Vehicle monitor for controlling movements of a plurality of vehicles

Abstract

This invention is a vehicle monitor for avoiding interference between vehicles, etc., without incurring cost increases for deploying auxiliary equipment at a wide-area site, while imposing only low loads on communication lines and monitoring stations, without impairing safety, and while realizing high flexibility for modifications of planned travelling paths. This system can also cope with various forms of interference which can occur throughout the entire planned travelling paths. In the system of the present invention, transceiver devices are provided in the monitoring station and in a plurality of vehicles, respectively, for sending and receiving position data and directive data between the monitoring station and the plurality of vehicles, using a communication system wherewith radio-communication is possible over the distances between the monitoring station and the plurality of vehicles. The planned travelling paths are divided into a plurality of segments and position data are transmitted, using the transceiver devices provided respectively in the plurality of vehicles, to the monitoring station every time a vehicle reaches a division point on the planned travelling paths, whereby, in the monitoring station, determinations are made as to which segment on the planned travelling paths each of the plurality of vehicles is present in, and directive data are transmitted to the vehicles according to the results of those determinations.