Railroad train monitoring system

• US 7,688,218 B2
• Filed: 12/22/2006
• Issued: 03/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amsted Rail Company Incorporated (Amsted Industries Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Amsted Rail Company Incorporated (Amsted Industries Incorporated)
• Inventors: McCann, Michael J., LeFebvre, William
• Primary Examiner(s): La; Anh V
• Application Number:
  US11/615,309
• Publication Number:
  US 20070152107A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,194 Days
• Field of Search: 340/682, 340/870.17, 340/870.26, 340/870.3, 340/631, 340/632, 340/438, 340902-905, 73/530.5, 384/459, 384/446, 384/448, 384/456, 384/626, 246/169.R, 246/122.R, 246/292, 246/473.R
• US Class Current: 340/682
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2200/26 Rail vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B61K 13/00 Other auxiliaries or accessories for railways safety belts or harnesses A62B35/00
• CPC Class Codes: B61K 9/00 Railway vehicle profile gauges; Detecting or indicating overheating of components; Apparatus on locomotives or cars to indicate bad track sections; General design of track recording vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 15/0072 On-board train data handling
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 15/0081 On-board diagnosis or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 2205/04 Satellite based navigation systems, e.g. global positioning system [GPS]
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 25/021 Measuring and recording of train speed
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 25/025 Absolute localisation, e.g. providing geodetic coordinates
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 27/40 Handling position reports or trackside vehicle data
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/16 Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles

Abstract

Railcar monitoring utilizes instrumented, flexible pads supported within the truck pedestal jaws on the bearing adapters. The pads contain sensors for monitoring temperature pressure, shifting loads, truck hunting and the like and have circuitry for processing information received from the sensors and for processing and reporting departures of performance variables to a remote source. The system cyclically activates polling each pad on a car and communicates signals of critical departures and car identity to a remote source.

Claims

1. A monitoring system for monitoring performance criteria of a railcar, said railcar including a car body and a plurality of trucks each carrying one or more wheel sets mounted on said railcar, comprising:

one or more pads disposed between each wheel set and its corresponding truck;

one or more sensors disposed on said pads, said sensors measuring parameters relevant to the operating performance of the railcar;

a computational element disposed on said pads programmed to control the periodicity and sampling frequency of readings from said one or more sensors and for performing an analysis of data gathered via said readings;

a communication element disposed on said pads for transmitting data selected as a result of said analysis; and

a data control unit, mounted on said railcar, for uniquely addressing each pad, for receiving data transmitted from said one or more pads, for analyzing said data, and for selectively communicating said data to a receiver located at a location remote from said railcar.

2. The monitoring system of claim 1, wherein said receiver is located in a locomotive, in a train of which said railcar is a part.

3. The monitoring system of claim 1, wherein said data control unit programs said computational element on each of said pads to control (i) the sampling frequency for each sensor associated with said pad;

(ii) the periodicity of sampling for each sensor associated with said pad; and

(iii) how often collected data should be transmitted via said communications element to said data control unit.

4. The monitoring system of claim 1, wherein said data control unit communicates said data to said remotely located receiver wirelessly.

5. The monitoring system of claim 1, wherein said communication element transmits said gathered data wirelessly to said data control unit.

6. The monitoring system claim 1, wherein each of said sensors is responsive to one of a plurality of variables, including changes in compressive stress, shear stress and temperature within said pad.

7. The monitoring system of claim 3, wherein said pad may transmit an unsolicited or unscheduled message if said computational element determines that said gathered data is outside an acceptable range for a particular sensed parameter.

8. The monitoring system of claim 7, wherein said data control unit can draw inferences regarding the status of said railcar based on data gathered from all of said pads.

9. The monitoring system of claim 1, wherein each of said pads is identified to said data control unit by a unique address.

10. The monitoring system of claim 8, wherein said data control unit transmits a message to said remote receiver when it determines that said inferred status indicates a problem in the operation or performance of said railcar.

11. The monitoring system of claim 1, wherein said data control unit periodically transmits a status message to said remotely located receiver when an inferred status indicates that said railcar is operating with acceptable boundaries.

12. A system for monitoring performance of a railcar, wherein the railcar has plural trucks each having wheel sets spaced apart on axles and bearing assemblies individual to each wheel of a wheel set relatively rotatably mounted on the axles in association with each wheel, the trucks having side frames having spaced pedestal pockets within which the bearing assemblies are received, the combination comprising an elastomeric, load bearing pad located between a pedestal pocket and a bearing assembly, said pad allowing for limited relative movement between the bearing assembly and the pedestal pocket and providing damping of shock and abrasion, the pads further permitting controlled yaw movement of the axles within the pedestal pockets, the pads having at least one sensing device supported thereon, said at least one sensing device being a temperature sensor disposed on the pads adjacent a bearing for sensing bearing temperature, and control circuitry including a first communications circuit mounted on each pad for receiving signals indicative of temperature of the bearing unique to that pad and a second communications circuit mounted on a railcar body, said second communications circuit including logic circuitry for periodically addressing each sensing device on the railcar and for communicating values derived by said sensors to a remote location, said values being communicated only upon a determination by the logic circuitry that the values are indicative of a potential operating failure.

13. A system according to claim 12, further including a power supply associated with each said pad.

14. A system according to claim 13, where said power supply is a battery.

15. A system according to claim 13, wherein the power supply is an energy scavenger device.

16. A system according to claim 15, wherein the power supply derives energy from the rotation of the wheels of the railcar.

