Patent Publication Number: US-8985522-B2

Title: Method for improving operation density of rail vehicles and preventing head-on collision and rear-ending collision

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO THE RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a national stage application (under 35 U.S.C §371) of PCT/CN2011/001307, filed Aug. 9, 2011,claiming the priority of Chinese Patent Application No. 201110046202.6, filed Feb. 26, 2011, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. 
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The present invention relates to an early warning technique, and in particular, to an early warning technique for preventing rail vehicles from head-on collision and rear-ending collision. 
     BACKGROUND ART 
     In order to ensure the safe operation of rail vehicles running at high speed, traditional dispatch and control methods and technology are indispensable, such as automatic signal blocking, wireless scheduling, and manual siren alert when an emergency breaks out and so on. However, the early-warning technique becomes very limited and insufficient when it is applied to several vehicles running at high speed on the same rail. In an accident, a head-on collision or rear-ending collision is possible among vehicles, causing enormous damages to life or property. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     In order to avoid vehicle collision and increase operation density for improving operation efficiency, the present invention provides a method for improving operation density of rail vehicles and for preventing head-on collision and rear-ending collision. 
     In order to solve the aforementioned problem, the present invention adopts the following solution: it divides a rail line into equidistant electronic zones, the length of a zone being greater than the shortest safe distance between two running vehicles, and it installs a locomotive passing detection alarm device Mi in each zone; the locomotive passing detection alarm device Mi comprises a whole range sensor component disposed within this zone, a signal processing circuit connected to the signal output terminal of the sensor component, an alarm signal transmitting circuit IC 3  connected to the output terminal of the signal processing circuit; the signal processing circuits of the locomotive passing detection alarm devices Mi in adjacent zones transmit signals to one another; when a locomotive occupies a certain zone Li, the whole range sensor component of the locomotive passing detection alarm device Mi corresponding to the zone Li senses the presence of the locomotive and enables the signal processing circuit to generate an “occupied” signal; when a locomotive goes out of the zone Li and enters the onward adjacent zone Li+1, the signal processing circuit of the locomotive passing detection alarm device Mi+1 corresponding to the adjacent zone Li+1 generates an “occupied” signal as well, and transmits the “occupied” signal to the signal processing circuit of the locomotive passing detection alarm device Mi driving out of the backward adjacent zone Li earlier, thereby changing the “occupied” signal generated by the signal processing circuit into a “free” signal; when the two adjacent zones Li and Li+1 are both occupied by the locomotives, the locomotive passing detection alarm devices Mi and Mi+1 corresponding to the two adjacent zones Li and Li+1 simultaneously transmit their respective “occupied” signals to the opposite party, causing the signal processing circuits of the locomotive passing detection alarm devices Mi and Mi+1 corresponding to these two adjacent zones to output a trigger signal simultaneously to initiate the alarm signal transmitting circuit to give an alarm signal to the locomotive in the corresponding zone, the alarm signal receiving and answering device disposed within the locomotive receives this alarm signal to warn or otherwise take measures. For the specific measures and solution, please refer to the Chinese invention patent “Electronic Zone-Based Network Operation Scheduling System for Rail Vehicles” with the application number 201210307124.5. 
     The signal processing circuit for realizing the aforesaid function is easy to those skilled in the art and comes with various kinds of structures. The technical solution recited in the invention aims at solving the following problem: several locomotives driving on the same rail keep a. certain safe distance from one another, once certain two locomotives are getting closer than they should be, the alarm signal transmitting circuit disposed within the rail electronic zone will give an alarm signal to notify the two locomotives to take measures simultaneously and respectively so as to avoid head-on collision or rear-ending collision. 
     The method recited in the invention can avoid locomotive head-on collision and rear-ending collision and increase transportation density according to the vehicle speed and distance at the same time, thus improving the transportation efficiency. 
    
    
     
       DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a diagram illustrating the principle of the invention, wherein: Mi represents a locomotive passing detection alarm device; IC 1  represents an sensor signal generating circuit; IC 2  represents setting “1” priority bistable circuit; and IC 3  represents an alarm signal transmitting circuit. 
     
    
    
     SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS 
     Below, the invention will be explained in detail in combination with the accompanying drawing. 
     The present invention discloses a method for improving operation density of rail vehicles and preventing head-on collision and rear-ending collision. This method divides a rail line into equidistant electronic zones, the length of a zone being greater than the shortest safe distance between two running vehicles, and installs a locomotive passing detection alarm device Mi in each zone; the locomotive passing detection alarm device Mi comprises a whose range sensor component disposed within this zone, a signal processing circuit connected to the signal output terminal of the sensor component, an alarm signal transmitting circuit IC 3  connected to the output terminal of the signal processing circuit; the signal processing circuits of the locomotive passing detection alarm devices Mi in adjacent zones transmit signals to each other; when a locomotive occupies a certain zone Li, the whole range sensor component of the locomotive passing detection alarm device Mi corresponding to the zone Li senses the presence of the locomotive and enables the signal processing circuit to generate an “occupied” signal; when a locomotive drives out of the zone Li and enters the onward adjacent zone Li+1, the signal processing circuit of the locomotive passing detection alarm device Mi+1 corresponding to the adjacent zone Li+1 generates an “occupied” signal as well, and transmits this “occupied” signal to the signal processing circuit of the locomotive passing detection alarm device Mi driving out of the backward adjacent zone Li. earlier, where the signal processing circuits are different, the specific signal input terminals are also different, the “occupied” signal generated by this signal processing circuit is thereby changed into a “free” signal; when the two adjacent zones Li and Li+1 are both occupied by the locomotives, the locomotive passing detection alarm devices Mi and Mi+1 corresponding to these two adjacent zones Li and Li+1 simultaneously transmit their respective “occupied” signals to the opposite party, causing the signal processing circuits of the locomotive passing detection alarm devices Mi and Mi+1 corresponding to these two adjacent zones to output a trigger signal simultaneously to initiate the alarm signal transmitting circuit to give an alarm signal to the locomotive in the corresponding zone, the alarm signal receiving and answering device disposed within the locomotive receives this alarm signal to warn or otherwise take measures. 
     Said whole range signal processing circuit of the locomotive passing detection alarm device Mi comprises a locomotive passing sensor signal generating circuit IC 1  connected to the signal output terminal of the sensor component, and a setting “1” priority bistable circuit IC 2 , the setting “1” terminal of the setting “1” priority bistable circuit IC 2  is connected to the output terminal of the locomotive passing sensor signal generating circuit IC 1 , the setting “0” terminal of the setting “1” priority bistable circuit IC 2  is connected with a first OR gate, the output terminal of the setting “1” priority bistable circuit IC 2  is connected to an input terminal of an “AND” gate, the other input terminal of said “AND” gate is connected with a second OR gate, the output terminal of said “AND” gate is connected to a trigger terminal of an alarm signal transmitting circuit IC3, the two input terminals of said first OR gate and second OR gate are respectively connected to the output terminals of the setting “1” priority bistable circuit IC 2  in the onward adjacent locomotive passing detection alarm device Mi+1 and the backward adjacent locomotive passing detection alarm device Mi−1. 
     A basic idea of the invention is two adjacent zones in the line cannot be occupied by the locomotives simultaneously, that is to say, the output terminals of the setting “1” priority bistable circuits IC 2  in the locomotive passing detection alarm devices Mi and Mi+1 disposed in two adjacent zones cannot be set “1” at the same time to guarantee enough safe distance between locomotives. 
     When a locomotive occupies a certain zone “Li”, an output terminal of the setting “1” priority bistable circuit IC 2  in the corresponding locomotive passing detection alarm device Mi is set to 1, i.e. generating an “occupied” signal; after the locomotive leaves the zone “Li”, the output terminal of the setting “1” priority bistable circuit IC 2  in the locomotive passing detection alarm device Mi is set to “0”, i.e. generating a “free” signal. 
     When driving at high speed in the rail, a locomotive keeps on setting an output terminal of the setting “1” priority bistable circuit IC 2  in the locomotive passing detection alarm device Mi corresponding to the zone Li occupied by itself to “1”, and simultaneously visit the two adjacent onward zone and backward zone Li−1 and Li+1 and make determinations. If the two adjacent onward zones and backward zones are occupied by other locomotives, an output terminal of the setting “1” priority bistable circuit IC 2  in Mi is set to 1, at the same time, the setting “1” priority bistable circuit IC 2  in Mi−1 and/or Mi+1 is also set to 1, said signal will be passed to the second OR gate of the locomotive passing detection alarm devices in adjacent zones to simultaneously initiate the alarm signal transmitting circuit to give an alarm signal to the locomotives in the corresponding zone, said alarm signal indicating that other locomotives are getting closer, an alarm signal receiving and answering device disposed within the locomotive receives this alarm signal to warn or otherwise take measures. 
     When a locomotive completely passes a certain zone Li and enters the next zone Li+1, an output terminal of the setting “1” priority bistable circuit IC 2  in the locomotive passing detection alarm device Mi+1 is set to “1”, and this signal is returned to the first OR gate of Mi connected thereto so as to make an output terminal of the setting “1” priority bistable circuit IC 2  in the onward zone locomotive passing detection alarm device Mi be set to “0” and reset, indicating that the line is available and back to normal in zone Li, at this time, the alarm signal transmitting circuit IC 3  gives no alarm signal. 
     The technical solution recited in the invention is not limited to the aforesaid hardware connection methods, there is still a variety of other methods that can be easily accomplished by those skilled in the art, for example, a computer control system can be used to connect the sensor circuits in all zones, the signals of the induction circuits in various zones are processed by the computer to determine whether locomotives are getting closer in adjacent zones, if so, the computer will given an alarm signal instruction.