US 9,284,692 B2 · Switch monitoring and railway line management

Abstract

The present invention relates to a switch monitoring method and a switch monitoring system, a railway line management method and a railway line management system. Electric signal of a switch motor during pulling of the switch can effectively reflect status of the switch, when the switch is in a stable state, electric signal of its motor is very steady during pulling of the switch; however, when the switch is in an unstable state, there will be different degrees of fluctuation in electric signal of its motor during pulling of the switch. Thus, the invention may be used to identify state of a switch by monitoring electric signal of a switch motor, and further take different measures based on different states of the switch. With these measures, accidents due to switch failure may be effectively reduced, and train delay time may also be reduced through proper line management.

Claims24

Dependent claims

A switch monitoring system, comprising:

a monitoring means configured to monitor an electric signal of a switch motor;
an acquiring means configured to acquire a switch state identification threshold;
and
an identifying means configured to identify a state of the switch based on the electric signal and the switch state identification threshold, wherein the identifying means further comprises:
a second determining means configured to determine an average value of the monitored electric signal of the switch motor as a current average value;
a third determining means configured to determine a variance between a value of the monitored electric signal of the switch motor and the current average value as a first variance;
a fourth determining means configured to determine a variance between a value of the monitored electric signal of the switch motor and an average value of the electric signal of the same type of switch motor in a stable operating state as a second variance;
a fifth determining means configured to determine a fluctuation degree of the electric signal of the switch motor based on the first variance and the second variance;
and
a first comparing means configured to compare the fluctuation degree of the electric signal of the switch motor and the switch state identification threshold to identify the state of the switch.

7 more elements

A switch monitoring system, comprising:

a monitoring means configured to monitor an electric signal of a switch motor;
an acquiring means configured to acquire a switch state identification threshold;
and
an identifying means configured to identify a state of the switch based on the electric signal and the switch state identification threshold, wherein the identifying means further comprises:
a sixth determining means configured to determine a kernel density function of the electric signal of the same type of switch motor in a stable operating state as a first kernel density function P;
a seventh determining means configured to determine a kernel density function of the electric signal of the switch motor as a second kernel density function Q;
an eighth determining means configured to determine a distance that the second kernel density function Q deviates from the first kernel density function P;
and
a second comparing means configured to compare the distance and the switch state identification threshold to identify the state of the switch.

6 more elements

A computer readable non-transitory article of manufacture tangibly embodying computer readable instructions which, when executed, cause a computer to carry out the steps of a method comprising:

monitoring an electric signal for a switch motor;
acquiring a switch state identification threshold;
and
identifying a state of the switch based on the electric signal and the switch state identification threshold, wherein identifying the state of the switch based on the electric signal and the switch state identification threshold further comprises:
determining an average value of the monitored electric signal of the switch motor as a current average value;
determining a variance between a value of the monitored electric signal of the switch motor and the current average value as a first variance;
determining a variance between a value of the monitored electric signal of the switch motor and an average value of the electric signal of same type of switch motor in a stable operating state as a second variance;
determining a fluctuation degree of the electric signal of the switch motor based on the first variance and the second variance;
and
comparing the fluctuation degree of the electric signal of the switch motor and the switch state identification threshold to identify the state of the switch.