AUTOMATED TRANSIT TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT, A KEY TO THE FUTURE

The essential subsystem of Advanced Group Rapid Transit is the Command and Control System which controls individual vehicles and groups of vehicles. The approach to verification of the control system and associated subsystems functions involves the use of an engineering test facility to be completed at the Otis Denver, Colorado facility. The equipment configuration is to be functionally representative of equipment which can ultimately be deployed in urban areas. The critical technologies are embodied in the development of the Local (Zone) Control System and in vehicle propulsion for higher speed. Specifically: 1. Local (Zone) Management and Control-This is a minicomputer based hardware/software system which performs the operational control of all vehicles within an assigned zone for longitudinal speed regulation, merging, diverging, station operations, startup/shut-down, and recovery. This activity involves an extensive development of real-time control software for line headway operations down to 3 seconds for strings of vehicles. 2. Safety Assurance-This function is implemented by using microprocessor based controls on the wayside and the vehicle to assure safe operation (e.g., collision avoidance). The microprocessors are applied to meet the computational speed and data flow requirements of short headway systems. The processors are employed in two-out-of-three voting configurations to give fail-operational safety assurance. This approach represents the technology of the future for safety assurance. 3. Vehicle Development-AGRT requires a vehicle speed of 40 mph. This performance parameter requires a new inverter-linear induction motor (LIM) propulsion system development similar to the Otis system at Duke University. A major effort is being made to minimize vehicle weight, energy consumption, and cost. 4. Verification-The final year of the program will be devoted to operational testing. The tests will serve to verify the critical functional operations of the vehicles under automatic control. (Author)

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Proceedings of 30th Annual Conference of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society International Conference on Transportation Electronics, September 15-17, 1980, Dearborn, Michigan.
• Corporate Authors:

  Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

  Operations Center, 445 Hoes Lane, P.O. Box 1331
  Piscataway, NJ  United States  08855-1331

  Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)

  400 Commonwealth Drive
  Warrendale, PA  United States  15096
• Authors:
  • Saunders, L L
• Conference:
  • Proceedings of 30th Annual Conference of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society International Conference on Transportation Electronics, September 15-17, 1980, Dearborn, Michigan.
• Publication Date: 1980-9

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: p. 1-6

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Automated guideway transit; Automated vehicle control; Automatic control; Crash injury research; Crashes; Development; Guideways; Headways; Minicomputers; Research; Safety
• Uncontrolled Terms: Accident avoidance; Research and development
• Old TRIS Terms: Automated transit system
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Public Transportation; Research; Safety and Human Factors; Terminals and Facilities; Vehicles and Equipment; I70: Traffic and Transport;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00334046
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: IEEE-80CH1601-4, HS-030 459, SAE-SP-90
• Files: HSL, TRIS
• Created Date: Oct 28 1984 12:00AM