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US 2018/0244292 A1Published application
Collision protection and safety system for rail vehicles
AssigneeHarsco Technologies LLC
InventorShannon L. Bailey
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present disclosure relates to a railway collision protection and safety system having a vehicle device located on rail vehicles at a work zone, a personal protection unit located with rail workers at the work zone, and a dispatcher processor at a control center. An authority limit within the work zone may be determined by the dispatcher processor, and an authority exceeded signal is sent to the rail vehicle when the rail vehicle is determined to exceed the authority limit.
Claims20
A method for providing rail worker safety, comprising:
- receiving, at a dispatcher processor of a control center, a location of a rail vehicle in a work zone;
- comparing the location of the rail vehicle with at least one geographical boundary of the work zone;
- determining if a first distance between the location of the rail vehicle and the at least one geographical boundary is less than a threshold;
- transmitting a first warning signal to the rail vehicle if the first distance is less than a threshold;
- and
- activating a first alarm of a first alarm system when a vehicle device receives the first warning signal.
3 more elements
A railway safety system, comprising:
- a vehicle unit operable to be coupled to a rail vehicle, the vehicle unit including:
- a location determination unit operable to determine a location of the rail vehicle,
- a communications unit operable to transmit the location of the rail vehicle to a dispatcher processor and to receive an alarm signal from the dispatcher processor indicating that a distance between the rail vehicle and a boundary is less than a threshold, and
- an alarm unit operable to generate at least one of an audio or visual alarm in response to the alarm signal, and
1 more element
A method for rail worker safety, comprising
- transmitting location data of a rail vehicle to a dispatcher processor;
- receiving a signal indicating that the rail vehicle has exceeded an authorized limit from the dispatcher processor;
- transmitting, in response to the signal, an alarm to an operator of the rail vehicle;
- and
- storing information in a telematics unit of the rail vehicle that includes a time that the alarm was transmitted to the operator.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.