Platform Wheel Cutout Docking for Minimal Boarding Gaps
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing transportation networks face challenges in reducing the gap between vehicles and platforms during passenger boarding/alighting, which can lead to accidents and are inconvenient for disabled passengers, and existing solutions do not effectively allow vehicles to stop in close proximity to the platform.
Innovation Solution
A passenger boarding/alighting platform with cutouts designed to accommodate vehicle wheels, allowing them to dock and rotate within these cutouts, thereby reducing the gap and enabling vehicles to stop adjacent to the platform, facilitated by onboard vehicle systems for precise alignment and management.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If extendible or movable platforms are used to reduce the gap between vehicle and platform, then passenger safety is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The platform is segmented by introducing cutouts that separate the wheel docking area from the passenger boarding area. This allows the wheel to be accommodated in a dedicated cutout space while the main platform surface remains stable and simple, reducing overall structural complexity while maintaining safety.
Solution Approach 2:
The wheel accommodation function is extracted from the main platform structure by creating dedicated cutouts. This separates the wheel docking requirement from the passenger boarding surface, allowing each to be optimized independently without requiring complex extendible or movable mechanisms.
2Ease of operation
If the gap between vehicle and platform is reduced to improve accessibility for disabled passengers, then ease of operation is improved, but risk of accidents increases due to vehicle instability
Solution Approach 1:
The wheel is docked into the cutout in advance before passenger boarding begins. This preliminary docking action secures the vehicle position and stabilizes it before the gap reduction is fully utilized for passenger access, ensuring both stability and accessibility are achieved in the correct sequence.
Solution Approach 2:
The cutout provides localized wheel accommodation at the specific point where the wheel contacts the platform. This local structural feature allows gap reduction for accessibility while maintaining vehicle stability through precise wheel positioning, without requiring global structural changes.
3Device complexity
If conventional platforms are used without cutouts, then device complexity is reduced, but the gap between vehicle and platform cannot be sufficiently reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The platform surface is segmented by adding cutouts that create dedicated wheel docking zones. This segmentation allows the platform to accommodate wheels in a simple cutout structure rather than requiring complex extendible mechanisms, enabling gap reduction while maintaining structural simplicity.
4Reliability
If vehicles stop in close proximity to the platform to reduce the gap, then passenger safety is improved, but precise positioning and alignment become more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The cutout acts as an intermediary structure between the vehicle wheel and the main platform. It provides a dedicated docking interface that guides and constrains the wheel into the correct position, making precise alignment easier by providing a physical reference and constraint rather than requiring high-precision control systems.
Data Source
AI summary
A stopping station (15) for use in a transportation network (100) is disclosed. The stopping station (15) comprises a passenger boarding/alighting platform (30) and a plurality of vehicle stopping surfaces (90). The passenger boarding/alighting platform (30) has an upper surface (80) for boarding of passengers into a vehicle (20). The passenger boarding/alighting platform (30) also has a vehicle-facing surface (85) comprising at least two of a cutout (40) for docking of a wheel (45) of the vehicle to the passenger boarding/alighting platform (30). The vehicle stopping surface (90) is adjacent to the vehicle-facing surface (85) and is used for stopping of the vehicle (20) during the boarding/alighting of the passengers in/from the vehicle (20).