Route examining system and method

• US 9,834,237 B2
• Filed: 08/31/2015
• Issued: 12/05/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GE Global Sourcing LLC (Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation)
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Plotnikov, Yuri Alexeyevich, Matthews, Brett Alexander, Kumar, Ajith Kuttannair, Fries, Jeffrey Michael, Noffsinger, Joseph Forrest, Poonacha, Samhitha Palanganda, Frangieh, Tannous, Wheeler, Frederick Wilson, Staton, Brian Lee, Brown, Timothy Robert, Boverman, Gregory, Nayeri, Majid
• Primary Examiner(s): Do, Truc M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Whittington, Jess
• Application Number:
  US14/841,209
• Publication Number:
  US 20150367872A1
• Time in Patent Office: 827 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 23/044 Broken rails
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 3/18 using electric current passing between devices along the route and devices on the vehicle or train

Abstract

Systems and methods for examining a route inject one or more electrical examination signals into a conductive route from onboard a vehicle system traveling along the route, detect one or more electrical characteristics of the route based on the one or more electrical examination signals, apply a filter to the one or more electrical characteristics, and detect a break in conductivity of the route responsive to the one or more electrical characteristics decreasing by more than a designated drop threshold for a time period within a designated drop time period. Feature vectors may be determined for the electrical characteristics and compared to one or more patterns in order to distinguish between breaks in the conductivity of the route and other causes for changes in the electrical characteristics.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a first application unit configured to inject a first electrical examination signal into a conductive route from onboard a vehicle system traveling along the route, wherein the first application unit is configured to inject the first electrical examination signal into the route by injecting the first electrical examination signal having a first frequency into a first conductive rail of the route, and further comprising a second application unit configured to inject a second electrical examination signal having a different, second frequency into a second conductive rail of the route;

a first detection unit configured to detect a first electrical characteristic of the route based on the first electrical examination signal;

one or more processors configured to apply a filter to the first electrical characteristic to isolate a subset of the first electrical characteristic occurring at a first frequency range of interest, wherein the first detection unit is configured to measure the first electrical characteristic of the route along the first conductive rail, and wherein the first detection unit is configured to measure a second electrical characteristic of the route along the first conductive rail based on the second electrical examination signal injected by the second application unit into the second conductive rail of the route, and further comprising;

a second detection unit configured to measure a third electrical characteristic of the route along the second conductive rail based on the first electrical examination signal, wherein the second detection unit also is configured to measure a fourth electrical characteristic of the route along the second conductive rail based on the second electrical examination signal, wherein the one or more processors are configured to apply a filter to the second electrical characteristic to isolate a subset of the second electrical characteristic occurring at the second frequency of the second electrical examination signal, the one or more processors being configured to apply a filter to the third electrical characteristic to isolate a subset of the third electrical characteristic occurring at the first frequency of the first electrical examination signal, and the one or more processors being configured to apply a filter to the fourth electrical characteristic to isolate a subset of the fourth electrical characteristic occurring at the second frequency of the second electrical examination signal the one or more processors further configured to detect a break in conductivity of the route responsive to the subset of the first, second, third, and forth electrical characteristic decreasing by more than a designated drop threshold for a time period within a designated drop time period.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine feature vectors representative of different values of each of the subsets of the first, second, third, and fourth electrical characteristics, and to compare the feature vectors to one or more patterns of feature vectors associated with different conditions of the route, at least one of the patterns of feature vectors associated with the break in the conductivity of the route, the one or more processors are configured to detect the break in the conductivity of the route responsive to the subset of the first electrical characteristic decreasing by more than the designated drop threshold for the time period within the designated drop time period and responsive to the feature vectors more closely matching the at least one pattern of feature vectors associated with the break in the conductivity of the route.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine the feature vectors for each of the subsets of the first, second, third, and fourth electrical characteristics as including:

a first statistical measure of values of the respective subset prior to the respective subset decreasing by more than the designated drop threshold for the time period that is within the designated drop time period,

a second statistical measure of values of the respective subset after the respective subset decreases by more than the designated drop threshold and before the respective subset increases by at least the designated drop threshold, and

a third statistical measure of values of the respective subset after the respective subset increases by at least the designated drop threshold.

4. A system comprising:

a first application unit configured to be disposed onboard a vehicle traveling along a route having plural conductive rails, the first application unit configured to inject a first electrical examination signal having a first frequency into a first rail of the plural conductive rails;

a second application unit configured to be disposed onboard the vehicle and to inject a second electrical examination signal having a different, second frequency into a second rail of the plural conductive rails;

a first detection unit configured to be disposed onboard the vehicle and to measure a first electrical characteristic of the first rail based on the first electrical examination signal and to measure a second electrical characteristic of the first rail based on the second electrical examination signal;

a second detection unit configured to be disposed onboard the vehicle and to measure a third electrical characteristic of the second rail based on the first electrical examination signal and to measure a fourth electrical characteristic of the second rail based on the second electrical examination signal; and

one or more processors configured to apply a filter to the first and third electrical characteristics to isolate respective subsets of the first and third electrical characteristics occurring at the first frequency, apply a filter to the second and fourth electrical characteristics to isolate respective subsets of the second and fourth electrical characteristics occurring at the second frequency, and detect a break in conductivity of one or more of the first rail or the second rail of the route responsive to one or more of the subsets of the first, second, third, or fourth electrical characteristics decreasing by more than a designated drop threshold for a time period that is within a designated drop time period.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine feature vectors representative of different values of each of the subsets of the first, second, third, and fourth electrical characteristics and to compare the feature vectors to one or more patterns of feature vectors associated with different conditions of the route, at least one of the patterns of feature vectors associated with the break in the conductivity of the route, wherein the one or more processors are configured to detect the break in the conductivity of one or more of the first rail or the second rail responsive to the subset of the first electrical characteristic decreasing by more than the designated drop threshold for the time period within the designated drop time period and responsive to the feature vectors more closely matching the at least one pattern of feature vectors associated with the break in the conductivity of one or more of the first rail or the second rail.