Travel Vehicle Route Control With Reverse Travel Zones
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing travel vehicle systems with one-way travel paths experience reduced transport efficiency due to roundabout routes at branching and confluence portions, leading to increased travel time to reach target placement tables.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a travel vehicle controller that performs one-way and reverse travel control, utilizing reverse travel zones and flags to optimize travel routes, allowing vehicles to bypass conventional detours by reversing direction at specified points.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a one-way travel path is defined to prevent face-to-face travel, then travel safety is improved, but transport efficiency deteriorates due to roundabout routes
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the travel direction of vehicles based on real-time conditions. At confluence portions, vehicles are allowed to travel in reverse direction (opposite to the predetermined one-way direction) when it is safe to do so, enabling them to take shorter routes to target placement tables while maintaining safety through coordinated control of multiple vehicles.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the travel direction parameter from strictly one-way to bidirectional at specific locations (confluence portions). By allowing reverse travel in controlled zones, the system optimizes route selection to reduce travel time and improve transport efficiency while maintaining safety through coordinated vehicle management.
2Reliability
If a one-way travel path is defined, then vehicle collision risk is reduced, but travel time to target placement table increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements dynamic direction control at confluence portions, allowing vehicles to switch between one-way and reverse travel modes based on real-time conditions. This enables vehicles to take optimal routes to target placement tables while the control system coordinates vehicle movements to prevent collisions, thus reducing travel time without compromising safety.
3Productivity
If reverse travel zones are introduced to optimize routes, then transport efficiency is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The travel path is segmented into ordinary zones and reverse travel zones. Reverse travel zones are specifically established at confluence portions where bidirectional travel is permitted. This segmentation allows the system to maintain simple one-way control in most areas while introducing reverse travel capability only where necessary, thus improving transport efficiency without excessively increasing overall system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The control system acts as an intermediary that manages vehicle movements in reverse travel zones. It coordinates the actions of multiple vehicles, determines safe reverse travel opportunities, and ensures collision-free operations. This centralized mediation handles the complexity of bidirectional control, allowing individual vehicles to operate relatively simply while achieving optimized routes.
Data Source
AI summary
A travel vehicle system includes a travel controller to search a travel route that leads a travel vehicle to a station included in a transport instruction in accordance with map information and to control a travel of the travel vehicle along the travel route when the transport instruction is issued. The map information includes information on a specified point corresponding to at least one of a branching portion and a confluence portion. In addition to a one direction travel control to cause the travel vehicle to travel in one direction, the travel control sets a reverse travel zone in which the travel vehicle travels in a direction opposite to the one direction from/to the specified point as at least a portion of the travel route and causes the travel vehicle to travel along the travel route by performing a turnover travel control to cause the travel vehicle to travel in a direction opposite to the one direction in the reverse travel zone.