System for controlling or monitoring a vehicle system along a route

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10137912-B2
Application number	US-201715439424-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 22, 2017
Priority date	Oct 31, 2016
Publication date	Nov 27, 2018
Grant date	Nov 27, 2018

Abstract

System having one or more processors that are configured to (a) generate, as a vehicle system moves along a route, a plurality of different trial plans for an upcoming segment of the route. The trial plans include potential operational settings of the vehicle system along the route. The one or more processors that are configured to (b) select one of the trial plans as a selected plan or generate the selected plan based on one or more of the trial plans. The selected plan is configured to improve one or more system-handling metrics as the vehicle system moves along the upcoming segment of the route. The one or more processors are configured to (c) communicate instructions to change or not change at least one of the operational settings of the vehicle system based on the selected plan.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a control system used to control operation of a vehicle system, the vehicle system including a plurality of system vehicles in which adjacent system vehicles are operatively coupled such that the adjacent system vehicles are permitted to move relative to one another, the vehicle system exhibiting system-handling metrics as the vehicle system moves along the route, the control system including one or more processors that are configured to:
(a) generate, as the vehicle system moves along the route, a plurality of different trial plans for an upcoming segment of the route, the trial plans including potential operational settings of the vehicle system along the route;
(b) select one of the trial plans as a selected plan or generate the selected plan based on one or more of the trial plans, the selected plan configured to improve one or more system-handling metrics as the vehicle system moves along the upcoming segment of the route; and
(c) communicate instructions to change at least one of the operational settings of the vehicle system based on the selected plan or decide to not change any operational settings;

wherein the adjacent system vehicles are physically connected by couplers; and
wherein the selected plan is configured to reduce along the upcoming segment, compared to the current trip plan, a risk of damage to the couplers that is caused by rope forces or dynamic forces being excessive.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are also configured to: (d) repeat (a) through (c) a plurality of times along the route.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein (a)-(d) constitute a model predictive control (MPC) process.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of different trial plans are iteratively or recursively generated such that performance of the vehicle system converges upon a desired outcome that is based upon an objective function, the selected plan being based on at least one of the trial plans.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the plurality of different trial plans are iteratively or recursively generated until a condition is satisfied.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of different trial plans specify operational settings from a first position to a second position, the selected plan better improving, compared to at least one other trial plan, the one or more system-handling metrics.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the selected plan is not any of the trial plans but is a function of at least one of the trial plans.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the operational settings provide at least one of tractive efforts and braking efforts.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle system is configured to be controlled in accordance with a current trip plan that dictates operational settings that provide at least one of tractive efforts and braking efforts of the vehicle system along the route.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the system-handling metrics include or are directly related to at least one of: (a) relative acceleration between the system vehicles or groups of the system vehicles along the upcoming segment; (b) relative speed between the system vehicles or groups of the system vehicles along, the upcoming segment; (c) relative momentum between the system vehicles or groups of the system vehicles along the upcoming segment; (d) relative displacement between the system vehicles or groups of the system vehicles along the upcoming segment; (e) difference between relative displacement and steady state displacement between the system vehicles or groups of the system vehicles; (f) difference between estimated dynamic force and steady state force between the system vehicles or groups of the system vehicles; (g) a time derivative of forces between the system vehicles or groups of the system vehicles; (h) a product between forces and time derivative of force between the system vehicles or groups of the system vehicles; (i) compression or expansion forces between the system vehicles; (j) rope forces between the system vehicles; (k) a function of the coupler forces and/or the rope forces; (l) or a function that includes some or all of the above.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the system vehicles form a plurality of groups, the groups including a series of coupled system vehicles, wherein the forces and/or relative speeds between the adjacent system vehicles in a common group are assumed to be sufficiently close when generating the trial plans.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein each of the trial plans is based on predicted forces over time, vehicle system data, and route data.

13. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are also configured to obtain a reference metric of the vehicle system as the vehicle system moves along the route, the trial plans generated by the one or more processors being based on the reference metric.

14. The system of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle system is a train and the system vehicles include at least one locomotive configured to provide tractive efforts and a plurality of rail vehicles.

15. A method comprising:
(a) generating a plurality of different trial plans for an upcoming segment of a route, the trial plans including potential operational settings of a vehicle system along the route, the vehicle system including a plurality of system vehicles in which adjacent system vehicles are operatively coupled permitting the adjacent system vehicles to move relative to one another, the vehicle system exhibiting system-handling metrics as the vehicle system moves along the route;
(b) selecting one of the trial plans as a selected plan or generating the selected plan based on one or more of the trial plans, the selected plan configured to improve one or more system-handling metrics as the vehicle system moves along the upcoming segment of the route;
(c) communicating instructions to change at least one of the operational settings of the vehicle system based on the selected plan or decide to not change any operational settings;
wherein the adjacent system vehicles are physically connected by couplers; and
wherein the selected plan is configured to reduce along the upcoming segment, compared to the current trip plan, a risk of damage to the couplers that is caused by rope forces or dynamic forces being excessive.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising: (d) repeating (a) through (c) a plurality of times as the vehicle system moves along the route.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein (a)-(d) constitute a model predictive control (MPC) process and are performed by an off-board control system, wherein (c) includes communicating the instructions to the vehicle system from the off-board control system.

18. The method of claim 15 , wherein the plurality of different trial plans are iteratively or recursively generated such that performance of the vehicle system converges upon a desired outcome that is based upon an objective function, the selected plan being based on at least one of the trial plans.

19. A tangible and non-transitory computer readable medium configured to control operation of a vehicle system, the vehicle system including a plurality of system vehicles in which adjacent system vehicles are operatively coupled permitting the adjacent system vehicles to move relative to one another, the vehicle system exhibiting system-handling metrics as the vehicle system moves along the route, the computer readable medium comprising one or more programmed instructions configured to direc

Assignees

• Gen Electric

Inventors

• De Albuquerque Gleizer Gabriel
• Gonzaga Carlos
• Vargas Lucas
• Menon Anup
• Dai Dan
• Matthews Jr Harry Kirk

Classifications

• B61L2201/00

  Control methods · CPC title

• B61L15/0072

  On-board train data handling · CPC title

• B61L15/0027

  Radio-based, e.g. using GSM-R · CPC title

• B61L3/02

  at selected places along the route, e.g. intermittent control {simultaneous mechanical and electrical control} · CPC title

• B61L27/0038

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic