Communication systems and method for a rail vehicle or other powered system

• US 8,731,747 B2
• Filed: 12/05/2011
• Issued: 05/20/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Desanzo, David Joseph, Goodermuth, Todd, Mudiam, Veni, Joseph, Matthew, Madhavan, Sethu, Torres, Enrique David
• Primary Examiner(s): Algahaim, Helal A
• Assistant Examiner(s): PATEL, SHARDUL D
• Application Number:
  US13/311,252
• Publication Number:
  US 20120277938A1
• Time in Patent Office: 897 Days
• Field of Search: 701 1- 4, 701/19, 701/29.1, 701/36
• US Class Current: 701/19
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 2205/04 Satellite based navigation systems, e.g. global positioning system [GPS]
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 27/00 Central railway traffic control systems; Trackside control; Communication systems specially adapted therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/00 Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/006 Indicating maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/08 Registering or indicating performance data other than driving, working, idle, or waiting time, with or without registering driving, working, idle or waiting time

Abstract

A communication system for a vehicle includes an input module, a selection module, and a publisher module. The input module is configured to receive data parameters associated with one or more conditions (e.g., states, current operational aspects or modes, operational environmental conditions) of the vehicle. The selection module is configured to select a subset of the data parameters. The publisher module is configured to communicate the data parameters in the subset to one or more applications of the vehicle that use the data parameters to perform one or more operations.

Claims

1. A communication system for a vehicle comprising:

one or more processors configured to receive data parameters associated with one or more conditions of the vehicle;

the one or more processors configured to select a subset of the data parameters; and

the one or more processors configured to communicate the data parameters in the subset to one or more applications of the vehicle that use the data parameters to perform one or more operations;

wherein the one or more processors also are configured to dynamically modify which of the data parameters are included in the subset;

wherein the one or more processors also are configured to apply one or more filters to determine which of the data parameters are included in the subset;

wherein the filters include at least one of a category filter that includes the data parameters in the subset based on a type of the data parameters, a frequency filter that includes the data parameters in the subset based on frequencies at which the applications request the data parameters, a use filter that includes the data parameters in the subset based on how the data parameters are used by the applications, or a priority filter that includes the data parameters in the subset based on priority values assigned to the data parameters.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the subset of the data parameters is a manually predetermined subset of the data parameters.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors also are configured to dynamically modify the data parameters in the subset by changing one or more of the data parameters in the subset one or more times during an operational cycle of the vehicle.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising an interface gateway disposed between the publisher module and the applications, the interface gateway arbitrating requests from the applications for the data parameters and publication of the data parameters from the subset of the data parameters.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the one or more processors are configured to regularly periodically communicate the data parameters in the subset to the one or more applications at predetermined time intervals.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the one or more processors are configured to communicate to the one or more applications only the data parameters in the subset, the subset comprising fewer than all of the data parameters received by the one or more processors; and

the one or more applications are configured not to request any data parameters from the one or more processors other than the data parameters in the subset.

7. A communication system for a vehicle comprising:

one or more processors configured to receive data parameters associated with one or more conditions of the vehicle;

the one or more processors also are configured to output a selection of a subset of the data parameters; and

one or more processors are further configured to publish the data parameters in the subset to one or more applications of the vehicle that use the data parameters to perform one or more operations,

wherein the one or more processors also are configured to publish the data parameters in the subset to the one or more applications of the vehicle irrespective of communication of requests for the data parameters from the one or more applications;

wherein the one or more applications are configured to request from the one or more processors data parameters that are not in the subset only if the data parameters that are not in the subset have a priority value that is above a designated priority threshold.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the one or more processors are configured to publish the data parameters in the subset during an entirety of a time that the one or more processors are operational to communicate data parameters generally.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein during all operational modes of the applications, the one or more applications are configured to request only the data parameters in the subset from the one or more processors.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein during at least one operational mode of the applications, the one or more applications are configured to request only the data parameters in the subset from the one or more processors.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein out of a totality of the data parameters requested by the one or more applications from the one or more processors, the applications are configured to request the data parameters in the subset as at least ninety percent of the totality.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein out of a totality of the data parameters requested by the one or more applications from the one or more processors, the applications are configured to request the data parameters in the subset as at least ninety-five percent of the totality.

13. A communication system for a vehicle comprising:

one or more processors configured to receive data parameters associated with one or more conditions of the vehicle;

the one or more processors also configured to output a selection of a subset of the data parameters; and

the one or more processors are further configured to publish the data parameters in the subset to one or more applications of the vehicle that use the data parameters to perform one or more operations,

wherein the one or more processors are configured to publish only the data parameters in the subset unless a request for a data parameter not in the subset is received from one of the one or more applications and the request is above a designated priority threshold.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the priority threshold is set such that out of a totality of the data parameters published by the one or more processors, the data parameters in the subset comprise at least ninety percent of the totality.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the priority threshold is set such that out of a totality of the data parameters published by the one or more processors, the data parameters in the subset comprise at least ninety-five percent of the totality.

16. A method for communicating data parameters in a rail vehicle, the method including:

receiving data parameters associated with one or more conditions of the rail vehicle or other powered system;

selecting, with the one or more processors, a subset of the data parameters; and

publishing, with the one or more processors, the data parameters in the subset to one or more applications that use the data parameters to perform one or more operations;

wherein the selecting step includes dynamically modifying which of the data parameters are included in the subset;

wherein the selecting step includes applying one or more filters to determine which of the data parameters are included in the subset;

,

wherein the filters include at least one of a category filter that includes the data parameters in the subset based on a type of the data parameters, a frequency filter that includes the data parameters in the subset based on frequencies at which the applications request the data parameters, a use filter that includes the data parameters in the subset based on how the data parameters are used by the applications, or a priority filter that includes the data parameters in the subset based on priority values assigned to the data parameters.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the selecting step includes manually selecting a predetermined subset of the data parameters.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the data parameters in the subset are dynamically modified by changing one or more of the data parameters in the subset one or more times during an operational cycle of the powered system.

19. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium for a communication system of a rail vehicle or other powered system that includes one or more processors, the non-transitory computer readable storage medium including one or more sets of instructions configured to direct the one or more processors to:

receive data parameters associated with one or more conditions of the rail vehicle or other powered system;

select a subset of the data parameters; and

publish the data parameters in the subset to one or more applications that use the data parameters to perform one or more operations;

wherein the one or more sets of instructions are configured to direct the one or more processors to dynamically modify which of the data parameters are included in the subset;

wherein the one or more sets of instructions are configured to direct the one or more processors to apply one or more filters to determine which of the data parameters are included in the subset;

wherein the filters include at least one of a category filter that includes the data parameters in the subset based on a type of the data parameters, a frequency filter that includes the data parameters in the subset based on frequencies at which the applications request the data parameters, a use filter that includes the data parameters in the subset based on how the data parameters are used by the applications, or a priority filter that includes the data parameters in the subset based on priority values assigned to the data parameters.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the one or more sets of instructions are configured to direct the one or more processors to select the data parameters from a manually selected subset of the data parameters.

21. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the one or more sets of instructions are configured to direct the one or more processors to dynamically modify the data parameters by changing one or more of the data parameters in the subset one or more times during a trip of the consist.