Control and Supervision

Questions bring people together. The answers often drive them apart.

As stated on other web-pages on this site, the FlyWay® system is meant to be wholly automatic, but there is always the possibility for the supervising personnel and (under certain conditions) the travelers to take charge of individual vehicles whenever necessary.

This is not a technical page; it is a summary of the "behind-the-scene" functions in FlyWay®. This page serves as an overview of the (very technical) pages dealing with FlyWay´s computerized components. The computerized part of FlyWay® would consist of at least these 14 components:

Computerized System Components		This page: a) Gives a short description of what each system does. b) Provides links to pages that contain more detailed and technical information. In automatically controlled transit system, control is divided into levels. These generally trade-off flexibility, efficiency and safety. The more complex and flexible the algorithms are, and hence difficult to verify, the less the system is able to properly deal with the safety aspect. There are, of course, established systems of scheduling, automated train operation (ATO), and automated train protection (ATP). But they lack the flexibility and efficiency needed. And to improve upon these technologies without unduly compromising safity is not easy. Raytheon made the distinction between trains and PRT by using the terms -automatic vehicle control (AVC) -automatic vehicle operation (AVO) -automatic vehicle protection" (AVP). The FlyWay system uses the same thoughts and concepts.
1	The Guidance System on this page. General technical description. Technical description of FlyWay´s guidance system. How FlyWay´s weaving nodes handle traffic. Manoeuvring the beamcars, technical description. Handling of Buffered Beamcars.
2	The Addressing System on this page. The FlyWay Addressing System, technical description.
3	The Booking System on this page. The FlyWay Booking System.
4	The Information System on this page. FlyWay´s Information System
5	The Supervising System on this page. See also The FlyWay Supervising System
6	The Safety System on this page. See also FlyWay´s Safe berthings at stops FlyWay´s Positioning system and the FlyWay Power Supply.
7	The Security System on this page. For general details, see separate WEB-page.
8	The Administrative System on this page.
9	Routing the FlyWay Beamcars on this page. For details, see "Routing the FlyWay Beamcars". and Optimization of travel routes, technical description.
10	The Passenger Interface on this page. For info about passenger handling, see People Transportation For info about Bluetooth, see Using Bluetooth as Passenger Interface
11	Communication with the beamcars on this page. For general info about beamcar communications, see Communicating with the beamcars. For info about Bluetooth, see Using Bluetooth as Beamcar Interface. For info about waveguides inside the beams, see The Waveguides.
12	The FlyWay® Communications Systems on this page. For info about FlyWay´s internal communications, see The FlyWay® Communications Systems
13	The FlyWay® obstacle detection system on this page. For info about FlyWay´s obstacle detectors, see Obstacle Detection in FlyWay
14	The Intelligent FlyWay® beamcar on this page. See also The Intelligent FlyWay® beamcar

1 The Guidance System

his is the most complex part of all those computerized systems that keep the beam network running. As the name implies, the Guidance System is supposed to giude the beamcars safely and efficiently through the maze of beams, from start to destination. The Guidance System hardware consists of: Computers in the beamcars Computers in the nodes Computers at some stations Regional computers (when the network gets big enough to motivate this) A central supervising computer Sensors in the beams to keep the nodes informed about the whereabouts of the cars Position markers inside the beams, to keep the beamcars informed about their positions Obstacle detectors.	There are in principle three different ways to run a system such as this. The Synchronous system The Asynchronous system The Point-Synchronous system The idea is to safely guide a car from start to destination as quickly as possible. For a big network with much traffic, this would entail lots of complicated calculations that goes on all the time the traffic is running. The job is shared between the Central computer, the node computers and the computers in the vehicles, so good communication between these is of crucial importance in order for the system to function, except for the asynchronous system. The Guidance system must also work closely together with the Safety system. You can read more about this on a separate webpage.

