Communication assembly with extendable antenna
AssigneeWestinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation
InventorsPadam Dhoj Swar, Danial Rice
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A communication assembly includes a housing, a communication device, an extendable mast, and a control circuit. The housing is configured to be mounted on a vehicle. The communication device includes an antenna and is disposed at least partially within the housing. The extendable mast is mechanically coupled to the housing and supports the antenna. The control circuit is operably coupled to the mast and is configured to generate a signal to raise the mast from a first position of a distal end of the mast to a second position of the distal end in response to determining occurrence of a designated raise event. The antenna extends a greater distance from the housing in the second position of the mast than in the first position.
Claims18
An assembly comprising:
- a housing configured to be mounted on a vehicle;
- a communication device that includes an antenna, the communication device disposed at least partially within the housing;
- a mast that is extendable and supports the antenna, the mast mechanically coupled to the housing;
- and
- one or more processors operably coupled to the mast, the one or more processors configured to generate a control signal to lower the mast and decrease a distance that the antenna extends from the housing in response to the one or more processors determining occurrence of a designated lower event,
- wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine the occurrence of the designated lower event by one or more of:
- detecting that the vehicle is stationary,
- determining that a wind speed exceeds a designated wind speed threshold, or
- determining that a speed of the vehicle exceeds a designated vehicle speed threshold.
A method comprising:
- determining, via one or more processors of a communication assembly disposed on a vehicle, occurrence of a designated raise event, the communication assembly including a housing and a mast mechanically coupled to the housing, the mast being extendable and supporting an antenna of the communication assembly;
- and
- responsive to determining the occurrence of the designated raise event, automatically generating a control signal to raise the mast to increase a distance that the antenna extends from the housing,
- wherein determining the occurrence of the designated raise event comprises at least one of:
- detecting at least one of degraded communication quality or total communication loss between the communication assembly and a second communication assembly disposed on another vehicle;
- determining that the vehicle is approaching an upcoming segment of a route that is associated with degraded communication quality;
- detecting initiation of a communication linking procedure between the communication assembly and the second communication assembly on the other vehicle;
- detecting that the vehicle is in motion;
- or
- detecting release of brakes of the vehicle.
An assembly comprising:
- a housing configured to be mounted on a vehicle;
- a mast mechanically coupled to the housing and configured to extend and retract relative to the housing;
- an antenna mechanically coupled to and supported by the mast;
- and
- one or more processors operably coupled to the mast, the one or more processors configured to generate a first control signal to raise the mast and increase a distance that the antenna extends from the housing in response to determining occurrence of a designated raise event, the one or more processors configured to generate a second control signal to lower the mast and reduce the distance that the antenna extends from the housing in response to determining occurrence of a designated lower event,
- wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine the occurrence of the designated raise event by one or more of:
- detecting at least one of degraded communication quality or total communication loss between a communication device of the assembly and a second communication device disposed on another vehicle;
- determining that the vehicle is approaching an upcoming segment of a route associated with degraded communication quality;
- detecting initiation of a communication linking procedure between the communication device of the assembly and the second communication device disposed on the other vehicle;
- detecting that the vehicle is in motion;
- or
- detecting release of brakes of the vehicle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.