US 12,296,878 B1
System and method to predict clearance when transporting equipment on railway
Marco A. Poisler, Houston, TX (US)
Assigned to UTC OVERSEAS, INC., Houston, TX (US)
Filed by UTC Overseas, Inc., Houston, TX (US)
Filed on Dec. 5, 2024, as Appl. No. 18/970,468.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/709,301, filed on Oct. 18, 2024.
Int. Cl. B61L 27/70 (2022.01); B61L 27/57 (2022.01)
CPC B61L 27/70 (2022.01) [B61L 27/57 (2022.01)] 28 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
obtaining input data with one or more interfaces in a computing environment, the input data at least including (i) mapping data associated with one or more railway routes, (ii) clearance data associated with the one or more railway routes, and (iii) schematic data at least associated with a load to be transported on a railcar; and
operating one or more artificial intelligence models on one or more processors in the computing environment to:
determine dimensional parameters associated with the load carried on the railcar by processing the schematic data of at least the load;
define a transport envelope of the load carried on the railcar based on the dimensional parameters;
determine one or more metrics characterizing the transport envelope of the load carried on the railcar clearing the clearance data on the one or more railway routes;
determine that the one or more metrics for each of the one or more railway routes fail to meet a criterion; and
determine, based on the one or more metrics, at least one recommendation for the transport envelope of the load carried on the railcar to clear the clearance data on the one or more railway routes by:
defining at least a maximum clearance window along at least one of the one or more railway routes having the one or more metrics closest to meeting the criterion;
determining at least one alternative railcar to replace at least the railcar to transport the load to match the maximum clearance window; and
generating output information indicative of the at least one of the one or more railway routes to transport the load carried on the at least one alternative railcar.