Method and apparatus for identifying properties of a vehicle, computer program product and computer-readable medium for storing and/or providing the computer program product

An apparatus for determining properties of rail-guided vehicles, the apparatus comprising:

• at least one axle counter for detecting measurement data as the vehicles cross said at least one axle counter;
• a computer configured to analyze the measurement data and ascertain a speed and distances between axles of a vehicle;
• said computer configured to ascertain a property of the vehicle based on the ascertained speed and the ascertained distances between axles;
• and
• said computer configured to:
• use an axle counter to detect measurement data as the rail-guided vehicle crosses the axle counter;
• analyze the measurement data in a computer-assisted manner and ascertain a speed and distances between axles of the vehicle;
• ascertain a property of the rail-guided vehicle in a computer-assisted manner based on the ascertained speed and the ascertained distances between axles;
• carry out a checking step including ascertaining a pattern of normalized distances between axles by calculating a normalized distance between axles by taking a predefined normalized speed assigned to each of the ascertained distances between axles into account, and merging the normalized distances between axles to form the pattern by taking an order of the ascertained distances between axles into account;
• compare the pattern with reference patterns;
• upon identifying a conformity of the pattern with a reference pattern, assign a type linked to the reference pattern to the vehicle as a property;
• and
• use the type assigned to the vehicle to control a train component.