A system is provided that includes a detection circuit having a first and second sensor. The first sensor is configured to measure a rotational speed of a first wheel. The second sensor is coupled to a vehicle chassis and configured to measure a position over time of the vehicle chassis. The system further includes a controller circuit configured to determine a shock frequency based on the position of the vehicle chassis. The controller circuit is further configured to determine a condition (e.g., an anomalous condition) of the first wheel based on the shock frequency and the rotational speed, and may be further configured for vehicle control based on the determined condition.

Systems, apparatus and methods to implement sectional design (e.g., in quadrants) of an autonomous vehicle may include modular construction techniques to assemble an autonomous vehicle from multiple structural sections. The multiple structural sections may be configured to implement radial and bilateral symmetry. A structural section based configuration may include a power supply configuration (e.g., using rechargeable batteries) including a double-backed power supply system. The power supply system may include a kill switch disposed on a power supply (e.g., at an end of a rechargeable battery). The kill switch may be configured to disable the power supply system in the event of an emergency or after a collision, for example. The radial and bilateral symmetry may provide for bi-directional driving operations of the autonomous vehicle as the vehicle may not have a designated front end or a back end.

A system and a method for preventing collision between a first train and a second train are provided. The system includes at least one first subsystem installed on a first train. The at least one first subsystem is configured to broadcast a message indicative of a status of the first train. The system further includes at least one second subsystem installed on a second train configured to selectively receive the broadcast message from the at least one first subsystem on the first train. The second subsystem determines the status of the first train by analyzing the broadcast message. An action to be performed at the second train for preventing a collision between the first train and the second train is determined based on the status of the first train. One or more instructions are generated for performing the action at the second train.

A portable stop determining device 10 includes an acceleration sensor 115 and a state grasp unit 143 in order to detect that a vehicle such as a train stops, with an adequate degree of accuracy, even when position information of a user and time information are not available. The state grasp unit 143 outputs an alarm signal when detecting deceleration in a direction of travel of the vehicle based on a measured value from the acceleration sensor, and detecting that posture of the portable stop determining device carried by a person riding on the vehicle inclines in the direction of travel and then returns to a basic state.

In an example, the autonomous vehicle (“AV”) can be configured among the other vehicles and railway to communicate with a rider on a peer to peer basis to pick up the rider on demand from a location on a track, like a railway, tram or other track, rather than the rider being held hostage to a fixed railway schedule. The rider can have an application on his/her cell phone, which tracks each of the AVs, and contact them using the application on the cell phone. In an example, the AV is configured for both on-track and off track operation with different operating parameters for on-track and off track, including speed, degree of autonomy, sensors used etc.

A distributed power system includes a communication device and a control device. The communication device is configured to be disposed onboard a first vehicle of a vehicle system that also includes at least a second vehicle. The communication device is configured to communicate a discover message. The control device is configured to be operatively connected to the communication device, and, responsive to the communication device receiving a discover reply message from a second vehicle, to generate a configure message for the communication device to transmit to the second vehicle based on an identifier of the second vehicle included in the discover reply message. The configure message includes instructions for the second vehicle to transition to a remote mode of operation in which remote control of tractive and braking efforts of the second vehicle is enabled.

A vehicle monitoring device includes a camera or other optical sensor configured to be disposed at a trailing end of a first vehicle system. The camera or other optical sensor is configured to output one or more images or video of a field of view behind the first vehicle system. The monitoring device also includes a controller configured to receive output from one or more sensors and to activate the camera or other optical sensor to output the one or more images or video based on the output from the one or more sensors. The output from the one or more sensors indicates one or more of a change in movement of the first vehicle system, a temperature, an acoustic sound, or movement of a second vehicle system.

A method and an apparatus for a train control system are disclosed, and are based on virtualization of train control logic and the use of cloud computing resources. A train control system is configured into two main parts. The first part includes physical elements of the train control system, and the second part includes a virtual train control system that provides the computing resources for the required train control application platforms. The disclosed architecture can be used with various train control technologies, including communications based train control, cab-signaling and fixed block, wayside signal technology. Further, the disclosure describes methodologies to convert cab-signaling and manual operations into distance to go operation.

A method for outputting a trigger signal for an acoustic warning signal of a rail vehicle, includes reading in a piece of signal information detected by an image sensor of the rail vehicle, comparing the piece of signal information to at least one stored piece of reference signal information to classify the piece of signal information as a warning sign requiring an output of an acoustic warning signal, and providing a trigger signal to an output unit of the rail vehicle for outputting an acoustic warning signal.

Disclosed is a secured transportation control network. A distributed set of transportation network management units are spread across different functional points of the transportation network. At least one network management unit agent functionally coupled to a respective network management unit is adapted to monitor communications of the respective management unit. A behavior monitoring server is adapted to generate a behavior profile for a network management unit based on information provided by an agent functionally coupled to the network management unit. A communication policy generator generates for at least one network management unit a communication policy based on behavior profiles of network management units with which the at least one network management unit communicates; wherein the communication policy is sent to an agent application functionally coupled to the at least one network management unit.