Automated operation of railroad trains
OwnerEric August HULLEMEYER, Charles Edward TILLEY, JR.inventors
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A new over lay technology for the Positive Train Control and Energy Management systems used by the railroad industry today which allows for automated train handling responses to potential on-track hazards. Various sensors, including image-capture devices, radar, and drones, are placed on or proximate to a train. These sensors are used to interface with or override the Positive Train Control and Energy Management systems where those systems activate specific actions such as slowing or stopping a train but hazardous conditions on the track may dictate an alternative response.
Claims20
A method for autonomously detecting onboard a train a potential hazard condition on a railroad track, the method comprising:
- obtaining a position of the train on the track;
- accessing baseline navigational data for each of a plurality of regions of track in advance of the position of the train, the baseline navigational data for each of the plurality of regions including coordinates defining the region and at least one historical pixel calculus value calculated based on pixel values of historical image data corresponding to the region, the historical pixel calculus values in the baseline navigational data having been calculated prior to a current trip of the train;
- accessing a current image of the plurality of regions of track in advance of the position of the train;
- justifying the current image;
- calculating at least one current pixel calculus value for each of the plurality of regions based on pixel values of the justified current image corresponding to the region;
- performing, for each of the plurality of regions, a comparison of a tolerance value to a difference between the at least one current pixel calculus value and the at least one historical pixel calculus value for the region.
- determining a potential hazard condition based on at least one of the comparisons.
A method for developing baseline navigation data comprising:
- determining that a rail vehicle has traveled a fixed distance along a length of track;
- in response to the determination, capturing an image from a camera mounted to a rail vehicle and determining an unobstructed distance ahead of the rail vehicle using a reflective technology sensor;
- detecting an unobstructed distance in the absence of any hazardous condition using reflective technology at each location corresponding to an image;
- defining, for each image, a coordinates for a plurality of regions of track in advance of the position of the rail vehicle;
- calculating, for each region in the image, a pixel calculus value;
- calculating, for at least one justification window in the image, a pixel calculus value;
- identifying at least one pixel for at least one rail in the image;
- storing, for each image, a record comprising the pixel calculus value for each of the plurality of regions in the image, the coordinates of each of the regions in the image, the pixel calculus value for the at least one justification window in the image, alignment data comprising coordinates for the at least one pixel of the at least one rail, and the unobstructed distance corresponding to the location of the image.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.