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US 10,889,310 B2Granted
Collision protection and safety system for rail vehicles
AssigneeHarsco Technologies LLC
InventorShannon L. Bailey
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present disclosure relates to a railway collision protection and safety system having a vehicle device located on rail vehicles at a work zone, a personal protection unit located with rail workers at the work zone, and a dispatcher processor at a control center. An authority limit within the work zone may be determined by the dispatcher processor, and an authority exceeded signal is sent to the rail vehicle when the rail vehicle is determined to exceed the authority limit.
Claims22
A method for providing rail worker safety, the method comprising:
- defining at least one geographical boundary within a work zone;
- receiving, at a dispatcher processor of a control center, a location of a rail vehicle;
- determining whether a first distance between the location of the rail vehicle and the at least one geographical boundary is less than a threshold;
- transmitting a first warning signal to the rail vehicle based on a determination that the first distance is less than the threshold, the first warning signal configured to initiate a first alarm of a first alarm system;
- and
- receiving an indication from a sensor indicating whether the rail vehicle is configured in a railway mode or an on-road mode;
- wherein, based on receiving the indication that the rail vehicle is configured in the on-road mode, the first alarm system is configured to not activate an audible or visual alert.
4 more elements
A railway safety system, comprising:
- a vehicle unit operable to be coupled to a rail vehicle, the vehicle unit including:
- a location determination unit operable to determine a location of the rail vehicle,
- a communications unit configured to:
- define at least one geographical boundary within a work zone;
- transmit the location of the rail vehicle to a dispatcher processor;
- and
- receive an alarm signal from the dispatcher processor indicating that a distance between the rail vehicle and the at least one geographical boundary is less than a first threshold;
- a sensor configured to determine whether the rail vehicle is operating in a railway mode or an on-road mode;
- and
- an alarm unit operable to generate at least one of an audio or visual alarm in response to the alarm signal;
- wherein based on the rail vehicle operating in the on-road mode, the communications unit is configured to deactivate the audio or visual alarm of the alarm unit.
8 more elements
A method for rail worker safety, the method comprising
- transmitting location data of a rail vehicle to a dispatcher processor;
- receiving a first signal indicating the rail vehicle is within a work zone;
- receiving a signal indicating that the rail vehicle has exceeded a first authorized limit of the work zone from the dispatcher processor;
- transmitting, in response to the signal, an alarm signal to an operator device of an operator of the rail vehicle;
- storing information that includes a time that the alarm signal was transmitted to the operator device;
- detecting whether the rail vehicle is in a railway mode or an on-road mode;
- transmitting an indication of whether the rail vehicle is in the railway mode or the on-road mode to the dispatch processor;
- and
- deactivating an alarm unit of the rail vehicle based on the rail vehicle operating in the on-road mode.
6 more elements
A method for providing rail worker safety, the method comprising:
- receiving, at a dispatcher processor of a control center, a location of a rail vehicle;
- receiving an indication from a sensor indicating whether the rail vehicle is configured in a railway mode or an on-road mode;
- determining whether a first distance between the location of the rail vehicle and at least one geographical boundary of a work zone is less than a threshold;
- and
- transmitting a first warning signal to the rail vehicle based on a determination that the first distance is less than the threshold, the first warning signal configured to initiate a first alarm of a first alarm system;
- where the first alarm system is configured to prohibit activation of the first alarm during operation of the rail vehicle in the on-road mode.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.