Enhanced Rail Inspection
First Claim
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1. A method for inspecting a rail system comprising:
- operating a monitor vehicle over one or more rails of said rail system;
directing non-destructive energy from a first sensor of said monitor vehicle at said one or more rails;
determining a physical rail integrity based on analysis of a reflection of said directed non-destructive energy from said one or more rails;
measuring a temperature of said one or more rails by a second sensor on said monitor vehicle; and
transmitting said determined physical rail integrity and said temperature to a data collection point.
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Abstract
Rail inspection is discussed that employs a monitor vehicle running on one or more tracks of a rail system that performs physical rail inspection in combination with monitoring and analysis of other system parameters that accompany the physical rail.
39 Citations
24 Claims
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1. A method for inspecting a rail system comprising:
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operating a monitor vehicle over one or more rails of said rail system; directing non-destructive energy from a first sensor of said monitor vehicle at said one or more rails; determining a physical rail integrity based on analysis of a reflection of said directed non-destructive energy from said one or more rails; measuring a temperature of said one or more rails by a second sensor on said monitor vehicle; and transmitting said determined physical rail integrity and said temperature to a data collection point. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A rail monitor vehicle for a rail system, said rail monitor vehicle comprising:
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a drive mechanism for moving said rail monitor vehicle over one of one or more rails of said rail system; a plurality of sensors, said plurality of sensors including at least; a temperature sensor; and a rail deformation sensor; a processor for processing raw data measured by said plurality of sensors; and a communication interface configured to communicate said processed raw data to a data collection point. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A system for inspecting a rail system comprising:
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a rail monitor vehicle operable to traverse one or more rails of said rail system, said rail monitor comprising; locomotive means; a plurality of sensors to measure a plurality of parameters of said rail system, said plurality of parameters including at least; rail deformation; and rail temperature; and a processor for processing said measured plurality of parameters; a plurality of alarm conditions corresponding to said plurality of parameters, wherein said rail monitor vehicle transmits an alarm for each of said measured plurality of parameters that falls within said plurality of alarm conditions; and a data collection point, wherein said rail monitor vehicle communicates said measured plurality of parameters and said processed measured plurality of parameters to said data collection point. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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Specification