2 The Addressing System

ll destinations on the beam network need to have addresses, otherwise there is no way for computers to direct the beamcars to where they are going. One could here benefit a lot by borrowing ideas from the Internet. Anticipating a day in the distant future, when beam networks from various metropolitan areas make contact with each other and start interconnecting traffic, it would be a good idea to adopt Internet's 32-bit addressing, where the address is hierarchically structured and divided into 4 parts of 8 binary bits each. Each new network would thus be assigned a network number from an international agency. Depending on the plans for the beam network that is being developed and the size of the metropolitan area in number of inhabitants, it would be decided whether the network would be of class A, B or C.		Copying Internets hierarchical structure, on which its addressing is based, each node in the beam network would correspond to a router in the Internet, and each berth, station, depot or other place where the cars would be likely to stop would correspond to a node in the Internet. Thus, the addresses of the nodes on the one hand, and the addresses of the berths, etc. on the other, would belong to different levels of the addressing system, and only the latter category, i.e. berths and other stopping places for the beam cars, would correspond to the node address part of the Internet addressing system. To avoid confusion, one would probably have to adopt a slightly different terminology than the one that applies to the Internet. In a way, the beamcars, which all have identification numbers, could then be likened to the data packets sent on the Internet. This addressing system would easily facilitate the subdivision of large beamnetworks into smaller administrative areas. For more details, see the technical description.

3 The Booking System

he Booking System would consist of: Booking terminals at all stops, at some beam-supporting poles and at other strategic places, such as shopping centers and airports Booking centers that can be reached by phone or from the Internet Contactless card readers in the cars and at stations Booking terminals in the cars A central booking computer The tasks of the booking computer would be:	Accept travel requests from the passengers Accept booking requests from dual-mode vehicles Accept booking requests from freight customers Control that the desired transport can take place and controll that the customer is allowed to use the requested service. If so, allocate the appropriate vehicles for the relevant time and place. Send a confirmation to the traveller/customer, or else suggest alternative solutions, or deny the booking request Construct, alter and maintain a traffic timetable for the regular traffic Collect some information as to where and when more regular vehicles are required, and provide this information to the Administrative System Calculate the need for vehicles at various times and locations in accordance to points 1) och 3) above Provide information to travellers about waiting times and number of available vehicles at various points Provide information to the general public about waiting times and number of available vehicles at various points, by way of an Internet website Provide certain information to the central computer in such a way that this computer can plan and direct traffic.

If the Administrative Computer is the heart of the system, then the Booking Computer can be regarded as the system´s brain. This computer has to continually optimize the timeables and available vehicle capacity at all times and locations, so that the central computer every day has a "prognosis" for the coming 24 hours. This prognosis has to include such occasional events

as football games, concerts and the like. The pattern of bookings for private cars ("taxicabs") must be prognosticated in the same way. The booking computer also has to provide the network planners with reliable, statistical information about need for enlargement, profitability, extent of travel, need for more vehicles of various categories, etc.

4 The Information System

The information system would consist of: Monitor displays in the cars, at stops and at other strategic places A central computer.	The display would continually inform about: the valid timetable for various routes the traffic situation; stoppages, delays, full cars, whether extra cars have been provided, etc. the time for next incoming regular cars and their destinations The information System would also, like the Booking System, maintain an Internet Website for general traffic information, as well as internal information for the operator´s staff.

5 The Supervising System

he task of the supervising system is to provide information from various sources to aid the operator´s staff. The FlyWay Supervising System should have these components: Surveillance cameras at stops and possibly at some nodes/roundabouts/redistribution sites Guards at centrally located stations Station hosts at some stops Smoke detectors in the ceilings of the cars Alarm buttons in vehicles and at stops.	There is a three-fold purpose for this system: To supply the security system with relevant information should something happen To provide the supervising personel information about the number of travelers at various stops. At football games etc. there could be a need to direct additional vehicles to some stops. To remedy alarms from the travelers. Read more about this on The FlyWay Supervising System.

