PRT - Hermes
Required technology
During the last 10-20 years many technologies necessary to PRT have developed. Today they are much more widely available/reliable/inexpensive , giving PRT a much greater chance of success.
Cameras/Contactless Card Readers/keyboards/various components
PRT/Hermes uses a central coordinating computer. This computer "predicts the future" based on current traffic and if it detects a future congestion problem handles it before it even appears. (this is the booking mechanism: it predicts if a new trip route is free of collisions or not. Only a free of collisions trip materializes) That means that it must be able to handle the traffic of many thousands of vehicles in real time. As you can see in simulator, today this is feasible even for a PC. Things weren't that simple 10-20 years ago.
PRT/Hermes needs a fast and reliable communication network in order to function properly. Advances in this field have been dramatic: Internet , digital telephony , wireless communications , LANs and WANs are some examples.
Besides the general improvement in speed/energy consumption/scale of integration/reliability/cost of simple electronics today we have reliable electronics (redundant / fautl tolerant)
The standard electric motor uses the current induced magnetic forces and magnets to produce torque.
A linear motor does the same with the exception that the magnets (stator) is out of the motor , on the guideway. The result is a motor which can propel a vehicle and has no moving parts. A vehicle equiped with such a motor has no problems if the guideway is slippery: It doesn't depend on friction to accelerate or decelerate.
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This "box" is a linear motor. It has no moving parts. If current is applied to it and on the right guideway , it will start moving. |
Today there are fixed rail transit systems using linear motors.
Cameras/Contactless Card Readers/keyboards/various components
Many subsystems and components needed for a PRT system are already commercially available , in a variety of types, prices and quality.
In Greece there are many fixed rail systems: Railways , light rail , subways. The companies that built them have precious experience and can play a crucial role in the development of a PRT system.
In essence PRT is light rail's little brother:
It's an electric, fixed rail , public system.
It's a light rail system that is not mass transit.
It has all the advantages of his big brother and is also small and fast.
It is able to defeat the car's biggest advantage: fast origin to destination trip time , something his big brother
cannot even imagine.
PRT's share of the total number of trips in a city is uncomparable with that of light rail.
The same of course will be the case with the profits of the company that will build it.
