DE102017213284A1 - Method for expanding and safeguarding the data basis for the operation of a rail vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

Method for expanding and securing the data basis for operating a first rail vehicle (1), the first rail vehicle (1)
establishes a connection with an external data memory (28) via a data connection (34), and
via this data connection (34) obtains information from the external data memory (28), wherein
the external data memory (28) by means of at least one data connection (6, 8, 32, 33, 34, 36, 38) contains information from at least one external data source (2, 4, 5, 18, 19, 20, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48), wherein
the external data memory (28), by means of appropriate valuation rules, the information obtained plausibility and evaluated,
information that is considered to be implausible is replaced by information declared as plausible, whereby
an information source for the first rail vehicle (1) and further rail vehicles is provided, whereby
an expansion and protection of the data required for the operation of rail vehicles data base is ensured, with
the method is designed in such a way that it can be combined with, or used by, the sensors and processing devices present on a modern rail vehicle.

Description

The present invention relates to a method for expanding and securing the data base for operating a rail vehicle and for directly or indirectly influencing the operation of the rail vehicle by this method.

Today, rail vehicles use their own sensors to detect conditions. This sensor system, which is installed and carried along in rail vehicles, can sometimes be relatively expensive and, in order to produce redundancy, certain sensor systems must be present several times in the rail vehicle.

Each sensor is also subject to an individual failure rate, which has a negative effect on the failure rate of the rail vehicle.

Today, optimizing availability is usually done at the individual sensor level. In addition, the maintenance and spare parts requirements of individual sensors affect the life cycle costs of a rail vehicle in a negative way.

For this reason, it is the object of the present invention to provide a method and a device which are suitable for expanding and securing the information basis for operating a rail vehicle and for directly or indirectly influencing the operation of the rail vehicle by means of this method ,

This object is achieved by means of the independent claims. Advantageous developments are the subject of the dependent claims.

Many who today by sensors installed in the rail vehicle, detected information, e.g. Driving conditions or weather data are also available through other sources or can be accessed by them also in the required quality.

For example, the movement of a rail vehicle can be determined via the sensors of a smartphone. Usually GPS sensors are provided in a smartphone, tablet, or the like for position determination and acceleration sensors for determining the orientation in space, on which the motion profile of a rail vehicle can be determined. In addition, such information may provide further information, such as the current air pressure, the current noise level, or the heart rate of a passenger are determined.

Furthermore, weather data can be accessed in very detailed form by weather stations.

Changes to the route, such as Damage or obstacles can be registered by another rail vehicle, which has already passed through a corresponding section of track at an earlier point in time.

The present invention therefore makes use of these external sources of information in order to make plausible, more robust and to complement and extend existing information available from on-board sensors.

The present invention is preferably implemented in the form of a method which uses the external information sources.

According to the invention, a rail vehicle has a control device, hereinafter referred to as "on-board unit", which executes this method. The on-board unit is connected to the other systems and devices in the rail vehicle via a suitable BUS system.

Preferably, among these systems and devices driver assistance devices, control units, air conditioners, WLAN units, doors and the like to understand. In particular, these are usually existing in rail vehicles systems and devices.

In addition to these systems and devices installed in the rail vehicle, systems and devices are preferably also included which are not to be expected from the rail vehicle, but which can be carried along with it, or which are also located outside the rail vehicle, ie detached from it can.

These are preferably mobile terminals of the passengers, such as smartphones, tablets and the like. These can preferably connect wirelessly to the rail vehicle by means of the WLAN unit in order to preferably use Internet-based functions.

In another advantageous embodiment of the invention, the data connection between the mobile terminal and the rail vehicle is cable-based.

Preferably via the data connection to the rail vehicle, the on-board unit receives access to the sensors of the mobile terminals.

Another example of a system or device that is not to be expected for the rail vehicle is preferably a weather station that provides weather information, preferably in real time.

The on-board unit of the rail vehicle is preferably connected by means of wireless data connection with an external data storage, hereinafter referred to as cloud.

The cloud is preferably in communication with external information sources, preferably via the Internet. These external information sources are card data from external providers, weather and environmental data of individual weather stations and other data sets that appear advantageous for the operation of the rail vehicle.

In a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, the cloud is preferably connected via an Internet connection to the sensor data of the mobile terminals of the passengers, so that preferably their motion profiles, acceleration values in the cloud are received for further processing.

