METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DETECTION OF DEFECTIVE BRAKES

• US 20150103160A1
• Filed: 10/10/2013
• Published: 04/16/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Conduent Business Services, LLC (Conduent, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: DALAL, EDUL N., Wu, Wencheng
• Granted Patent: US 9,625,402 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/125
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 17/027 using light, e.g. infrared, ultraviolet or holographic techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 25/72 Investigating presence of flaws
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10048 Infrared image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30164 Workpiece; Machine component
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0004 Industrial image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/20 Analysis of motion motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51

Abstract

A method, non-transitory computer readable medium, and apparatus for detecting defective brakes are disclosed. For example, the method detects that a wheel of a vehicle is in a position to be read by an infrared (IR) thermometer, signals the IR thermometer to take a temperature measurement of a brake of the wheel, receives the temperature measurement of the brake and determines that a defective brake condition exists when the temperature measurement of the brake is outside a temperature range.

Claims

1. A method for detecting defective brakes, comprising:

detecting, by a processor, that a wheel of a vehicle is in a position to be read by an infrared (IR) thermometer;

signaling, by the processor, the IR thermometer to take a temperature measurement of a brake of the wheel;

receiving, by the processor, the temperature measurement of the brake; and

determining, by the processor, that a defective brake condition exists when the temperature measurement of the brake is outside a temperature range.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting is performed by an inductive loop sensor.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting is performed by a video camera.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the video camera comprises a sufficiently high frame rate to signal the IR thermometer when the wheels of the vehicle are in the position to be measured by the IR thermometer.

5. The method of claim 3, comprising:

signaling the IR thermometer to take a temperature measurement of the brake of the wheel based upon a prediction of when the wheel will reach a target zone calculated by an image processing of two or more consecutive images captured by the video camera.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the IR thermometer takes continuous temperature measurements of the brake and as the wheel passes the IR thermometer.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the temperature range comprises an upper limit and a lower limit, wherein the upper limit comprises at least one of:

a first constant value or a value based upon an average temperature measurement of the brake and a positive offset value and the lower limit comprises at least one of;

a second constant value or a value based upon the average temperature measurement of the brake and a negative offset value.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the positive offset value and the negative offset value are based upon a weighted combination of a constant and a trimmed standard deviation.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein signaling comprises signaling a plurality of IR thermometers to take the temperature measurement of the brake as the wheel is moving.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the processor, an image of a license plate of the vehicle; and

sending, by the processor, a notification comprising a description of the vehicle and the license plate to a transportation authority that the defective brake condition was detected on the vehicle.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a plurality of instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations for detecting defective brakes, the operations comprising:

detecting that a wheel of a vehicle is in a position to be read by an infrared (IR) thermometer;

signaling the IR thermometer to take a temperature measurement of a brake of the wheel;

receiving the temperature measurement of the brake; and

determining that a defective brake condition exists when the temperature measurement of the brake is outside a temperature range.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the detecting is performed by an inductive loop sensor.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the detecting is performed by a video camera.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the video camera comprises a sufficiently high frame rate to signal the IR thermometer when the wheels of the vehicle are in the position to be measured by the IR thermometer.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, comprising:

signaling the IR thermometer to take a temperature measurement of the brake of the wheel based upon a prediction of when the wheel will reach a target zone calculated by an image processing of two or more consecutive images captured by the video camera.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the IR thermometer takes continuous temperature measurements of the brake and as the wheel passes the IR thermometer.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, comprises an upper limit and a lower limit, wherein the upper limit comprises at least one of:

a first constant value or a value based upon an average temperature measurement of the brake and a positive offset value and the lower limit comprises at least one of;

a second constant value or a value based upon the average temperature measurement of the brake and a negative offset value, wherein the positive offset value and the negative offset value are based upon a weighted combination of a constant and a trimmed standard deviation.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein signaling comprises signaling a plurality of IR thermometers to take the temperature measurement of the brake as the wheel is moving.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving an image of a license plate of the vehicle; and

sending a notification comprising a description of the vehicle and the license plate to a transportation authority that the defective brake condition was detected on the vehicle.

20. A method for detecting defective brakes, comprising:

monitoring, by a processor, images of a target zone for measuring a brake temperature of one or more wheels of a vehicle captured by a video camera;

detecting, by a processor, based upon an image processing of the images of the target zone that a first left wheel of a plurality of wheels of a vehicle and a first right wheel of the plurality of wheels are in a position to be read by a respective one of a plurality infrared (IR) thermometers;

signaling, by the processor, a first one of the plurality of IR thermometers located on a left side to take a temperature measurement of a left brake as a left wheel passes through the target zone;

signaling, by the processor, a second one of the plurality of IR thermometers located on a right side to take a temperature measurement of a right brake as a right wheel passes through the target zone;

repeating, by the processor, the detecting, the signaling of the first one of the plurality of IR thermometers and the signaling of the second one of the plurality of IR thermometers for each right brake of each right wheel and each left brake of each left wheel of the vehicle;

receiving, by the processor, each temperature measurement of the each left brake of the each left wheel and the each right brake of the each right wheel of the vehicle; and

determining, by the processor, that a defective brake condition exists when the one or more temperature measurements of any one of the each left brake or the each right brake is outside an acceptable temperature range for the respective brake.