System and method for railroad personnel safety assurance

US11414111B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• BNSF Railway Company · US

Inventors

• Eric Peter Olsen · Kaasmarkt, US
• Shanmugasundaram Rajasubramanian · Komangalam, IN
• Nithin Paul Mathew · Mamura, IN
• Marutha Pandian Jagadesan · Komangalam, IN
• Michael Quinn Howard · Bothell, US
• David Himmelstein · Flower Mound, US
• Aamir Ahmad Halim · Corral City, US
• Wayne Morgan · Soquel, US
• Amit Kumar Dash · Bedford, US
• Jacob Bunkley · Arlington, US
• Dickson Waudo · Fort Worth, US
• William Stewart · Rhome, US
• Raven Wylie · Fort Worth, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Aug 16, 2021
• Grant date: Aug 16, 2022
• Expiry date: Aug 16, 2041

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H04W4/42
• WIPO field: Transport
• WIPO sector: Mechanical engineering

Abstract

A system for enhancing personnel safety on a railroad track is presented. The system can receive data from sensors and/or a PTC system to determine positions of clients/worker and/or vehicles, and further utilize such data to determine if a vehicle is within a certain proximity of the client/worker location. The system can further generate geofences around clients/vehicles to and determine when such geofences intersect one another. Additionally, the present disclosure can assign severity levels and generate alerts with the assigned severity levels, and such severity levels can indicate how close a vehicle is to a particular location. It is an object of the invention to provide a system for generating alerts to notify personnel when they much retreat to a place of safety.