Device and method for detecting an obstruction of a railroad crossing gate
AssigneeSiemens Mobility GmbH
InventorsPaul Young, Nathan Fletcher
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A crossing gate mechanism includes an electric motor with one or more sensor(s), a crossing gate arm operated via the electric motor, and a controller configured to control the electric motor to raise or lower the crossing gate arm in response to a gate control signal. The controller is further configured to sense a motion of the crossing gate arm and detect an obstruction that prevents the crossing gate arm to execute the motion. Further, an associated method and non-transitory computer readable medium are described.
Claims15
A crossing gate mechanism comprising:
- an electric motor with at least one sensing device,
- a crossing gate arm operated via the electric motor,
- a controller configured to control the electric motor to raise or lower the crossing gate arm in response to a gate control signal,
- wherein the controller is further configured to
- sense a motion of the crossing gate arm,
- detect an obstruction that prevents the crossing gate arm to execute the motion, and
- wherein the electric motor is an electric brushless direct current (BLDC) motor.
A crossing gate mechanism comprising:
- an electric motor with at least one sensing device,
- a crossing gate arm operated via the electric motor,
- a controller configured to control the electric motor to raise or lower the crossing gate arm in response to a gate control signal,
- wherein the controller is further configured to
- sense a motion of the crossing gate arm,
- detect an obstruction that prevents the crossing gate arm to execute the motion, and
- wherein the at least one sensing device comprises one or more Hall effect sensor(s).
A crossing gate mechanism comprising:
- an electric motor with at least one sensing device,
- a crossing gate arm operated via the electric motor,
- a controller configured to control the electric motor to raise or lower the crossing gate arm in response to a gate control signal,
- wherein the controller is further configured to
- sense a motion of the crossing gate arm,
- detect an obstruction that prevents the crossing gate arm to execute the motion, and
- wherein the controller is implemented as a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), in a real-time central processing unit (CPU), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a complex programmable logic device (CPLD) or a system-on-chip (SoC).
A method for detecting an obstruction of a railroad crossing gate, the method comprising:
- initiating a defined motion of a crossing gate arm of a railroad crossing gate, the crossing gate arm being operated via an electric motor,
- sensing the defined motion of the crossing gate arm, and
- detecting an obstruction of the crossing gate arm when the crossing gate arm fails to execute the defined motion, and further comprising
- receiving sensor information from at least one sensing device of the electric motor, wherein the at least one sensing device comprises one or more Hall effect sensor(s).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.