Method and apparatus for using machine vision to detect relative locomotive position on parallel tracks
First Claim
1. A train control apparatus comprising:
- an image sensor disposed on a rail vehicle and positioned so as to sense a scene immediately in front of said rail vehicle, said sensor generating sensor signals;
a computer for receiving said sensor signals and generating in response thereto line representations of rails of at least two sets of parallel tracks located within the scene immediately in front of said rail vehicle;
means for generating relative slopes of the line representations of rails relative to a reference line, the relative slope being either a positive slope or a negative slope; and
means for determining track occupancy of the rail vehicle among the at least two sets of parallel tracks disposed in front of the rail vehicle based on the relative slopes of the line representations of the rails.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An automatic train control system, including a track occupancy detector is disclosed which utilizes an image sensor disposed on the front of a locomotive which scans an image immediately in front of the locomotive and is capable of detecting the presence of the occupied track and any parallel tracks disposed on either side of the occupied track. Image processing is accomplished using a Laplacian edge detection algorithm and a Hough transform line detection algorithm. An on-board computer determines the slope of lines corresponding to rails extending ahead of the locomotive. The lines are grouped into lines having positive and negative slope and the number of lines in each group is determined. Based upon the number of lines having positive and negative slopes, a determination of occupancy is made. The information from the track occupancy detector is provided to other equipment located on the locomotive and used to assist with other advanced train control functions.
95 Citations
21 Claims
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1. A train control apparatus comprising:
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an image sensor disposed on a rail vehicle and positioned so as to sense a scene immediately in front of said rail vehicle, said sensor generating sensor signals; a computer for receiving said sensor signals and generating in response thereto line representations of rails of at least two sets of parallel tracks located within the scene immediately in front of said rail vehicle; means for generating relative slopes of the line representations of rails relative to a reference line, the relative slope being either a positive slope or a negative slope; and means for determining track occupancy of the rail vehicle among the at least two sets of parallel tracks disposed in front of the rail vehicle based on the relative slopes of the line representations of the rails. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A train control apparatus for controlling a train of a type which operates on a track consisting of a pair of parallel rails and further of the type wherein the rail vehicle may occupy a track which is in a group of two or more parallel and closely spaced tracks, each track consisting of a pair of parallel rails, the train control apparatus comprising:
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means for determining the number of rails disposed in an area immediately in front of said rail vehicle; means for determining a relative slope of the rails immediately in front of the rail vehicle and further for determining the number of rails having slope characteristics of either a positive slope or a negative slope; and means for determining an occupancy characteristic for each set of tracks in front of the rail vehicle based on the slope characteristics of the rails. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A method of determining which track, of a group of parallel railroad tracks (each track having a set of parallel rails), over which a rail vehicle is traveling comprising the steps of:
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sensing reflected energy from a plurality of rails immediately in front of the rail vehicle; determining the number of rails disposed immediately in front of the rail vehicle; determining a relative slope of the rails disposed immediately in front of the rail vehicle with relation to the rail vehicle, the relative slope being characterized as either a positive slope or a negative slope; determining the number of rails immediately in front of the rail vehicle having either the positive slope or the negative slope; and generating a track occupancy determination based upon the number of rails having the positive slope and the negative slope. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21)
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Specification