SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INSPECTING RAILROAD TIES

• US 20150131108A1
• Filed: 01/19/2015
• Published: 05/14/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Loram Technologies Incorporated (Loram Maintenance of Way, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Georgetown Rail Equipment Company (Loram Maintenance of Way, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kainer, John J., Aaron, Charles W., Grissom, Gregory T., Mauricio, Antonio R., Belcher, Jeb E., Pagliuco, David M., Wamani, Wilson T., Nagel, John A. II, Villar, Christopher M., Orrel, Steven C., Bertilson, Zechariah
• Granted Patent: US 9,441,956 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 356/612
• 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: B61K 9/08 Measuring installations for surveying permanent way applications of measuring apparatus or devices for track building purposes E01B35/00; measuring techniques G01
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 23/044 Broken rails
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 23/045 Rail wear
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 11/24 for measuring contours or curvatures
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 3/08 Use of electric radiation detectors
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass

Abstract

A system for inspecting railroad ties in a railroad track includes a light generator, an optical receiver and a processor. The light generator is oriented to project a beam of light across the railroad track while moving along the railroad track in a travel direction. The optical receiver is oriented to receive at least a portion of the beam of light reflected from the railroad track and configured to generate image data representative of a profile of at least a portion of the railroad track. The processor is configured to analyze the image data by applying one or more algorithms configured to find boundaries of a railroad tie and determine one or more condition metrics associated with the railroad tie.

Claims

1. A system for inspecting railroad ties, comprising:

a. a rail vehicle, configured for moving along a railroad track in a travel direction;

b. a light generator, attached to the rail vehicle, oriented to project a beam of light across the railroad track while moving thereon;

c. an optical receiver, attached to the rail vehicle, oriented to receive at least a portion of the beam of light reflected from the railroad track and configured to generate image data representative of a profile of at least a portion of the railroad track; and

d. a processor, configured to analyze the image data by applying one or more algorithms configured to;

i. find boundaries of railroad ties in the railroad track; and

ii. determine the condition of railroad ties.

2. A system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to:

a. determine a location of each railroad tie with respect to the railroad track; and

b. correlate the tie location with GPS and/or milepost location.

3. A system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to apply an algorithm configured to:

a. determine a series of condition metrics of the railroad ties;

b. apply a weight factor to each condition metric; and

c. compute a condition grade for each tie based on the weighted condition metrics.

4. A system in accordance with claim 3, wherein the condition metrics include at least one of:

tie warpage, tie surface roughness, tie condition, tie entropy, tie heuristics, tie length, tie width, tie skew angle, tie plate cut, differential plate cut, spike height, depth of adzing, broken condition, curvature, tonnage, speed and decay zone.

5. A system in accordance with claim 3, wherein the processor is further configured to:

a. determine a location of each railroad tie;

b. determine a spacing between railroad ties with a good or bad condition grade; and

c. correlate the tie condition grade, tie location, and spacing between ties with good or bad tie condition grades to create a tie replacement plan.

6. A system in accordance with claim 3, wherein the processor is further configured to:

a. determine GPS and heading information of a position of the railroad tie along a railroad track bed; and

b. adjust the condition grade of the tie based upon a degree of track curvature.

7. A system in accordance with claim 3, wherein the processor is further configured to:

a. locate a rail joint and/or a weld near the tie; and

b. adjust the condition grade of the tie for higher degradation rates near the rail joint and/or weld.

8. A system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to identify at least one of un-ballasted bridge ties, a fastener type, the start and end of a rail crossing, a switch, switch points, switch ties, switch frogs and joint bars.

9. A method for inspecting railroad ties, comprising:

a. scanning a set of railroad ties with an optical scanning system to produce image data;

b. analyzing the image data using a processor running a machine vision algorithm;

c. identifying, via the processor, boundaries of railroad ties in the set of railroad ties; and

d. determining, via the processor, condition metrics for each railroad tie in the set of railroad ties.

10. A method in accordance with claim 9, wherein the step of scanning the set of railroad ties comprises scanning the railroad ties with a 3-D optical scanning system, and generating a computer-readable image representative of a profile of the railroad ties.

11. A method in accordance with claim 10, wherein scanning the railroad ties with a 3-D optical scanning system comprises:

a. projecting a beam of light across a railroad track bed that includes the railroad ties;

b. receiving light reflected from the railroad ties with a camera and producing a camera signal; and

c. generating, from the camera signal, the computer-readable image.

12. A method in accordance with claim 9, wherein the condition metrics include at least one of:

tie warpage, tie surface roughness, tie condition, tie entropy, tie heuristics, tie length, tie width, tie skew angle, tie plate cut, differential plate cut, spike height, degree of adzing, broken condition, curvature, tonnage, speed and decay zone.

13. A method in accordance with claim 9, further comprising computing a condition grade for each railroad tie based on a weighted summation of the condition metrics.

14. A method in accordance with claim 9, further comprising:

a. determining a location of each railroad tie in the set of railroad ties with respect to a railroad track bed; and

b. creating a tie replacement plan that is based upon the location of each railroad tie.

15. A method in accordance with claim 9, further comprising:

a. determining a location of each railroad tie in the set of railroad ties with respect to a railroad track bed; and

b. correlating the tie location with GPS and/or milepost location.

16. A method in accordance with claim 9, further comprising:

a. determining GPS and heading information of a position of each railroad tie in the set of railroad ties along a railroad track bed; and

b. adjusting the condition grade of the tie based upon a degree of track curvature.

17. A method in accordance with claim 9, further comprising:

a. locating a rail joint and/or weld near the tie; and

b. adjusting the condition grade of the tie for higher degradation rates near the rail joint and/or weld.

18. A method in accordance with claim 9, further comprising identifying at least one of un-ballasted bridge ties, a fastener type, the start and end of a road/rail crossing at grade, a switch, switch points, switch ties, switch frogs and joint bars

19. A method for grading railroad ties of a railroad track in situ, comprising:

a. scanning a set of railroad ties with an optical scanning system and generating image signals representing the railroad ties;

b. applying, via a computer processor, a machine vision algorithm to the image signals and generating a 3-D profile of the railroad ties that locates tie features;

c. analyzing the 3-D profile via a computer processor to determine a set of condition metrics representing each railroad tie in the set of railroad ties; and

d. computing a condition grade for each railroad tie based on a weighted summation of the condition metrics.

20. A method in accordance with claim 19, further comprising:

a. determining locations of ties with respect to the railroad track;

b. correlating the tie location with GPS and/or milepost location relative to the railroad track; and

c. creating a tie replacement plan that is based upon the GPS and/or milepost location.

21. A method in accordance with claim 19, wherein the condition metrics include at least one of:

tie warpage, tie surface roughness, tie condition, tie entropy, tie heuristics, tie length, tie width, tie skew angle, tie plate cut, differential plate cut, spike height, degree of adzing, broken condition, track curvature, track tonnage, speed, grade crossing, proximity of a rail joint, proximity of a weld and decay zone.

22. A method in accordance with claim 21, further comprising adjusting the condition grade of the tie based upon at least one of the condition metrics.

23. A method of inspecting a railroad track, the method comprising:

projecting a beam of light across at least a portion of a component of the railroad track, the beam of light projected with at least one light generator positioned adjacent the railroad track;

capturing an image of the beam of light projected on at least a portion of the component of the railroad track, the image captured with at least one receiver positioned adjacent the railroad track;

determining with a processor whether the captured image contains a tie plate; and

if a tie plate is present, determining with a processor whether the tie plate is misaligned or sunken.

24. The method of claim 23, furthering comprising if a tie plate is present, determining with a processor a crosstie contour and a tie plate contour, wherein the determining whether the tie plate is misaligned or sunken is based on the crosstie contour and the tie plate contour.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the at least one light generator further comprises at least one laser.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein the component further comprises a tie.

27. The method of claim 23, wherein the at least one receiver is a camera.

28. The method of claim 24, wherein a single processor determines whether the captured image contains a tie plate, determines the crosstie contour and a tie plate contour, and determines whether the tie plate is misaligned or sunken.

29. A railroad track inspection system, the system comprising:

at least one light generator positioned adjacent a railroad track bed, the light generator configured to project a beam of light across a portion of the railroad track bed;

at least one light receiver positioned adjacent the railroad track bed, the optical receiver configured generate an image of the portion of the railroad track bed; and

at least one processor, the processor being configured to determine whether the image contains a tie plate, wherein if the image contains a tie plate the processor being configured to determine a crosstie contour, a tie plate contour, and determine whether the tie plate is misaligned or sunken based on the crosstie contour and the tie plate contour.

30. The track inspection system of claim 29, wherein the at least one light generator is a laser.

31. A method of analyzing an image of a portion of a railroad track, the method comprising:

analyzing a region of interest of an image of a portion of a crosstie;

determining whether a contour of a tie plate occurs in the region of interest;

if a tie plate is present, determining whether the tie plate is sunken or misaligned by comparing the contour of the tie plate to a contour of the crosstie.

32. A railroad track inspection system, the system comprising:

at least one light generator positioned adjacent a railroad track bed, the light generator configured to project a beam of light across a portion of the railroad track bed;

at least one light receiver positioned adjacent the railroad track bed, the optical receiver configured generate an image of the portion of the railroad track bed; and

at least one processor, the processor being configured to determine a crosstie contour and a tie plate contour within the image and being configured to determine whether the tie plate is sunken based on the crosstie contour and the tie plate contour.