US-12617438-B2 - Control system and method for a transportation network

US12617438B2US 12617438 B2US12617438 B2US 12617438B2US-12617438-B2

Abstract

A system including a plurality of vehicles, each having disposed onboard a location device, a communication device, a control system, and an energy storage device. Thea control system may determine vehicle locations of one or more vehicles of the plurality of vehicles and states of charge of the energy storage devices onboard the one or more vehicles. The control system may communicate with the communication devices of the one or more vehicles and may direct which of one or more vehicles are to couple with each other, and thereby be powered by electric energy stored in the energy storage devices onboard the one or more vehicles directed to couple. The control system may direct which of the one or more vehicles are to couple with and be powered by the electric energy of the energy storage devices based on one or more of: the vehicle locations and the states of charge of the vehicle energy storage devices.

Inventors

Jared Klineman Cooper
Daniel McNair
Samuel William Golden
Robert James Foy
David Michael Peltz
Nathan Thomas North
Milan Karunaratne
Anthony D. Paul
Gregory Wright
William Carnegie

Assignees

TRANSPORTATION IP HOLDINGS, LLC

Dates

Publication Date: 20260505
Application Date: 20240930

Claims (18)

1 . A system comprising: a plurality of vehicles, each vehicle comprising: a location device configured to determine and provide a geographic location of the respective vehicle; a communication device operable to communicate with a control system; an energy storage device having a measurable state of charge, the energy storage device being configured to supply power to a propulsion system of the vehicle; and a control system to communicate with each vehicle and configured to: determine criteria comprising at least the geographic locations of the vehicles and the state of charge of the energy storage devices associated with the vehicles; identify and select which vehicles within the plurality are to establish a connection with each other for the purpose of sharing electric energy from their respective energy storage devices; the selection based at least on: the geographic locations of the vehicles; and the respective states of charge of their energy storage devices; wherein the selected vehicles are configured to exchange power based on the determined criteria; and wherein the control system comprises a neural network configured to: receive one or more operational parameters from the communication device of one or more vehicles within the plurality of vehicles; and generate an output comprising an action, or sequence of actions, to be taken by one or more vehicles within the plurality of vehicles based at least partially on the one or more operational parameters received by the neural network.
2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the output generated by the neural network comprises identifying and selecting which vehicles within the plurality of vehicles are to establish a connection with each other for the purpose of sharing electric energy from their respective energy storage devices.
3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more operational parameters comprise at least the geographic locations of one or more vehicles within the plurality of vehicles and the states of charge of their respective energy storage devices.
4 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the one or more operational parameters further comprise at least one of an energy demand of a trip of one or more vehicles within the plurality of vehicles, an energy depletion rate of the energy storage device of one or more vehicles within the plurality of vehicles, or an energy recharging rate of the energy storage device of one or more vehicles within the plurality of vehicles.
5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein one or more vehicles of the vehicles selected to establish a connection with each other have disposed thereon a vehicle control system in communication with the control system, wherein the control system is further configured to autonomously control movement of the one or more vehicles of the vehicles selected to establish a connection with each other via control signals communicated from the control system to the vehicle control system.
6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the control system is configured to identify and select which of the vehicles within the plurality of vehicles are to establish a connection with a charging station to recharge their energy storage device.
7 . A system comprising: a plurality of vehicles, each vehicle comprising: a location device configured to determine and provide a geographic location of the respective vehicle; a communication device operable to communicate with a control system; and an energy storage device having a measurable state of charge, the energy storage device being configured to supply power to a propulsion system of the vehicle; an off-board control system to communicate with the communication device of each vehicle and configured to: determine criteria comprising at least the geographic locations of the vehicles and the state of charge of the energy storage devices associated with the vehicles; identify and select which vehicles within the plurality are to establish a connection with each other for the purpose of sharing electric energy from their respective energy storage devices; the selection based at least on: the geographic locations of the vehicles; and the respective states of charge of their energy storage devices; wherein the selected vehicles are configured to exchange power based on the determined criteria; and wherein the off-board control system comprises a neural network configured to: receive one or more operational parameters from the communication device of one or more vehicles within the plurality of vehicles; and generate an output comprising an action, or sequence of actions, to be taken by one or more vehicles within the plurality of vehicles based at least partially on the one or more operational parameters received by the neural network.
