Railway structure hazard predictor
First Claim
1. A railway hazard predictor for monitoring railway track having rail mounted on a structure comprising:
- at least one rail sensor mounted to sense physical characteristics imposed on said rail from a railway vehicle occupying said rail;
at least one alignment sensor mounted intermediate said rail and said structure to sense relative strain between said rail and said structure independent of said physical characteristic sensed by said rail sensor;
collection means for real time collecting data from said rail sensor and said alignment sensor;
processing means for analyzing said data and producing a rail signal indicative of rail integrity and a structure signal indicative of structure integrity; and
a neural network for reducing said rail signal and said structural signal into a train presence and misalignment detection.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A hazard predictor that processes both rail and superstructure measurements to predict some potentially hazardous conditions on a railway structure. Measurement is collected in real time with the aid of fiber optic sensor based linear array mesh, and processed with a neural network. Sensors placed under the rail and sensors placed laterally of the rail provide data collection in real time both during occupied and unoccupied periods. In some embodiments the measurement data is compressed into two signatures which can be represented as two vectors. The collinearity of the vectors and the angle between the vectors are utilized to interpret the data as to track conditions. The angle between the descriptors can be used to predict the severity of degradation of the structure. The predictor can be used to manage maintenance of the structure and interface with existing railway signalling equipment to provide traffic management.
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Citations
22 Claims
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1. A railway hazard predictor for monitoring railway track having rail mounted on a structure comprising:
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at least one rail sensor mounted to sense physical characteristics imposed on said rail from a railway vehicle occupying said rail; at least one alignment sensor mounted intermediate said rail and said structure to sense relative strain between said rail and said structure independent of said physical characteristic sensed by said rail sensor; collection means for real time collecting data from said rail sensor and said alignment sensor; processing means for analyzing said data and producing a rail signal indicative of rail integrity and a structure signal indicative of structure integrity; and a neural network for reducing said rail signal and said structural signal into a train presence and misalignment detection. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A railway hazard predictor for monitoring track having rail mounted on a structure comprising:
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a sensor unit having at least one fiber optic rail sensor mounted to sense vertical loading on such rail; at least one fiber optic alignment sensor mounted to sense lateral strain between such rail and a portion of such structure; and output means for outputting the data from said rail sensor and said alignment sensors to processing means for predicting structural conditions. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13)
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14. A method for monitoring railway track having rail mounted on a structure to determine a hazard condition comprising:
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sensing physical characteristics imposed on said rail from a railway vehicle occupying said rail; sensing relative strain between said rail and said structure independent of said physical characteristic; collecting said physical characteristics and said relative strain as real time data; processing said data and producing rail signal indicative of rail integrity and structure data indicative of structure integrity; and reducing said rail signal and said structural signal into a train presence and misalignment detection. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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Specification