Ground Controller Travel Control System for Autonomous Vehicles
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
In large-scale traveling vehicle systems, control delays and insufficient information about other vehicles' routes lead to difficulties in maintaining short intervals between vehicles, causing traffic jams and inefficiencies at diverging and merging points, especially under autonomous control.
Innovation Solution
A centralized travel control system where a ground controller communicates position, velocity, and torque instructions to vehicles using a communication system, allowing synchronized travel with short inter-vehicle distances and minimizing exclusive control at critical points, thereby improving throughput and avoiding bottlenecks.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If autonomous control with inter-vehicle distance sensors is used, then vehicles can travel independently, but control delay prevents short intervals between leading and following vehicles
Solution Approach 1:
A ground controller serves as an intermediary between traveling vehicles, receiving position information from all vehicles and calculating target positions centrally. This mediator eliminates the need for vehicles to autonomously sense and react to each other, thereby removing the control delay inherent in inter-vehicle distance sensor systems while maintaining autonomous operation capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements continuous feedback loops where vehicles report position information to the ground controller in real-time, and the ground controller responds with target position instructions. This closed-loop feedback mechanism enables precise control of inter-vehicle intervals by constantly adjusting each vehicle's target position based on current system state, overcoming the open-loop delay problems of autonomous sensor-based control.
2Reliability
If exclusive control at diverging and merging points is implemented, then reliability is improved, but throughput decreases due to occupancy time
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the target position of each vehicle based on real-time position information from all vehicles and predicted future states. At diverging and merging points, the ground controller continuously recalculates target positions to optimize spacing and timing, allowing multiple vehicles to pass through critical points safely without requiring exclusive occupancy, thereby maintaining reliability while improving throughput.
Solution Approach 2:
The ground controller predicts future vehicle positions and states in advance to determine optimal target positions before vehicles reach diverging and merging points. By preemptively calculating and issuing target position instructions that account for future traffic conditions, the system prevents congestion at critical points while maintaining safe spacing, thus improving throughput without compromising reliability.
3Extent of automation
If autonomous route determination is used, then vehicle independence is maintained, but traffic jams occur due to insufficient information about other vehicles' routes
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges individual autonomous route determination with centralized ground controller coordination. While vehicles maintain autonomous operation, the ground controller combines position information from all vehicles to calculate target positions that account for the routes of other vehicles. This merging of decentralized sensing with centralized information processing eliminates traffic jams caused by insufficient route information while preserving vehicle independence.
4Productivity
If centralized control by ground controller is implemented, then short intervals between vehicles are achieved, but communication system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts complex control calculations from individual vehicles and centralizes them in the ground controller. Vehicles only need to implement simple position reporting and target position execution, while the ground controller handles the complex real-time optimization of all vehicle target positions. This extraction of computational complexity reduces on-vehicle system complexity while enabling sophisticated centralized control for high throughput.
Data Source
AI summary
A ground controller and traveling vehicles are connected to a communication system on the ground. Position instructions are given to the traveling vehicles in each position control cycle. The traveling vehicles generate a plurality of velocity instructions and torque instructions by themselves to carry out the position instructions.