Monitoring system for monitoring the axles of unpowered transport units

A monitoring system for monitoring axles of at least one unpowered transport unit, the monitoring system comprising at least one transport unit monitoring system, each of the at least one transport unit monitoring systems being mounted on each of the at least one monitored transport units or mounted to a frame or support assembly coupled to each of the at least one monitored transport units, each of the monitored transport units, the frame or support assembly being coupled to an axle to be monitored, the transport unit monitoring system comprising:

• a satellite positioning unit including a receiver that is in communication with one or more satellites of a satellite-based positioning system, the receiver being configured to receive signals from said one or more satellites, the satellite positioning unit being configured to make and output a plurality of consecutive position measurements of the transport unit at a corresponding plurality of acquisition times;
• a travelled distance calculator configured to determine from said position measurements output from said satellite positioning unit travelled distance increments of said transport unit during a corresponding acquisition time period;
• and
• a wireless identification sensor which is adapted to detect one or more wireless identification tags comprising an axle identifier adapted to uniquely identify the axle when coupled to this axle and present within a predetermined wireless identification module detection range;
• wherein
• the monitoring system further comprises an axle travelled-distance calculator connected with said at least one transport unit monitoring system and adapted to determine, for each of the axle identifiers detected by at least one of the transport unit monitoring systems, an axle travelled distance increment during a corresponding acquisition time period in function of said transport unit travelled distance increments during this acquisition time period of the at least one transport unit monitoring system that detected this axle identifier during this acquisition time period,
• wherein the monitoring system further comprises an axle count correlator connected with said axle travelled-distance calculator and configured to store for each of the at least one unpowered transport units an axle count corresponding to the predetermined plurality of axles it comprises, and
• wherein the monitoring system further comprises an unidentified axle detector connected with said axle count correlator and configured to detect for each transport unit the presence of one or more unidentified axles when the number of detected axle identifiers by its transport unit monitoring system is lower than its axle count.

A monitoring system for monitoring axles of at least one unpowered transport unit, the monitoring system comprising at least one transport unit monitoring system, each of the at least one transport unit monitoring systems being mounted on each of the at least one monitored transport units or mounted to a frame or support assembly coupled to each of the at least one monitored transport units, each of the monitored transport units, the frame or support assembly being coupled to an axle to be monitored, the transport unit monitoring system comprising:

• a satellite positioning unit including a receiver that is in communication with one or more satellites of a satellite-based positioning system, the receiver being configured to receive signals from said one or more satellites, the satellite positioning unit being configured to make and output a plurality of consecutive position measurements of the transport unit at a corresponding plurality of acquisition times;
• a travelled distance calculator configured to determine from said position measurements output from said satellite positioning unit travelled distance increments of said transport unit during a corresponding acquisition time period;
• and
• a wireless identification sensor which is adapted to detect one or more wireless identification tags comprising an axle identifier adapted to uniquely identify the axle when coupled to this axle and present within a predetermined wireless identification module detection range;
• wherein
• the monitoring system further comprises an axle travelled-distance calculator connected with said at least one transport unit monitoring system and adapted to determine, for each of the axle identifiers detected by at least one of the transport unit monitoring systems, an axle travelled distance increment during a corresponding acquisition time period in function of said transport unit travelled distance increments during this acquisition time period of the at least one transport unit monitoring system that detected this axle identifier during this acquisition time period, and
• wherein the predetermined wireless identification module detection range is larger than the predetermined maximum length of a transport unit and is smaller than three times this maximum length.

A method for monitoring axles of at least one unpowered transport unit using a monitoring system, the monitoring system including at least one transport unit monitoring system, each of the at least one transport unit monitoring systems being mounted on each of the at least one monitored transport units or mounted to a frame or support assembly coupled to each of the at least one monitored transport units, each of the monitored transport units, the frame or support assembly being coupled to an axle to be monitored, the transport unit monitoring system including

• a satellite positioning unit including a receiver that is in communication with one or more satellites of a satellite-based positioning system, the receiver being configured to receive signals from said one or more satellites, the satellite positioning unit being configured to make and output a plurality of consecutive position measurements of the transport unit at a corresponding plurality of acquisition times;
• a travelled distance calculator configured to determine from said position measurements output from said satellite positioning unit travelled distance increments of said transport unit during a corresponding acquisition time period;
• and
• a wireless identification sensor which is adapted to detect one or more wireless identification tags comprising an axle identifier adapted to uniquely identify the axle when coupled to this axle and present within a predetermined wireless identification module detection range;
• wherein the monitoring system further comprises an axle travelled-distance calculator connected with said at least one transport unit monitoring system and adapted to determine, for each of the axle identifiers detected by at least one of the transport unit monitoring systems, an axle travelled distance increment during a corresponding acquisition time period in function of said transport unit travelled distance increments during this acquisition time period of the at least one transport unit monitoring system that detected this axle identifier during this acquisition time period,
• the method comprising, for each of the at least one transport unit monitoring systems of the monitoring system, the steps of:
• making, by the satellite positioning unit, a plurality of consecutive position measurements of the transport unit at a corresponding plurality of acquisition times;
• determining, by the travelled-distance calculator, from said position measurements transport unit travelled-distance increments during a corresponding acquisition time period for determining the total travelled-distance of the transport unit;
• detecting, by the wireless identification sensor, one or more wireless identification tags comprising an axle identifier adapted to uniquely identify an axle when coupled to this axle and present within a predetermined wireless identification module detection range;
• and
• determining, by the axle travelled-distance calculator, for each of the axle identifiers detected by at least one of the transport unit monitoring systems, an axle travelled-distance increment during a corresponding acquisition time period in function of said transport unit travelled distance increments during this acquisition time period of the at least one transport unit monitoring system that detected this axle identifier during this acquisition time period.