6 The Safety System

hat is the difference between a Safety System and a Security System? Well, the border between these two might overlap, but in this context, safety deals with preventing accidents. The common definition is: "Safety engineering has to do with making something work in the presence of random or transient faults (i.e., Murphy's Law). Security programming involves making sure something works even in the presence of a malicious adversary, who will make exactly the wrong thing fail at exactly the wrong time and do it again, and again, and again to break the security". So, security here means mainly to keep the beam network, its vehicles and its users safe and sound. The safety system should have these components: Regional electric power supply, where regions without power can be supplied by neighboring regions Uninterruptible power supply Station hosts at some stops (at least during an introductory period) Personnel at centrally located stations to handle contingencies Camera surveillance, both stationary and on beam vehicles Obstacle detection devices Sensors at regular intervals in the beams.

oncerning obstacle detection; it is essential for an automatically driven vehicle to be able to detect any obstacle in its path of travel. Should this obstacle be a beamcar up ahead that has some problem and cannot move, that car would report the situation to the regional computer in charge, which in turn would broadcast the message. But that procedure cannot always be relied upon, and there could be other kinds of obstacles along be beams. For that reason the carriages beneath the beams, as well as the propulsion cars inside the beams must be provided with reliable information from obstacle detection devices. These devices could theoretically be mounted on the vehicles (both on the propulsion cars and on the carriages) but a far better approach would be to have them stationary mounted on or near the beams. The obstacle detection devices are in all instances monitoring a sufficient distance ahead of all vehicles. In the case of stationary detectors, all beam segments are covered at all times. Those devices that are mounted on the carriages are of the sweeping kind, covering a certain angle and a certain distance ahead, as shown in figure 6:2. The FlyWay obstacle detection devices have to fulfill certain specific tasks. One is to check the adjoining beam at convergence points.

Figure 6:2

onsider figure 6:2 above, illustrating a convergence node (or "weaving" node), where we conjure up a rather complex scenario. Let us imagine that vehicle B cannot proceed because of a malfunction or blockage along the track. This would be detected by both A:s and C:s radar, and they will both stop. A moment earlier, C would have discovered vehicle A, approaching on the other branch. A is so far into the shunt that the vehicle C could not enter the shunt without hitting A. So, from C:s point of view, A could just as well have been the stopping vehicle. Soon, D will arrive and will have to stop because of A, but it would probably, as well as vehicles E and F, have been warned of the stoppage by the next node's computer. This node would already have released control over B, thereby making B the responsibility of the next node along the line.		Inside the beams there would have to be 2 complementary safety features: Radar beacons at both ends of the propulsion cars, that would cause the beamcar to brake to a halt whenever they detect any obstacle. Onle the beacon facing forward would be active during travel. Sensors in the beams at regular intervals (about every 250 meters) and at certain points at terminals, stations, shunts and the like. They would detect any passing car and note its travel direction, speed and identity. This information would continually be reported to the node computer in charge of the area. If a sensor detects a passing car, and the next sensor does not detect this same car within a reasonable time interval, the node computer can draw the conclusion that the car has stopped somewhere in between. If this cannot be accounted for (i.e. the car was not supposed to stop there) the node computer will transmit an alert to other traffic, and then try to contact the car.

7 The Security System

his system deals with mishaps, accidents and wanton vandalism that the beam system could be subjected to. In one way, the lack of drivers and supervision personell is often an invitation to vandals. But the FlyWay® system uses today´s technology to the fullest to counteract such things. Thus, there would be surveillance cameras outside and inside the beamcars, motion detectors (similar to car alarms) would be activated whenever a beamcar is idle, radars on cabins will detect obstacles in the path, and so forth. The stationary obstacle detection system would be integrated into this surveillance. Much of this would be controlled, logged and stored by the system´s computers.

Figure 7:1 Log records and camera pictures could be useful in case it is needed as court evidence. On this website, we have devoted a separate page for a closer description on passenger protection.

