Railway switch management system and/or method

Abstract

The system can include: a motion planner and a switch management system. The system can optionally include or operate in conjunction with a vehicle controller, a user interface (UI), and a track data system. However, the system 100 can additionally or alternatively include any other suitable set of components. The system functions to facilitate vehicle control and/or manage authority, in the form of exclusive track reservations, within a rail network. Additionally or alternatively, the system can function to manage switch positions (and/or operation based on switch positions) within a rail network.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A system for a rail network, the rail network comprising a plurality of switches and defining a track map, the system comprising:
 a switch management system comprising a database storing a switch state for each of the plurality of switches, the switch management system configured to:
 determine and maintain a set of switch reservations, each switch reservation associated with a respective switch of the plurality of switches, wherein the set of switch reservations defines, for the plurality of switches: a subset of reserved switches and remainder of unreserved switches, wherein each reserved switch is associated with at least one switch reservation; and 
 based on track rules for the track map, update switch states for unreserved switches of the plurality of switches in the database; 
   a motion planner communicatively coupled to a plurality of rail vehicles and the database, the motion planner configured to, for each rail vehicle of the plurality:
 determine a motion plan associated with a target state of a switch of the plurality; 
 based on the switch state of the switch, stored in the database, matching the target state, determine and maintain an exclusive track reservation defined relative to track coordinates of the track map; and 
 command traversal of the rail vehicle based on the exclusive track reservation and the motion plan.