Due to the data connection of the on-board unit to the cloud, an exchange of the information collected from another rail vehicle to the cloud, or an exchange of the information present in the cloud, preferably takes place to the first rail vehicle.

Thus, preferably, information of the first rail vehicle, such as motion profiles, driving condition, or infrastructure damage via the cloud can be passed on to other rail vehicles or their information is made available to the first rail vehicle.

In addition, the amount of information available to the first rail vehicle is preferably increased.

This approach has the advantage that several rail vehicles can perform a bundling and collectivization of their information. For example, a preceding rail vehicle may report an obstacle on the track, or a thunderstorm. This information may preferably use subsequent rolling stock vehicles for countermeasures, such as a low-speed passage of the corresponding section of the track up to a bypass of the corresponding section of track.

In a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, the information available in the cloud is checked for plausibility by means of suitable algorithms and faulty information is eliminated, so that only plausible and secure information can be passed on by the cloud.

Alternatively or additionally, a correction or plausibility of the information of the own rail vehicle with the aid of the information in the cloud is possible, whereby a faulty sensor value is not correlated with a e.g. must be replaced on a control unit stored fallback value, but by a sensor value of an external source, if this is plausible, can be replaced.

Among other things, a failed GPS sensor can be compensated preferably by the GPS sensors of the mobile devices located in the rail vehicle or a temperature sensor by external data and information sources.

Thus, it is possible to replace sensors which have failed collectively by available sensor data. This can reduce downtime due to maintenance on sensors and data acquisition devices.

To determine the number of passengers in the interior of the rail vehicle, preferably the number of existing mobile terminals can be used, which is preferably determined by the on-board unit. The number of passengers preferably also serves to be able to better control the air conditioning of the vehicle interior, since each person with their own body temperature or their respiratory air influences the temperature or the humidity of the vehicle interior.

The invention leads to an improvement in the robustness, the information available and contributes to an improvement in the safety of the driving operation.

Thus, for example, a situation in which two rail vehicles move towards one another on the same track can be recognized by means of the method according to the invention from the respective movement profiles of the rail vehicles. The preferably installed in the rail vehicle on-board unit, which performs the method and is connected via the data BUS with the control units of the brake system, then triggers a braking of the rail vehicle.

In a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, in this situation, a warning triggered by the on-board unit is sent to the vehicle driver via the driver assistance system.

In a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, in this situation, an on-board unit-initiated contacting of the oncoming rail vehicle takes place in order to control the responses of both rail vehicles, e.g. Dodging on an adjacent track to match.

In a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, also control stations of rail transport and other facilities have access to the cloud, in turn, to be able to respond to this or a similar situation.

Preferably, the invention has an evaluation section which, on the basis of failed sensors and the information available, autonomously decides whether maintenance or renewal of the existing sensors and devices is to be carried out since the available information from the cloud is no longer available for proper operation of the rail vehicle is sufficient.

In a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, the on-board unit autonomously organizes the maintenance of the rail vehicle, preferably by analyzing the current sensor status with a probability of failure known to the device and the available external information sources.

In a further advantageous embodiment, the method for using external information supports the autonomous driving operation of a rail vehicle in which the use of further external information for selecting individual driving profiles can be used.

In a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, it is possible, based on the acceleration signals of the mobile terminals, to determine damage to the track or the rail vehicle, before these damages are only noticed during routine maintenance work.

Damage to the route can preferably be detected by a change in the acceleration signal of a mobile terminal. A comparable change in the acceleration would then show itself at the same position on subsequent rail vehicles or on each wheelset or wagon, whereby a damage to the track can be clearly determined.

In contrast, a damage to a rail vehicle can be distinguished from the fact that here the acceleration change occurs at this position only on this one rail vehicle.

In a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, the parameterization required for operating the rail vehicle is changed by means of the information from the cloud.

The method thus offers the possibility of changing the application of the rail vehicle without the rail vehicle having to be taken out of regular operation for maintenance, which considerably shortens the maintenance time.

Preferably, this change of the parameterization may be e.g. during a longer break in operation, preferably, when the rail vehicle is parked overnight. It is irrelevant where the rail vehicle is currently located, since the connection to the cloud is preferably a wireless connection.

