An SIL 4 over-speed protection device for a rail vehicle includes a first logical unit configured to be connected to a first power source, a first speed sensor and a first vital supervision circuit and a second logical unit configured to be connected to a second power source, a second speed sensor and a second vital supervision circuit. The first logical unit is configured to determine if the second logical unit is functioning properly and the second logical unit is configured to determine if the first logical unit is functioning properly.

A train speed control system 100 includes a first non-contact sensor 110 that outputs measured first speed information, a first safety device 120 that receives the first speed information from the first non-contact sensor 110, a second non-contact sensor 140 that outputs measured second speed information, and a second safety device 150 that receives the second speed information from the second non-contact sensor 140 and transmits the received second speed information to the first safety device 120 at a predetermined timing. Then, when first second speed information is received from the second safety device 150, the first safety device 120 evaluates soundness of the first speed information based on a speed difference between the first second speed information and first first speed information measured by the first non-contact sensor 110 at substantially the same timing as the first second speed information, and determines control speed of a train 1 based on a result of the evaluation.

The method comprises, for a given route between a starting point and a destination, and for an arrival at the destination at a given desired time: a preliminary step of determining and recording a plurality of vehicle mission profiles, at least a first instant during the journey, a step of determining an instantaneous position of the vehicle at this first instant and a desired time remaining to reach the destination, a step of identifying, among the mission profiles, the mission profile(s) whose curves are closest to the desired time remaining at the instantaneous position of the vehicle, and a step of determining new driving parameters to follow a new mission profile, the new mission profile being determined on the basis of the determined mission profiles.

A method and an apparatus for a train control system are disclosed, and are based on virtualization of train control logic and the use of cloud computing resources. A train control system is configured into two main parts. The first part includes physical elements of the train control system, and the second part includes a virtual train control system that provides the computing resources for the required train control application platforms. The disclosed architecture can be used with various train control technologies, including communications based train control, cab-signaling and fixed block, wayside signal technology. Further, the disclosure describes methodologies to convert cab-signaling and manual operations into distance to go operation.

A method for automatic stop comprises: acquiring a target distance correction value, wherein the target distance correction value is determined according to a historical parking error value before a target moment, and the target moment is the time when the target distance correction value is stored; correcting an acquired target distance value according to the target distance correction value, so as to obtain a corrected target distance value, wherein the target distance value is the value of the distance between the current position of a vehicle and a target parking position; and according to the corrected target distance value, executing the present instance of automatic parking. An automatic parking apparatus may be used to carry out such a method.

A vehicle control system includes one or more processors configured to assign plural vehicles to different groups in one or more vehicle systems for travel along one or more routes. The one or more processors also are configured to determine trip plans for the different groups. The trip plans designate different operational settings of the vehicles in the different groups at different locations along one or more routes during movement of the one or more vehicle systems along the one or more routes. The one or more processors also are configured to modify one or more of the groups to which the vehicles are assigned or the operational settings for the vehicles in one or more of the vehicle systems based on a movement parameter of one or more of the vehicle systems. The trip plans for the different groups of the vehicles are interdependent upon each other.

An article transport facility includes a transport vehicle and a controller, and the transport vehicle includes: a drive unit; a speed detector configured to detect a traveling speed; and a distance detector configured to detect an inter-vehicle distance, which is a distance to another transport vehicle. The controller is configured to (i) refer to at least one target speed that is set in advance according to the inter-vehicle distance, and (ii) perform an inter-vehicle adjustment control to control the drive unit in such a manner as to cause the traveling speed to approach the at least one target speed, based on the traveling speed and the inter-vehicle distance, the at least one target speed includes an accelerating target speed and a decelerating target speed, and the accelerating target speed is lower than the decelerating target speed for each inter-vehicle distance.

A method controls a movement of a train to a stop at a stopping position between a first position and a second position. The method determines constraints of a velocity of the train with respect to a position of the train forming a feasible area for a state of the train during the movement, such that an upper curve bounding the feasible area has a zero velocity only at the second position, and a lower curve bounding the feasible region has a zero velocity only at the first position. Next, the method controls the movement of the train subject to the constraints.

A positive train control may comprise a plurality of different sensors coupled to a processor that determines whether there is an anomaly of a track way, and if there is, provides an alert and/or a train control action. The plural sensors may include a visual imager, an infrared imager, a radar, a doppler radar, a laser sensor, a laser ranging device, an acoustic sensor, and/or an acoustic ranging device. Data from the plural sensors is geo-tagged and time tagged. Some embodiments of the train control employ track monitors, switch monitors and/or wayside monitors, and some employ locating devices such as GPS and inertial devices.

A method is provided for operating a vehicle having a drive unit, a driving-data determination unit, a consumer set, and a power management unit for managing the consumer set. The driving-data determination unit identifies or determines driving curve data and the drive unit is controlled on the basis of the driving curve data. The method achieves an optimization with regard to a defined quality criterion while also taking the consumer set into account, in that the power management unit receives consumer data from the consumer set, the power management unit determines anticipatory load profile data at least on the basis of the consumer data, determination or identification data are transmitted to the driving-data determination unit in accordance with the load profile data, and the driving-data determination unit determines or identifies the driving curve data in accordance with the determination data.