Patent ID: 8615110

Claim:
A method for automated track surveying and maintaining ditching along a railway and comprising the steps of: moving a survey vehicle along a section of said railway; obtaining survey vehicle position coordinates of said survey vehicle at intervals spaced along said section of railway using a survey vehicle position coordinate system; optically scanning said railway at each of said intervals to obtain optical data points, each of said optical data points having position coordinates associated therewith; logging position coordinates of drainage points along said railway section; processing said optical data points to obtain ditch profiles corresponding to said intervals and extending in a plane oriented transverse to said railway section; providing planar ditch templates oriented transverse to said railway section and associated with said intervals corresponding to ditch contours required to promote positive drainage toward respective ones of said drainage points; graphically overlaying said ditch profiles of said intervals on ditch templates corresponding to said intervals to form ditch overlays displaying soil to be excavated or deposited to eliminate differences between said ditch templates and said ditch profiles at said intervals; displaying said ditch overlays corresponding to locations of an excavating tool of an excavator vehicle supported on and moveable along said railway section to enable an excavator operator to move the excavating tool of the excavator vehicle to excavate or deposit soil in a ditch to obtain a ditch profile at an interval similar to the ditch template associated therewith; referencing horizontal locations of said ditch profiles and said ditch templates and a horizontal position coordinate of said excavation tool to a center line extending longitudinally between tops of rails of said railway and intersecting a vertical axis; and referencing vertical locations of said ditch profiles and said ditch templates and a vertical position coordinate of said excavation tool to a transverse axis extending through said tops of said rails perpendicular to said center line and intersecting said vertical axis.