8 The Administrative System

he Administrative System works in the background, but provides many essential services for the network. It consists only of a centrally located computer (and preferably a couple of backup-computers to ensure resiliency) and spends its time collecting, processing, distributing and storing information of various kinds. The border between the Administrative System and the Booking System might seem a bit fuzzy, but the Booking System is in this regard responsible for distributing the information provided by the Administrative System. The pattern of bookings for private cars ("taxicabs") must be prognosticated, requests for dual-vehicle movers, requests for cargo-carrying cars and traffic demands on timetable-scheduled vehicles must be constantly monitored, and likewise progonosticated, to ensure: That sufficient vehicles are at the right locations at the right times That sufficient vehicles of the right kinds and capacity will be available when needed. This system also provides a lot of reference information, such as sparepart listings, topological layout of the network, simulated information as to the effects of alterations, etc.	Its tasks would include such duties as: Keeping track of all vehicles´ duty schedules, to provide traffical statistics Keeping track of all vehicles´ duty schedules, in order to notify them when they are due for preventive maintenace Scheduling maintenance vehicles for regular service and inspection of beams Keeping track of supply of spareparts Maintaining listings of employees, their salaries, terms of duty, work schedules, etc. Provide the Booking System with statistical information for constructing, altering and maintainingtraffic timetables Collect information as to where and when more regular vehicles are required Calculate the need for vehicles at various times and locations Provide the Booking System with information about waiting times and number of available vehicles at various points.

9 Routing the FlyWay Beamcars

hen it comes to routing, FlyWay borrows the OSPF-protocol, which is normally used on the Internet for data communication purposes, in order to gain access to 7 useful selection criteria for its own, specific use. OSPF is short for "Open Shortest Path First" and is ordinarily used by servers on the Internet. It should be emphasized here, to avoid confusion with the reader, that FlyWay will use the OSPF-protocol such as it is formed, but for its own, specific purposes. These purposes are determined solely by how the sending and receiving applications choose to act upon the information which is sent by using this protocol. Thus, notwithstanding that the intended purpose of OSPF is to regulate data traffic, FlyWay will use this same information to regulate beamcar traffic. So, how is FlyWay going to implement its version of OSPF? Those details can be read on the page "Routing the FlyWay Beamcars".

FlyWay uses the OSPF-protocol in its communications to give priority to some routes (and some vehicles) when deciding upon routing directions. These evaluations would be added to the nodes' routing tables, both manually and dynamically, as the occassions arise. In the case of dynamic updates, the altered evaluations would reflect changes in the network, and be transmitted between the nodes with LSA-packets (LSA = Link State Advertisement, the data packet types used by OSPF). OSPF uses the destination address and Type of Service (TOS) information in an IP datagram header to determine the route for the package. The method used to find the optimum route is called cost metrics. In short, OSPF sets up a "destination tree" for each destination, where cost calculations can be made using various criteria.

10 The Passenger Interface

he ideal commuter interface system would be that which inconveniences riders the least. Passengers should not have to put up with queueing, waiting, handling of money, etc., which is the usual experience for commuters today. Many public transport systems around the world are now using "Smart Cards". The 3 main benefits of these cards are that they: can store, and transmit to the system, such information that the passenger use on a daily basis, such as destination and travel route can automatically handle the payment for the fare need not be in direct contact with the card reader equipment. The Bluetooth technology is eminently suited to this task. Bluetooth can do all this, and much more, as is described on this page. But Bluetooth´s emphasis is on wireless communication; the traveller should not need to have direct contact with desired beamcars or booking terminals in all instances. But in other situations, direct contact (over wire) would work just fine. A modern and complete passenger interface consists, of course, of more components than these. It should be possible for a traveller to:

Book a beamcar by telephone Book a beamcar over the Internet Book a beamcar at stations and other central locations (such as shopping malls), using dedicated computerized terminals "Hailing" a beamcar at a station Entering a scheduled docked beamcar at a station Place an order for destination for direct transport ("door-to-door") Paying for the trip by other means than cash. The system also needs to: Control and check the doors of passenger cabins and station cubicles Control and check the raising and lowering of passenger cabins Control the berthing of vehicles Perform identity and/or payment control of passengers in the cabins.