In a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, the information available from the cloud preferably supplements the input data for the planning of the autonomous driving operation.

In a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, the invention is present as a computer program product which can preferably be integrated into suitable devices already present in the rail vehicle in order to make the method usable for already existing rail vehicles. This eliminates the need to install an additional on-board unit.

Further advantageous embodiments of the invention can be obtained by combining at least two previously described embodiments.

In the following, the description of the invention with reference to a preferred embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawings. The embodiment shown here shows a combination of several previously described embodiments.

1 shows a basic operating situation of an embodiment of the invention.

In a rail vehicle 1 is an on-board unit 2 installed. This has an antenna in the embodiment 4 which allows it to provide information with an external data store external to the rail vehicle 28 , a so-called cloud, via a data connection 34 exchange.

In this cloud 28 are records 30 saved the rail vehicle 1 by means of the on-board unit 2 over the data connection 34 to the antenna 4 can call.

At the same time is the rail vehicle 1 able to over the data connection 34 also collected information in the cloud 28 or the data records contained therein 30 to send.

In the illustrated embodiment, other rail vehicles equipped with the technique of the invention may also have another data link 35 on these records 30 access, or change these. This is with the indicated antenna 5 another on-board unit of another rail vehicle indicated in the figure.

The first rail vehicle 1 is with a data bus 6 fitted. This data bus 6 is via suitable data connections 8th with the individual devices and systems, the first rail vehicle 1 in connection or thereby allows a data exchange of the devices and systems of the first rail vehicle 1 among themselves.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, various systems and devices are provided, which are usually provided in a rail vehicle:

To assist the driver is a driver assistance device 10 provided that provides the driver relevant information for driving, or also controls the autonomous driving. The driver assistance device 10 is over the data connection 8th with the data bus 6 and thus the on-board unit 2 in connection.

The first rail vehicle 1 has air conditioning 12 to air-condition the vehicle interior. The air conditioner 12 is over the data connection 8th with the data bus 6 and thus the on-board unit 2 in connection.

The first rail vehicle 1 installed sensors and control units are also connected to the data bus 6 via suitable data connections 8th and thus with the on-board unit 2 connected. In this figure, this is done by appropriate control devices 22 on bogies 24 and controllers 25 on doors 26 shown.

A first mobile device 18 a passenger 21 is via mobile data connection 33 with the Internet 40 in connection. The cloud 28 is via a suitable data connection 36 with the Internet 40 also receives access to the sensor data of the first mobile device 18 , These can then be re-connected via data connection 34 the on-board unit 2 to provide.

In the illustrated embodiment, in the first rail vehicle 1 a wireless unit 14 installed in the first rail vehicle 1 via an antenna 16 Provides a wireless network that connects to a second mobile device 19 a passenger 21 by means of a suitable data connection 32 connected is. The wireless unit 14 is via a data connection 8th with the data bus 6 and thus with the on-board unit 2 connected.

About the data connection 32 can the first rail vehicle 1 including the sensor data of the second mobile device 19 of the passenger 21 to provide.

A third mobile device 20 of the passenger 21 is via a suitable data connection 8th by cable with the data BUS 6 connected, resulting in the same use of the sensors of the third mobile device 20 through the on-board unit 2 like the second mobile device 19 results.

So there is the possibility of acceleration and movement profiles of mobile devices 18 . 19 . 20 which are connected to the acceleration or GPS sensors of the mobile devices 18 . 19 . 20 be recorded on the on-board unit 2 and the data bus 6 the other devices in the first rail vehicle 1 to provide these profiles and especially the cloud 28 , by means of the on-board unit 2 , to provide.

The cloud 28 on the one hand uses the data connections 34 to the rail vehicles to the records 30 on the other hand has the cloud 28 also over the data connection 36 to the internet 40 what about information from external sources 42 can be obtained.

In the illustrated embodiment, these are map data 44 , Weather and environmental data 46 and more records 48 , which are not specified.

The by means of the on-board unit 2 obtained data, serve to improve and expand the first rail vehicle 1 existing information.

In this embodiment, the on-board unit 2 also capable of other systems and devices of the first rail vehicle 1 via data bus 6 and data connections 8th to influence.

For example, from the cloud 28 the information conveys that there is clear sky and sunshine on the next leg, the first rail vehicle 1 Even if it is raining, the on-board unit sends it 2 a signal to the air conditioning 12 to reverse the heating mode and to start the air conditioning.

