System and method for building and managing a train consist
AssigneeAmsted Rail Company, Inc.
InventorEdward J. Mansfield
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Railyard management system for managing, assembling, disassembling and validating train consists and monitoring railcars in the railyard. The system provides for the collection of data and the movement of data from lower processing levels to higher processing levels, where an inference engine draws inferences regarding the current state of railcars and train consists within the railyard. The inferences can be based on characteristics of a transmission signal received at their respective railcars, said railcars forming a train consist. The system can be used to track the location and orientation of railcars in the railyard and to validate order and orientation of assets in a train consist based on the characteristics of the transmission signal at said railcars.
Claims30
A phased array powered wireless gateway (“PWG”) device comprising:
- a phased array comprising a plurality of antenna elements and a plurality of phase shifters, wherein the plurality of antenna elements are configured to receive a plurality of received signals transmitted by two or more railcar-based communications management units (“CMUs”), and wherein each said railcar-based CMU is disposed on a respective railcar of a plurality of railcars and each antenna element of the plurality of antenna elements is in communication with one of the plurality of phase shifters which is configured to separate the plurality of received signals to determine a magnitude and a phase of each of the plurality of received signals;
- a phase detector in communication with the phased array, wherein the phase detector comprises a phase and time differential detection circuit that is configured to detect vector information from the plurality of received signals;
- a global navigation satellite system (“GNSS”) receiver that is configured to record reference time-stamp information;
- and
- a microprocessor having a fixed position in a geographic area and being in communication with the phased array, the phase detector, and the GNSS receiver;
- wherein the microprocessor is configured to (1) process the magnitude and phase from the plurality of phase shifters and the vector information from the phase detector to detect a direction of propagation of electromagnetic radiation emitted by each said railcar-based CMU, and (2) determine an order of railcars in a train consist based on at least the directions of propagations which were detected by the microprocessor.
A method of determining a relative location of a plurality of railcars by a phased array powered wireless gateway (“PWG”), the method comprising:
- receiving, at a phased array comprising a plurality of antenna elements and a plurality of phase shifters, a plurality of received signals transmitted by two or more railcar-based communications management units (“CMUs”) that are disposed respectively on a plurality of railcars of a train consist;
- separating, by the plurality of phase shifters, the plurality of received signals to determine a magnitude and phase of each said received signal;
- detecting, by a phase detector in communication with the phased array, vector information associated with the plurality of received signals, wherein the phase detector comprises a phase and time differential detection circuit;
- receiving, from a global navigation satellite system (“GNSS”) receiver, time-stamp information;
- processing, by a microprocessor having a fixed position in a geographic area, the phase from the plurality of phase shifters and the vector information from the phase detector to detect a direction of propagation of electromagnetic radiation emitted by each said railcar-based CMU;
- and
- determining, based on the directions of propagation detected by the microprocessor, an order of the plurality of railcars in the train consist.
A system for managing train consists in a railyard, comprising:
- one or more locomotive based powered wireless gateways (“PWGs”);
- two or more railcar-based communications management units (“CMUs”) respectively disposed on a plurality of railcars of a train consist;
- a phased array powered wireless gateway (“PWG”) device comprising:
- a phased array comprising a plurality of antenna elements and a plurality of phase shifters, wherein the plurality of antenna elements are configured to receive a plurality of received signals transmitted by the two or more of said railcar-based CMUs, and wherein each antenna element of the plurality of antenna elements is in communication with one of the plurality of phase shifters which is configured to separate the plurality of received signals received by the phased array to determine a magnitude and a phase of each of the plurality of received signals;
- a phase detector in communication with the phased array, wherein the phase detector comprises a phase and time differential detection circuit that is configured to detect vector information from the plurality of received signals;
- a global navigation satellite system (“GNSS”) receiver that is configured to record reference time-stamp information;
- and
- a microprocessor having a fixed position in a geographic area and being in communication with the phased array, the phase detector, and the GNSS receiver;
- wherein the microprocessor is configured to process the phase from the plurality of phase shifters and the vector information from the phase detector to detect a direction of propagation of electromagnetic radiation emitted by each said railcar-based CMU, and determine an order of the plurality of railcars in the train consist based on the directions of propagation which were detected.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.