ES2591043B1 - Priority arbitration system for access to garages with double entry. - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention shows a step priority arbitration system for access to garages with double entry comprising at least one programmable micro-controller (103) with a memory (104), input signal coupling system (105), a output signal coupling system (106), a time controller (107) and a power supply system (101) characterized in that said input signal coupling system (105) is arranged to receive at least one signal ( 41) on activation of a first door or barrier, a signal (51) of a first presence sensor close to said first door or barrier, a signal (42) on the activation of a second door or barrier and a signal (52) of a second presence sensor close to the second door or barrier, because said output signal coupling system (106) is arranged to generate output signals (31, 32, 33, 34) towards at least a first visible signal l (61) next to one of the inputs (11) and towards a second visual signal (62) next to the other input (13) where said micro-controller is arranged to process said input signals (41, 42, 51, 52 ) and establish the output signals (31, 32, 33, 34) in such a way that the visual signals (61, 62) indicate the priority of passage of the vehicles that access through said doors or barriers (11, 13).

Description

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DESCRIPTION

Priority arbitration system for access to garages with double entry Field of the invention

The present invention focuses on the field of operation of barriers or doors of entry and exit of vehicles and particularly in the operation of multiple barriers or doors in an optimized manner when at least two doors or barriers enter, which are to be crossed For a vehicle, the intermediate zone does not allow two vehicles to be held simultaneously.

Background of the invention

One of the most important problems that appear in garages, for example in the community, where many vehicles enter and leave, is to find another vehicle in the opposite direction, while entering or leaving. In most cases these accesses are one-way two-way and have the right width for the passage of a single vehicle, there is reduced visibility and it is quite complicated to maneuver vehicles. This same case can be found in some streets, bridges and roads where there is only one way in two directions and only one car can travel, regardless of the direction in which it circulates.

In the state of the art there are different signaling systems that are used in garages and / or barriers with a single access door, and serve to warn if a vehicle enters or leaves. Its activation depends exclusively on the opening of the door, as a switch, that is, there is either a rotating light signal, or there is a two-light traffic light (in some cases, there may be two traffic lights, one inside the access and another outside in the street) that remains in green while the door is closed and in red when it opens and remains open, but this system is not useful when there are several access doors, because it does not distinguish if the vehicle is leaving, entering, It is in the middle of the road or if only the opposite door has been opened, but no vehicle has entered.

There are the following inventions in the state of the art:

Patent application US2005232694A1 does not propose a system created to arbitrate the passage in both directions, it only opens barriers. This patent does not indicate that it is a two-way street, its objective is to open barriers for the car to pass. In addition, the system of this

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The patent also does not take into account the number of vehicles between the two doors.

Patent application US2010085145A1 describes a system that aims to open the barrier when a car is close to it. It is not developed to control the passage of vehicles in a two-way street, or to signal vehicles that come in the opposite direction.

Patent application US2013207776A1 shows a system that is responsible for collecting operating data from each individual barrier to predict when it will be necessary to perform maintenance on each barrier. The sensors are used to open / close the doors. Therefore, the proposed system is not used to monitor vehicle activity and count the number of vehicles passing in one direction or another. They also mark the start of the "emergency situations" timer.

Patent application US2008224886A1 describes a wireless system for opening and closing doors, where there is no central controller since the doors communicate with each other and does not have the purpose of signaling control to control access, nor does it take into account the number of vehicles between the two doors.

US2005134426A1 patent application adds GPS devices to vehicles and is not focused on controlling access to underground garages, mainly because the GPS system does not work indoors. On the other hand, the accuracy of the GPS is 2.5-3 meters with what could be considered wrong positions of the vehicles in the access to the garage. Finally, if there is a vehicle parked in the middle of the access road, it would not allow to know the direction of its progress.

Patent application ES2149634 shows a system for a motorized drive of a single garage door. The sensors are used to block the door, in case a vehicle / person / object is placed under the door; not performing any type of signaling.

Patent application ES2144818 describes a system for the motorized operation of a single garage door. The sensors are used to block the door, in case a vehicle / person / object is placed under the door.

Patent application ES2312188 describes a switchboard responsible for receiving signals

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coming from the remote controls and the sensors that proceed to block the door, in case any obstacle is placed under the door. It does not perform any type of signaling.

Patent application ES1072081 shows a computerized switchboard and an installation system of the structure necessary for driving garage doors. Receive the signals from the remote controls and the sensors that proceed to block the door in case any obstacle is placed under the door.

Patent application ES2259943 describes a control system for opening and closing motorized blinds and apparently does not have any type of signal coming from the sensors and is not intended to signal vehicles.

Patent application ES1036074 shows an exit warning of vehicles of a door that is not intended for double-door systems and does not allow to warn with a traffic light to give priority to a vehicle entering through one access or the other.

