Sunday, November 9, 2008

7> PODS JUST GOTTA HANG..

It’s been a while since my last post, as I have been very busy. I have, however, given considerable thought to my little project here. I have decided that hanging the PRT vehicles is really the way to go, unless switching is more of a problem than I think.A close look at the PRT 2000 drawing (posted earlier) shows a elegantly simple means of switching tracks. By not having any moving parts on the track itself, such as is the case with ordinary railroad trains, the whole scheme of things is greatly simplified. As I have stated earlier, the track is everything, since the network is everything. I have prepared a list of reasons why hanging is better than on top of, or straddling a track, but it’s a little long. I’ll try to abbreviate it in a later post. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. Here’s one that shows just how simple and versatile hanging PRT is. Note that the station pictured here could be in a parking lot or on any city street. It’s better to have more stations that are cheaper, rather than a few expensive ones. Again, the network is everything.


Table Of Contents

1. IT'S THE ROADS, STUPID! 
2. NO WONDER WE HAVE TRAFFIC 
3. First, there is the track 
4. Here is My Idea of PRT 
5. Like-minded Engineering in Poland
6. Table of Contents
7. Pods just Gotta Hang
8. No eyeballs, No Surrender
9. Switching Tracks
10. A Couple of Issues
11. Personal Rapid Transit Drive Unit
12. Station Safety and Sinking Santa
13. A Mid-afternoon Dream
14 .Personal Rapid Transit and Streetlights
15. The "Podcar" and the PRT Dream
16. How to Lift a Podcar
17. The Role of a PRT Standard
18. PRT Motor-in-the-Wheel Design
19. A More "Mature" PRT Track Design
20. Podcar Control and Encoders
21.1.4 Billion?
22. Link text
23. Podcar Control part 2
24. One Little Problem
25. Just Some Thoughts...
26. Linear Induction Motor Tractor Unit
27. Designing For the U.S. Market
28. An "AH-Hah!" Moment
29. Thinking Outside the Box on Earth Day
30. Active Wheels
31. Fired Up!
32. I Just Can't Let This Stand Unchallenged
33. In Defense of the "Track-on -the-Bottom Design
34. Access for the Disabled
35. Troubled
36. Back to Designing
37. Coming...Soon?
38. The 16th Rule
39. Progress on theTrack
40. PRT: The Best Idea that Nobody Knows About
41.The Future Revealed!
42.Design Time!
43. Crash Tests, Anyone?
44. Going, Going, Gone
45. A Critique of PRT International's Design Approach
46. Many Vehicles, One Track
47. Serial vs. Parallel
48. PRT Stations...Continued
49. In Search of Gridlock and Opportunity
50. Dualmode and Modular Design
51. A New Kind of Motor
52. 3D,2D and Skyhooks
53. SMARTS
54. SMARTS Part 2
55. Chasing Trucks
56. High Speed
57. Roads, Roads and More Roads
58. Defining the Problem 
59. A Milestone and a Call to Arms
60. Prestressed Concrete Track for PRT
61. Classification if PRT, PAT
62. Mission and Miscellanea
63. ULTra - Architecture and Iteration
64. The ULTra Architecture, Continued
65. The Efficiency of Absence and Angled wheels
66. "Luucy! We got some 'Splainin to Do!"
67. Motorized Steering Guide Wheels
68. Haiti and Thinking Small
69. About that Angled Wheel Design...
70. Speaking of...
71. Switching Tracks
72. Stop That!
73. Overwhelmed by an Underpass
74. Tilted Design, Motorcycle Tires
75. Happy Tails to You...
76. Autonomy
77. The Times, They are a Changin'...
78. I've Got Control Issues
79. Something's Buggin' Me...
80. Twisted
81. ZZZZZZZ.......
82. A Sermon for Earth Day
83. Get Smart
84. Leaking Oil Solution?
85. The Enemy if the Good
86. Can't We All Just Get Along?
87. PRT Track and Bridge Design
88. Gone Fishin'... Sort of...
89. On the Road Again...
90. Let's Take It From The Top
91. Dan the Blogger was Writing... 
92. Crack in the Track, Jack...
93. In Search of PRT's "Killer App"
94. Say Cheese!
95. Call the Cable Guy!
96. Control Issues, Part II
97. PRT and Suburban Sprawl  
98. SPEED UP! SLOW DOWN!
99. Pic of the Week
100. One Hundred and Counting
101. PRT Merge Control
102. The PRT Business Model
103. A Little Something...
104. Pondering Infrared
105. A Voice from the Woods!
106. Simple Circuits
107. An App for That
108. Putting a Foot Down for PRT
109. Harnessing "Anti-Gravity" for PRT Control
110. Google's Robocars
111. Capacity
112. Interview with Santa
113. 2010- Historic!
114. In Search of a Cheap Lunch
115. Swing-Low-Sweet-PRT
116. Parkin' on the Hill...
117. Snow Day Musings
118. GM and Segway's Unintentional Dual Mode Platform
119. Further Thoughts on Dual Mode
120. Back to the Drawing Board
121. Solving traffic with 3D PRT
123. Thoughts on Track Size and Switching
124. While We're Still on the Subject...
125. What's in a Name?
126. A Few Good Destinations
127. Really, Really Fast
128. Learning from Roller Coaster Design
129. Emergency!
130. Progress Report
131. Climbing a Chain
132. Forward Compatibility
133. Maglev Mania
134. Good Tidings!
135. In Search of a Parking Space
136. Hot Rod
137. Playing Monopoly
138.  Imagine
139. PRT and the Art of Cabinet Making
140. Piping Hot Ideas
141. GOT IT!
142. Dodging Bullets
143. Waiting for SkyTran…
144. Compromise
145. How fast is fast?
146. Big Wheels
147. Pearls of Wisdom
148. Off-the-Shelf PRT
149. Tower of Babel
150. A Little Present for Myself...
151. Forward Compatability ans extensibility
152. Standardizing for the Future
153. Railbotics!
154. Fractals!
155. For Example...