Dynamic monitoring of mobile railway car undercarriage

• US 8,560,151 B2
• Filed: 05/11/2011
• Issued: 10/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cartasite Incorporated (Geoforce Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Cartasite Incorporated (Geoforce Incorporated)
• Inventors: Armitage, David L., Kushnir, Gregory Froim, Mason, Mark Alvin, Johnson, Theodore Cutler Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Khoi
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bendidi, Rachid
• Application Number:
  US13/105,293
• Publication Number:
  US 20110282540A1
• Time in Patent Office: 888 Days
• Field of Search: 701/20, 340/10.1, 340/442, 340/686.1
• US Class Current: 701/20
• CPC Class Codes: B61K 13/00 Other auxiliaries or accessories for railways safety belts or harnesses A62B35/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/10 using a centralized architecture
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/47 using RFID associated with sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/50 using a mobile data collecting device, e.g. walk by or drive by
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/823 where the data is sent when the measured values exceed a threshold, e.g. sending an alarm
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom

Abstract

What is disclosed is a mobile railway car monitoring system. The mobile railway car monitoring system includes a plurality of sensor nodes coupled to an undercarriage portion of a railway car, and a control node coupled to the railway car. Each of the plurality of sensor nodes is configured to monitor the undercarriage portion of the railway car when in motion and transmit information about the undercarriage portion to the control node. The control node is configured to receive the information about the undercarriage portion, process the information to determine a fault condition for the undercarriage portion, and wirelessly report the fault condition to a collection system.

Claims

1. A mobile railway car monitoring system, comprising:

a plurality of sensor nodes coupled to an undercarriage portion of a railway car;

a control node coupled to the railway car;

wherein each of the plurality of sensor nodes is configured to monitor the undercarriage portion of the railway car when in motion and transmit information about the undercarriage portion to the control node; and

wherein the control node is configured to receive the information about the undercarriage portion, process the information by at least monitoring for patterns of deviation in the information from a population of sensors comprising each of the plurality of sensor nodes to determine a fault condition for the undercarriage portion, and wirelessly report the fault condition to a collection system.

2. The mobile railway car monitoring system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of sensor nodes is configured to wirelessly transmit the information about the undercarriage portion to the control node.

3. The mobile railway car monitoring system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of sensor nodes is magnetically coupled to the undercarriage portion of the railway car.

4. The mobile railway car monitoring system of claim 1, wherein the control node is configured to process the information received from each of the plurality of sensor nodes over a period of time to determine a dynamic threshold for reporting the fault condition.

5. The mobile railway car monitoring system of claim 1, wherein the control node is configured to wirelessly report the fault condition over a wireless network.

6. The mobile railway car monitoring system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of sensor nodes is configured to transfer the information about the undercarriage portion over a radio frequency identification (RFID) interface.

7. The mobile railway car monitoring system of claim 1, wherein the control node is configured to wirelessly receive the information from each of the plurality of sensor nodes over a radio frequency identification (RFID) interface.

8. The mobile railway car monitoring system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of sensor nodes is configured to monitor vibration of the undercarriage portion of the railway car to determine vibration information, and wherein the information comprises the vibration information.

9. The mobile railway car monitoring system of claim 1, wherein the undercarriage portion comprises a population of wheels, and wherein the fault condition for the undercarriage portion comprises a deviation in the information for at least one wheel of the population of wheels from the information for the population of wheels.

10. A method of operating a mobile railway car monitoring system, the method comprising:

in each of a plurality of sensor nodes coupled to an undercarriage portion of a railway car, monitoring the undercarriage portion of the railway car when in motion and transmitting information about the undercarriage portion to a control node coupled to the railway car; and

in the control node, receiving the information about the undercarriage portion, processing via processing circuitry the information by at least monitoring for patterns of deviation in the information from a population of sensors comprising each of the plurality of sensor nodes to determine a fault condition for the undercarriage portion, and wirelessly reporting the fault condition to a collection system.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein transmitting the information about the undercarriage portion to the control node comprises, in each of the plurality of sensor nodes, wirelessly transmitting the information about the undercarriage portion to the control node.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein each of the plurality of sensor nodes is magnetically coupled to the undercarriage portion of the railway car.

13. The method of claim 10, comprising:

in the control node, processing the information received from each of the plurality of sensor nodes over a period of time to determine a dynamic threshold for reporting the fault condition.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein wirelessly reporting the fault condition to the collection system comprises wirelessly reporting the fault condition over a wireless network.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein transmitting the information about the undercarriage portion to the control node comprises, in each of the plurality of sensor nodes, transferring the information about the undercarriage portion over a radio frequency identification (RFID) interface.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein receiving the information about the undercarriage portion comprises, in the control node, wirelessly receiving the information from each of the plurality of sensor nodes over a radio frequency identification (RFID) interface.

17. The method of claim 10, comprising:

in each of the plurality of sensor nodes, monitoring vibration of the undercarriage portion of the railway car to determine vibration information, wherein the information comprises the vibration information.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein the undercarriage portion comprises a population of wheels, and wherein the fault condition for the undercarriage portion comprises a deviation in the information for at least one wheel of the population of wheels from the information for the population of wheels.