Finally, the application ES2438066 describes a computerized switchboard based on a web server, used for the control of the door, showing no signaling for the vehicles.

Description of the invention

It is necessary to offer an alternative to the state of the art that covers the gaps found therein and therefore, unlike existing solutions, the present invention relates to a system of arbitration of priorities for access to garages and roads reduced visibility with access through two consecutive doors / barriers that allow access in the two possible directions of circulation. For example, at the entrance of a garage of a community estate, where the first door is right on the street, as an entrance to the building, and the second door is located just at the entrance of the vehicle garage. Between both doors there is a space where two vehicles cannot circulate simultaneously and where it is difficult to see if there is already someone in that space.

Specifically, the present invention shows a step priority arbitration system for access to garages with double entry comprising at least one programmable micro-controller (103) with a memory (104), input signal coupling system

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(105), an output signal coupling system (106), a time controller (107) and a power supply system characterized in that said input signal coupling system (105) is arranged to receive at least one signal (41) on activation of a first door or barrier, a signal (51) of a first presence sensor close to said first door or barrier, a signal (42) on the activation of a second door or barrier and a signal ( 52) of a second presence sensor close to said second door or barrier, because said output signal coupling system

(106) is arranged to generate output signals (31, 32, 33, 34) towards at least one first visual signal (61) near one of said inputs (11) and towards a second visual signal (62) next to the another input (13) where said microcontroller is arranged to process said input signals (41,42, 51,52) and establish the output signals (31,32, 33, 34) such that said visual signals ( 61.62) indicate the priority of passage of vehicles that access through said doors or barriers (11,13).

Brief description of the figures

In order to help understand the features of the invention, according to a preferred practical embodiment thereof and in order to complement this description, the following figures are attached as an integral part thereof, which have an illustrative and non-limiting character :

Figure 1. It shows an example of the environment of application of the invention, where there is a confluence of passage between two barriers or doors without the possibility that two vehicles converge on the intermediate road simultaneously

Figure 2. Shows a general scheme of the system objects of this invention together with the elements with which they relate, including input and output information.

Figure 3. Shows an example of the block diagram that makes up the step priority arbitration system.

Detailed description of the invention

The elements defined in this detailed description are provided to help a global understanding of the invention. Accordingly, those skilled in the art will recognize that variations and modifications of the embodiments described herein may

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be carried out without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. In addition, the detailed description of the functions and elements sufficiently known are omitted for reasons of clarity and conciseness.

The present invention relates to a system of priority arbitration of passage for installations with double opening system (100). The main objective is to signal the entrance or exit of the place, to avoid that two or more vehicles are in the intermediate zone located between at least two doors / barriers and where it is difficult to maneuver.

An example of this environment is described graphically in Figure 1. It can be seen how a first vehicle (12) has passed through a first barrier (11) and a second vehicle (14) has passed through a second barrier (13) where The road between both barriers is only accessible to one of the vehicles and therefore there is a conflict transit zone (10).

In order to solve this problem, the invention proposes an electronic system, a logical automatism, of arbitration of passing priorities signaled by some type of signaling for vehicles (100), such as traffic lights (31, 32), for installations with double access where there is a space between both accesses where two vehicles cannot circulate simultaneously and it is difficult to see if there is anyone in that space.

Figure 2 shows a general scheme of said system, where it can be observed, that from a conventional opening system of barriers or garage doors (20) that has sensors to detect the passage of vehicles, people or objects, said system sends the signals of both said sensors (50) and the activity of the doors or barriers (40), that is, the opening or closing of the same (40) to the priority arbitration system (100) and the system, to Based on this information, it is able to indicate by signaling the affected vehicles, for example, by traffic lights (31, 32), what they have to do at any time, continue or stop.

The system (100) can therefore be used with the support of any existing conventional electronic system (20) with only one access, that is, only the usual input and output terminals of existing systems on the market can be used.

In the electronic system (100), as seen in Figure 3, two parts can be distinguished, the power circuit (101) that allows the rest of the elements to be supplied with electric current, both in alternating current and in direct current and also in continue with different

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voltages, such as 12V or 5V; and on the other hand are the elements of an electronic signaling control circuit.

The electronic signaling control circuit is based on a micro-controller (103) responsible for processing the electrical signals coming from the input devices, that is, presence sensors located near the doors to prevent an object / person / car It is located in the path of the door and interferes with its correct operation and the electrical signals coming from the activation of the doors or the electrical signals registered in the control units due to the use of the remote control controls, used to operate the doors. Specifically, Figure 3 shows, by way of example, the signal that is received from a first door or barrier (41), the signal that is received from the sensor (51) located in the vicinity of that first door (41) and on the other hand the signal of a second door (42) and that of its corresponding sensor (52).

