Machine vision based track-occupancy and movement validation
First Claim
1. A train monitoring system comprising:
- an image sensor disposed on a rail vehicle and positioned to sense an area in front of the rail vehicle, the image sensor generating sensor signals; and
at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising program instructions that, when executed by at least one processor in communication with the image sensor, cause the at least one processor to;
(a) generate static image data based, at least in part, on the sensor signals, the static image data comprising a line representation of rails located in the area in front of the rail vehicle;
(b) determine a track occupancy of the rail vehicle by determining a set of rails occupied by the rail vehicle based, at least in part, on the static image data;
(c) determine an upcoming direction of movement of the rail vehicle by determining a direction of the set of rails occupied by the rail vehicle based, at least in part, on the static image data; and
(d) validate the determined track occupancy based, at least in part, on the upcoming direction of movement of the rail vehicle,wherein generating the static image data comprises filtering the sensor signals with a low pass filter to smoothen an instantaneous image of the area in front of the rail vehicle, andwherein generating the static image data comprises generating an enhanced smoothened image to exaggerate pixels of the smoothened image that belong to substantially tubular structures in the area in front of the rail vehicle.
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Abstract
A train monitoring system includes an image sensor positioned on a rail vehicle to sense an area in front. The image sensor generates sensor signals. At least one non-transitory computer-readable medium has program instructions that, when executed by at least one processor in communication with the image sensor, causes the at least one processor to: (a) generate static image data based on the sensor signals, the static image data including a line representation of rails located in the area in front of the rail vehicle; (b) determine track occupancy of the rail vehicle by determining the set of rails occupied by the rail vehicle based on the static image data; and (c) determine an upcoming direction of movement of the rail vehicle by determining a direction of the set of rails occupied by the rail vehicle based on the static image data.
67 Citations
27 Claims
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1. A train monitoring system comprising:
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an image sensor disposed on a rail vehicle and positioned to sense an area in front of the rail vehicle, the image sensor generating sensor signals; and at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising program instructions that, when executed by at least one processor in communication with the image sensor, cause the at least one processor to; (a) generate static image data based, at least in part, on the sensor signals, the static image data comprising a line representation of rails located in the area in front of the rail vehicle; (b) determine a track occupancy of the rail vehicle by determining a set of rails occupied by the rail vehicle based, at least in part, on the static image data; (c) determine an upcoming direction of movement of the rail vehicle by determining a direction of the set of rails occupied by the rail vehicle based, at least in part, on the static image data; and (d) validate the determined track occupancy based, at least in part, on the upcoming direction of movement of the rail vehicle, wherein generating the static image data comprises filtering the sensor signals with a low pass filter to smoothen an instantaneous image of the area in front of the rail vehicle, and wherein generating the static image data comprises generating an enhanced smoothened image to exaggerate pixels of the smoothened image that belong to substantially tubular structures in the area in front of the rail vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method of monitoring a train comprising:
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sensing an area in front of a rail vehicle using an image sensor, the image sensor generating sensor signals; generating static image data based, at least in part, on the sensor signals with at least one processor in communication with the image sensor, wherein the static image data comprises a line representation of rails located in the area in front of the rail vehicle; determining, with the at least one processor, track occupancy of the rail vehicle by determining a set of rails occupied by the rail vehicle based, at least in part, on the static image data; determining, with the at least one processor, an upcoming direction of movement of the rail vehicle by determining a direction of the set of rails occupied by the rail vehicle based, at least in part, on the static image data; and validating the determined track occupancy based, at least in part, on the upcoming direction of movement of the rail vehicle, wherein generating the static image data comprises filtering the sensor signals with a low pass image filter to smoothen an instantaneous image of the area in front of the rail vehicle, and wherein generating the static image data comprises generating an enhanced smoothened image to exaggerate pixels of the smoothened image that belong to substantially tubular structures in the area in front of the rail vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A computer program product comprising at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium including program instructions that, when executed by at least one computer including at least one processor, causes the computer to:
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generate static image data based, at least in part, on sensor signals generated from an image sensor in communication with the at least one processor, wherein the image sensor is disposed on a rail vehicle and positioned to sense an area in front of the rail vehicle, wherein the static image data comprises a line representation of rails located in the area in front of the rail vehicle; determine track occupancy of the rail vehicle by determining a set of rails occupied by the rail vehicle based, at least in part, on the static image data; determine an upcoming direction of movement of the rail vehicle by determining a direction of the set of rails occupied by the rail vehicle based, at least in part, on the static image data; and validate the determined track occupancy based, at least in part, on the upcoming direction of movement of the rail vehicle, wherein generating the static image data comprises filtering the sensor signals with a low pass image filter to smoothen an instantaneous image of the area in front of the rail vehicle, and wherein generating the static image data comprises generating an enhanced smoothened image to exaggerate pixels of the smoothened image that belong to substantially tubular structures in the area in front of the rail vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27)
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Specification