Method and apparatus for determining track features and controlling a railroad train responsive thereto

1. A method comprising:

accessing an actual terrain profile representing at least one of actual grades or actual curvatures of a track over which a rail vehicle is traveling or will travel;

obtaining a profile pattern of interest representative of at least one of a crest of interest, a sag of interest, or a curve of interest;

determining one or more feature correlation parameters based on a comparison of the profile pattern of interest and the actual terrain profile, the one or more feature correlation parameters representative of a presence of the profile pattern of interest in the actual terrain profile;

deriving a control parameter for the rail vehicle as a function of the one or more feature correlation parameters; and

controlling at least one of tractive effort or braking effort of the rail vehicle based on the control parameter.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein deriving the control parameter further comprises comparing vehicle characteristic information with the one or more feature correlation parameters to provide an indication of one or more vehicle handling characteristics associated with traveling over the profile pattern of interest.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the actual terrain profile includes at least one of values of slopes of the actual grades of the track or values of the actual curves of the track.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the one or more feature correlation parameters includes comparing the profile pattern of interest to the actual terrain profile over a portion of an entire length of the rail vehicle.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the rail vehicle comprises a distributed power train having a lead locomotive consist, a non-lead locomotive consist, a first railcar group between the lead locomotive consist and the non-lead locomotive consist, and a second railcar group trailing the non-lead locomotive consist, and wherein determining the one or more feature correlation parameters includes comparing the profile pattern of interest and the actual terrain profile over a first profile segment for the lead locomotive consist and the first railcar group and over a second profile segment for the non-lead locomotive consist and the second railcar group.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the actual terrain profile comprises multi-dimensional profiles.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the actual terrain profile comprises one or more of a crest, a sag, a terrain gradient, a track curve, or a track super-elevation.

8. The method of claim 2 wherein the vehicle characteristic information comprises a number of railcars of the rail vehicle, a length of one or more of the railcars of the vehicle, a weight of one or more of the railcars of the vehicle, a coupler type, a train type, or a nonuniform weight distribution of the rail vehicle.

9. The method of claim 2 wherein the vehicle characteristic information has a normalized value, and wherein the vehicle characteristic information includes one or more values above or below the normalized value, and wherein determining the one or more feature correlation parameters comprises multiplying the vehicle characteristic information by the actual terrain profile.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more feature correlation parameters represent a correlation between the profile pattern of interest and one or more of the actual grades or actual curves.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein determining the one or more feature correlation parameters comprises integrating a product of the profile pattern of interest and the actual terrain profile over two or more lengths of the rail vehicle, wherein the values of the one or more feature correlation parameters are a function of a location on the track.

12. The method of claim 2 wherein the vehicle characteristic information comprises a uniformly distributed characteristic information over two or more lengths of the rail vehicle.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the vehicle characteristic information comprises vehicle weight.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein controlling the at least one of tractive effort or braking effort further comprises at least one of limiting acceleration of the rail vehicle responsive to the one or more of the feature correlation parameters that represent an indication of a terrain crest, accelerating the rail vehicle responsive to the one or more of the feature correlation parameters that represent an indication of a terrain sag, or limiting application of the tractive effort responsive to the one or more of the feature correlation parameters that represent an indication of a track curve.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein controlling the at least one of tractive effort or braking effort includes changing speed of the rail vehicle based on the one or more feature correlation parameters.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein controlling the at least one of tractive effort or braking effort includes limiting the application of the tractive effort responsive to one or more of a degree of curvature of the track curve, a degree of super elevation of the track curve, a length of railcars included in the rail vehicle, a weight of the railcars included in the vehicle, or a speed of the rail vehicle.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein controlling the at least one of tractive effort or braking effort includes limiting acceleration of the rail vehicle responsive to one or more of a slope of the crest or vehicle characteristic information.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein deriving the control parameter includes providing an indication of the one or more feature correlation parameters associated with a track segment as the rail vehicle traverses the track segment, and further comprising displaying the indication.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein displaying the indication includes displaying at least one of a time parameter indicating when the track segment will be encountered by the rail vehicle or a distance parameter indicating a distance between the rail vehicle and the track segment.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein the track segment comprises at least one of a crest or a sag in the track and wherein the indication further comprises a severity of the one or more feature correlation parameters associated with the track segment, a slope of a grade change associated with the track segment, a location of the rail vehicle relative to the track segment, one or more coupler forces for different segments of the rail vehicle as the rail vehicle traverses the track segment, a peak coupler force as the rail vehicle traverses the track segment, or a location of the peak coupler force on the rail vehicle.

