Patent ID: 8234022

Claim:
A track transportation system in which a vehicle runs on a predetermined track, comprising: a steering mechanism for automatically steering front and rear wheels of the vehicle by actuators in a steering direction; a protection guide rail with respect to a road surface of the track, protection guide wheels travelling along the protection guide rail without making contact with the protection guide rail, and provided at least one set in each of front and rear parts of the vehicle underneath the vehicle; a link mechanism linked to the steering mechanism so as to turn the protection guide wheels into the steering direction of the front or rear wheels during running of the vehicle; and a control unit including a track data determining device determining a track data in view of a vehicle position data; and a normal running device delivering an automatic steering instruction to the steering mechanism in response to the track data determined by the track data determining device; and a protection arm extending longitudinally of the vehicle and pivotally supported at a rotating center of the protection arm to the lower part of an axle of the front or rear wheels, wherein the protection arm has both front and rear end parts at which the protection guide wheels are provided, the steering mechanism includes left and right tie rods linking the protection arm respectively to the left and right wheels, and the actuator for turning the protection arm, the rotating center of the protection arm is located at a middle of a center axial line of the left and right wheels, and a vertical distance from the center axial line to a coupling point of the left and right side tie rods coupling the protection arm is greater that a vertical distance from the center axial line to coupling points of the tie rods coupling the wheel side.