Rail vehicle positioning system
First Claim
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1. A rail vehicle positioning system of the type used to provide a locomotive engineer with information relating to the position of a locomotive;
- said system comprising in operative combination;
a GPS global positioning system receiver disposed on said locomotive for providing a GPS signal;
a wheel tachometer disposed on said locomotive for providing a tachometer signal;
means for calibrating said wheel tachometer to correct for any error by comparing said GPS signal with said tachometer signal;
and means for generating a position, speed, direction, and acceleration signal in response to said GPS signal and said tachometer signal.
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Abstract
A rail vehicle positioning system having a plurality of inputs used to generate a position report including a GPS receiver, a wheel tachometer, O.S. circuits, transponders, and manual inputs from locomotive engineers.
271 Citations
11 Claims
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1. A rail vehicle positioning system of the type used to provide a locomotive engineer with information relating to the position of a locomotive;
- said system comprising in operative combination;
a GPS global positioning system receiver disposed on said locomotive for providing a GPS signal; a wheel tachometer disposed on said locomotive for providing a tachometer signal; means for calibrating said wheel tachometer to correct for any error by comparing said GPS signal with said tachometer signal; and means for generating a position, speed, direction, and acceleration signal in response to said GPS signal and said tachometer signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
- said system comprising in operative combination;
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5. A rail vehicle positioning system of the type used to generate a position report for a locomotive on an expansive rail network;
- the positioning system comprising in operative combination;
a wheel tachometer onboard said locomotive for measuring the wheel rotation rate and generating a rotation rate signal; an onboard computer for integrating said rotation rate signal to produce a distance traveled signal; a GPS global positioning system receiver onboard said locomotive for generating a GPS position signal and providing said GPS position signal to said computer; said computer further receiving said GPS position signal and comparing said distance traveled signal with the GPS position signal so that a calibration of said wheel tachometer can be accomplished to correct for any error therein; whereby, a distance traveled signal can be calibrated by a GPS receiver to improve the accuracy of said distance traveled signal. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
- the positioning system comprising in operative combination;
Specification