Claims
- 1. A method of reducing shop time of a vehicle to be maintained at a maintenance facility comprising:
gathering operating system parameter data onboard a vehicle while the vehicle is away from maintenance facilities; communicating said operating data to a facility remote to the vehicle; analyzing said operating data at the remote facility to determine if said data indicates that maintenance activity is needed for the vehicle and the nature of such maintenance activity; generating data indicative of the needed maintenance activity at said remote facility; and accessing the maintenance data at a maintenance facility prior to the arrival of the vehicle at the facility to reduce shop time of the vehicle in the maintenance facility.
- 2. The method of claim 1, wherein said maintenance facility constitutes said remote facility.
- 3. The method of claim 1, wherein said analyzing comprises determining whether said operating data is out of a predetermine range.
- 4. The method of claim 1, wherein said analyzing comprises determining whether said operating data is exhibiting an unacceptable trend.
- 5. A method of reducing the shop time of a vehicle at a maintenance facility comprising:
providing data gathering systems onboard a vehicle and a computer at a remote maintenance facility, said computer having a historical data base of similar system data on a plurality of similar vehicles; obtaining onboard systems data with said onboard data gathering systems, prior to arrival of said vehicle at said maintenance facility for scheduled maintenance; transmitting said onboard systems data to said maintenance facility prior to arrival of said vehicle at said maintenance facility; operating said computer at said maintenance facility, prior to arrival of said vehicle at said maintenance facility, to compare said onboard system data with said historical data base to determine whether any of said onboard system data is out of a predetermined range or is trending to be out of said range; and operating said computer at said maintenance facility, prior to arrival of said vehicle at said maintenance facility, to determine any maintenance and repair operations to be performed when said inbound vehicle arrives at said maintenance facility.
- 6. The method recited in claim 5, further comprising operating said computer at said maintenance facility, prior to arrival of said vehicle at said maintenance facility, to classify each said maintenance and repair operation into a classification selected from the group consisting of required, advisable, and optional operations.
- 7. The method recited in claim 5, wherein said onboard systems data is transmitted from said vehicle to said maintenance facility by a cellular modem or via satellite assisted communications.
- 8. The method recited in claim 5, wherein said vehicle is a locomotive and said onboard systems data comprises one or more systems parameter data selected from the group consisting of ambient air temperature, train notch, total track and force power, total voltage, total amps, software versions, engine RPM, engine temperature, crankcase pressure, dynamic braking, battery voltage, and voltage and amperage for all auxiliary motors.
- 9. The method recited in claim 8, comprising assigning at least one fault code corresponding to at least one system fault based on said onboard systems data, said at least one fault code being selected from the group consisting of overcurrents, flashovers, crankcase overtemperatures, crankcase overpressures, communication failures, electrical ground failures, air conditioner convener failures, propulsion system faults, auxiliary system faults, propulsion motor faults, auxiliary motor faults, auxiliary system charging faults, engine cooling system faults, oil system faults, control wiring faults, and microelectronics faults.
- 10. The method recited in claim 5, wherein said onboard systems data is determined to be trending to be out of range by comparing a series of values for a given parameter over a period of time.
- 11. The method recited in claim 5, wherein said historical data base is comprised, at least in part, of data collected from prior downloads of onboard systems data.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This is a continuation patent application of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/378,940, filed on Aug. 23, 1999, and entitled “System and Method for Remote Inbound Vehicle Inspection.”
Continuations (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09378940 |
Aug 1999 |
US |
Child |
10071219 |
Feb 2002 |
US |