DATA COMMUNICATION SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COMMUNICATING DATA IN A VEHICLE

• US 20150151769A1
• Filed: 02/03/2015
• Published: 06/04/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GE Global Sourcing LLC (Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation)
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: DeSanzo, David Joseph, Schroeck, David, Goodermuth, Todd, Mudiam, Veni, Joseph, Matthew, Madhavan, Sethu, Torres, Enrique David, Dean, Jason, Lacy, Patricia, Gladney, Darren
• Granted Patent: US 9,440,666 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B61K 9/00 Railway vehicle profile gauges; Detecting or indicating overheating of components; Apparatus on locomotives or cars to indicate bad track sections; General design of track recording vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 2201/00 Control methods
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 2205/04 Satellite based navigation systems, e.g. global positioning system [GPS]
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 25/025 Absolute localisation, e.g. providing geodetic coordinates
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 27/00 Central railway traffic control systems; Trackside control; Communication systems specially adapted therefor
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 27/04 Automatic systems, e.g. controlled by train; Change-over to manual control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/133 within the vehicle ; Indicators inside the vehicles or at stops
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 9/00 Traffic control systems for craft where the kind of craft is irrelevant or unspecified
• 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 includes an energy management system configured to be communicatively coupled with a communication system of a vehicle that travels on a trip along a route. The energy management system is configured to be removably coupled with the communication system such that the energy management system is mechanically disengageable from the communication system. The energy management system is further configured to receive data parameters from the communication system and to generate at least one of a trip plan or a control message for the vehicle based on the data parameters. The trip plan and/or the control message dictates tractive and braking efforts of the vehicle during the trip. The energy management system is configured to communicate the trip plan and/or the control message to the communication system for the communication system to implement for controlling movement of the vehicle during the trip.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

an energy management system including one or more processors, the energy management system configured to be communicatively coupled with a communication system of a vehicle that travels on a trip along a route, the energy management system being configured to receive data parameters related to at least one of the vehicle, the route, or the trip from the communication system, the energy management system further configured to generate at least one of a trip plan or a control message for the vehicle based on the received data parameters, the at least one of the trip plan or the control message dictating tractive and braking efforts of the vehicle during the trip;

wherein the energy management system is configured to communicate the at least one of the trip plan or the control message to the communication system for the communication system to implement the at least one of the trip plan or the control message to control movement of the vehicle during the trip, and

wherein the energy management system is configured to be removably coupled with the communication system such that the energy management system is mechanically disengageable from the communication system.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the energy management system is a plug-in device that includes a housing that holds the one or more processors therein.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the energy management system includes an electrical connector extending from the housing, the electrical connector being configured to removably mate to an electrical port of the communication system to electrically connect the energy management system to the communication system.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the energy management system is configured to communicatively couple directly to an interface gateway device of the communication system.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the energy management system is configured to generate the at least one of the trip plan or the control message to control movement of the vehicle during the trip in order to at least one of reduce fuel consumption, reduce travel time, reduce wear on the vehicle, reach a destination at a predefined time, increase throughput on a vehicle network, reduce emissions, or reduce noise.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the energy management system further includes a memory, the memory storing multiple communication configurations therein that specify at least one of rules or procedures for communicating messages with the communication system, wherein the energy management system is configured to retrieve at least one of the communication configurations stored in the memory to use the at least one of the communication configurations for communicating with the communication system.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the energy management system further includes a memory, the memory storing multiple capability configurations therein that specify at least one of available control settings or formats of the communication system, wherein the energy management system is configured to retrieve at least one of the capability configurations stored in the memory to use the at least one of the capability configurations for generating content of the control message that is able to be implemented by the communication system.

