Train handling rules compliance system

• US 10,210,674 B2
• Filed: 04/08/2016
• Issued: 02/19/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: New York Air Brake LLC (Estate of Heinz Hermann Thiele)
• Original Assignee: New York Air Brake LLC (Estate of Heinz Hermann Thiele)
• Inventors: Adams, Sean, Fugate, Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): Zanelli, Michael J
• Application Number:
  US15/093,915
• Publication Number:
  US 20170294058A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,047 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 15/0081 On-board diagnosis or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 15/0094 Recorders on the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 27/04 Automatic systems, e.g. controlled by train; Change-over to manual control
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 27/40 Handling position reports or trackside vehicle data
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0808 Diagnosing performance data testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks

Abstract

A system that determines state of a locomotive and transmits the occurrence of any predetermined events to an off-board system. The onboard subsystem includes an event detection module programmed to receive data defining the state of a locomotive to determine whether the received state of the locomotive comprises an event as well as a transmission module programmed to transmit to an off-board subsystem data defining a status. An onboard database have reference variable values is used to compare the existing state of the locomotive to predetermined events. If an event is determined to have occurred, the occurrence of the event is transmitted to the off-board system.

Claims

1. A system for determining and transmitting the state of a locomotive, comprising:

at least one sensor for detecting the state of a locomotive;

an onboard subsystem in communication with the sensor and having an event detection module programmed to receive data representing at least one state of a locomotive and to determine whether a predetermined non-compliant event representing a failure to operate the locomotive in compliance with at least one predetermined train handling rule has occurred based on the at least one state of the locomotive, wherein the event detection module is programmed to determine the non-compliant event by retrieving a reference variable having a predetermined value from a configuration file stored in an onboard database and comparing the predetermined value to the data representing the at least one state of the locomotive as the data becomes available to determine whether operation of the locomotive fails to comply with a rule statement based on the predetermined value, wherein the onboard subsystem is configured to receive the configuration file from an external source prior to the locomotive starting a route;

a transmission module programmed to transmit data representing the determination by the onboard subsystem that the non-compliant event has occurred; and

an off-board subsystem including a reporting module programmed to receive the data representing the determination by the onboard subsystem that an event has occurred from the transmission module data and to generate a status report from the data, wherein the off-board subsystem further includes a storage module programmed to store at least a portion of the data representing the determination by the onboard subsystem that an event has occurred.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the onboard subsystem is further programmed to determine whether the predetermined non-compliant event has occurred if the state of the locomotive exceeds the predetermined value of reference variable.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the transmission module is programmed to transmit data representing the determination by the onboard subsystem that the predetermined non-compliant event has occurred when the onboard system has determined that the predetermined non-compliant event has occurred.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the transmission module is further programmed to transmit the at least one state of the locomotive according to a predetermined schedule.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the reporting module is further programmed to transmit data via a web interface.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the reporting module is further programmed to transmit data to remote server.

7. A method of tracking state of a locomotive, comprising:

using an onboard system to receive data representing the state of a locomotive from at least one sensor, wherein the onboard system comprises an event detection module programmed to receive data representing at least one state of a locomotive and to determine whether a predetermined non-compliant event representing a failure to operate the locomotive in compliance with at least one predetermined train handling rule has occurred based on the at least one state of the locomotive, wherein the event detection module is programmed to determine the non-compliant event by retrieving a reference variable having a predetermined value from a configuration file stored in an onboard database and comparing the predetermined value to the data representing the at least one state of the locomotive as the data becomes available to determine whether operation of the locomotive fails to comply with a rule statement based on the predetermined value, wherein the onboard subsystem is configured to receive the configuration file from an external source prior to the locomotive starting a route, and a transmission module programmed to transmit data representing the determination by the onboard subsystem that the non-compliant event has occurred;

determining whether the received data represents the occurrence of a predetermined non-compliant event representing a failure to operate the locomotive in compliance with at least one predetermined train handling rule; and

transmitting data representing the occurrence of the predetermined non-compliant event to an off-board system, wherein the off-board subsystem further includes a storage module programmed to store at least a portion of the data representing the determination by the onboard subsystem that an event has occurred.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the step of transmitting data representing the occurrence of the predetermined non-compliant event to an off-board system occurs when the received data is determined to represent the occurrence of the predetermined non-compliant event.