21. The method of claim 18 wherein the track segment comprises a track curve, and wherein the indication associated with the track segment further comprises at least one of a tractive effort limit, a peak lateral-to-vertical force ratio, a lateral-to-vertical force ratio for one or more segments of the rail vehicle, or a speed to reduce the lateral-to-vertical force ratio to a predetermined value.

22. The method of claim 18 wherein the indication associated with the track segment comprises a visual display providing the indication in one of more of a graphical, numerical, or textual form.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the one or more feature correlation parameters further comprises providing an effective grade of the track responsive to the actual terrain profile and vehicle characteristic information of the rail vehicle.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the effective grade is based on the actual terrain profile and a weight distribution of the rail vehicle.

25. The method of claim 2 wherein the vehicle characteristic information comprises a non-uniformly distributed characteristic information over the length of the vehicle.

26. A method comprising:

receiving an actual terrain profile of a route to be traversed by a vehicle, the terrain profile including actual characteristics of the route locations along the route, the actual characteristics of the route representative of at least one of a change in actual slope or actual curvature of the route at the locations;

obtaining a profile pattern of interest representative of one or more slopes or curvatures of geographic features of interest;

determining a feature correlation parameter representative of an amount of match between the actual terrain profile and the profile pattern of interest at one or more of the locations along the route, the feature correlation parameter based on a combination of the profile pattern of interest and the actual terrain profile; and

generating an output signal configured to control movement of the vehicle, the output signal based on the feature correlation parameter.

27. The method of claim 26 , wherein determining the feature correlation parameter includes calculating a product of the actual terrain profile and the profile pattern of interest.

28. The method of claim 26 , wherein determining the feature correlation parameter includes combining vehicle characteristic information with the actual terrain profile and the profile pattern of interest, the vehicle characteristic information representative of at least one of weight of the vehicle, weight distribution of the vehicle, length of the vehicle, or coupling forces between connected cars of the vehicle.

29. The method of claim 26 , wherein the geographic features of interest represented by the profile pattern of interest include one or more crests of interest, sags of interest, or curves of interest.

30. The method of claim 26 , wherein determining the feature correlation parameter includes assigning a magnitude value to the feature correlation parameter that is representative of the amount of match between the actual terrain profile and the profile pattern of interest, the magnitude value being larger when the amount of match between the actual terrain profile and the profile pattern of interest.

31. The method of claim 26 , wherein the output signal is configured to be used to control at least one of tractive effort or braking effort of the vehicle as the vehicle traverses the route.

32. The method of claim 26 , further comprising identifying at least one of a crest or a sag in the route based on the feature correlation parameter, the crest representative of a peak in the route that exceeds a first designated threshold, the sag representative of a dip in the route that exceeds a second designated threshold.

33. The method of claim 32 , wherein a value of the feature correlation parameter is proportional to a height of the crest or a depth of the sag.

34. The method of claim 32 , wherein the vehicle is an elongated vehicle comprising a plurality of interconnected cars, and the feature correlation parameter is configured to be used to control movement of the vehicle such that the vehicle accelerates or slows down as the vehicle crosses the crest or the sag.

35. The method of claim 26 , wherein the output signal is configured to control the movement of the vehicle such that the vehicle accelerates or slows down based on where the crest or the sag is located along a length of the vehicle as the vehicle crosses the crest or the sag.