The system (100), in order to receive said input signals (41,42, 51 and 52) has an input signal coupling system (105), which once received and processed are transmitted to the micro-controller (103 ).

The microcontroller (103) has stored an algorithm or method of control of arbitration of priorities of passage in a memory (102) and every time it receives any of these input signals (41, 42, 51 and 52) it processes it with said method and obtains as a result an exit information destined to the warnings or signaling for the drivers of the vehicles or users. Said output information is processed by an output signal coupling system (106) that generates signals with the indications (31,32, 33 and 34) for said signaling to act. For example, in the case that said visual signaling is two traffic lights (61,62), one located in the vicinity of each barrier or door (11, 13), these signals would mean that the traffic lights are set with green or red light according to correspond.

The system has a time controller (107) ready to perform tasks that require timing.

Optionally, the system (100) may include one port (102) to be able to program the microcontroller (103) when necessary and / or a port (108) to monitor the activity of the microcontroller (103) in real time.

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The control method is implemented as a state machine, with 15 states, which includes all possible cases that can occur in garages with double entry and there is a confluence of passage. The main functions are described by the following states:

State O: State of rest, waiting for new events or signals and where exit signals have been generated (32, 34) to allow the passage of vehicles both visual signals (61,62), that is, in the case of be traffic lights both would be green.

State A: If an activation signal is received from one of the two doors (11, 13), it is passed to state H which will be waiting for a first presence sensor to be activated, the one near said door (11) , to go to State I or State B, which will be waiting for said presence sensor to detect any additional changes, such as for example that there is no longer a vehicle or object presence, which is deactivated, in which case it goes to the state C. When switching to states I, B and C an output signal (33) is generated for blocking the passage in the second visual signal (62), that is, the traffic light of the second door (13) is set in red.

State I: Controls the signals from a first (11) of the two doors, both opening and closing the door (41) and the presence sensor (51). He will wait for information on the second door (13) to be activated, to pass to stage J. In addition, he will take into account whether said first door (11) has been closed, thus receiving the corresponding signal (41), and if said first sensor (51) is activated, which implies that there is a vehicle (12) at the junction (10) and therefore it will be considered an emergency situation.

State J: when the passage of at least one vehicle is detected through the second sensor (52), (and at this point, the system takes into account the vehicle counters), the method will go to state K, where it will be expected that all vehicles that have entered through the first door (11), which have therefore generated a door signal (41) and activated the first sensor (51), pass through the second sensor (52). When all vehicles have left the confluence of passage (10), the system will return to its idle state "O".

There are homologous states that will control the state of the signals (42) coming from the second door (13) and the second sensor (52) and will be waiting for the activation of the first door (11) with its corresponding signal (41) and of the first sensor (51)

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Finally, each of these states, and those not explicitly explained, generate a series of output signals (31, 32, 33, 34) that impact on the visual alarm elements, which in this case, if two traffic lights are used (61, 62) of two lights each, therefore corresponds a first output signal (31) to the activation of the green light of a first traffic light (61), a second signal (32) to the red and the other pair of signals (33 and 34) to the activation of the corresponding green and red lights of the second traffic light (62).

This method includes several additional functions. On the one hand, it incorporates a series of meters, which take into account the number of vehicles that have entered through one of the accesses and exit through the other. It also includes a series of configuration switches that allow to establish the time in which the system must remain in “emergency state” because a vehicle has remained in the access, from which, the system returns to an initial state.

Next it details a situation of use for a better understanding of method. An underground garage, which is accessed from the street, through two doors and a ramp with limited visibility, to see if any car is going up or down. There is a car inside the garage and he is about to leave.

1. If the door below opens and closes, traffic lights remain green, on both sides.

2. If after opening the door, the sensor below is activated, it means that a car is climbing the ramp. The traffic lights are kept in green below and red above.

2.1 If the door below closes, without opening the one above, it means that there are one or more cars on the ramp and the traffic lights flash red above and below. This state is exited when the door above opens or after X time (With the switches, this time has been previously selected).

3. The door above opens. The traffic lights are kept in green below and red above.

3.1 Same behavior as in 2.1.

4. If after opening the door, the sensor is activated, it means that the car has left. The door below can be closed whenever you want.

4.1 If several cars have entered and the door closes without the counter having reached zero, the system behaves as in 2.1.

4.2 If while a car is leaving from the top, another enters from the bottom (as long as the top door is still open), this car will be counted as a new vehicle that should exit from above.

4.3 If the counter reaches zero and the door below has closed, the traffic lights above and below turn green. In this way, if there is a car up waiting, you can enter the access.

4.4 On the other hand, if the counter reaches zero and the bottom door is still open, the

5 traffic lights will remain red above and green below, because I could climb a car,

while he who waits outside tries to enter.

