Patent ID: 9481385
Filing Date: 2016-11-01
CPC Classification: B61L,G01R

Claim Text:
1. A method comprising: monitoring an electrical characteristic of a first route when an electric current is injected into the first route, the first route having a crossing intersection with a second route and a crossing signal at the crossing intersection, the electrical characteristic monitored to detect when a vehicle is approaching the crossing intersection on the first route and to determine when to activate the crossing signal at the crossing intersection; identifying one or more changes in the electrical characteristic of the first route; and based on the one or more changes that are identified, predicting a failure mode of the first route that interferes with detection of the vehicle approaching the crossing intersection, wherein the failure mode of the first route that is predicted includes a foreign object shunt conductively coupling the conductive rails of the first route, and wherein the foreign object shunt is predicted as the failure mode responsive to a relationship between the electrical characteristic of the first route and the different locations of the moving shunt created by the vehicle along the first route having a linear portion joined to a non-linear and curved portion of the relationship.