Vehicle control system and method
AssigneeTransportation IP Holdings, LLC
InventorsAndrew Ryan Staats, Timothy Allen Schultz
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A vehicle control system and method wirelessly communicate from at least one wireless transmitter positioned proximate a route crossing to a wireless receiver of a vehicle via a wireless wayside transceiver. The system and method communicate an indication of whether the route crossing is clear for passage of the vehicle through the route crossing. The system and method receive the indication by the wireless transmitter and using the vehicle receiver. A vehicle controller or an operator of the vehicle can determine whether it is safe for the vehicle to travel through the route crossing based on the indication received by the vehicle receiver from the portable transmitter. The vehicle can then be operated based on the determination.
Claims15
A method comprising:
- wirelessly receiving indications of whether a route crossing is clear for passage of a vehicle through the route crossing, the indications communicated from wireless portable transmitters carried by human flaggers positioned proximate the route crossing to a wireless wayside transceiver and then communicated to a wireless vehicle receiver of the vehicle via the wireless wayside transceiver;
- determining whether the indications were received from one or more of a first wireless portable transmitter or a second wireless portable transmitter;
- and
- operating the vehicle according to first operating settings responsive to determining that the indications were received from the first wireless portable transmitter but not the second wireless portable transmitter, or operating the vehicle according to second operating settings responsive to determining that the indications were received from the first wireless portable transmitter and the second wireless portable transmitter.
A method comprising:
- receiving, by a wireless receiver of a vehicle via a wireless wayside transceiver located at a route crossing, data that is wirelessly transmitted from one or more wireless portable transmitters carried by one or more human flaggers disposed at the route crossing to the wireless wayside transceiver, the data indicating that the route crossing is clear for passage of the vehicle through the route crossing;
- determining, by a controller of the vehicle, if a number of the wireless portable transmitters that wirelessly transmitted data is the same as a number of the human flaggers disposed at the route crossing;
- and
- controlling the vehicle to travel through the route crossing according to first operating settings or second operating settings, wherein the vehicle is configured to be controlled according to the first operating settings responsive to determining that the number of the wireless portable transmitters that wirelessly transmitted data is the same as the number of human flaggers, wherein the vehicle is configured to be controlled according to the second operating settings responsive to determining that the number of the wireless portable transmitters that wirelessly transmitted data is not the same as the number of human flaggers.
A method comprising:
- receiving an indication at a receiver disposed onboard a vehicle moving toward an intersection, the indication received by the receiver from a first portable transmitter carried by a first operator at the intersection via a wayside transceiver disposed at the intersection;
- determining whether the indication is also received at the receiver onboard the vehicle from a second portable transmitter carried by a second operator at the intersection via the wayside transceiver;
- controlling the vehicle to move through the intersection up to a first threshold speed responsive to determining that the indication is received from both the first portable transmitter and the second portable transmitter via the wayside transceiver;
- and
- controlling the vehicle to move through the intersection up to a second threshold speed that is slower than the first threshold speed responsive to determining that the indication is received from the first portable transmitter but is not received from the second portable transmitter via the wayside transceiver.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.