feedback simplifies restoration by making it an automatic response rather than a complex manual recovery process.
Data Source
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AI summary
In the vehicle system, the inter-vehicle distance between vehicles is controlled by periodically reporting vehicle statuses from a plurality of vehicles (#1, #2, #3) to a ground controller (4) and also periodically sending travelling instructions to the plurality of vehicles (#1, #2, #3) from the ground controller (4). Each vehicle stops when detecting failed reception of an instruction from the ground controller (4) and reporting a vehicle status including information that the vehicle (#1) has stopped to the ground controller (4), and the ground controller (4) based on the report received from the stopped vehicle (#1) sends a travelling instruction to the stopped vehicle (#1), and based on the report received from the stopped vehicle (#1), also sends a travelling instruction to a vehicle (#2, #3) that follows the stopped vehicle (#1) so as to avoid interference with the stopped vehicle (#1).