Diagnosis and repair system and method
First Claim
1. A method for generating and implementing a service recommendation for a locomotive, said method comprising:
- collecting operating information from the locomotive via a first computing device on the locomotive;
communicating the operating information to a remote diagnostic center via a wireless communications link;
analyzing the operating information at the diagnostic center to identify anomalous conditions in the operation of the locomotive;
generating a service recommendation for the anomalous condition of the locomotive;
posting the service recommendation to an Internet site for later retrieval, wherein the Internet site comprises a web site;
providing an address of the Internet site where the service recommendation is posted to a portable second computing device operated by a technician at the site of the locomotive for implementing the service recommendation on the locomotive;
downloading the service recommendation from the address of the Internet site to the second computing device; and
displaying multimedia information associated with the service recommendation and downloaded from the web site on a display of the second computing device.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A diagnosis and repair recommendation system for a railroad locomotive is disclosed. The system uses generalized repair recommendations and instantiates them to a specific repair process for a unique road number locomotive. In addition to repair steps to be executed by the technician, the method and system remotely provides supporting documentation specifically tailored for each step in the repair process. As the repair is being conducted, feedback information is entered by the technician. The repair recommendations and the supporting documents are available to the technician via a remote unit, thereby allowing the technician to access the repair steps and supporting documentation while the repair is in progress.
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Citations
34 Claims
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1. A method for generating and implementing a service recommendation for a locomotive, said method comprising:
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collecting operating information from the locomotive via a first computing device on the locomotive;
communicating the operating information to a remote diagnostic center via a wireless communications link;
analyzing the operating information at the diagnostic center to identify anomalous conditions in the operation of the locomotive;
generating a service recommendation for the anomalous condition of the locomotive;
posting the service recommendation to an Internet site for later retrieval, wherein the Internet site comprises a web site;
providing an address of the Internet site where the service recommendation is posted to a portable second computing device operated by a technician at the site of the locomotive for implementing the service recommendation on the locomotive;
downloading the service recommendation from the address of the Internet site to the second computing device; and
displaying multimedia information associated with the service recommendation and downloaded from the web site on a display of the second computing device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 24)
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14. The method of claim 14 further comprising transmitting queries from the diagnostic center to the location of the locomotive over the wireless communications link, wherein the queries request operational parametric information for the uniquely identified locomotive.
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20. The method of claim 20 wherein the status information includes one of the following:
- ongoing, halted, and closed.
- View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23)
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25. A method for generating and implementing a service recommendation for a land-based vehicle, said method comprising:
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collecting operating information from the land-based vehicle via a first computing device on the vehicle;
communicating the operating information to a remote diagnostic center via a wireless communications link;
analyzing the operating information at the diagnostic center to identify anomalous conditions in the operation of the land-based vehicle;
generating a service recommendation comprising instructions for conducting repairs or performing maintenance operations on the land-based vehicle, wherein the repairs or maintenance operations are responsive to the anomalous condition;
communicating the service recommendation from the diagnostic center to a second computing device at a service location for the land-based vehicle; and
accessing the service recommendation from the second computing device via an input/output device to implement the service recommendation on the land-based vehicle;
storing the service recommendations in a database on the second computing device, wherein each service recommendation has an assigned version number;
examining the version number of each stored service recommendation;
determining if there is more than a single version for a service recommendation; and
retaining only the latest version for any service recommendation having more than one version.
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26. A method for generating and implementing a service recommendation for a land-based vehicle, said method comprising:
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collecting operating information from the land-based vehicle via a first computing device on the vehicle;
communicating the operating information to a remote diagnostic center via a wireless communications link;
analyzing the operating information at the diagnostic center to identify anomalous conditions in the operation of the land-based vehicle;
generating a service recommendation comprising instructions for conducting repairs or performing maintenance operations on the land-based vehicle, wherein the repairs or maintenance operations are responsive to the anomalous condition;
communicating the service recommendation from the diagnostic center to a second computing device at a service location for the land-based vehicle; and
accessing the service recommendation from the second computing device via an input/output device to implement the service recommendation on the land-based vehicle;
creating a record when a service recommendation is terminated prior to completion.
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27. A method for closing a service recommendation for maintenance or repair of a land-based vehicle at a remote service site, said method comprising:
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confirming the implementation of a service recommendation for maintenance or repair performed on a land-based vehicle at the remote service site;
determining that the vehicle as serviced operates properly to resume operational status;
completing a return-to-service procedure for the vehicle, including communicating said operational status to a service center;
returning the vehicle to service.
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- 28. The method of claim 28 wherein the return-to-service procedure includes returning the vehicle to an operational status.
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32. A system for generating and implementing a service recommendation for a locomotive, said system comprising:
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a first computing component on the locomotive for collecting operating information from the locomotive;
a first communication component responsive to the first computing component for sending the operating information from the locomotive to a diagnostic center via a first wireless communications link;
an analysis component at the diagnostic center for analyzing the operating information to identify anomalous conditions in the operation of the locomotive;
in response to the analysis component, a recommendation-generating component at the diagnostic center for creating a service recommendation to overcome the anomalous condition; and
a second communication component for posting the service recommendation to an Internet site, wherein the Internet site comprises a web site;
a second portable computing component at a service location of the locomotive, wherein the second communication component provides an address of the Internet site to the second computing component, and wherein the second computing component downloads the service recommendation from the address of the Internet site to the second computing component for implementation of the service recommendation on the locomotive by a technician operating the second computing component; and
an input/output device comprising a display for displaying multimedia information associated with the service recommendation downloaded from the web site.
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- 33. The system of claim 33 wherein the service recommendation includes instructions for making one or more repairs to or performing maintenance on the locomotive and technical documentation related to the structure and function of the locomotive.
Specification