Abstract: A parking brake for a rail vehicle can automatically lock the rail vehicle brakes in an applied position, such as by clamping the brake cylinder push rod to prevent retraction from an applied position to a release position. An actuator can operate the parking brake, and a manual release can also be provided.

Abstract: A parking brake for a rail vehicle can automatically lock the rail vehicle brakes in an applied position, such as by clamping the brake cylinder push rod to prevent retraction from an applied position to a release position. An actuator can operate the parking brake, and a manual release can also be provided.

Abstract: An engine misfire detection system (10) for detecting engine misfire. System (10) includes a conventional controller (12) having a memory unit (14) and a plurality of sensors (16). Controller (12) includes a plurality of neural networks, which are trained by system (10), and which determine whether a firing event is a misfire based upon events occurring before the firing event and events occurring after the firing event. The neural networks are adaptively trained to compensate for the effects of engine variability and aging.

Abstract: A diagnostic envelope is used to analyze measurements from an internal combustion engine. Measurements may be from a partially assembled engine during a cold test to detect subtle mechanical anomalies, or from a fully assembled engine during a cold test or a hot test (with active fuel and spark). The measurements represent vibrational amplitudes corresponding to various crankshaft angular positions of the internal combustion engine. The first step in generating the diagnostic envelope includes filtering the measurements to enhance local variations. Filtered measurements representing a number of engine cycles are then combined to reduce random cycle-to-cycle variations. The diagnostic envelope is then generated by subtracting corresponding measurements obtained from engines with known operating characteristics. The diagnostic envelope is used in analyzing and/or classifying the engine.

Abstract: A predictive model is derived for subsequent use in a misfire detector in an internal combustion engine. Data collected using a test engine is curve-fitted using NARMAX techniques to obtain a computational formula for the predictive model which relates deviant acceleration at the accessible crankshaft section to deviant acceleration at the inaccessible crankshaft section. Thus, the model can be used during actual misfire detection to reduce the effects of the torsional oscillations.

Abstract: A method of automating the calibration of lookup tables containing correction values to be used in an on-board vehicle system is disclosed. The method includes training a neural network to model engine behavior by outputting cylinder specific crankshaft acceleration correction values in response to any engine speed and load input conditions. The correction values generated are stored in a memory device. The training takes place off-board the vehicle, using a data set previously obtained from operating a representative engine under normal operating conditions.

Abstract: Irregularities in crankshaft velocity introduced when measuring crankshaft rotation at a section of a crankshaft in an internal combustion engine that is less damped to torsional oscillations than is another more accessible crankshaft section are corrected using a NARMAX-generated model to predict rotation measurements that would have been obtained at the inaccessible section based on data actually collected at the accessible crankshaft section. Thus, the effects of torsional oscillations in the crankshaft are substantially filtered away, resulting in crankshaft acceleration values that form the basis of a misfire detector having nearly maximum signal-to-noise performance.

Abstract: A method for identifying engine combustion failure of an internal combustion engine having a plurality of cylinders, a crankshaft and a crankshaft position sensor includes the steps of operating the internal combustion engine to rotate the crankshaft, measuring rotational quantities of the crankshaft corresponding to events created by each of the plurality of cylinders during operation of the internal combustion engine, correcting the rotational quantities measured to remove periodic position irregularities to generate a corrected temporal signal, generating an acceleration signal of the crankshaft using the corrected temporal signals, and identifying combustion failures as a function of the acceleration signal. A time-lagged recurrent neural network utilizes the acceleration signal, along with other engine parameters to identify the cylinder-specific misfire events.