Since the air of the vehicle interior is thermally relatively sluggish, so an energetically optimized reaction of the vehicle air conditioning can be effected on the outside weather conditions.

Will be out of the cloud 28 If the information indicates that the route ahead may be iced, the on-board unit may 2 respond and a speed recommendation or a warning to the driver assistance device 10 to inform the driver of the danger. The information may originate, for example, from another rail vehicle which had previously traveled on the section of the route.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

1

first rail vehicle

2

Control Device (On-Board Unit)

4

Antenna On-Board Unit

5

Antenna On-Board Unit of another rail vehicle

6

Data BUS

8th

Data Connection

10

Driver assistance device

12

air conditioning

14

Wireless Unit

16

Antenna WLAN unit

18

first mobile device

19

second mobile device

20

third mobile device

21

passenger

22

Brake control unit

24

bogie

25

Door control unit

26

door

28

external data storage (cloud)

30

records

32

Data connection Mobile device rail vehicle

33

Data connection mobile device internet

34

Data connection cloud rail vehicle

35

Data connection cloud-further rail vehicle

36

Data connection cloud internet

38

Data connection external sources internet

40

Internet

42

external sources

44

map data

46

Weather and environmental data

48

more records

Claims (14)

Method for expanding and securing the data basis for operating a first rail vehicle (1), the first rail vehicle (1) establishes a connection with an external data memory (28) via a data connection (34), and via this data connection (34) obtains information from the external data memory (28), wherein the external data memory (28) by means of at least one data connection (6, 8, 32, 33, 34, 36, 38) contains information from at least one external data source (2, 4, 5, 18, 19, 20, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48), wherein the external data memory (28), by means of appropriate valuation rules, the information obtained plausibility and evaluated, a piece of information that is not considered plausible is replaced by information declared plausible. Method according to Claim 1 in which at least one further rail vehicle establishes a connection with the external data memory (28) in the same way as the first rail vehicle (1) via a suitable data connection (34). Method according to at least one of the preceding claims, wherein an information of the external data memory (28) is used for the plausibility check and supplementation of an information determined in the first rail vehicle (1), wherein a, as implausibly declared or non-existent information is replaced or provided by an information of the external data memory (28). Method according to at least one of Claims 1 to 3 wherein the method establishes a connection with further devices (10, 12, 14, 22, 25) of the first rail vehicle (1) via at least one suitable interface, the method being based on the obtained information of the first rail vehicle (1) and the information of the external data memory (28), at least one action in the first rail vehicle (1) triggers. Method according to Claim 4 , wherein the triggered action in the first rail vehicle (1) is a change in the speed of the first rail vehicle (1). Method according to at least one of Claims 4 to 5 , wherein the triggered action in the first rail vehicle (1) is a change in the control of at least one air conditioning system (12). Method according to at least one of Claims 4 to 6 in which the triggered action in the first rail vehicle (1) is at least one change of information conveyed by the driver of a driver assistance system (10). Method according to at least one of Claims 4 to 7 wherein the triggered action in the first rail vehicle (1) is a change of at least one parameter required for the operation of the first rail vehicle (1). Method according to at least one of Claims 4 to 8th wherein the triggered action in the first rail vehicle (1) is at least one message to at least one further rail vehicle, said message triggering an action in the at least one further rail vehicle. Computer program product with a stored on a machine-readable carrier program code for performing the method according to at least one of Claims 1 to 9 , Computer program product according to Claim 10 wherein the program code stored on the machine-readable carrier is adapted to transfer the method to the first rail vehicle (1) and further rail vehicles, the computer program product having at least one suitable interface for accessing at least one device (10, 12, 14, 22 , 25) of the first rail vehicle (1). Control device (2) for carrying out the method according to at least one of Claims 1 to 9 wherein the control device (2) has a suitable data connection (34) to the external data memory (28). Control device (2) according to Claim 12 wherein the control device (2) has at least one suitable data connection (6, 8) to at least one further device of the rail vehicle (1). Control device (2) according to Claim 13 in that the control device (2) is set up, by means of the at least one suitable data connection (6, 8), on the basis of the information obtained from the sensors of the first rail vehicle (1) and the information of the external data memory (28), actions in the rail vehicle ( 1) trigger.

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