# US 11,897,525 B2 · System and method for railroad personnel safety assurance

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- Number: US 11,897,525 B2
- Document ID: US11897525B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 17/813,811
- Filed: 2022-07-20
- Published: 2023-02-16
- Granted: 2024-02-13
- Earliest claimed: 2021-08-16
- Assignees: BNSF Railway Company
- Applicants: BNSF Railway Company
- Inventors: Eric Peter Olsen; Shanmugasundaram Rajasubramanian; Nithin Paul Mathew; Marutha Pandian Jagadesan; Michael Howard; David Himmelstein; Aamir Ahmad Halim; Wayne Morgan; Amit Kumar Dash; Jacob Bunkley; Dickson Waudo; William Stewart; Raven Wylie
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11897525B2

## CPC

- B61L 23/06: for warning men working on the route
- B61L 23/34: for indicating the distance between vehicles or trains by the transmission of signals therebetween
- B61L 15/0072: {On-board train data handling}
- B61L 25/021: {Measuring and recording of train speed}
- B61L 25/025: {Absolute localisation, e.g. providing geodetic coordinates}
- H04W 4/021: Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
- B61L 2205/04: Satellite based navigation systems, e.g. global positioning system [GPS]
- H04W 4/027: {using movement velocity, acceleration information}
- H04W 4/42: for mass transport vehicles, e.g. buses, trains or aircraft
- B61L: GUIDING RAILWAY TRAFFIC; ENSURING THE SAFETY OF RAILWAY TRAFFIC (brakes or auxiliary equipment B61H, B61K; point or crossing construction E01B)
- H04W: WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS (broadcast communication H04H; communication systems using wireless links for non-selective communication, e.g. wireless extensions H04M1/72)

## Abstract

A system for enhancing personnel safety on a railroad track is presented. The system can receive data from sensors and/or a PTC system to determine positions of clients/worker and/or vehicles, and further utilize such data to determine if a vehicle is within a certain proximity of the client/worker location. The system can further generate geofences around clients/vehicles to and determine when such geofences intersect one another. Additionally, the present disclosure can assign severity levels and generate alerts with the assigned severity levels, and such severity levels can indicate how close a vehicle is to a particular location. It is an object of the invention to provide a system for generating alerts to notify personnel when they much retreat to a place of safety.

## Claims

### Claim 1

An establishment system configured to generate a safety plan having one or more indications and identify locations of one or more clients or geofences around one or more clients, comprising:
a memory having a first database with data, thresholds, and specifications related to work, devices, vehicles, or train tracks; and
a computer processor operably coupled to the memory, wherein the processor is capable of executing machine-readable instructions to instantiate one or more program modules, the program modules including:
a safety plan generation module configured to receive work data, including a location proximate a railroad track where work is to be performed, and generate a safety plan having one or more indications;
a positioning module configured to determine positions of one or more railroad constituents; and
a geofencing module configured to generate a geofence using the positions of the one or more railroad constituents, wherein the geofence is generated by the geofencing module to have a size based on a type of the railroad constituents.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the safety plan includes a worker name, a date, a work location, a sighting distance, a speed indication, and a method of warning a worker of an oncoming train.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the work data includes division data related to a particular division, such as topography, track curvature, grade, climate, weather, temperature, environmental data, tie composition, rail type, ballast type, or ballast age.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the establishment system transmits the safety plan to a railroad system.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the safety plan generation module includes a set of predetermined alerts or notifications associated with the safety plan.

### Claim 6 (depends on 5)

The system of claim 5, wherein the safety plan generation module includes an indication that an alert should be generated and transmitted when proximity thresholds are satisfied.

### Claim 7 (depends on 5)

The system of claim 5, wherein the safety plan generation module includes an indication that an alert should be generated and transmitted when certain geofence intersections occur.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The system of claim 7, wherein the indications can be transmitted to a collision avoidance system that uses the indications to generate or transmit alerts with a severity level.

### Claim 9 (depends on 7)

The system of claim 7, wherein the severity level is based on the distance from the location.

### Claim 10 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the positioning module associates the position data with received track data to determine a position relative to a railroad track.

### Claim 11 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the geofencing module establishes proximity thresholds around a location.

### Claim 12 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the geofencing module can be configured to generate geofences of predetermined sizes depending on the railroad constituent associated with the geofence.

### Claim 13

A coordination system configured to forecast a client or vehicle position, detect a proximity of one railroad constituent to another, and detect an interference between railroad constituents, comprising:
a memory having a first database with data, thresholds, and specifications related to work, devices, vehicles, and train tracks; and
a computer processor operably coupled to the memory, wherein the processor is capable of executing machine-readable instructions to instantiate one or more program modules, the program modules including:
a forecasting module configured to use position data to forecast a position of a vehicle on a railroad track;
a proximity detection module configured to determine when one or more railroad constituents are within a particular proximity of one another; and
an interference detection module configured to detect when a first geofence intersects with a second geofence, wherein sizes of the first and second geofences are generated based on a type of the railroad constituents.

### Claim 14 (depends on 13)

The system of claim 13, wherein the forecasting module receives position data and track data to forecast where a vehicle can be at a particular time.

### Claim 15 (depends on 13)

The system of claim 13, wherein the forecasting module uses speed limits, closures, train schedules, maintenance projects, maintenance schedules, to forecast future railroad constituent positions or locations.

### Claim 16 (depends on 13)

The system of claim 13, wherein the proximity detection module is configured to determine a track distance between railroad constituents.

### Claim 17 (depends on 16)

The system of claim 16, wherein the track distance is used to determine whether a proximity threshold is satisfied.

### Claim 18 (depends on 17)

The system of claim 17, wherein the proximity threshold is satisfied when the track distance falls below a particular proximity threshold distance.

### Claim 19 (depends on 13)

The system of claim 13, wherein the interference detection module uses sensor data to detect interference or potential interference between railroad constituents or proximity threshold satisfaction.

### Claim 20 (depends on 19)

The system of claim 19, wherein the sensors include strain gauges, speedometers, GPS receivers, cameras, LiDAR, RADAR, or radios.

### Claim 21

A collision avoidance system configured to generate and deliver collision alerts with one or more severity levels to railroad constituents, comprising:
a memory having a first database with data, thresholds, and specifications related to work, devices, vehicles, and train tracks; and
a computer processor operably coupled to the memory, wherein the processor is capable of executing machine-readable instructions to instantiate one or more program modules, the program modules including:
an alert generation module configured to generate an alert with an assigned severity level when a first geofence intersects with a second geofence, wherein sizes of the first and second geofences are based on a type of the railroad constituents; and
an alert delivery module.

### Claim 22 (depends on 21)

The system of claim 21, wherein the alert generation module determines proximity thresholds for different alert severity levels.

### Claim 23 (depends on 22)

The system of claim 22, wherein when the proximity detection module detects satisfaction of a first proximity threshold, the alert indicates a first severity level.

### Claim 24 (depends on 23)

The system of claim 23, wherein when the proximity detection module detects satisfaction of a second proximity threshold, the alert indicates a second severity level.

### Claim 25 (depends on 21)

The system of claim 21, wherein the severity level indicates what action is recommended to address the alert.

### Claim 26 (depends on 25)

The system of claim 25, wherein a first severity level indicates that a vehicle should be stopped immediately.

### Claim 27 (depends on 25)

The system of claim 25, wherein a second severity level indicates that a vehicle is within a distance from a maintenance location such that it does not have enough time to stop before reaching the maintenance location.

### Claim 28 (depends on 21)

The system of claim 21, wherein the severity level indicates how close one railroad constituent is to another.