Ballast delivery and computation system and method

A method, performed by a computer having a processor and system memory, for calibrating a tie height of a ballast profiling rail vehicle having a remote sensing system, the method comprising:

• traversing the rail vehicle along a first calibration section of railroad track at a calibration speed;
• detecting, using the remote sensing system, a plurality of height to tie measurements in the first calibration section, the height to tie measurements representing a distance from the remote sensing system to a top surface of a railroad tie there beneath;
• establishing a rolling median average of the height to tie measurements,
• determining a calibration tie height relative to the rail vehicle based upon the rolling median average;
• traversing the rail vehicle along a first existing section of railroad track at a scanning speed to produce a set of data points representing an existing surface of the first existing section of the railroad track;
• continuously adjusting the scan set of data points representing the existing surface based upon the determined calibration tie height;
• and
• calculating a missing ballast volume of the first existing section of railroad track based upon the adjusted scan set of data points.

A method, performed by a computer having a processor and system memory, for calculating a missing ballast volume on a section of railroad track, comprising:

• scanning a calibration section of railroad track using a LIDAR system upon a rail vehicle, and determining a calibration tie height relative to the rail vehicle, the calibration tie height representing a distance from the LIDAR system to a top surface of a railroad tie there beneath;
• scanning an existing section of railroad track using the LIDAR system to produce a set of data points representing an existing surface of the existing section of the railroad track;
• obtaining an incremental cross-sectional area by multiplying a coordinate for each data point that lies below a full volume level by a magnitude below the full volume level and a weighted factor associated with the volume, wherein the weighted factor is a point weighting factor or a variable weighting factor;
• and
• using the scan set of data points and the calibration tie height to distinguish tie surfaces and ballast surfaces to register an ideal surface with reference to the existing surface, and determining a total missing ballast volume for the calibration section and the existing section using the incremental cross-sectional area and an incremental distance between scan locations.