# US 10,864,926 B2 · Systems and methods for analyzing thermal properties of a railroad > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 10,864,926 B2 - Document ID: US10864926B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 16/584,946 - Filed: 2019-09-27 - Published: 2020-04-02 - Granted: 2020-12-15 - Earliest claimed: 2018-09-28 - Assignees: Ensco, Inc. - Applicants: Ensco, Inc. - Inventors: Matthew Dick; Zhipeng Liu; Samson Yilma - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10864926B2 ## CPC - B61K 9/08: Measuring installations for surveying permanent way - B61L 15/0081: {On-board diagnosis or maintenance} - B61L 23/042: {Track changes detection} - G01J 5/0022: {for sensing the radiation of moving bodies} - G01J 5/485: {Temperature profile} - G01N 21/8851: {Scan or image signal processing specially adapted therefor, e.g. for scan signal adjustment, for detecting different kinds of defects, for compensating for structures, markings, edges (G01N21/8806 and G01N21/93 - G01N21/95692 take precedence; optical measurement of dimensions G01B11/00; optical scanning G02B26/10; image transformation G06T3/00; computerised image enhancement G06T5/00; image processing per se for flaw detection G06T7/0002)} - G01N 25/72: Investigating presence of flaws - G01S 19/01: Satellite radio beacon positioning systems transmitting time-stamped messages, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System], GLONASS [Global Orbiting Navigation Satellite System] or GALILEO - G01S 19/48: by combining or switching between position solutions derived from the satellite radio beacon positioning system and position solutions derived from a further system - G06T 7/0006: {using a design-rule based approach} - G01J 2005/0092: {Temperature by averaging, e.g. by scan} - G01N 2021/8861: {Determining coordinates of flaws} - G06T 2207/10024: Color image - G06T 2207/10048: Infrared image - G06T 2207/30108: Industrial image inspection - G06T 2207/30136: Metal - G06T 2207/30184: Infrastructure - G06T 2207/30252: Vehicle exterior; Vicinity of vehicle - B61K: AUXILIARY EQUIPMENT SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR RAILWAYS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR - B61L: GUIDING RAILWAY TRAFFIC; ENSURING THE SAFETY OF RAILWAY TRAFFIC (brakes or auxiliary equipment B61H, B61K; point or crossing construction E01B) - G01J: MEASUREMENT OF INTENSITY, VELOCITY, SPECTRAL CONTENT, POLARISATION, PHASE OR PULSE CHARACTERISTICS OF INFRARED, VISIBLE OR ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT; COLORIMETRY; RADIATION PYROMETRY (light sources F21, H01J, H01K, H05B; investigating properties of materials by optical means G01N) - G01N: INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIR CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES (measuring or testing apparatus or processes other than immunoassay, involving enzymes or microorganisms C12M, C12Q) - G01S: RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION OR RERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES - G06T: IMAGE DATA PROCESSING OR GENERATION, IN GENERAL ## Abstract A system for analyzing thermal properties of a railroad includes a thermal imaging device configured to generate thermal image data reproducible as a thermal image of a portion of the railroad, the thermal image data being associated with a location of the portion of the railroad, an electronic display device, a memory device configured to receive and store therein the generated thermal image data; and one or more processors configured to: determine a temperature metric of the portion of the railroad based at least in part on the thermal image data; and cause the electronic display device to display (i) a first graph indicative of the temperature metric of the portion of the railroad and (ii) a second graph indicative of a railroad track geometry metric associated with the location of the portion of the railroad. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A system for analyzing thermal properties of a railroad, the system comprising: a thermal imaging device configured to generate thermal image data reproducible as a thermal image of a portion of the railroad, the thermal image data being associated with a location of the portion of the railroad; an electronic display device; a memory device configured to receive and store therein the generated thermal image data; and one or more processors configured to: determine a temperature metric of the portion of the railroad based at least in part on the thermal image data; and cause the electronic display device to display (i) a first graph indicative of the temperature metric of the portion of the railroad and (ii) a second graph indicative of a railroad track geometry metric associated with the location of the portion of the railroad. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein the temperature metric of the portion of the railroad is a maximum temperature, a minimum temperature, an average temperature, a standard deviation of temperature, a temperature spike, or any combination thereof. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, further comprising a GPS sensor configured to determine the location of the portion of the railroad. