Patent ID: 8171858

Claim:
A transportation system for at least one magnetically levitated vehicle, comprising: a vehicle bogie comprising a plurality of segments, wherein each vehicle bogie segment includes a linear motor drive component configured at least to provide an acceleration force or a deceleration force to the vehicle bogie, a magnetic levitation component configured at least to provide a lifting force to the vehicle bogie, and an electrodynamic repulsion component configured at least to maintain an alignment between the magnetic levitation component of the vehicle bogie segment and a magnetic levitation component of a modular guideway block; a vehicle connectively coupled with and suspended beneath the vehicle bogie; a guideway comprising a plurality of modular guideway blocks, wherein each modular guideway block has an open bottom vehicle bogie enclosure that facilitates suspension of the vehicle beneath the vehicle bogie and each modular guideway block further comprises a linear motor drive component configured at least to provide an acceleration force or a deceleration force to the vehicle bogie; a drive circuit component configured at least to generate a drive signal and to control a drive current within the guideway modular block linear motor drive component; a permanent magnet levitation component configured at least to provide a lifting force to the vehicle bogie; and an electrodynamic repulsion component configured at least to maintain an alignment between the guideway block magnetic levitation component and a magnetic levitation component of a vehicle bogie segment; and a controller configured at least to control the movement of the vehicle at least in part by determining that a vehicle bogie segment linear motor drive component is located within a modular guideway block and in response energizing modular guideway block linear motor coils to provide kinetic energy to, or extract kinetic energy from, the vehicle bogie, and energizing the modular guideway block linear motor coils to provide a centering force for the vehicle bogie.