A portable rope tow assembly is used to transport people, typically skiing or snowboarding, along snow covered ground and usually up hill. The assembly is extremely lightweight, portable and rapid to deploy. It uses a variable frequency drive to control an electric drive motor, and enables convenient variable speed and reverse direction operation.

The invention utilizes a ski lift for wind power generation outside of the ski season. The carriers on the ski lift are replaced by wind catching structures that pull the haul rope either uphill or downhill, depending on the prevailing wind. The haul rope rotates the electrical drive motor of the ski lift, causing it to generate electrical energy.

The invention utilizes a ski lift for wind power generation outside of the ski season. The carriers on the ski lift are replaced by wind catching structures that pull the haul rope either uphill or downhill, depending on the prevailing wind. The haul rope rotates the electrical drive motor of the ski lift, causing it to generate electrical energy.

Systems and methods for improved operations of ski lifts increase skier safety at on-boarding and off-boarding locations by providing an always-on, always-alert system that watches these locations, identifies developing problem situations, and initiates mitigation actions. One or more video cameras feed live video to a video processing module. The video processing module feeds resulting sequences of images to an artificial intelligence (AI) engine. The AI engine makes an inference regarding existence of a potential problem situation based on the sequence of images. This inference is fed to an inference processing module, which determines if the inference processing module should send an alert or interact with the lift motor controller to slow or stop the lift.

Systems and methods for improved operations of ski lifts increase skier safety at on-boarding and off-boarding locations by providing an always-on, always-alert system that watches these locations, identifies developing problem situations, and initiates mitigation actions. One or more video cameras feed live video to a video processing module. The video processing module feeds resulting sequences of images to an artificial intelligence (AI) engine. The AI engine makes an inference regarding existence of a potential problem situation based on the sequence of images. This inference is fed to an inference processing module, which determines if the inference processing module should send an alert or interact with the lift motor controller to slow or stop the lift.

Installation of transport by overhead cable including at least one chair configured to be suspended on the overhead cable and including a pivoting seat surface, a back rest and a pivoting mechanism to modify the inclination of the seat surface with respect to the back rest, the installation including an actuator configured to cooperate with the pivoting mechanism so as to control pivoting of the seat surface, the actuator being mounted movable between a raised position in which the actuator controls raising of the seat surface in the direction of the back rest and a lowered position in which the actuator controls lowering of the seat surface.

Installation of transport by overhead cable including at least one chair configured to be suspended on the overhead cable and including a pivoting seat surface, a back rest and a pivoting mechanism to modify the inclination of the seat surface with respect to the back rest, the installation including an actuator configured to cooperate with the pivoting mechanism so as to control pivoting of the seat surface, the actuator being mounted movable between a raised position in which the actuator controls raising of the seat surface in the direction of the back rest and a lowered position in which the actuator controls lowering of the seat surface.

The boarding area (A, B, C) of a transport means is divided into at least two gates (1, 2, 3), the maximum person capacity of which corresponds, respectively, to the maximum capacity of the largest transport device (9) that is accessible via the boarding area (A, B, C). Entrance into the gates (1, 2, 3) is effected via at least one separating device (4) connected with a control system (5) for the purpose of data communication. Entrance into each gate (1, 2, 3) is not possible once the number of persons in the gate (1, 2, 3) specified by the control system (5) for the current boarding operation is reached, or while the persons inside the gate (1, 2, 3) board the transport car. The number of persons in each gate (1, 2, 3) for the current boarding operation is determined by the control system (5) in dependence upon the transport demand in subsequent intermediate stations ahead of an end station, provided such intermediate stations are present, and of the free capacity of the arriving transport car (9). For the current boarding operation, the persons inside each gate (1, 2, 3) are assigned to the arriving transport car (9). When the number of persons inside the gate (1, 2, 3), as specified for the current boarding operation, has been reached, or when a timer which corresponds to a specified time window has expired and the transport car (9) arrives to which the persons currently in the gate (1, 2, 3) are assigned, the persons who are inside the gate (1, 2, 3) are requested to board and a counter for the number of persons in the gate (1, 2, 3) is set to zero.

The boarding area (A, B, C) of a transport means is divided into at least two gates (1, 2, 3), the maximum person capacity of which corresponds, respectively, to the maximum capacity of the largest transport device (9) that is accessible via the boarding area (A, B, C). Entrance into the gates (1, 2, 3) is effected via at least one separating device (4) connected with a control system (5) for the purpose of data communication. Entrance into each gate (1, 2, 3) is not possible once the number of persons in the gate (1, 2, 3) specified by the control system (5) for the current boarding operation is reached, or while the persons inside the gate (1, 2, 3) board the transport car. The number of persons in each gate (1, 2, 3) for the current boarding operation is determined by the control system (5) in dependence upon the transport demand in subsequent intermediate stations ahead of an end station, provided such intermediate stations are present, and of the free capacity of the arriving transport car (9). For the current boarding operation, the persons inside each gate (1, 2, 3) are assigned to the arriving transport car (9). When the number of persons inside the gate (1, 2, 3), as specified for the current boarding operation, has been reached, or when a timer which corresponds to a specified time window has expired and the transport car (9) arrives to which the persons currently in the gate (1, 2, 3) are assigned, the persons who are inside the gate (1, 2, 3) are requested to board and a counter for the number of persons in the gate (1, 2, 3) is set to zero.

A system for detecting the passage of users in a ski resort, the ski resort comprising a plurality of ski runs and a plurality of ski lifts; the system for detecting the passage of users comprising: an image sensor and a processing unit, which are connected in communication with each other; wherein the image sensor is configured to capture images, such as a video, of a portion of the ski run, and send them to the processing unit; the processing unit being configured to analyse said images, such as the video, and detect moving objects, such as moving in a given direction, and count said detected moving objects; such as the image sensor is a video camera.