Lead rail vehicle with drone vehicle and method
AssigneeHarsco Technologies LLC
InventorJohn Mustard
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system for performing track maintenance operations is described. The system includes a lead vehicle for identifying sections of rail that have been pre-marked for track maintenance operations. The lead vehicle further includes a control system for receiving and transmitting coordinates of the pre-marked track sections. The system further includes at least one drone vehicle for receiving the coordinates from the control system and the drone vehicle has at least one workhead for performing track maintenance operations on the pre-marked track sections.
Claims18
A system for performing track maintenance operations, comprising:
- a lead vehicle including:
- a user interface configured to receive input from an operator to identify track sections to be worked, and
- a control system configured to electronically mark a track section in response to input received from a user by the user interface and to transmit coordinates of the electronically marked track section;
- and
- one or more drone vehicles, each drone vehicle being configured to receive coordinates from the control system, and each drone vehicle having at least one workhead configured to perform track maintenance operations on a track section at the received coordinates.
A method for performing track maintenance operations, comprising:
- advancing a lead vehicle along the track;
- receiving, by a user interface, input from an operator to identify track sections to be worked;
- determining coordinates of the identified track section;
- and
- wirelessly transmitting the coordinates to one or more drone vehicles following the lead vehicle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.