Range-finding based image processing rail way servicing...

Railways – Track layers

Reexamination Certificate

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

C250S559310, C356S602000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06647891

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The repair and maintenance of railroad rights of way have always been of prime consideration to ensure safe and reliable passage of passenger and freight trains. The railroad tracks upon which these trains travel are subject to frequent and heavy traffic and loading. The cost of maintaining these tracks also is commensurate with such traffic and requires significant expenditures for materials as well as labor for installation of the materials.
In particular, railroad companies constantly engage in such maintenance activities as replacing worn cross ties or the rails which they support. Typically, the worn cross tie or rail must be removed from where it is installed, and then a new cross tie or rail must be fitted and ultimately installed in place of the worn member.
Installing a cross tie involves positioning a tie on the railway bed and mechanically vibrating the surrounding ballast or stone so that the ballast flows around the tie providing support and resistance to tie movement.
Once the cross tie is placed, the rail then must be fastened to the cross tie. Typically, a rail is connected to a cross tie with a tie plate. A tie plate has a slot which receives and maintains the base of the rail and holes for receiving spikes which fasten the tie plate to the cross tie.
Many devices have been advanced for automating the installation of cross ties and rails. Some devices index a tamping mechanism according to a distance traveled by the tamping mechanism along the rail. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,760,797 and 5,671,679.
Another device employs a CCD camera for two-dimensional, shape-from-shading or parallax based image recognition for locating the spike holes in a tie plate on a cross-tie of a railway, as opposed to the present three-dimensional, range-based surface profiling identification and verification. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,487,341.
Unfortunately, the everyday unpredictable environmental surface conditions of a railroad bed limit the ability of image recognition based systems to accurately locate target features of a railroad bed. What is needed is a method and an apparatus for identifying a feature of a railway and deploying equipment for servicing same by image processing range data pertaining to the railway feature.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention overcomes the issues discussed above with a method and an apparatus for identifying a feature of a railway and deploying equipment for servicing same by image processing range data pertaining to the railway feature.
The invention provides a method for servicing a railway including identifying a feature of a railway, wherein the identifying involves processing an image corresponding to ranges to the feature. The invention also provides an apparatus for servicing a railway including a vision system for determining a range to a feature of the railway and means for positioning equipment relative to, for servicing, the feature, based on the range.
The invention may be used to retrofit existing track spiking machinery to automate locating a cross tie, detecting a tie plate and spike hole thereof, and inserting and driving the track spikes into the tie plate holes into the cross tie.
The invention provides improved elements and arrangements thereof, for the purposes described, which are inexpensive, dependable and effective in accomplishing intended purposes of the invention.


REFERENCES:
patent: 3129335 (1964-04-01), Stewart
patent: 3352249 (1967-11-01), Plasser et al.
patent: 3381626 (1968-05-01), Fagan et al.
patent: 3608497 (1971-09-01), Plasser et al.
patent: 3659345 (1972-05-01), Plasser et al.
patent: 3745930 (1973-07-01), Dieringer
patent: 3753405 (1973-08-01), Bryan, Jr.
patent: 3821932 (1974-07-01), Theurer et al.
patent: 3942000 (1976-03-01), Dieringer
patent: 4065856 (1978-01-01), Waters
patent: 4341160 (1982-07-01), Nielsen
patent: 4538061 (1985-08-01), Jaquet
patent: 4655142 (1987-04-01), Theurer et al.
patent: 4731853 (1988-03-01), Hata et al.
patent: 4733969 (1988-03-01), Case et al.
patent: 4760797 (1988-08-01), Stubbs et al.
patent: 4937445 (1990-06-01), Leong et al.
patent: 4957369 (1990-09-01), Antonsson
patent: 5090329 (1992-02-01), Theurer
patent: 5157840 (1992-10-01), Henttinen
patent: 5307151 (1994-04-01), Hof et al.
patent: 5487341 (1996-01-01), Newman et al.
patent: 5613442 (1997-03-01), Ahola et al.
patent: 5615616 (1997-04-01), Scheuchzer et al.
patent: 5760415 (1998-06-01), Hauck et al.
patent: 5812269 (1998-09-01), Svetkoff et al.

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for the USA inventors and patents. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Range-finding based image processing rail way servicing... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Range-finding based image processing rail way servicing..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Range-finding based image processing rail way servicing... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3184926

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.