8 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the output generated by the neural network comprises identifying and selecting which vehicles within the plurality of vehicles are to establish a connection with each other for the purpose of sharing electric energy from their respective energy storage devices.
9 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the one or more operational parameters comprise at least the geographic locations of one or more vehicles within the plurality of vehicles and the states of charge of their respective energy storage devices.
10 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the one or more operational parameters further comprise at least one of an energy demand of a trip of one or more vehicles within the plurality of vehicles, an energy depletion rate of the energy storage device of one or more vehicles within the plurality of vehicles, or an energy recharging rate of the energy storage device of one or more vehicles within the plurality of vehicles.
11 . The system of claim 7 , wherein one or more vehicles of the vehicles selected to establish a connection with each other have disposed thereon a vehicle control system in communication with the off-board control system, wherein the off-board control system is configured to autonomously control movement of the one or more vehicles of the vehicles selected to establish a connection with each other via control signals communicated from the off-board control system to the vehicle control system.
12 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the off-board control system is configured to identify and select which of the vehicles within the plurality of vehicles are to establish a connection with a charging station to recharge their energy storage device.
13 . A system comprising: a plurality of vehicle systems, each of the vehicle systems comprising one or more vehicles, wherein each vehicle system further comprises one or more: location devices, each configured to determine and provide a geographic location of the respective vehicle system; communication devices, each operable to communicate with a control system; and energy storage devices, each having a measurable state of charge, and each being configured to supply power to one or more propulsion systems of the respective vehicle system; one or more energy tenders, each energy tender comprising: a location device configured to determine and provide the geographic location of the respective energy tender; a communication device operable to communicate with a control system; and an energy storage device having a measurable state of charge, the energy storage device being configured to supply power to a propulsion system of the respective energy tender; an off-board control system to communicate with the one or more communication devices of each vehicle system and the communication device of each of the one or more energy tenders, the off-board control system configured to: determine criteria comprising at least the geographic locations of each of the vehicle systems within the plurality of vehicle systems, the geographic location of each of the one or more energy tenders, the states of charge of the one or more energy storage devices associated with each of the vehicle systems within the plurality, and the state of charge of the respective energy storage device of each of the one or more energy tenders; identify and select which of the one or more energy tenders are to couple with one or more of the vehicle systems for the purpose of sharing electric energy from their respective energy storage devices; the selection based at least on: the geographic locations of each of the vehicle systems within the plurality; the geographic location of each of the one or more energy tenders; the respective states of charge of the one or more energy storage devices of each vehicle system; and the state of charge of the energy storage device of each of the one or more energy tenders; wherein the selected one or more energy tenders are configured to exchange power with the selected one or more vehicle systems based on the determined criteria.
14 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the off-board control system comprises a neural network configured to: receive one or more operational parameters from at least one of the one or more communication devices of each of the vehicle systems and the communication device of each of the one or more energy tenders; and generate an output comprising an action, or sequence of actions, to be taken by the one or more energy tenders, one or more of the vehicle systems within the plurality of vehicle systems, or combinations thereof, based at least partially on the one or more operational parameters received by the neural network.
15 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the output generated by the neural network comprises identifying and selecting which of the one or more energy tenders are to couple with one or more of the vehicle systems within the plurality of vehicle systems for the purpose of sharing electric energy from their respective energy storage devices.
16 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the one or more operational parameters comprise at least the geographic locations of each of the vehicle systems within the plurality of vehicle systems, the geographic location of each of the one or more energy tenders, the states of charge of the one or more energy storage devices associated with each of the vehicle systems within the plurality, and the state of charge of the energy storage device of each of the one or more energy tenders.
