COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS AND METHOD FOR A RAIL VEHICLE OR OTHER POWERED SYSTEM

• US 20120277938A1
• Filed: 12/05/2011
• Published: 11/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Goodermuth, Todd, DeSanzo, David Joseph, Mudiam, Veni, Joseph, Matthew, Madhavan, Sethu, Torres, Enrique David
• Granted Patent: US 8,731,747 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/19
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 2205/04 Satellite based navigation systems, e.g. global positioning system [GPS]
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 27/00 Central railway traffic control systems; Trackside control; Communication systems specially adapted therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/00 Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/006 Indicating maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/08 Registering or indicating performance data other than driving, working, idle, or waiting time, with or without registering driving, working, idle or waiting time

Abstract

A communication system for a vehicle includes an input module, a selection module, and a publisher module. The input module is configured to receive data parameters associated with one or more conditions (e.g., states, current operational aspects or modes, operational environmental conditions) of the vehicle. The selection module is configured to select a subset of the data parameters. The publisher module is configured to communicate the data parameters in the subset to one or more applications of the vehicle that use the data parameters to perform one or more operations.

Claims

1. A communication system for a vehicle comprising:

an input module configured to receive data parameters associated with one or more conditions of the vehicle;

a selection module configured to select a subset of the data parameters; and

a publisher module configured to communicate the data parameters in the subset to one or more applications of the vehicle that use the data parameters to perform one or more operations.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the subset of the data parameters is a manually predetermined subset of the data parameters.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the selection module is configured to dynamically modify which of the data parameters are included in the subset.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the selection module is configured to dynamically modify the data parameters in the subset by changing one or more of the data parameters in the subset one or more times during an operational cycle of the vehicle.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the selection module is configured to apply one or more filters to determine which of the data parameters are included in the subset.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the filters include at least one of a category filter that includes the data parameters in the subset based on a type of the data parameters, a frequency filter that includes the data parameters in the subset based on frequencies at which the applications request the data parameters, a use filter that includes the data parameters in the subset based on how the data parameters are used by the applications, and/or a priority filter that includes the data parameters in the subset based on priority values assigned to the data parameters.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising an interface gateway disposed between the publisher module and the applications, the interface gateway arbitrating requests from the applications for the data parameters and publication of the data parameters from the subset of the data parameters.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the publisher module is configured to regularly periodically communicate the data parameters in the subset to the one or more applications at predetermined time intervals.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the publisher module is configured to communicate to the one or more applications only the data parameters in the subset, the subset comprising fewer than all of the data parameters received by the input module; and

the one or more applications are configured not to request any data parameters from the publisher module other than the data parameters in the subset.

10. A communication system for a vehicle comprising:

an input module configured to receive data parameters associated with one or more conditions of the vehicle;

a selection module configured to output a selection of a subset of the data parameters; and

a publisher module configured to publish the data parameters in the subset to one or more applications of the vehicle that use the data parameters to perform one or more operations,

wherein the publisher module is configured to publish the data parameters in the subset to the one or more applications of the vehicle irrespective of communication of requests for the data parameters from the one or more applications.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the publisher module is configured to publish the data parameters in the subset during an entirety of a time that the publisher module is operational to communicate data parameters generally.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein during all operational modes of the applications, the one or more applications are configured to request only the data parameters in the subset from the publisher module.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein during at least one operational mode of the applications, the one or more applications are configured to request only the data parameters in the subset from the publisher module.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein out of a totality of the data parameters requested by the one or more applications from the publisher module, the applications are configured to request the data parameters in the subset as at least ninety percent of the totality.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein out of a totality of the data parameters requested by the one or more applications from the publisher module, the applications are configured to request the data parameters in the subset as at least ninety-five percent of the totality.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the one or more applications are configured to request from the publisher module data parameters that are not in the subset only if the data parameters that are not in the subset have a priority value that is above a designated priority threshold.

17. A communication system for a vehicle comprising:

an input module configured to receive data parameters associated with one or more conditions of the vehicle;

a selection module configured to output a selection of a subset of the data parameters; and

a publisher module configured to publish the data parameters in the subset to one or more applications of the vehicle that use the data parameters to perform one or more operations,

wherein the publisher module is configured to publish only the data parameters in the subset unless a request for a data parameter not in the subset is received from one of the one or more applications and the request is a above a designated priority threshold.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the priority threshold is set such that out of a totality of the data parameters published by the publisher module, the data parameters in the subset comprise at least ninety percent of the totality.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the priority threshold is set such that out of a totality of the data parameters published by the publisher module, the data parameters in the subset comprise at least ninety-five percent of the totality.

20. A method for communicating data parameters in a rail vehicle, the method including:

receiving data parameters associated with one or more conditions of the rail vehicle or other powered system;

selecting a subset of the data parameters; and

publishing the data parameters in the subset to one or more applications that use the data parameters to perform one or more operations.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the selecting step includes manually selecting a predetermined subset of the data parameters.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the selecting step includes dynamically modifying which of the data parameters are included in the subset.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the data parameters in the subset are dynamically modified by changing one or more of the data parameters in the subset one or more times during an operational cycle of the powered system.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the selecting step includes applying one or more filters to determine which of the data parameters are included in the subset.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the filters include at least one of a category filter that includes the data parameters in the subset based on a type of the data parameters, a frequency filter that includes the data parameters in the subset based on frequencies at which the applications request the data parameters, a use filter that includes the data parameters in the subset based on how the data parameters are used by the applications, or a priority filter that includes the data parameters in the subset based on priority values assigned to the data parameters.

26. A computer readable storage medium for a communication system of a rail vehicle or other powered system that includes a processor, the medium including one or more sets of instructions configured to direct the processor to:

receive data parameters associated with one or more conditions of the rail vehicle or other powered system;

select a subset of the data parameters; and

publish the data parameters in the subset to one or more applications that use the data parameters to perform one or more operations.

27. The computer readable storage medium of claim 26, wherein the one or more sets of instructions are configured to direct the processor to select the data parameters from a manually selected subset of the data parameters.

28. The computer readable storage medium of claim 26, wherein the one or more sets of instructions are configured to direct the processor to dynamically modify which of the data parameters are included in the subset.

29. The computer readable storage medium of claim 28, wherein the one or more sets of instructions are configured to direct the processor to dynamically modify the data parameters by changing one or more of the data parameters in the subset one or more times during a trip of the consist.

30. The computer readable storage medium of claim 28, wherein the one or more sets of instructions are configured to direct the processor to apply one or more filters to determine which of the data parameters are included in the subset.

31. The computer readable storage medium of claim 30, wherein the filters include at least one of a category filter that includes the data parameters in the subset based on a type of the data parameters, a frequency filter that includes the data parameters in the subset based on frequencies at which the applications request the data parameters, a use filter that includes the data parameters in the subset based on how the data parameters are used by the applications, and/or a priority filter that includes the data parameters in the subset based on priority values assigned to the data parameters.