SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DETECTING OPERATIONAL ANOMALIES IN TRAIN CONSISTS AND RAILCARS

• US 20160325767A1
• Filed: 12/24/2014
• Published: 11/10/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/24/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amsted Rail Company Incorporated (Amsted Industries Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Amsted Rail Company Incorporated (Amsted Industries Incorporated)
• Inventors: COOPER, Francis James, ADAMEC, Rachel W., LeFebvre, William, Martin, Andrew
• Granted Patent: US 10,137,915 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: B61K 9/04 Detectors for indicating the overheating of axle bearings and the like, e.g. associated with the brake system for applying the brakes in case of a fault
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 15/0027 Radio-based, e.g. using GSM-R
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 15/0036 Conductor-based, e.g. using CAN-Bus, train-line or optical fibres
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 15/0081 On-board diagnosis or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 25/021 Measuring and recording of train speed
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 25/025 Absolute localisation, e.g. providing geodetic coordinates
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 27/40 Handling position reports or trackside vehicle data
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 27/57 for vehicles or trains, e.g. trackside supervision of train conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 17/10 Suspensions, axles or wheels

Abstract

A system for monitoring railcar and tram consist operational parameters and detecting anomalies in the operation and condition thereof using sensors to feed data to a distributive complex event processing engine.

Claims

1. A system for detecting operational anomalies on a train consist or railcar comprising:

(a) one or more communication management units mounted on one or more railcars; and

(b) one or more sensors located on said one or more railcars for sensing an operational parameter of said one or more railcars, said sensors being in communication with said one or more communication management units;

wherein said communication management units perform the functions of;

(i) collecting data regarding said one or more railcar operational parameters;

(ii) analyzing said collected data for trends or events indicative of an anomalous operational condition; and

(iii) communicating a message to a remote receiver when said trend or event is detected.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising one or more wireless sensor nodes in communication with one of said communication management units, said one or more sensors forming part of said one or more wireless sensor nodes;

wherein each of said wireless sensor nodes performs the functions of;

collecting data from one or more sensors;

comparing said data against one or more rules; and

sending a message to said communication management unit when at least one of said rules is satisfied; and

wherein said communication management unit and said wireless sensor nodes form a railcar-based wireless mesh network, said railcar-based mesh network being controlled by said communication management unit.

4. The system of claim 2 wherein each of said wireless sensor nodes performs the functions of:

a) collecting data from one or more sensors; and

b) periodically sending said collected data to said communication management unit.

5. The system of claim 2 wherein said one or more rules are numerical thresholds which, when exceeded by said collected data, cause an alert message to be sent to said communication management unit.

8. The system of claim 2 wherein said communication management unit, upon receiving an alert message from one of said wireless sensor nodes, performs the functions of:

(a) waiting to see if similar messages are received from one or more other wireless sensor nodes within a predetermined period of time and concluding that an actual event has occurred if said similar messages are received; and

(b) communicating a message reporting the occurrence of said actual event to a remote receiver.

9. The system of claim 4 wherein said communication management unit, upon receiving said periodically sent data, performs the functions of:

(a) storing said data in a data store;

(b) analyzing said stored data for trends; and

(c) generating a report when trends of interest are detected.

10. The system of claim 1 further comprising a powered wireless gateway controlling a train-based wireless mesh network that includes said powered wireless gateway and a plurality of said communication management units.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one of said communication management units includes at least one of said sensors.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein said powered wireless gateway serves as said remote receiver.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein said remote receiver is located off-train.

14. The system of claim 8 wherein said communication management unit confirms that vertical hunting is occurring when vertical hunting messages are received from wireless sensor nodes mounted on opposite ends of a railcar within a predetermined period of time.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein said communication management unit determines that a body bounce event has occurred when messages from said wireless sensor nodes indicate that vertical hunting messages received from said wireless sensor nodes indicate in phase accelerations were detected.

16. The system of claim 14 wherein said communication management unit determines that a body pitch event has occurred when messages from said wireless sensor nodes indicate that vertical hunting messages received from said wireless sensor nodes indicate out of phase accelerations were detected.

17. The system of claim 8 wherein said communication management unit confirms that a lateral extreme vehicle dynamic event has occurred when lateral extreme vehicle dynamic messages have been received from a plurality of wireless sensors nodes within said predetermined period of time.

18. The system of claim 8 wherein said communication management unit confirms that a vertical extreme vehicle dynamic event has occurred when vertical extreme vehicle dynamic messages have been received from a plurality of wireless sensors nodes within said predetermined period of time.

19. The system of claim 8 wherein said communication management unit confirms that lateral hunting is occurring when lateral hunting messages are received from wireless sensor nodes mounted on opposite ends of a railcar within a predetermined period of time.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein said communication management unit determines that a body yaw event has occurred when messages from said wireless sensor nodes indicate that lateral hunting messages received form said wireless sensor nodes indicate out of phase accelerations were detected.

