• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.370-375
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• 2011

In this paper, as a follow-up PRT studies of "J. Lee & K. Kim[2]", in terms of public transportation systems, economic feasibility of PRT systems was investigated. Based on previous studies, PRT demand was estimated and the required number of PRT vehicles has been calculated and the benefit was estimated. To ensure the economic feasibility, construction cost of a PRT system should be the level of 8 billion won per km, and the annual operating costs of the PRT system construction should be approximately 4.63% level. As a result, how much to reduce PRT construction costs, depending on whether decisions are considered to be economically feasible. Thus, PRT technology development will be conducted by targeting the most lightweight and by minimizing the infrastructure and vehicles of PRT.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.5 no.8
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• pp.907-913
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• 1999

For an automated transportation system like PRT(Personal Rapid Transit) system or IVHS, an efficient vehicle-merging algorithm is required for smooth operation of the network. For management of merging, collision avoidance between vehicles, ride comfort, and the effect on traffic should be considered. This paper proposes an unmanned vehicle-merging algorithm that consists of two procedures. First, a longitudinal control algorithm is designed to keep a safe headway between vehicles in a single lane. Secondly, 'vacant slot and ghost vehicle' concept is introduced and a decision algorithm is designed to determine the sequence of vehicles entering a converging section considering energy consumption, ride comfort, and total traffic flow. The sequencing algorithm is based on fuzzy rules and the membership functions are determined first by an intuitive method and then trained by a learning method using a neural network. The vehicle-merging algorithm is shown to be effective through simulations based on a PRT model.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.94-99
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• 2014

Recently, trends in new transportation system development have been primarily focused on sustainable and ecofriendly mobility solutions. The personal rapid transit (PRT) system has been considered a promising candidate in this category; its competitiveness is being improved through convergence with cutting-edge electric vehicle (EV) technologies. However, battery-powered vehicles pose difficult technical challenges in attempts to achieve reliable and efficient operation. In this study, a design approach for a solar-power assisted PRT system is presented with small-scale demonstrations aimed at circumventing challenges facing its adoption, as well as helping speed the transition to electric-powered ground transportation. From the results, it is expected that flexible photovoltaic (PV) cells will be able to supply 11% of the power required by the service equipment installed in a prototype vehicle. In particular, flexible photovoltaic (PV) cells are advantageous in terms of cost, weight, and design considerations. Most importantly, the cells' flexibility and attach-ability are expected to give them great potential for extended application in various areas.