8. A system comprising:

an interface gateway device on a communication system of a vehicle that is configured to travel on a trip along a route, the interface gateway device configured to be communicatively coupled to a data acquisition module; and

an energy management system that includes one or more processors, the energy management system configured to be communicatively coupled to the interface gateway device, the energy management system being configured to be removably coupled with the interface gateway device such that the energy management system is mechanically disengageable from the interface gateway device;

wherein the interface gateway device is configured to receive data parameters related to at least one of the vehicle, the route, or the trip from the data acquisition module and to communicate the data parameters to the energy management system;

wherein the energy management system is configured to generate at least one of a trip plan or a control message for the vehicle based on the received data parameters and to communicate the at least one of the trip plan or the control message to the interface gateway device for the communication system to implement to control the vehicle during the trip.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the interface gateway device is further configured to be communicatively coupled to a controller that controls at least one of a propulsion subsystem or a braking subsystem of the vehicle, the interface gateway device being configured to communicate the at least one of the trip plan or the control message received from the energy management system to the controller for the controller to control the at least one of the propulsion subsystem or the braking subsystem according to the at least one of the trip plan or the control message.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the data acquisition module is configured to acquire the data parameters received by the interface gateway device from at least one of a propulsion subsystem of the vehicle, a braking subsystem of the vehicle, a GPS receiver, a user interface device, a speedometer, a scheduler device, or an accelerometer.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the energy management system is a plug-in device that includes a housing that holds the one or more processors therein, and the energy management system is configured to removably electrically connect with the interface gateway device via an electrical connector.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the energy management system is configured to identify the gateway interface device and to implement a communication configuration associated with the gateway interface device when communicating the at least one of the trip plan or the control message to the interface gateway device, the communication configuration specifying at least one of rules or procedures for communicating messages with the interface gateway device.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the energy management system is configured to receive the data parameters and to generate the trip plan prior to the vehicle starting on the trip, the trip plan dictating tractive and braking efforts of the vehicle during the trip.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the energy management system is configured to receive the data parameters and to generate the control message during the trip of the vehicle, the energy management system generating the control message by comparing the received data parameters to the trip plan, the trip plan being generated prior to the vehicle starting on the trip, the control message dictating tractive and braking efforts of the vehicle based on at least one of time or location of the vehicle along the route such that the vehicle travels according to the trip plan.

15. The system of claim 8, wherein the interface gateway device is further configured to be communicatively coupled to a user interface device that receives the control messages from the energy management system during the trip of the vehicle, the energy management system being configured to identify the user interface device and to implement a capability configuration associated with the user interface device when generating content of the control message, the capability configuration indicating available control settings and formats for presenting the content of the control message to an operator.

16. A method for controlling a vehicle during a trip along a route comprising:

determining whether a communicative coupling to a communication system on the vehicle is established;

if the communicative coupling to the communication system is established, identifying the communication system;

retrieving a communication configuration associated with the communication system that is identified;

receiving data parameters from the communication system, the data parameters communicated according to the communication configuration;

generating at least one of a trip plan or a control message that dictates at least one of tractive efforts or braking efforts of the vehicle during the trip, the at least one of the trip plan or the control message generated based on the received data parameters; and

communicating the at least one of the trip plan or the control message to the communication system for the communication system to implement the at least one of the trip plan or the control message to control movement of the vehicle during the trip, the at least one of the trip plan or the control message communicated according to the communication configuration.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising retrieving a capability configuration associated with the communication system that is identified, the capability configuration indicating available control settings and formats for the communication system or devices thereof, the at least one of the trip plan or the control message being generated based on the capability configuration in addition to the received data parameters.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the generating step includes generating both the trip plan and the control message, the data parameters being received both before the vehicle starts traveling on the trip and during the vehicle traveling on the trip, the trip plan generated based on data parameters received prior to the vehicle starting the trip, the control message generated during the vehicle traveling on the trip, the control message generated by comparing the data parameters received during the trip to the trip plan generated prior to the trip.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the communication system includes one or more controllers that control operations of a propulsion subsystem and a braking subsystem of the vehicle, the at least one of the trip plan or the control message dictating tractive settings for the propulsion subsystem and braking settings for the braking subsystem during the trip, the communication configuration specifying at least one of rules or procedures for communicating with the one or more controllers such that the one or more controllers implement the tractive settings and braking settings in response to receiving the at least one of the trip plan or the control message.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising plugging an electrical connector of an energy management system that is a removable plug-in device into a mating electrical connector of an interface gateway device of the communication system to communicatively couple the energy management system to the communication system such that the energy management system is mechanically disengageable from the communication system, wherein the energy management system generates the at least one of the trip plan or the control message.