11 Communication with the beamcars

he beamcars whiz by at high speed. They need to communicate something fast, to a stationary transceiver. Or they need to be reached with control information from node computers or regional computers. Or the beamcars are stationary somewhere, awaiting orders to go on duty somewhere else. They need to be located for exchange of information. For all of these tasks, the Bluetooth technology is eminently suitable. Bluetooth is expert on: having some units quickly locating other units dynamically establish communication sessions quickly exchange short bursts of information between moving units handling point-to-multipoint communication handling noisy environments, if needed. It so happens that these capabilities fulfill all requirements that we have on a well-functioning node-to-beamcar communication. Actually, 2 networks are involved in this communication. There is the communication between the node computer and all the stationary units that is under its control. And there is the actual Bluetooth-based RF-communication between these stationary units and the beamcars. You can read more about using Bluetooth for communication with beamcars.

The need for a backup system For safety purposes, one needs an indpendent backup system for Bluetooth. The most likely candidate would be to use see waveguides on the inside ceiling of the beams. These waveguides would have a slit underneath, just like the beam itself, where the electromagnetic wave would leak out to be captured by the beamcar. Likewise, the beamcar´s transmitter (mounted on the propulsion car) would, through this leakage, send its information into the waveguide. This technology has high reliability and probably not so much overhead as Bluetooth. It might be tricky, though, to make waveguides perform satisfactorily in shunts and station areas. GSM-technology could also be used as backup, using fixed antennas inside the beams. This is, by now, a well-proven technology. But it should be noted that these alternatives do not have Bluetooth´s sophisticated addressing system and great flexibility.

12 The FlyWay® Communications Systems

or data communication purposes, FlyWay® will need (at least) 6 different communications networks for handling the data information that has to be conveyed. These different networks all have to interact and transfer information in between them: The Bluetooth-based passenger interface that continually forms local virtual networks as the need arises. A Central LAN which is used for manual & automatic control, supervision, information distribution, etc. LANs that are local; one for each station and its neighborhood. The System WAN, that connects all station area LAN:s, all Node computers and all manual control centra with the Central computers (in this context, the Booking computer is of primary interest). Sensor networks that are local; one for each Regional computer. They enable every local Node to keep track of the beamcars within its area. The Beamcar RF networks, that are also local to each Regional computer. As is the case with the Bluetooth networks, these networks are RF-based. They are inside the beams and consist physically of 2 mutually independent networks, for safety reasons.

In addition to these, provisions have to be made to use the beams to provide broad-band communications for the passengers´ benefit. Access to TV- and radio channels in the cabins would be desirable. The FlyWay® specification does not as yet include such facilities. The computers that need to be tied together are: The central computers that handle control, supervision, planning, security, information, etc. for the whole beam system. Some computers, manually controlled by the staff at one or more control stations. A regional computer in each administrative area. A computer at each network node. A collection of terminals at each station. A computer in each beamcar.

13 The FlyWay® obstacle detection system

ince the FlyWay® system is run and controlled wholly automatically, the beamcars will have to look out for themselves, and not bump into things. They have to be able to "see", and, to a certain extent, evaluate what they are seeing. Or, as a better alternative, obtain the visual information they need from an outside source. Briefly stated, the best obstacle detection system for automatic transport systems, such as FlyWay, will probably: Figure 13:1

be stationary mounted on or nearby the beams, rather than on the vehicles be primarily of "ladar" type be designed so that each scanner will compare its input with stored information what the terrain "should" look like, from its point of view be a combination of at least 2 different scanner systems, covering the same areas, in order to complement each other so as to combat the problems inherent in laser scanning, as detailed on the previous page consist of several scanners, covering the same beams from different angles be wholly or partially combined with a regular surveillance system for the relevant geographical area.

Figure 13:2

14 The Intelligent FlyWay® Beamcar

he "FLYWAY®" beamcars need a high degree of computer intelligence, in order to perform as required. They carry with them a database with all pertinent information about the network, and they use state-of-the-art communications systems to quickly and reliably exchange information with the traffic control system. The page about The Intelligent FlyWay® Beamcar deals with the technical details of what these vehicles have to do, and how they do it. Their tasks can be listed as follows:

Navigate through the guideway network to their destination Control speed and shunting Communicate with system controls and stations Communicate with passengers Control the carriages underneath Ensure safety Obey commands from system control and human authorized personell.