Systems and methods for examining a route inject one or more electrical examination signals into a conductive route from onboard a vehicle system traveling along the route, detect one or more electrical characteristics of the route based on the one or more electrical examination signals, apply a filter to the one or more electrical characteristics, and detect a break in conductivity of the route responsive to the one or more electrical characteristics decreasing by more than a designated drop threshold for a time period within a designated drop time period. Feature vectors may be determined for the electrical characteristics and compared to one or more patterns in order to distinguish between breaks in the conductivity of the route and other causes for changes in the electrical characteristics.

An inspection system for inspecting the track of an amusement ride with at least one rail. A vehicle is provided that is designed to ride along the track. The vehicle supports cameras. The cameras are positioned in unobstructed areas. The cameras image the rail from different angles as the vehicle rides along the track. The images recorded by the cameras are reviewed to identify any defect or issue with the rail or its supporting framework that may impact from the safety of the ride.

A deployable measurement system for analyzing a rail of a railroad track includes a housing, a reflecting assembly coupled to the housing, a movement assembly coupled to the housing, and an optical measurement system disposed within the housing. Both the housing and the reflecting assembly are moveable between a stored position and a deployed position. The movement assembly includes a deployment assembly that moves the reflecting assembly from the stored position to the deployed position, and a retraction assembly that moves the reflecting assembly from the deployed position to the stored position. The optical measurement system emits and receives light. The reflecting assembly reflects the emitted light toward the rail. The reflecting assembly reflects light reflected off of the rail toward the optical measurement system. The light received by the optical measurement system is used to measure parameters related to the rail.

A vehicle includes running wheels traveling on traveling road surfaces of tracks; a pair of position detection parts disposed at an interval in a width direction that output signals by detecting a distance from measured objects; a control unit controlling the amount of steering of the running wheels according to the signals from the position detection parts; and a steering mechanism steering the running wheels via the control unit. Each of the position detection parts outputs a signal having characteristics such that the output increases as the distance from the measured objects increases while an output change ratio is decreased in a range wherein the distance from the measured objects is not less than a predetermined value, and is configured such that, when the distance between one position detection part and the measured object is decreased, the distance between the other position detection part and the measured object is increased.

This method is for managing a railway electrical circuit (3A, 3B) adapted to detect presence of a rolling stock (T) on a railway track (1), the railway track (1) being subdivided in successive track sections (1A, 1B) forming successive electrical circuits (3A, 3B) independently fed with electrical current for monitoring the presence of a rolling stock (T) on one of the track sections (1A, 1B), each electrical circuit (3A, 3B) comprising a transmission device (9A, 9B) for feeding the electrical circuit (3A, 3B) with electrical current, located at one end of the track section, and a reception device (11A, 11B) for detecting the electrical current circulating in the electrical circuit (3A, 3B), located at an opposed end of the track section. This method comprises steps consisting in a) continuously feeding the electrical circuit (3A, 3B) with electrical current with the transmission device (9A, 9B) and monitoring the presence of a rolling stock (T) on the corresponding track section (1A, 1B) by measuring, using the reception device (11A, 11B), the current circulating in the electrical circuit (3A, 3B); b) if the reception device (11A, 11B) detects that a rolling stock (T) is present on the track section (1A, 1B), applying to the electrical circuit (3A, 3B) a nominal electrical power (PN) at least until the rolling stock (T) exits the section (1A, 1B); c) if the reception device (11A, 11B) detects that no rolling stock (T) is present on the track section (1A, 1B), applying to the electrical circuit (3A, 3B) a power-saving power value (P0) which is inferior to the nominal power (PN). At step b), the electrical power (P.sub.OT) consumed by the electrical circuit (3A, 3B) is kept under a limited value (P2). A system for detecting presence of a rolling stock (T) on a railway track (1) is also provided.

This method is for managing a railway electrical circuit (3A, 3B) adapted to detect presence of a rolling stock (T) on a railway track (1), the railway track (1) being subdivided in successive track sections (1A, 1B) forming successive electrical circuits (3A, 3B) independently fed with electrical current for monitoring the presence of a rolling stock (T) on one of the track sections (1A, 1B), each electrical circuit (3A, 3B) comprising a transmission device (9A, 9B) for feeding the electrical circuit (3A, 3B) with electrical current, located at one end of the track section, and a reception device (11A, 11B) for detecting the electrical current circulating in the electrical circuit (3A, 3B), located at an opposed end of the track section. This method comprises steps consisting in a) continuously feeding the electrical circuit (3A, 3B) with electrical current with the transmission device (9A, 9B) and monitoring the presence of a rolling stock (T) on the corresponding track section (1A, 1B) by measuring, using the reception device (11A, 11B), the current circulating in the electrical circuit (3A, 3B); b) if the reception device (11A, 11B) detects that a rolling stock (T) is present on the track section (1A, 1B), applying to the electrical circuit (3A, 3B) a nominal electrical power (PN) at least until the rolling stock (T) exits the section (1A, 1B); c) if the reception device (11A, 11B) detects that no rolling stock (T) is present on the track section (1A, 1B), applying to the electrical circuit (3A, 3B) a power-saving power value (P0) which is inferior to the nominal power (PN). At step b), the electrical power (P.sub.OT) consumed by the electrical circuit (3A, 3B) is kept under a limited value (P2). A system for detecting presence of a rolling stock (T) on a railway track (1) is also provided.

A system includes a mobile platform that moves under remote and/or autonomous control, a sensor package supported by the mobile platform that obtains information relating to a component of a transportation network, and one or more processors that receive the sensor information and analyze the information in combination with other information that is not obtained from the sensor package. The processors also generate an output that displays information relating to one or more of a status, a condition, and/or a state of health of the component of the transportation network; initiates an action to change an operational state of the component; identifies a hazard to one or more vehicles traveling within the transportation network; and/or collects the information relating to the component. Optionally, the component is not communicatively coupled to an information network and the mobile platform provides the information obtained by the sensor package to the information network.

In a method for traffic-dependent output of a control signal for at least one of a barrier and a traffic light signal at a grade crossing, a radar sensor device detects motions of traffic objects over a street traffic area of the grade crossing, a control signal is emitted to a control unit for the barrier and/or for the traffic light signal situated on the inflow side of the grade crossing, using a lead time before an expected time of arrival of a train at the grade crossing, and the lead time is determined with the aid of a curve over time of the detected motions of the traffic objects, the lead time for a slow-moving traffic being greater than for a more rapidly flowing, unimpeded traffic.

Systems for examining a route inject one or more electrical examination signals into a conductive route from onboard a vehicle system traveling along the route, detect one or more electrical characteristics of the route based on the one or more electrical examination signals, and detect a break in conductivity of the route responsive to the one or more electrical characteristics decreasing by more than a designated drop threshold for a time period within a designated drop time period. Feature vectors may be determined for the electrical characteristics and compared to one or more patterns in order to distinguish between breaks in the conductivity of the route and other causes for changes in the electrical characteristics.

A cyber security system for providing security to a railway system, the system comprising: a data monitoring and processing hub; a network of data collection agents configured to monitor communications transmitted between railway infrastructure and/or rolling stock entities and mirror the communications to the hub; wherein the processing hub comprises computer executable instructions executable to: process the mirrored communications to determine normative patterns of communications between the entities; use the normative patterns to determine sequences of related communications; determine characteristic features of the determined communications sequences; and use the determined characteristic features to determine whether a given communication mirrored to the hub by a data collection agent of the network of data collection agents is anomalous.