Rail Vehicle Camera Input Element Dynamics for Clearance and Drag
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing camera systems for rail vehicles face challenges in maintaining a suitable angle of view for monitoring spatial areas while adhering to clearance gauges, which prevent protrusions that could collide with infrastructure or pose risks to passengers, and they often suffer from aerodynamic and acoustic inefficiencies when mounted externally.
Innovation Solution
A camera device with a movable input element that adjusts between a driving position and a detection position, allowing the camera to capture spatial areas without violating clearance gauges, and an image sensor element that remains stationary, ensuring optimal alignment and minimizing external protrusions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the camera device protrudes far from the rail vehicle surface to achieve a suitable angle of view for monitoring spatial areas, then the monitoring capability is improved, but the clearance gauge is violated and collision risk increases
Solution Approach 1:
The input element is designed to be movable between a retracted position (within clearance gauge during driving) and an extended position (protruding for monitoring during stationary operations). This dynamic adjustment allows the system to achieve suitable monitoring angles when needed while maintaining safety clearance during vehicle operation
Solution Approach 2:
The camera device is segmented into a stationary mounting structure and a movable input element (lens assembly). This segmentation allows the input element to independently adjust its position for monitoring purposes without affecting the overall structural integrity or clearance compliance of the mounted device
2Ease of operation
If the camera device is mounted externally on the rail vehicle surface, then the monitoring of spatial areas is enabled, but aerodynamic inefficiency and acoustic noise increase
Solution Approach 1:
The input element can be retracted into the vehicle surface during high-speed travel to maintain aerodynamic efficiency, and extended only when the vehicle is stationary or moving at low speeds for monitoring operations, thereby minimizing aerodynamic drag and acoustic noise generation
3Adaptability or versatility
If the entire camera device is made movable to adjust the angle of view, then the monitoring flexibility is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Only the input element (lens assembly) is made movable while the image sensor and mounting structure remain stationary. This segmentation provides monitoring flexibility through input element adjustment without requiring complex mechanisms to move the entire camera device, thereby limiting the increase in device complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements dynamic adjustability of the input element position to achieve different monitoring angles and coverage areas, providing versatility without requiring the entire camera assembly to be movable, thus maintaining relatively simple device architecture
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables effective monitoring of rail vehicle environments and passenger areas while maintaining safety and aerodynamic efficiency by allowing the camera to adjust its position without compromising the rail vehicle's clearance or aerodynamics.
Implementation Method 1
a lens arrangement, wherein the lens arrangement has an input element which is designed to receive incoming light
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
The invention relates to a device and to a method for monitoring a spatial region (12) in the environment of or inside a rail vehicle (1). The device according to the invention comprises a camera apparatus (10) for capturing the spatial region (12), which has a lens arrangement (18), wherein the lens arrangement (18) has an input element (20), which is designed to receive incoming light (22). The device is characterized in that the input element (20) is designed to be movable relative to a surface (32) of the rail vehicle (1), which at least in part delimits the spatial region (12), between a travel position (40) provided for a travel mode of the rail vehicle (1) and a capture position (30), in which the input element (20) is aligned for receiving light (22) from the spatial region (12).