Software Design Considerations for a Personal Maglev Transportation System

The People Pods™ transportation concept for commuters is based on extremely light weight, 200 pound, advanced composite, two passenger Maglev vehicles traveling on a monorail system above all other traffic.

To provide on demand, point to point transportation, guideways are installed in multiple directions across and between urban business and residential areas. Vehicles are to be available for immediate departure at regular stations along the guideway system.

The challenges of automating such a transportation system can be met by implementation of a vast number of processing units, including one in each vehicle. The overall architecture of automating this system can be viewed as a dynamic network of systems. Component systems in this network must also be capable of operating independently, and of still providing service given the multiple levels and potential combinations of failures which all have some probability of occurrence as part of normal operations.