17. A system according to claim 15, wherein the energy scavenging device is a vibration responsive device, converting vibrational energy of the railcar to electric power.

18. A system according to claim 17, wherein the energy scavenging device is integrally mounted on the pad.

19. A system according to claim 12, wherein the communications circuits comprise low power, wireless receiver/transmitters conforming to the low power radio standard of IEEE802.15.4.

20. A system according to claim 12, further including a solar powered energy source for powering the second communications circuit.

21. A system according to claim 12, wherein the pads have a second sensing device supported thereon, said second sensing device being a vibration sensing device and being positioned on the pad to sense bearing vibration, said first communications circuit receiving signals from said second sensing device representative of vibrations and identifying vibration levels indicative of potential failure and communicating said signals of vibration level indicative of potential failure to said remote location.

22. A monitoring system for monitoring performance of railcars in a train including an operating locomotive wherein each railcar comprises a railcar body and supporting trucks with side frames having pedestal openings, wheel sets including an axle and spaced wheels retained by the pedestal openings, the axles carrying wheel bearings retained in said openings and elastomeric pads within each of the openings for attenuation of loads communicated between the bearings and the pedestal jaws, the pads being instrumented with sensing devices for sensing operating parameters selected from the group comprised of vibration, dynamic and static vertical loading, shear forces and temperature, each pad having an associated microprocessor, each microprocessor being programmed to a periodically active state to scan the sensed data for indications of potential failure, each pad further having a transmitter, the system further comprising a data gathering unit mounted on the railcar body including means for receiving signals indicating potential failure and transmitting said signals to a remote location.

23. A monitoring system according to claim 22, further including a receiver located in the locomotive for communication of said signals to crew members located within the locomotive.

24. A monitoring system according to claim 22, wherein the transmission of signals to the locomotive receiver is a wireless transmission.

25. A monitoring system according to claim 24, wherein each data gathering unit broadcasts to the receiver in the locomotive, a signal identifying the railcar from which a signal indicating potential failure is being broadcast.

26. A monitoring system according to claim 24, wherein the means for receiving and transmitting signals to the remote location is inactive in the absence of a signal indicative of potential failure.

27. A monitoring system according to claim 22, further including a power supply for the microprocessors on the pads, wherein said power supply includes a switch, said switch being operable to switch on the power supply upon scanning of the sensors on the pad.

28. A method of monitoring performance of wheeled, interconnected mobile units having bodies supported by wheels, wherein one of said mobile units is a controllable prime mover and the remainder of said mobile units are interconnected to the said one of said mobile units, said method comprising:

providing interfacing pads between the wheels and the bodies of the wheeled mobile units, said pads having embedded sensors for measuring operational parameters of said wheeled mobile units, said pads being programmable to control the sampling frequency for each sensor and the periodicity of sampling for each of said sensors; and

providing, on said pads, a computational capability for evaluating said measured operational parameters, and for identifying performance behavior derived from said measured operational parameters considered to be sufficient to cause alarm; and

communicating to the prime mover messages identifying only the performance behavior sufficient to cause alarm.

29. A method of monitoring according to claim 28, further including the step of including in the messages communicated to the prime mover an identification code unique to the mobile unit from which the signals identifying behavior considered to be sufficient to cause alarm originate.

30. A method of monitoring a load bearing structure comprising the following steps:

disposing a plurality of elastic, compressible pads between relatively rigid elements in the load bearing structure providing the pads with embedded sensors for sensing parameters selected from the group consisting of temperature, displacement, velocity, acceleration, stress, strain pressure, force and combinations thereof, a microprocessor for processing data received from said sensors and a low power transmitter/receiver and an energy scavenging and energy storage device periodically activated to power said microprocessor;

programming the pads with an identifying address unique to each pad, said address including a number to distinguish the pad application from other applications using the same broadcasting frequency;

locating a data control unit on the structure in proximity to the pads, said unit having receiver and transmitting abilities and a data processing unit with storage;

programming the data processing unit with the unique address of each pad;

programming the data processing unit to activate the power source for the pads in timed sequence;

communicating to the pad contacted the task the pad is to perform and a time for reporting back;

processing data signals received from a pad;

merging information derived from other pads in communication with the data control unit;

drawing inferences from the data received from the pads to determine whether alarm conditions exist; and

communicating any such alarm condition to a location remote from the data control unit.

31. A monitoring system for monitoring the behavior of a railcar, said railcar including a car body and a plurality of trucks each carrying one or more wheel sets mounted on said railcar, comprising:

one or more pads disposed between each wheel set and its corresponding truck;

one or more sensors disposed on said pads, said sensors measuring parameters relevant to the operating performance of the railcar;

one or more first computational elements disposed on said one or more pads for gathering data from said one or more sensors;

a second computational element, for receiving data from said one or more pads; and

a logical inference engine distributed over said one or more first computational elements and said second computational element, said logical inference engine deriving inferences regarding the behavior of said railcar based upon all available data.

32. The monitoring system of claim 31 wherein said logical inference engine uses information available from outside sources in additional to all data collected regarding said railcar in deriving said inferences regarding the behavior of said railcar.

33. The monitoring system of claim 32 wherein said outside sources are selected from a group consisting of a GPS device, an ambient temperature sensor, a speed sensor, an ambient humidity sensor, an accelerometer and a gyroscope.