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more processors is configured to (i) identify a region of interest of the portion of the railroad within the one or more thermal images of the portion of the railroad and (ii) determine the temperature metric within the region of interest. ### Claim 5 (depends on 4) The system of claim 4, wherein the region of interest includes at least a portion of a first running rail, a second running rail, a third power rail, a crosstie, a fastener, a joint-bar, ballast, an overhead support line, an overhead catenary, an overhead power line, a tunnel wall, a tunnel ceiling, an electrical cable, an electrical conduit, a switch, or any combination thereof. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, further comprising a communication module configured to transmit the thermal image data, the determined temperature metric of the portion of the railroad, the first graph indicative of the temperature metric, or any combination thereof to a remote device. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein the railroad track geometry metric is a rail cross-level, a rail curvature, a rail gauge, a rail cant, or any combination thereof. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more processors is configured to compare the determined temperature metric for the portion of the railroad to a predefined temperature threshold stored in the memory device to identify a defect in the portion of the railroad. ### Claim 9 (depends on 8) The system of claim 8, wherein the defect in the portion of the railroad is standing water, water seepage, electrical arcing, overheating, power leakage, or any combination thereof. ### Claim 10 (depends on 8) The system of claim 8, wherein the one or more processors cause the electronic display device to display an alert responsive to identifying the defect in the portion of the railroad. ### Claim 11 (depends on 8) The system of claim 8, further comprising a communication module, wherein responsive to identifying the defect in the portion of the railroad, the one or more processors cause the communication module to transmit an alert to a remote device. ### Claim 12 (depends on 8) The system of claim 8, further comprising a camera configured to generate image data reproducible as an image of the portion of the railroad and wherein at least one of the one or more processors is configured to display the image of the portion of the railroad on the electronic display device. ### Claim 13 (depends on 12) The system of claim 12, wherein at least one of the one or more processors is configured to cause a numerical value indicative of the determined temperature metric to be overlaid on the image of the portion of the railroad. ### Claim 14 (depends on 12) The system of claim 12, wherein a wavelength of light captured by the thermal imaging device is between about 9 micrometers and about 14 micrometers and a wavelength of light captured by the camera is between about 400 nanometers and about 700 nanometers. ### Claim 15 A system for analyzing thermal properties of a railroad, the system comprising: a thermal imaging device configured to generate thermal image data reproducible as a thermal image of a portion of the railroad; a camera configured to generate image data reproducible as an image of the portion of the railroad; a GPS sensor configured to determine a location of the system relative to the portion of the railroad; an electronic display device; a memory device configured to receive and store therein the generated thermal image data and the image data; and one or more processors configured to: determine a temperature metric of the portion of the railroad based at least in part on the thermal image data; identify a defect in the portion of the railroad by comparing the determined temperature of the portion of the railroad to a predetermined threshold value stored in the memory device; and cause (i) the thermal image of the portion of the railroad, (ii) the image of the portion of the railroad, (iii) a numerical value indicative of the determined terminal metric, or any combination of (i), (ii), and (iii) chrto be displayed on the electronic display device responsive to identifying the defect in the portion of the railroad. ### Claim 16 A method for analyzing thermal properties of a railroad, the method comprising: generating, using a thermal imaging device, thermal image data reproducible as one or more thermal images of a plurality of sections of the railroad; determining a temperature metric for each of the plurality of sections of the railroad based at least in part on the thermal image data; and displaying, on an electronic display device, one or more graphs indicative of the determined temperature metric for each of the plurality of sections of the railroad. ### Claim 17 (depends on 16) The method of claim 16, wherein the temperature metric includes a maximum temperature, a minimum temperature, an average temperature, a standard deviation of temperature, a temperature spike, or any combination thereof. ### Claim 18 (depends on 16) The method of claim 16, further comprising identifying one or more defects in one or more of the plurality of sections of the railroad by comparing the temperature metric for each of the plurality of sections of the railroad to a predefined temperature threshold. ### Claim 19 (depends on 18) The method of claim 18, wherein the one or more defects include standing water, water seepage, electrical arcing, overheating, power leakage, or any combination thereof. ### Claim 20 (depends on 19) The method of claim 19, further comprising generating, using a camera, image data reproducible as one or more images of each of the plurality of sections of the railroad; and displaying, on the electronic display device, images of the identified one or more defects in the one or more of the plurality sections of the railroad.