5. The top door closes.

6. The entire system returns to the state of rest, where traffic lights remain green (on both sides).

1 or 7. Finally, if both doors are activated at the same time, priority will be given to the vehicle that first passes through the sensor.

As can be deduced, the step priority arbitration system is a modular system, which facilitates interoperability with different models of conventional opening system controls 15 (20). Allow to add multiple sensors of different types without having to make significant changes to the system (100); as long as the sensors of the ON / OFF type. The design and implementation of the system (100) allows the programming of the on-board system, that is, the user can connect to the system with a laptop through the ports with which it has (102, 108) and check the status of the device or even reprogram it, if unexpected operations were detected, without the need to have to remove the processor. The step priority arbitration system (100) comprises both the control circuit and the power system to be able to take advantage of the energy provided by the electricity network, 220 V (AC).

25 System (100) has a reduced size and allows the incorporation of more sensors, for possible future applications. In addition, if the drivers attend to the light signals of the traffic lights (61,62), it prevents two vehicles (12, 14) from being found in the conflict area (10), thus improving access to the garages and the circulation of vehicles (12, 14).

Claims (7)

5 10 fifteen twenty 25 30 35 1. Pass priority arbitration system (100) for access to garages with double entry (11, 13) characterized in that it comprises at least one programmable micro-controller (103) with a memory (104), signal coupling system of input (105), an output signal coupling system (106), a time controller (107) and a power supply system (101) characterized in that said input signal coupling system (105) is arranged to receiving at least one signal (41) on activation of a first door or barrier, a signal (51) of a first presence sensor close to said first door or barrier, a signal (42) on the activation of a second door or barrier and a signal (52) of a second presence sensor close to said second door or barrier, because said output signal coupling system (106) is arranged to generate output signals (31,32, 33, 34) towards the minus a first visual signal (61) next to one of the inputs (11) and to a second visual signal (62) next to the other input (13) where said microcontroller is arranged to process said input signals (41,42, 51,52) and establishes the output signals (31,32, 33, 34) in such a way that said visual signals (61, 62) indicate the priority of passage of vehicles that access through said doors or barriers (11,13). 2. Priority arbitration system (100) for access to garages with double entry according to claim 1 wherein said input signals (41,42, 51,52) are provided by a conventional opening system for barriers or doors garage (20) that has sensors close to said doors or barriers to detect the passage of vehicles. 3. Priority arbitration system (100) for access to garages with double entry according to claim 1 wherein said visual signals (61,62) are traffic lights, at least two, located respectively near said doors or barriers (11, 13) and where said output signals (31,32, 33, 34) indicate the color that should be illuminated at the traffic light. 4. Priority arbitration system (100) according to claim 1 wherein said processing of said input signals (41, 42, 51, 52) to establish said output signals (31, 32, 33, 34) is performed through of the implementation of a state machine. 5. Priority arbitration system (100) according to claim 1 wherein said processing of said input signals (41, 42, 51, 52) to establish said output signals (31,32, 33, 34) also incorporates a counter of passage of vehicles, to control the number of vehicles that are in each moment between the two doors 5 10 fifteen twenty 25 30 35 or barriers (11, 13). 6. Priority arbitration system (100) according to claim 4 wherein said state engine includes at least the following states: - a first resting state (O), waiting for input signals (41, 42, 51, 52) and where the output signals generated (32, 34) are passing through vehicles for both visual signals (61.62), - a second state (A) where, if an activation signal (41) is received from a first gate (11), it goes into a third state (H), - said third state (H) is waiting for an activation signal (51) to be received of a first presence sensor located next to said first door (11) in which case it passes to a fourth state (I) or a fifth state (B) that is waiting for another signal (51) said first sensor when it detects any additional change in which case it passes to a sixth state (C), and where in said fourth (I), fifth (B) and sixth state (C) an output signal (33) is generated for blocking the passage in the second signal visual (62), - said fourth state (I) awaits an activation signal from said second door (13), in which case it goes to a seventh state (J) and additionally, said state (I) takes into account if a closing signal (41) of said first door (11) is received, and an activation signal of said first sensor (51) ), which implies that there is a vehicle (12) at the confluence of passage (10) and therefore it will be considered an emergency situation, which will only be solved when the first state of rest (O) is returned by transit between states or when a certain preset time passes, - said seventh state (J), when the step is detected at least one signal of the second sensor (52) goes into an eighth state (K) the system counts the passage of a vehicle, - said eighth state (K) will be expected that all vehicles that have entered through said first door (11), which have therefore generated an activation signal of said door (41) and activated the first sensor (51), pass through the second sensor (52) and when all vehicles have left the confluence of passage (10), said state engine returns to the first state (O). 7. Priority arbitration system (100) for access to garages with double entry according to claim 1 which additionally includes a port (102) to program said micro-controller (103) and / or a port (108) for monitor the activity of said microcontroller (103) in real time.