Patent attributes
New and useful system, components and methods are provided for a transportation system in which one or more vehicles are moved between at least a pair of stations along a guideway that extends between the pair of stations. The vehicle is propelled along the guideway while one or more signals are transmitted that can be used for controlling the speed of the vehicle and the spacing between the vehicle and other vehicles on the guideway. A digital signal that decodes into a sync signal component and a spacing signal component is transmitted along the guideway, where the difference between the period of the sync and spacing signal components determines the predetermined speed of the vehicles moving along the guideway. Each vehicle has a virtual scan window, based on the actual speed of the vehicle, that is configured to follow the spacing signal component in a manner such that the relation of a predetermined point on the virtual scan window to the spacing signal component determines whether the vehicle is maintaining the predetermined speed or whether the speed of the vehicle needs to be adjusted to maintain the predetermined speed and spacing.
