Ballast delivery and computation system and method
View Patent ↗A method for delivering ballast to a section of railroad track includes measuring an existing ballast profile of a section of railroad track using a remote sensing system, and providing a signal indicative thereof to a first computer. Using the first computer, the existing ballast profile is compared with an ideal ballast profile to compute a track file representing a volume of additional ballast needed as a function of linear position along the section of railroad track, and data representing the track file is transmitted to a second computer of an automatic ballast dump train. Ballast is dumped along the section of railroad track according to the track file under control of the second computer.
1. A method, performed by a computer having a processor and system memory, for calculating missing ballast volume on a section of railroad track, comprising:
scanning an existing section of railroad track using a remote sensing system to produce a set of data points representing an existing surface of the railroad track;
registering an ideal surface with reference to the existing surface to create a volume, the ideal surface defining a full volume level;
determining a number of scan points that fall within the volume and lie below the full volume level;
obtaining an incremental cross-sectional area by multiplying a coordinate for each scan point that lies below the full volume level by a magnitude below the full volume level and a weighted factor associated with the volume, wherein the weighted factor is a point weighting factor or a variable weighting factor; and
accumulating a total volume by multiplying the incremental cross-sectional area by an incremental distance between scan locations and adding all results.
2. A method in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the remote sensing system comprises a LIDAR system.
3. A method in accordance with claim 1 , further comprising compensating for possible irregularities in the data points representing the existing surface by the steps of:
defining an arbitrary surface;
finding points in the set of data points that represent the existing railroad track surface;
identifying landmark points of the existing railroad track surface within the set of data points;
comparing locations of the landmark points in the set of data points to expected locations of the landmark points;
calculating a positional difference between the locations of the landmark points and the expected locations;
transforming the set of data points by the positional difference;
registering the arbitrary surface to the location of the landmark points; and
updating the expected location of landmark points for subsequent scenes using the transformed set of data points.
4. A method in accordance with claim 1 , further comprising:
providing a graphical user interface having an interactive map of the section of railroad track; and
displaying ballast data on the interactive map.
5. A method in accordance with claim 4 , wherein the ballast data is selected from the group consisting of: No Dump Zone (NDZ) begin and end points; quantity of ballast needed; number of ballast hopper car gates of ballast to drop for a given train speed; locations at which to drop ballast; curves and spiral easements; and truck position.
6. A method in accordance with claim 4 , wherein the graphical user interface further includes features selected from the group consisting of: an image showing remote sensing points; a milepost marker input feature; a note input feature; and a 3-D model of the environment.