A locomotive control system includes an operation manager controller electrically coupled to an operator controller of a locomotive and to a local vehicle control system of the locomotive. The operation manager controller receives an operator command from the operator controller and can regulate the operator command to control operation of the locomotive.

A method includes generating a trip plan that dictates operational settings to be implemented by a vehicle system moving along a route. The trip plan is based on a temporary work order issued for a restricted segment of the route. The work order provides a maximum speed through the restricted segment for a limited time period that is expressed using a time standard. One or more of the operational settings of the trip plan specify movement of the vehicle system through the restricted segment at a vehicle speed that is less than or equal to the maximum speed. In response to determining that the temporary work order has expired, the method includes at least one of prompting an operator of the vehicle system to confirm that the work order has expired or generating a new trip plan in which the vehicle system exceeds the maximum speed through the restricted segment.

A method for controlling and recovering the adhesion, during a slipping phase, of wheels (W.sub.i) belonging to at least two controlled axles (A.sub.i) of a railway vehicle, comprising the steps of: generating speed signals indicative of the angular speed (?.sub.i) of said wheels (W.sub.i); estimating the value of the instantaneous adhesion (?(T.sub.j)) at the point of contact of such wheels (W.sub.i) and the rails, using an adhesion observer; generating a target-slip value (?) for the wheels (W.sub.i) of the controlled axles (A.sub.i) by means of an optimization algorithm which processes the estimated adhesion values (?.sub.i(T.sub.j)), and modifying the target-slip value continuously in time, with a predetermined sampling period, such as to maximize the average value of the adhesion of the wheels of the vehicle.

Disclosed is a method for calculating or estimating the speed of a railway vehicle. The method comprises the steps of generating speed signals indicating the angular speed () of the wheels of said at least one controlled axle; estimating, as a function of such angular speed (), the value of the adhesion () in the contact area of the wheels of such axle and the rails, using an adhesion observer and computing the value of the speed slip () of the wheels of such controlled axle, generating signals representative of the derivative

[00001]$\left(\frac{d.Math..Math.}{d.Math..Math.}\right)$

of said adhesion () as a function of the slip (); generating a driving signal (C(T.sub.j+1)) for torque control devices controlling the torque applied to the wheels applying the driving signal (C(T.sub.j+1)) to said torque control devices and therefore computing the vehicle speed as the linear advance speed of such at least one controlled axle

A control system includes a communication device onboard a vehicle system approaching or entering an airflow restricted area along a route and one or more processors. The communication device configured to receive status messages that contain data parameters representative of ambient conditions within the airflow restricted area. The processors are configured to monitor the ambient conditions and determine different power output upper limits that a trail propulsion vehicle of the vehicle system can generate within the airflow restricted area based on the ambient conditions and different power outputs generated by a lead propulsion vehicle of the vehicle system. The processors further configured to communicate instructions to control the lead propulsion vehicle within the airflow restricted area to generate the power output of the different power outputs that results in the greatest total available power output of the vehicle system as the vehicle system travels within the airflow restricted area.

A control system for remotely configuring a locomotive includes a plurality of operational control devices located on-board the locomotive, the plurality of operational control devices being configured to implement a change to a designated configuration of the locomotive. A controller located on-board the locomotive is configured to activate the plurality of operational control devices to change the designated configuration of the locomotive upon receipt of a configuration command signal. An off-board remote user interface located remotely from the locomotive is configured to receive a single input from a user commanding a change in configuration of the locomotive, the single input being implemented by activation of a single input device on the remote user interface, and selectively send a configuration command signal to the on-board controller to activate the plurality of operational control devices to change the designated configuration of the locomotive.

A system includes an energy management system disposed onboard a vehicle system configured to travel on a route during a trip. The energy management system is configured to receive trip information that includes one or more constraints including at least one of speed, distance, or time restrictions for the vehicle system along the route. The energy management system is further configured to generate a trip plan for controlling movement of the vehicle system along the route during the trip. The trip plan is generated based on the one or more constraints. The trip plan has a plan speed profile that designates speeds for the vehicle system according to at least one of distance or time during the trip. The energy management system is further configured to control movement of the vehicle system during the trip according to the plan speed profile of the trip plan.

A method is provided for the automated driving of a rail vehicle on tracks equipped with different track-side vehicle protection devices. Information items necessary for the automated driving are transferred at least partially from different on-board or vehicle-side vehicle protection devices to an ATO device, and the rail vehicle is controlled by the ATO device according to the transferred information items. An ATO device, a rail vehicle and a railway-technical installation are also provided.

Disclosed is method including receiving digital vehicle data for a fleet of vehicles like trucks, trains, planes, drones, etc., the digital vehicle data being one or more of GPS/location-based data, image data or radar data and combining one or more of pieces of data. The method includes inferring, based on the first combined data, a loaded/empty status of a vehicle. The method includes combining other data to yield second combined data, receiving data regarding one or more of supply, demand, and amount of available cargo to yield third combined data, generating information relating to a supply of vehicles available to load at a specified dock and/or deliver a cargo to a specified dock, in each case within a specified period of time and generating suggestions for one or more vehicles regarding future routes based on the data.

A communication system and method receive, at an energy management system disposed onboard a vehicle system formed from a lead vehicle and one or more remote vehicles, trip data that represents one or more characteristics of an upcoming trip of the vehicle system along a route. A selected portion of the trip data is communicated from the energy management system to a distributed power system also disposed onboard the vehicle system. The selected portion includes identifying information and one or more orientations of the one or more remote vehicles. Using the distributed power system, communication links between the lead vehicle and the one or more remote vehicles are established using the identifying information and the one or more orientations.