System for detecting broken rails and flat wheels in the presence of trains
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A robust system for detecting railway hazards utilizing motion detecting sensors, the system comprising:
- a plurality of motion detecting sensors disposed along a monitored portion of each rail of a railway to generate a respective motion signal in correspondence with rail movement induced by trains moving along said rail; and
a central processor coupled to each of said motion detecting sensors along said monitored portion of each rail, said central processor being adapted to collect and process data from each of said motion detecting sensors so as to detect breaks in each of said rails;
each of said plurality of sensors on a respective rail being disposed at a distance from each adjacent one of said plurality of sensors such that a respective detection band of each of said plurality of sensors extends at least to an adjacent sensor so as to allow sensing redundancy within said plurality of sensors.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A redundant sensor system for predicting railway hazards including breaks in each rail, the location of the breaks, and determining when a railway vehicle has a flat wheel. Vibration sensors are distributed along both rails of a railway. Each sensor has a detection band at least within the sensing range of adjacent sensors and it is positioned such that the sensor detects vibration in both the horizontal and vertical axis of the rail. A central processor evaluates the data from these sensors and identifies the rail break, the location of the break, and the flat wheel.
90 Citations
18 Claims
-
1. A robust system for detecting railway hazards utilizing motion detecting sensors, the system comprising:
-
a plurality of motion detecting sensors disposed along a monitored portion of each rail of a railway to generate a respective motion signal in correspondence with rail movement induced by trains moving along said rail; and a central processor coupled to each of said motion detecting sensors along said monitored portion of each rail, said central processor being adapted to collect and process data from each of said motion detecting sensors so as to detect breaks in each of said rails; each of said plurality of sensors on a respective rail being disposed at a distance from each adjacent one of said plurality of sensors such that a respective detection band of each of said plurality of sensors extends at least to an adjacent sensor so as to allow sensing redundancy within said plurality of sensors. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
-
-
15. A method of predicting railway hazards in the presence of moving trains utilizing robust motion detecting sensors comprising the steps of:
-
sensing rail movement imposed on respective rails from said trains moving along said railway; conditioning said sensor data for transmission to a central processor; and transmitting said sensor data to said central processor; and processing sensor data so as to detect a break in said respective rail, wherein said sensor output amplitude changes in a range between about ten percent and about twenty-five percent within a time period between about one second and about sixty seconds. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18)
-
Specification