System and method for inspecting railroad ties
DC CAFCFirst Claim
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 at least one railroad tie in the railroad track; and
ii. determine the condition of the at least one railroad tie by;
a. determining a series of condition metrics of the at least one railroad tie;
b. applying a weight factor to each condition metric; and
c. computing a condition grade of the at least one railroad tie based on the weighted condition metrics.
3 Assignments
Litigations
2 Petitions
Accused Products
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.
72 Citations
29 Claims
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1. A system for inspecting railroad ties, comprising:
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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 at least one railroad tie in the railroad track; and ii. determine the condition of the at least one railroad tie by; a. determining a series of condition metrics of the at least one railroad tie; b. applying a weight factor to each condition metric; and c. computing a condition grade of the at least one railroad tie based on the weighted condition metrics. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method for inspecting railroad ties, comprising:
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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 at least one railroad tie in the set of railroad ties; and d. determining, via the processor, condition metrics for the at least one railroad tie in the set of railroad ties; and e. computing a condition grade for the at least one railroad tie based on a weighted summation of the condition metrics. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method for grading railroad ties of a railroad track in situ, comprising:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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21. A method of inspecting a railroad track, the method comprising:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A railroad track inspection system, the system comprising:
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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 to 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. - View Dependent Claims (28)
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29. A railroad track inspection system, the system comprising:
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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 to 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.
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Specification