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Guideway transportation system with integrated magnetic levitation suspension, stabilization and propulsion functions

The present application claims benefit to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/870,880, filed Dec. 20, 2006, the complete disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference

The present invention is directed to transportation or transit systems, and more specifically, to networked guideway transit systems designed to enable the movement of large numbers of passengers or parcels in a flexible manner.

Guideway-based transportation systems have been used to transport people or goods. One example is a “Personal Rapid Transit” (PRT) system. In the PRT system, each vehicle carries just one party or small group (or payload) from their origin directly to their destination, starting at a time determined by the party's arrival at its origin. Vehicles are typically piloted by computer and move non-stop along guideways with diverging and merging paths.

The PRT system can offer great advantages over other transportation technologies using transportation means such as buses, cars, trains, etc. Because PRT vehicles can be as much as two orders of magnitude smaller than a typical line-haul mass transit vehicle, the guideway structure can be much smaller as well, and can have a commensurately smaller footprint and cost per unit length. This increases the range of possible guideway locations and permits putting the guideway where it is most needed and can work best. Likewise, by virtue of a small footprint, passenger portals can be placed at locations much more convenient for users than the typical large street station of a line-haul transit system. For instance, a portal could be inside the lobby of an office tower, or inside a shopping mall or sports arena.

However there are technical barriers to the design and implementation of effective PRT systems or guideways for the PRT systems. Generally, the PRT systems require advanced control and communication systems and methods, and the ability to manage a large network of independently traveling vehicles using complex computing and communications software and hardware.

One of the technical aspects that continue to pose a significant barrier to implement PRT systems may be the use of wheels as the primary method of suspending vehicles. Although wheels are a familiar and common technology, their associated bearing surfaces and the mechanical devices required to make wheels navigate a track network add significantly to the complexity and potential failure points of a PRT system. In addition, the unavoidable wear accompanying wheels rolling on tracks becomes a significant maintenance problem when a typical system might utilize thousands, or tens of thousands of vehicles. Further, the use of wheels imposes a speed limitation on the vehicles.

In some respects, a PRT system implemented with wheels may be suited to serve a small local region or a relatively small closed path. In networks where the pathways have a relatively tight radii, the maximum speeds are limited by the maximum lateral accelerations permitted for the wheels. Such systems may work well in their limited capacities and can serve to demonstrate the viability of the basic PRT concept. But any effort to build a larger network or to link smaller networks together across realistic travel distances will face the wheel related problems. In this regard, keeping a wheeled system cheap and reliable generally means keeping the maximum speeds relatively low. And keeping the maximum speeds low means the transit times for the greater distances will be unacceptably long for most patrons. In other words, expanding a local circulator or linking two local circulator PRT systems is not practical with vehicle using small wheels. However, building a larger wheel-based PRT system may be prohibitively expensive. Current PRT systems lack an economical, reliable and lightweight means to carry vehicles in slower speed, tight systems and faster, longer distance systems.

This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This summary is not intended to identify key features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

A method and system to integrate magnetic levitation technologies within a networked guideway transit system is provided. The magnetic levitation is used to replace wheels as the primary means of vehicle suspension and thus the automated transit system (e.g., PRT system) can be made commercially, economically, and politically feasible. In some embodiments, the networked guideway transit system combines permanent magnet levitation with electrodynamic stabilization and linear motor propulsion. That is, the networked guideway transit system uses the permanent magnets to provide primary lift and uses electrodynamic repulsion to create centering forces at most operational speeds while integrating linear motor functions with the electrodynamic centering function.

In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, a vehicle bogie is provided for the networked guideway transit system. The vehicle bogie includes a plurality of bogie segments that use permanent magnet repulsion (PMR) components to provide primary lift, which works at all speeds while using an electrodynamic repulsion (EDR) centering subsystem to create centering forces at most operational speeds. In addition, in the EDR centering subsystem, linear motor functions are integrated with the electrodynamic centering function.

In accordance with yet another embodiment of the present invention, a guideway structure that comprises several modular guideway blocks for the guideways is provided. Each modular guideway block includes a propulsion coil component, a first permanent magnet component comprising permanent magnets arranged in a linear array on a wall of the modular guideway block where the first permanent magnet component provides lifting and vertical clamping forces and a second permanent magnet component for providing propulsion forces. The permanent magnets in the first permanent magnet component are arranged in homopolar linear arrays, the long axis of the arrays aligned in a travel direction of a vehicle.

In accordance with yet another embodiment of the present invention, a networked guideway transit system that utilizes permanent magnet levitation and electrodynamic repulsion is provided. The networked guideway transit system includes a vehicle bogie that comprises a set of bogie segments, each bogie segment including a bogie levitation component for lifting a vehicle, a bogie electrodynamic repulsion component for passively centering the vehicle bogie that is moving and a bogie linear propulsion component for providing propulsion forces on the vehicle bogie. The networked guideway transit system also includes a guideway that comprises a set of modular guideway blocks, each modular guideway block including a guideway levitation component for lifting the vehicle and a guideway linear propulsion component, wherein the bogie linear propulsion component is arranged to be in opposition to the guideway linear propulsion component.

The foregoing aspects and many of the attendant advantages of this invention will become more readily appreciated as the same become better understood by reference to the following detailed description, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1A is a perspective view of a networked guideway system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;