17 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the output generated by the neural network comprises identifying and selecting one or more energy tenders to decouple from a first vehicle system within the plurality of vehicle systems and couple with a second vehicle system within the plurality of vehicle systems for the purpose of sharing electric energy from their respective energy storage devices.
18 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the off-board control system is configured to identify and select one or more energy tenders to decouple from a first vehicle system within the plurality of vehicle systems and couple with a second vehicle system within the plurality of vehicle systems for the purpose of sharing electric energy from their respective energy storage devices.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/988,698, filed Nov. 16, 2022, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/504,342, filed Oct. 18, 2021, now U.S. Pat. No. 12,017,555, issued Jun. 25, 2024, and a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/030,076, filed Sep. 23, 2020, now U.S. Pat. No. 11,518,422, issued Dec. 6, 2022, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/695,270, filed Nov. 26, 2019, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,822,007, issued Nov. 3, 2020, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/289,236, filed Feb. 28, 2019, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,532,755, issued Jan. 14, 2020, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/089,574, filed Apr. 3, 2016, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,220,864, issued Mar. 5, 2019, which is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 14/226,921 filed Mar. 27, 2014, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,327,741, issued May 3, 2016. The entire disclosures of these applications and patents are incorporated herein by reference. BACKGROUND Technical Field Embodiments are disclosed herein that relate to control systems for transportation networks. Discussion of Art As one or more vehicles or vehicle systems move along routes between current and upcoming location destinations, the amount of available energy to power the vehicle systems changes. The energy may be electric energy, a fluid energy such as diesel fuel, liquid hydrogen, or gasoline, and may be used to power propulsion loads and/or non-propulsion loads of the vehicle systems. The amount of available energy for the vehicle system to use or draw from changes as the vehicle system operates. For example, a state of charge of an energy storage assembly of the vehicle system may decrease responsive to the propulsion and non-propulsion loads pulling energy from the energy storage assembly. As the amount of available energy changes, it may be determined that the amount of available energy is insufficient to reach the destination location. For example, the vehicle systems may need to recharge and/or refuel prior to the vehicle systems reaching a destination location. As vehicles in transportation networks become electrified (e.g., the vehicles are propelled using electric energy stored onboard the vehicles), the need to accurately calculate and manage the energy stored by the vehicles to complete trips may increase. While existing technologies can assist in planning for the fuel carried by vehicles and the refueling of vehicles to ensure on-time arrival of the vehicles, these technologies are not applicable to the planning of electric energy storage onboard vehicles as refueling a vehicle consumes significantly less time than recharging energy storage devices onboard vehicles. Because refueling of a vehicle can be completed over a significantly shorter time period than recharging a vehicle, the time needed to recharge vehicles may be a more significant factor in the planning of movements of vehicles in a transportation network. Additionally, vehicles powered by onboard energy storage devices may differ in distances that the vehicles can travel on a full charge relative to fuel-consuming vehicles of the similar mass. The shorter travel distances of the onboard-energy-storage vehicles may impact the planning of movements of the vehicles in the transportation network. Currently, recharging infrastructure for battery-powered vehicles may be primarily at fixed location. If a vehicle system needs to refuel or recharge the energy storage assembly (e.g., battery, fuel cell, or the like) in an area without charging infrastructure, the vehicle system may become stranded or the vehicle system may need to go off the vehicle system's current route to reach the recharging infrastructure. Therefore, a need may exist for, and it may be desirable to have, an energy chassis or charging station that may move with the vehicle systems or may move to the vehicle systems for charging. BRIEF DESCRIPTION In one embodiment, a control system is provided that may include one or more processors that may determine vehicle locations of one or more vehicles and states of charge of vehicle energy storage devices onboard the one or more vehicles. The control system may include an energy chassis having a fuel source holding a supply of fuel, an energy converter to convert at least a portion of the supply of the fuel from the fuel source into electric energy, and a communication device to communicate with the processors. The processors may direct which of the one or more vehicles are to couple with and be powered by the electric energy of the energy chassis based on one or more of: the vehicle locations, the states of charge of the vehicle energy storage devices, an amount of the supply of the fuel of the energy chassis, and a chassis location of the energy chassis. In one embodiment, a method is provided that may include measu