Monitoring system for a plurality of homogeneous devices of at least two convoys, in particular two railway convoys

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12434750-B2
Application number	US-202218263877-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 2, 2022
Priority date	Feb 2, 2021
Publication date	Oct 7, 2025
Grant date	Oct 7, 2025

Abstract

A monitoring system for at least one plurality of homogeneous devices is described, wherein a first portion of the homogeneous devices is arranged to be installed in a first convoy and a second portion of the homogeneous devices is arranged to be installed in a second convoy. A functional state of each device is represented by a respective value of at least one operational quantity common to the plurality of homogenous devices. The monitoring system comprises first communication means arranged to allow the transmission of a first plurality of values and a second plurality of values, at least one first diagnostic means arranged to detect an operational fault or a maintenance request from the at least one device that is installed in the first convoy, and at least one second diagnostic means included in the second convoy arranged to detect an operational fault or a maintenance request from the at least one device that is installed in the second convoy.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A monitoring system comprising:
a first communication system arranged for a first control unit to transmit plural first values to a second control unit and for the second control unit to transmit plural second values to the first control unit, the first control unit arranged to be installed in a first convoy of vehicles and to acquire the first values of at least one operational quantity of a first plurality of devices installed in the first convoy, and the second control unit arranged to be installed in a second convoy of vehicles and to acquire the second values of said at least one operational quantity of a second plurality of devices that are installed in the second convoy and homogeneous with the first plurality of devices;
at least one first diagnostic unit arranged to be installed in the first convoy and to:

receive, via a second communication system, the first values;
receive from the first control unit the second values received by the first control unit from the second control unit; and
detect a malfunction or a maintenance request by at least one device of said first plurality of devices as a function of a comparison of the first values with at least one first range of reference values; and
at least one second diagnostic unit arranged to be installed in the second convoy and to: receive, via a third communication system, the second values;
receive from the second control unit the first values received by the second control unit from the first control unit; and
detect a malfunction or a maintenance request by at least one device of said second plurality of devices as a function of a comparison of said second values with at least one second range of reference values;
wherein the first range of reference values comprises a first reference value and a first neighborhood of values associated with the first reference value, the first diagnostic unit arranged to determine the first reference value as a function of at least one of the first values and at least one of the second values,
wherein the second range of reference values comprises a second reference value and a second neighborhood of values associated with the second reference value, the second diagnostic unit arranged to determine the second reference value as a function of at least one of the second values and at least one of the first values, and
wherein at least one of the first neighborhood of values or the second neighborhood of values is associated with one or more of a constant neighborhood, a percentage value of the respective reference value, a percentage of an average of the respective reference value, a function of the variance of the at least one respective operational quantity, or a tolerance band around the average.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first communication system is a wireless communication system, and wherein, when the first control unit and the second control unit are located from each other at a distance shorter than a predetermined distance threshold: the first control unit is arranged to transmit the first values to the second control unit via the wireless communication system; and
the second control unit is arranged to transmit the second values to the first control unit via the wireless communication system.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the wireless communication system comprises a first mesh network included in the first convoy and a second mesh network included in the second convoy.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first communication system is a radio communication system, and wherein when the first control unit and the second control unit are at any distance from each other:
the first control unit is arranged to transmit the values to the second control unit via the radio communication system; and
the second control unit is arranged to transmit the second values to the first control unit via the radio communication system.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the first diagnostic unit is arranged to detect the malfunction or the maintenance request by the at least one device of the first plurality of devices when at least one value of said first values is not within the first range of reference values; and/or
the second diagnostic unit is arranged to detect the malfunction or the maintenance request by the at least one device of the second plurality of devices when at least one value of said second values is not within the second range of reference values.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the at least one first control unit is arranged to acquire the first values in a temporal succession of first acquisition instants determined according to a first predetermined acquisition period, each value of said first values being representative of a functional state, at one of said first acquisition instants, of a respective device of said first plurality of devices; the at least one second control unit is arranged to acquire the second values in a temporal succession of second acquisition instants determined according to a second predetermined acquisition period, each value of said second values being representative of a functional state, at one of said second acquisition instants, of a respective device of said second plurality of devices;
the at least one first diagnostic unit is arranged to detect the malfunction or the maintenance request by the at least one device of said first plurality of devices as the function of the comparison for each of said first acquisition instants of the first values with the at least one first range of reference values;
the at least one second diagnostic unit is arranged to receive, via the third communication system, the second values acquired in one of said second acquisition instants, and to detect the malfunction or the maintenance request by the at least one device of said second plurality of devices as the function of the comparison for each of said second acquisition instants of said second values with the at least one second range of reference values;
the first diagnostic unit is arranged to determine the first reference value as a function of the at least one of the first values acquired in one of said first acquisition instants and the at least one of the second values acquired in one of said second acquisition instants; and
the second diagnostic unit is arranged to determine the second reference value as a function of the at least one of the second values acquired in one of said second acquisition instants and the at least one of the first values acquired in one of said first acquisition instants.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the first diagnostic unit is arranged to determine the first reference value at each of said first acquisition instants, and/or the second diagnostic unit is arranged to determine the second reference value at each of said second acquisition instants.

8. The system of claim 6 , wherein:
the first diagnostic unit is arranged to determine the first reference value by calculating an average between at least one value of said first values acquired in one of said first acquisition instants and at least one value of said second values acquired at one of said second acquisition instants; and/or
the second diagnostic unit is arranged to determine the second reference value by calculating an average between at least one value of said first values acquired in one of said first acquisition instants and at least one value of said second values acquired at one of said second acquisition instants.

9. The system of claim 6 , wherein the first diagnostic unit is arranged to:
determine a first average value by calculating an average of the values of said first values acquired in one of said first acquisition instants a

Assignees

• Faiveley Transport Italia Spa

Inventors

• Tione Roberto
• Frea Matteo

Classifications

• B61L15/0027

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

• B61L15/0081 Primary

  On-board diagnosis or maintenance · CPC title