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US 8,452,466 B2Granted
Methods and system for detecting railway vacancy
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsJames Kiss, John McElroy, Charles Terra
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for detecting railway vacancy is provided. The method includes sensing, at a remote sensing unit positioned proximate to a railway, a presence of a railcar traversing the railway. The method also includes storing, in real-time, at the remote sensing unit, a sensing event indicative of the sensed presence of the railcar traversing the railway and transmitting, asynchronously from the time at which the presence of the railcar was sensed at the remote sensing unit, the stored sensing event to a master accumulation unit.
Claims33
A method comprising:
- sensing, at a remote sensing unit positioned proximate to a pathway, a presence of one or more vehicles traversing the pathway;
- storing, in real-time, at the remote sensing unit, one or more sensing events indicative of the sensed presence of the one or more vehicles traversing the pathway and one or more time-stamps of times associated with the one or more sensing events, the one or more sensing events and the one or more time-stamps stored when a communication link between the remote sensing unit and a master accumulation unit is interrupted;
- and
- transmitting, asynchronously from the time at which the presence of the one or more vehicles was sensed at the remote sensing unit, a batch of one or more of the sensing events stored at the remote sensing unit and the one or more time-stamps associated with the one or more sensing events to the master accumulation unit when the communication link is opened between the remote sensing unit and the master accumulation unit after the communication link is interrupted.
1 more element
A system comprising:
- a master accumulation unit;
- and
- a remote sensing unit in communication with said master accumulation unit, said remote sensing unit positioned proximate to a pathway, said remote sensing unit configured to:
- sense a presence of one or more vehicles traversing the pathway;
- store, in real-time, at said remote sensing unit, one or more sensing events indicative of a sensed presence of the one or more vehicles traversing the pathway and one or more time-stamps indicative of when the one or more sensing events are sensed, the remote sensing unit configured to store the one or more sensing events and the one or more time-stamps when a communication link between the remote sensing unit and the master accumulation unit is interrupted;
- and
- transmit, asynchronously from the time at which the presence of the one or more vehicles was sensed, a batch of the one or more sensing events that were stored and the one or more time-stamps to said master accumulation unit when the communication link between the remote sensing unit and the master accumulation unit is opened after being interrupted.
4 more elements
A method comprising:
- receiving, at a master accumulation unit asynchronously from a time at which a presence of a vehicle was sensed by a remote sensing unit, a sensing event indicative of the sensed presence of the vehicle traversing a pathway and a time-stamp representative of when the sensing event is sensed, the sensing event sensed by the remote sensing unit during an interruption of a communication link between the remote sensing unit and the master accumulation unit, wherein the sensing event and the time-stamp are received by the master accumulation unit after the communication link is restored;
- and
- rendering a designation as to a vacant or occupied state of the pathway based on the sensing event and the time-stamp.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.