| CPC B61L 15/0081 (2013.01) [B60L 3/102 (2013.01); B60L 2200/26 (2013.01)] | 17 Claims |

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1. A method for determining a movement state of a wheel of a rail vehicle relative to a rail traversed by the wheel of the rail vehicle, the method comprising:
using a camera focused on a wheel-rail region on the rail vehicle to capture successive images of the wheel-rail region, the wheel-rail region containing at least a sub-region of a wheel of the rail vehicle and at least a sub-region of a rail to be traversed by the wheel;
ascertaining a region in the images along which the sub-regions of the wheel and the rail are in contact;
in a first image of the sub-region of the rail, ascertaining at least a characteristic point being clearly optically recognizable in the first image and in subsequent images;
in a first image of the sub-region of the wheel, ascertaining at least one characteristic point being clearly recognizable in the first image and in the subsequent images;
determining respective distances of the characteristic points from the contact region for successive images;
determining a movement state of the wheel from a change in the distance of the characteristic points from the contact region, resulting from the successive images; and
performing at least one determining step selected from the group consisting of:
group 1) determining rolling as the movement state of the wheel when both: the distance between the contact region and the characteristic point of the sub-region of the rail, and the distance between the contact region and the characteristic point of the sub-region of the wheel, change equally and in the same direction;
group 2) determining skidding as the movement state of the wheel when: the distance between the contact region and the characteristic point of the sub-region of the wheel changes, and the distance between the contact region and the characteristic point of the sub-region of the rail remains substantially unchanged; and
group 3) determining sliding as the movement state of the wheel when: the distance between the contact region and the characteristic point of the sub-region of the rail changes, and the distance between the contact region and the characteristic point of the sub-region of the wheel remains substantially unchanged.
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