21. The system of claim 19 wherein said communication management unit determines that a body roll event has occurred when messages from said wireless sensor nodes indicate that lateral hunting messages received form said wireless sensor nodes indicate in phase accelerations were detected.

27. The system of claim 2 wherein said communication management unit can instruct each wireless sensor node to enable or disable the checking of individual rules by sending a message to said wireless sensor node.

28. The system of claim 4 wherein said communication management unit can instruct each wireless sensor node to enable or disable the periodic sending of data by sending a message to said wireless sensor node.

31. The system of claim 1 further comprising a powered wireless gateway controlling a train-based network that includes said powered wireless gateway and a plurality of said communication management units.

49. The system of claim 2 wherein one of said wireless sensor nodes comprises:

a) a protective housing;

b) said one or more sensors being mounted within said protective housing and includes a sensor to measure accelerations;

c) a communication capability, for communicating with said communication management unit;

d) a microprocessor, executing firmware to control the operation of said wireless sensor node; and

e) a mechanical filter which includes a resilient material selected to filter out undesirable accelerations, said mechanical filter disposed to remove said undesirable accelerations before said undesirable accelerations reach said accelerometer.

52. The system of claim 2 wherein one of said wireless sensor nodes comprises:

a) a protective housing;

b) said one or more sensors being mounted within said protective housing and includes a sensor to measure accelerations;

c) a communication capability, for communicating with said communication management unit;

d) a microprocessor, executing firmware to control the operation of said wireless sensor node; and

e) potting material disposed within said housing, said potting material used to tune said wireless sensor node by absorbing undesirable accelerations.

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35. A method for detecting operational anomalies on a train consist or railcar comprising the steps of:

(a) collecting data regarding said one or more railcar operational parameters;

(b) analyzing said collected data for trends or events indicative of an anomalous operational condition; and

(c) communicating a message to a remote receiver when said trend or event is detected.

36. The method of claim 35 wherein steps (a)-(c) are performed by a communication management unit located on a railcar in said train consist;

wherein said data is collected from one or more wireless sensor nodes on said railcar, said wireless sensor nodes being in communication with said communication management unit; and

wherein said communication management unit and said one or more wireless sensor nodes form a railcar-based mesh network.

39. The method of claim 36 wherein said wireless sensor nodes each perform the functions of:

(a) collecting data from one or more sensors;

(b) comparing said data against one or more rules; and

(c) sending a message to said communication management unit when at least one of said rules is satisfied; and

wherein said one or more rules causes data collected from some sensors to be periodically sent to said communication management unit.

42. The method of claim 39 wherein said communication management unit coordinates messages from two or more wireless sensor nodes to confirm that an event has occurred.

45. The method of claim 36 wherein multiple railcars in said train consist are configured with a communication management unit and further wherein all communication management units on said train consist are configured in a train-based wireless mesh network controlled by a powered wireless gateway.

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56. A system for detecting operational anomalies on a train consist or railcar comprising:

(a) a train-based mesh network comprising a powered wireless gateway and one or more communication management units located on one or more railcars in said train consist;

(b) one or more railcar-based mesh networks each comprising at least said one or more communication management units, each arranged in a mesh network configuration with one or more wireless sensor nodes;

(c) a distributed complex event processing engine distributed across said wireless sensor nodes, said communication management units and said powered wireless gateway, said distributed complex event processing engine detecting anomalous operating conditions on said train consist via data gathered by sensors controlled by said wireless sensor nodes and propagated upwards through said system.

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60. A system for detecting operational anomalies on a railcar that is part of a train consist comprising:

(a) at least one communication management unit (CMU) mounted on the a railcar in said train consist;

(b) at least two sensors located on said railcar for sensing operational parameters of the railcar, said sensors being in communication with said communication management unit;

wherein said communication management unit performs the following functions;

(i) receiving data from said sensors;

(ii) drawing inferences from the data received from at least two of the sensors regarding the performance of the railcar; and

(iii) communicating a message to a remote receiver when an anomaly is detected.

61. The system of claim 60,

wherein said sensors comprise accelerometers positioned at different locations of the railcar,

wherein said step of drawing inferences comprises the comparison of data from two or more of said accelerometers,

wherein said accelerometers are positioned on the railcar to provide data for carrying out one or more of the following functions:

i) compare accelerations from one railcar wheel with that of another railcar wheel on the same axle but opposite side of the railcar,

ii) compare accelerations from one railcar wheel with that of at least one other wheel on the same side of said railcar, and

iii) compare accelerations from one railcar wheel with that of at least one other railcar wheel on the same side of said one railcar wheel and which other wheel is on another railcar of the same train consist.

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