Rail Vehicle Wireless Signal Profiling for Consist Coordination
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Solution Overview
Problem
Wireless communication between vehicles in a consist can be hindered in certain locations, leading to communication issues that are not proactively addressed for subsequent trips, affecting the coordination of tractive and braking efforts.
Innovation Solution
Collect and analyze wireless message characteristics and consist configuration information to create a signal propagation profile, which can be used to predict and mitigate communication issues by adjusting operational settings or planning trips accordingly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If wireless communication is used between locomotives for coordinating tractive and braking efforts, then the coordination capability is improved, but communication reliability deteriorates in certain locations along the route
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by collecting and analyzing wireless message characteristics during previous trips to create signal propagation profiles before actual coordination operations occur. These profiles are stored and referenced during upcoming trips to anticipate and prepare for communication challenges in known problematic locations, allowing the system to proactively adjust coordination strategies rather than reacting to communication failures after they occur.
2Measurement precision
If communication issues are logged during trips, then communication problems are detected, but the information is not proactively used for upcoming trips, resulting in lost opportunity to prevent future issues
Solution Approach 1:
The system transforms post-trip communication issue logging into proactive preliminary action by creating signal propagation profiles from historical data that are made available before upcoming trips occur. The analysis system processes and stores communication characteristics during and after trips, then retrieves relevant profiles before subsequent trips to enable proactive adjustment of communication strategies, eliminating the delay between detecting issues and applying corrections.
Solution Approach 2:
The system establishes a feedback loop where communication issue data from completed trips is analyzed to generate signal propagation profiles, which then feed back into the coordination system for upcoming trips. This feedback mechanism allows the system to learn from historical communication problems and automatically adjust coordination strategies in advance, transforming reactive issue logging into proactive feedback-driven optimization.
3Reliability
If periodic re-communication of commands is performed to ensure receipt, then communication reliability is improved, but the time required for coordination increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts communication strategies based on location-specific signal propagation characteristics. By referencing pre-generated signal propagation profiles that indicate problematic locations, the system can vary the frequency and timing of command re-communications adaptively - using standard single-transmission protocols in good signal areas and implementing periodic re-communication only in identified challenging locations, thereby optimizing the balance between reliability and time efficiency.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for correlating wireless communication performance with vehicle system configurations determine wireless message characteristics of wireless messages communicated between vehicles in vehicle systems and locations along a route where the wireless message characteristics were determined. The wireless message characteristics and the locations can be determined during movement of the vehicle systems along a route. Relative positions of the vehicles in the vehicle systems is obtained, and a signal propagation profile is determined based on the wireless message characteristics, the locations where the wireless message characteristics were determined, and the relative positions of the vehicles. The signal propagation profile can represent relationships between the wireless message characteristics, the relative positions of the vehicles, and the locations along the route. This profile can be used to control movement and/or communication of other rail vehicle systems, to generate trip plans for other vehicle systems, to diagnose communication faults, and the like.