Patent ID: 9517779
Filing Date: 2016-12-13
CPC Classification: B61C,B61L

Claim Text:
1. A method comprising: onboard a first remote vehicle in a vehicle consist having at least a lead vehicle and two or more remote vehicles that include, the first remote vehicle, and a second remote vehicle, receiving a reply message from the second remote vehicle using transceiver circuitry in response to communication of a command message from the lead vehicle to the first remote vehicle and the second remote vehicle, the command message including a directive for controlling one or more operations of the first remote vehicle and the second remote vehicle, the reply message including a status of the second remote vehicle; receiving a retry message from the lead vehicle that identifies a subset of the two or more remote vehicles from which a reply message was not received by the lead vehicle, the subset identifying at least the second remote vehicle; combining the status of the second remote vehicle as received in the reply message communicated from the second remote vehicle with a status of one or more of the first remote vehicle or another remote vehicle in the vehicle consist at the first remote vehicle into a concatenated relayed message using one or more processors; and communicating the concatenated relayed message from the first remote vehicle to the lead vehicle using the transceiver circuitry such that the lead vehicle receives the status of the second remote vehicle.