US 11,904,916 B2 · System and method for short vehicle detection

Abstract

A system and a method automatically detect whether a vehicle entering a track section of a railway network is shorter than a predefined length. The method includes detecting at a time T0 an entry of the vehicle on a first track subsection. From the time T0, the occupancy states of at least a first subsection and a third subsection are determined in dependence on the time. The occupancy state is either “occupied” or “free”. The occupancy states for at least first and third subsections is reported to an evaluation unit at least until the occupancy state of the first subsection is “free”. The reported occupancy states determined for the at least first and third subsections are processed by the evaluation unit, and from a temporal evolution of the occupancy states of the first and third subsections, it is determined whether the entering vehicle is shorter than the predefined length.

Claims15

Dependent claims

A method for automatically detecting whether a vehicle entering a track section of a railway network is shorter than a predefined length L, the track section having subsections including a first subsection, a second subsection consecutive to the first subsection, and a third subsection consecutive to the second subsection, wherein a length of the second subsection is equal to the predefined length L, the method comprises the following steps of:

detecting at a time T0 an entry of the vehicle on the first subsection;
determining, from the time T0, as a function of time, occupancy states of at least the first subsection and the third subsection, wherein an occupancy state is either “occupied” or “free”;
reporting to an evaluation unit the occupancy states as a function of time;
processing by the evaluation unit the occupancy states as a function of time determined for the at least first and third subsections, and determining, from a temporal evolution of the occupancy states of the first and third subsections, whether the vehicle is shorter than the predefined length L;
and
if the vehicle is shorter than the predefined length L, then automatically notifying a control system in charge of a control of vehicle traffic on the railway network about the entry on the first track section of the vehicle which is shorter than the predefined length L.

3 more elements

A system for automatically detecting whether a vehicle entering a track section of a railway network and moving from a first subsection in direction to a third subsection is shorter than a predefined length L, the system comprising:

an evaluation unit;
a detector system configured for determining an occupancy state by the vehicle of the first subsection and of the third subsection of the track section, wherein the occupancy state is either “occupied” or “free”, said detector system further configured for detecting at a time T0 an entry of the vehicle on the first subsection and for reporting to said evaluation unit, from said time T0, the occupancy state of the first subsection and of the third subsection as a function of time, the first subsection being separated from the third subsection by a second subsection whose length is the predefined length L;
and
said evaluation unit configured for receiving from said detector system the occupancy states as a function of the time and for determining from a temporal evolution of the occupancy states of the first and third subsections, whether the vehicle entering is shorter than the predefined length L, and if the vehicle has been determined to be shorter than the predefined length L, then said evaluation unit is configured to automatically notifying a control system in charge of controlling vehicle traffic on the railway network that the vehicle whose entry on the first subsection has been detected is a short vehicle.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

System and method for short vehicle detection

Life of this patent

System and method for short vehicle detection

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims15