Abstract: Method for controlling heat transfer between two objects. In one embodiment, the method includes providing a first current through a first electromagnet disposed about a container holding magnetorheological fluid to generate a first magnetic field such that particles in the magnetorheological fluid align with the first magnetic field to conductively couple a first conductive element to a second conductive element; and providing a second current through a second electromagnet disposed perpendicular to the first electromagnet to generate a second magnetic field perpendicular to the first magnetic field such that the particles in the magnetorheological fluid align with the second magnetic field to conductively uncouple the first conductive member from the second conductive member.

Abstract: Systems and methods for communicating through a rail are provided. In one embodiment, a method for communicating through a rail is provided. The method includes sending an acoustic signal through the rail of a designated section of track. The acoustic signal includes control commands to remotely control operation of a rail vehicle on the designated section of track.

Abstract: In order to measure a speed of a vehicle having an antenna and travelling on a track formed by two rails, first and second discontinuities are detected. The first discontinuity is detected in a current or voltage of a signal generated by an antenna when the vehicle passes a first tuning block of an electric joint. The second discontinuity is detected in a current or voltage of a signal generated by the antenna when the vehicle passes a second tuning block of the electric joint. The detected discontinuities are used to measure the speed of the vehicle travelling on a track divided in track sections separated by electric joints. Each electric joint includes two tuning blocks and a predetermined length of a track section, wherein each of the tuning blocks allows power coupling between adjacent track sections.

Abstract: A system and method of communicating via digital radio between a train and a device positioned at the wayside of a railway system, wherein the device detects defects at the wayside and information related to the defects is transmitted from the wayside to the train for display in the locomotive cab. A communications unit having a microprocessor control circuit and a transceiver is electrically coupled, preferably by serial connection, to the defect detector along the wayside. The transceiver of the communications unit is in radio communication with an existing transceiver in the head-of-train (HOT) unit located in the locomotive cab at the head-end of the train. The head-of-train unit has a microprocessor control circuit that drives a display which is preferably alphanumeric, for the purpose of displaying messages related to the defects detected by the defect detector at the wayside, and subsequently transmitted between the transceiver of the communications unit and the transceiver of the HOT unit.

Abstract: A track circuit is used in a railway plant or the like, and comprises a track segment which is isolated electrically from the adjacent segments by electrical splices which consist of a conductor connecting the rails in the shape of an "S" laid flat in the direction of the axis of the track. Stationary ground transmission and reception units we provided for each track segment, and on-board mobile reception units we provided on the trains in transit. The data or the information transmitted by the ground units to the on-board units being conveyed through the rails of each isolated track segment when the train is travelling thereon. According to the invention, with each track segment there is associated a compensation network consisting of capacitors connected to the rails of the track segment and suitably spaced apart. Particular embodiments are provided of the electrical splice and of the transmission/reception units.

Abstract: Driverless vehicles, confined to motion in one direction along a defined path divided into blocks, receive commands from a central unit in the form of encoded command signals radiated from an elongated radiator. Each vehicle progresses only while receiving signals regularly. The radiator comprises two parallel stretches, each extending all along the path but divided into sections, each section being as long as a block but extending across a block boundary, with a section of each stretch paired with a laterally adjacent section of the other stretch. In each section pair, the segment of one section that lies in one block is shielded, the remainder unshielded; the other section of the pair has opposite shielded and unshielded segments.