Patent ID: 9280154
Filing Date: 2016-03-08
CPC Classification: B61L,G05D

Claim Text:
1. A vehicle system for controlling inter-vehicle distances between vehicles by periodically reporting vehicle statuses from a plurality of vehicles to a ground controller and also periodically sending travelling instructions from the ground controller to the plurality of vehicles, the vehicle system comprising: a ground controller configured and programmed to store a vehicle-specific count value assigned to each of the plurality of vehicles; a plurality of vehicles each provided with a communication unit arranged to communicate with the ground controller; wherein the communication unit of each of the plurality of vehicles is configured and programmed to periodically report a vehicle status including at least a vehicle location to the ground controller in every communication cycle of the vehicle system; in response to the ground controller receiving a report from one of the plurality of vehicles, the ground controller is configured and programmed to reset the vehicle-specific count value to zero; in response to the ground controller failing to receive a report from one of the plurality of vehicles, the ground controller is configured and programmed to add to the vehicle-specific count value; in response to a first vehicle of the plurality of vehicles failing to receive an instruction from the ground controller, the communication unit of the first vehicle is configured and programmed to detect failed reception of the instruction from the ground controller, produce a vehicle stop signal that stops the first vehicle, and report to the ground controller the vehicle status including information that the first vehicle has stopped; the ground controller is configured and programmed to send a travelling instruction to the stopped first vehicle, and based on the report received from the stopped first vehicle, send a travelling instruction to a second vehicle that follows the stopped first vehicle, so as to avoid interference with the stopped first vehicle; in response to the ground controller receiving a report from the first vehicle that the first vehicle has stopped, the ground controller is configured and programmed to periodically send a travelling instruction to the stopped first vehicle to resume travelling; and in response to the ground controller failing to receive a report from the first vehicle and the vehicle-specific count value of the first vehicle being greater than a predetermined number, the ground controller is configured and programmed to periodically instruct the first vehicle and the following second vehicle to stop and to update the vehicle status information of the first vehicle and the second vehicle, until the ground controller receives the vehicle status information from the first vehicle including at least the vehicle location, and then to send the travelling instruction to the stopped first vehicle to resume travelling once the vehicle status information from the first vehicle including at least the vehicle location has been received.