Railway obstacle detection system and method
First Claim
1. A scanning laser beam railway obstacle detection system disposable on-board a railway vehicle transportable over railway tracks comprising:
- a laser source for generating a laser beam;
a laser scanning module optically coupled to the laser source for scanning the laser beam over the tracks ahead of the vehicle with a predetermined pattern;
a light detector for receiving light echoes from the scanned laser beam and for converting the light echoes into electrical signals representative thereof; and
a processor for processing the electrical signals from the light detector to detect an obstacle ahead of the vehicle.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A scanning laser beam railway obstacle detection system disposable on-board a railway vehicle transportable over railway tracks comprises: a laser scanning module optically coupled to a laser source for scanning a laser beam over the tracks ahead of the vehicle with a predetermined pattern; a light detector for receiving light echoes from the scanned laser beam and for converting the light echoes into electrical signals representative thereof; and a processor for processing the electrical signals from the light detector to detect an obstacle ahead of the vehicle. A method of detecting a threat to a railway vehicle transportable over railway tracks comprises the steps of: generating a laser beam; scanning the laser beam over the tracks ahead of the vehicle with a predetermined pattern; receiving light echoes from the scanned laser beam and converting the light echoes into electrical signals representative thereof; determining positions of the light echo signals along the scan pattern; and processing the light echo signals and corresponding positions to produce an image of a scene ahead of the vehicle for use in detecting a threat to the vehicle.
-
Citations
34 Claims
-
1. A scanning laser beam railway obstacle detection system disposable on-board a railway vehicle transportable over railway tracks comprising:
-
a laser source for generating a laser beam;
a laser scanning module optically coupled to the laser source for scanning the laser beam over the tracks ahead of the vehicle with a predetermined pattern;
a light detector for receiving light echoes from the scanned laser beam and for converting the light echoes into electrical signals representative thereof; and
a processor for processing the electrical signals from the light detector to detect an obstacle ahead of the vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
-
-
12. A scanning laser beam railway threat detection system disposable on-board a railway vehicle transportable over railway tracks comprising:
-
a laser source for generating a laser beam;
a laser scanning module optically coupled to the laser source for scanning the laser beam over the tracks ahead of the vehicle with a predetermined pattern;
a light detector for receiving light echoes from the scanned laser beam and for converting the light echoes into electrical signals representative thereof;
means for determining positions of the light echo signals along the scan pattern; and
a processor for processing the light echo signals from the light detector and corresponding positions to produce an image of a scene ahead of the vehicle for use in detecting a threat to the vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
-
-
22. Method of detecting a threat to a railway vehicle transportable over railway tracks comprising the steps of
generating a laser beam; -
scanning the laser beam over the tracks ahead of the vehicle with a predetermined pattern;
receiving light echoes from the scanned laser beam and converting the light echoes into electrical signals representative thereof;
determining positions of the light echo signals along the scan pattern; and
processing the light echo signals and corresponding positions to produce an image of a scene ahead of the vehicle for use in detecting a threat to the vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
-
-
31. A scanning laser beam railway threat detection system disposable on-board a railway vehicle transportable over railway tracks comprising:
-
a laser source for generating a laser beam;
a laser scanning module optically coupled to the laser source for scanning the laser beam over the tracks ahead of the vehicle with a predetermined pattern;
a light detector for receiving light echoes from the scanned laser beam and for converting the light echoes into electrical signals representative thereof;
means for determining a current position of the railway vehicle;
a memory for storing a data base of terrain elevation along the track of a route of the railway vehicle; and
a processor coupled to the light detector, position determining means, and data base memory and operative to access the data base memory based on the current position of the railway vehicle to determine terrain elevation of the track forward of the current position of the railway vehicle, to compute a distance vector along the track forward of the vehicle based on the forward track terrain elevation, and to process the light echo signals from the light detector based on the distance vector to detect a threat to the vehicle.
-
-
32. Method of detecting a threat to a railway vehicle transportable over railway tracks comprising the steps of:
-
generating a laser beam;
scanning the laser beam over the tracks ahead of the vehicle with a predetermined pattern;
receiving light echoes from the scanned laser beam and converting the light echoes into electrical signals representative thereof;
determining a current position of the railway vehicle;
determining terrain elevation of the track forward of the current position of the railway vehicle;
computing a distance vector along the track forward of the vehicle based on the determined terrain elevation of the forward track; and
processing the light echo signals based on the distance vector to detect a threat to the vehicle.
-
-
33. A scanning laser beam railway threat detection system disposable on-board a railway vehicle transportable over railway tracks comprising:
-
a laser source for generating a laser beam;
a laser scanning module optically coupled to the laser source for scanning the laser beam over the tracks ahead of the vehicle with a predetermined pattern;
a light detector for receiving light echoes from the scanned laser beam and for converting the light echoes into electrical signals representative thereof, means for determining a current position of the railway vehicle;
a memory for storing a data base of track configurations of a route of the railway vehicle; and
a processor coupled to the light detector, position determining means, and data base memory and operative to access the data base memory based on the current position of the railway vehicle to determine the track configuration forward of the current position of the railway vehicle, to compute a distance vector along the track forward of the vehicle based on the determined forward track configuration, and to process the light echo signals from the light detector based on the distance vector to detect a threat to the vehicle.
-
-
34. Method of detecting a threat to a railway vehicle transportable over railway tracks comprising the steps of:
-
generating a laser beam;
scanning the laser beam over the tracks ahead of the vehicle with a predetermined pattern;
receiving light echoes from the scanned laser beam and converting the light echoes into electrical signals representative thereof;
determining a current position of the railway vehicle;
determining track configuration forward of the current position of the railway vehicle;
computing a distance vector along the track forward of the vehicle based on the determined forward track configuration; and
processing the light echo signals based on the distance vector to detect a threat to the vehicle.
-
Specification