# US 11,999,397 B2 · System and method for railroad directive management > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 11,999,397 B2 - Document ID: US11999397B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 17/819,475 - Filed: 2022-08-12 - Published: 2023-03-16 - Granted: 2024-06-04 - Earliest claimed: 2021-09-13 - Assignees: BNSF Railway Company - Applicants: BNSF Railway Company - Inventors: Christopher Neil Pickard; Kyle Keilty Williams; Gregory Harrison; James Helm - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11999397B2 ## CPC - B61L 27/16: Trackside optimisation of vehicle or train operation - B61L 23/045: {Rail wear} - B61L 23/048: {Road bed changes, e.g. road bed erosion} - B61L 25/06: Indicating or recording the setting of track apparatus, e.g. of points, of signals - B61L 27/20: Trackside control of safe travel of vehicle or train, e.g. braking curve calculation - B61L 27/53: for trackside elements or systems, e.g. trackside supervision of trackside control system conditions - B61L 25/021: {Measuring and recording of train speed} - B61L: GUIDING RAILWAY TRAFFIC; ENSURING THE SAFETY OF RAILWAY TRAFFIC (brakes or auxiliary equipment B61H, B61K; point or crossing construction E01B) ## Abstract A system for railroad directive management is presented. The system can receive a myriad of data related to a directive, track segments, and/or vehicle events on the track and/or track segments. Vehicle- and/or event-specific data can be compared with one or more thresholds, including force thresholds, temporal thresholds, environmental thresholds, and/or event thresholds to determine whether and what kind of directive modification should be instantiated. Specialized algorithms can be implemented to trace vehicle paths along the track to determine whether directive-related segments are traversed, and specialized clustering algorithms can be utilized to cluster data unique to a particular segment on a per-segment basis. The system can be integrated with existing track infrastructure and can further generate alerts to notify coupled systems and/or personnel of directives and/or modification thereof. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A system for modifying railroad directives, comprising: a memory having a database with a plurality of data, thresholds, and specifications related to railroad tracks and at least one asset; and a processor operably coupled to the memory and capable of executing machine-readable instructions to perform program steps, the program steps including: receiving directive data and track data related to a track; identifying, via the processor, a plurality of track segments associated with the track data; associating the directive data with at least a first track segment of the plurality of track segments, wherein the directive data includes a restriction imposed on the at least a first track segment; identifying, via the processor, an asset disposed on the track; receiving asset data and positional data points related to the asset; receiving environmental data related to the track; determining event criteria related to one or more event types; determining, via the processor, a path of the asset along one or more track segments of a railroad track using the positional data points; determining if the path or at least one of the positional data points traverses the at least a first segment associated with the directive data; determining whether the environmental data satisfies a first environmental threshold; determining whether an event threshold is satisfied indicating that an event count associated with the one or more event types exceeds a threshold count; and instantiating a directive modification in response to one or more of determining whether the environmental data satisfies the first environmental threshold and determining whether the event threshold is satisfied, wherein instantiating the directive modification includes modifying the restriction imposed on the at least a first track segment based on one or more of: whether the environmental data satisfies the first environmental threshold and whether the event threshold is satisfied, wherein the directive modification is configured to maximize asset throughput on the at least a first track segment. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein the program steps further include associating the directive data with a second track segment of the plurality of track segments. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The system of claim 2, wherein the environmental data includes a rail temperature or an ambient temperature that can affect rail temperature. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein if the environmental data indicates a particular temperature, the environmental threshold can be a particular temperature such that if the environmental data meets or exceeds a particular temperature, the environmental threshold can be satisfied. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein the program steps further include comparing an event count with the event threshold to determine whether the event threshold is satisfied. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein the directive data includes a slow order. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein the directive data includes a compaction slow order. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein the directive modification includes at least one of modifying a maximum speed of a slow order, terminating the directive, modifying the directive to include additional instructions, modifying the directive to remove instructions, and modifying the directive to require maintenance. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein the program steps further include determining whether the environmental data satisfies a second environmental threshold. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein the program steps further include generating, via the processor, an alert and transmit the alert to a railroad system. ### Claim 11 A method of modifying railroad directives, comprising: receiving, via an encrypted network, directive data and track data related to a track; identifying, via the processor, a plurality of track segments associated with the track data; associating the directive data with at least a first track segment of the plurality of track segments, wherein the directive data includes a restriction imposed on the at least a first track segment; identifying, via the processor, an asset disposed on the track; receiving asset data and positional data points related to the asset; receiving environmental data related to the track; determining event criteria related to one or more event types; determining, via the processor, a path of the asset along one or more track segments of a railroad track using the positional data points; determining if the path or at least one of the positional data points traverses the at least a first segment associated with the directive data; determining whether the environmental data satisfies a first environmental threshold; determining whether an event threshold is satisfied indicating that an event count associated with the one or more event types exceeds a threshold count; and instantiating, via the processor, a directive modification in response to one or more of determining whether the environmental data satisfies the first environmental threshold and determining whether the event threshold is satisfied, wherein instantiating the directive modification includes modifying the restriction imposed on the at least a first track segment based on one or more of: whether the environmental data satisfies the first environmental threshold and whether the event threshold is satisfied, wherein the directive modification is configured to maximize asset throughput on the at least a first track segment. ### Claim 12 (depends on 11) The method of claim 11, wherein the program steps further include associating the directive data with a second track segment of the plurality of track segments. ### Claim 13 (depends on 12) The method of claim 12, wherein the environmental data includes a rail temperature or an ambient temperature that can affect rail temperature. ### Claim 14 (depends on 11) The method of claim 11, wherein if the environmental data indicates a particular temperature, the environmental threshold can be a particular temperature such that if the environmental data meets or exceeds a particular temperature, the environmental threshold can be satisfied. ### Claim 15 (depends on 11) The method of claim 11, wherein the program steps further include comparing an event count with the event threshold to determine whether the event threshold is satisfied. ### Claim 16 (depends on 11) The method of claim 11, wherein the directive data includes a slow order. ### Claim 17 (depends on 11) The method of claim 11, wherein the directive data includes a compaction slow order. ### Claim 18 (depends on 11) The method of claim 11, wherein the directive modification includes at least one of modifying a maximum speed of a slow order, terminating the directive, modifying the directive to include additional instructions, modifying the directive to remove instructions, and modifying the directive to require maintenance. ### Claim 19 (depends on 11) The method of claim 11, wherein the program steps further include determining whether the environmental data satisfies a second environmental threshold. ### Claim 20 (depends on 11) The method of claim 11, wherein the program steps further include generating, via the processor, an alert and transmit the alert to a railroad system.