Remote initialization system for a vehicle system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11953338-B2
Application number	US-202117458841-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 27, 2021
Priority date	Sep 11, 2020
Publication date	Apr 9, 2024
Grant date	Apr 9, 2024

Abstract

A remote initialization system and method for a vehicle system receive trip data for an upcoming trip at an off-board device. Using the off-board device, the trip data is communicated to the different back-office systems, and one or more of mandatory directives or software configuration requirements are received at the off-board device from the different back-office systems. An initialization data set that includes at least some of the trip data and at least some of the one or more of the mandatory directives or the software configuration requirements is communicated from the off-board device to an onboard controller of the vehicle system. The initialization data set is configured to be used by the onboard controller to control movement of the vehicle system in the different sets of the routes.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving trip data for an upcoming trip of a vehicle system at an off-board device, the trip data including information related to travel of the vehicle system within different sets of routes where the travel of the vehicle system within each of the different sets of the routes is restricted or controlled by a different back-office system;
communicating, using the off-board device, at least the trip data to the different back-office systems;
receiving one or both of mandatory directives and software configuration requirements at the off-board device from the different back-office systems responsive to communicating the trip data to the different back-office systems; and
communicating an initialization data set that includes at least some of the trip data and at least some of the one or both of the mandatory directives and the software configuration requirements from the off-board device to an onboard controller of the vehicle system, the initialization data set being configured to be used by the onboard controller to control movement of the vehicle system in the different sets of the routes.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the trip data that is received includes a unique identifier of the vehicle system for each of the different back-office systems.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein one or more mandatory directives are received from the different back-office systems, and the one or more mandatory directives received from the different back-office systems include one or more segments of the routes having at least one of a reduced speed limit, a maintenance crew working on the one or more segments of the routes, another vehicle system present on the one or more segments of the routes, or a prohibition on the vehicle system entering into the one or more segments of the routes.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein one or more software configuration requirements are received from the different back-office systems, and the software configuration requirements received from the different back-office systems include one or more different software versions or different configuration file versions required for communication by the vehicle control system with the different back-office systems.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein one or more of the software configuration requirements are received at the off-board device from the different back-office systems, and further comprising:
determining whether a software configuration of software used by the onboard controller to control the movement of the vehicle system according to one or more of the mandatory directives conflicts with the one or more software configuration requirements that were received; and
one or more of (a) generating an operator notification of a conflict between the software configuration of the software used by the onboard controller and the one or more software configuration requirements or (b) changing the software configuration of the software used by the onboard controller to match the one or more software configuration requirements.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein one or more of the mandatory directives are received at the off-board device from the different back-office systems, and further comprising:
receiving one or more of an operator acknowledgement or an operator acceptance of each of the one or more mandatory directives at the off-board device; and
communicating an acceptance signal to one or more of the back-office systems that issued the one or more mandatory directives responsive to receiving the one or more of the operator acknowledgement or the operator acceptance.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the initialization data set is a single data file or single file container.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the initialization data set includes a unique identifier required by the onboard controller to be provided by an operator to initialize the onboard controller prior to departure for the upcoming trip.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
presenting, by the onboard controller onboard the vehicle system, contents of the initialization data set for approval by an operator;
receiving one or more modifications to the contents of the initialization data set; and
modifying the contents of the initialization data set prior to departure of the vehicle system for the upcoming trip.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
communicating, with the onboard controller, a polling signal to one or more of the back-office systems, the polling signal requesting an identification of the mandatory directives that should be included in the initialization data set;
receiving, with the onboard controller responsive to communicating the polling signal, a discrepancy between the identification of the mandatory directives that should be included in the initialization data set and the mandatory directives that are included in the initialization data set; and
receiving an operator acceptance of the discrepancy at the onboard controller prior to departure of the vehicle system for the upcoming trip.

11. A system comprising:
an off-board computer device configured to receive trip data for an upcoming trip of a vehicle system while the off-board computer device is off-board the vehicle system, the trip data including information related to travel of the vehicle system within different sets of routes where the travel of the vehicle system within each of the different sets of the routes is restricted or controlled by a different back-office system, the off-board computer device configured to directly communicate the trip data to the different back-office systems and to receive one or more of mandatory directives or software configuration requirements from the different back-office systems responsive to communicating the trip data to the different back-office systems,
the off-board computer device configured to communicate an initialization data set that includes at least some of the trip data and at least some of the one or more of the mandatory directives or the software configuration requirements to an onboard controller of the vehicle system, the initialization data set configured to be used by the onboard controller to control movement of the vehicle system in the different sets of the routes.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the trip data that is received includes a unique identifier of the vehicle system for each of the different back-office systems.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the off-board computer device is configured to receive one or more mandatory directives from the different back-office systems that include one or more segments of the routes having at least one of a reduced speed limit, a maintenance crew working on the one or more segments of the routes, another vehicle system present on the one or more segments of the routes, or a prohibition on the vehicle system entering into the one or more segments of the routes.

14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the off-board computer device is configured to receive one or more software configuration requirements that include one or more different software versions or different configuration file versions required for communication by the vehicle control system with the different back-office systems.

15. The system of claim 11 , wherein the off-board computer device is configured to receive one or more mandatory directives and one or more software requirement configurations, and the off-board computer device is configured to determine whether a software configuration of software used by the onboard controller to control the moveme

Assignees

• Westinghouse Air Brake Tech Corp

Inventors

• Tripathy Janmejay
• Kernwein Jeffrey D
• Grimm Ann K
• Burgart Phillip A

Classifications

• G01C21/362 Primary

  received from an external device or application, e.g. PDA, mobile phone or calendar application · CPC title

• G01C21/3461

  Preferred or disfavoured areas, e.g. dangerous zones, toll or emission zones, intersections, manoeuvre types or segments such as motorways, toll roads or ferries · CPC title

• G01C21/3664

  Details of the user input interface, e.g. buttons, knobs or sliders, including those provided on a touch screen; remote controllers; input using gestures · CPC title

• G01C21/3691

  Retrieval, searching and output of information related to real-time traffic, weather, or environmental conditions (arrangements for giving variable traffic instructions G08G1/09) · CPC title

• G07C5/008

  communicating information to a remotely located station (transmission systems for measured values G08C) · CPC title