Patent Document ID: 20020109049
Application ID: 09983675
Patent Flag: 0

Claim One:
1. A method of locating a rail vehicle on a rail track which includes the following steps: measuring the speed of said vehicle at different times using means providing an approximate value of the actual speed of said vehicle; measuring an inertial magnitude at different times using a single inertial sensor disposed on board said vehicle, said inertial magnitude being chosen to depend only on said speed of said vehicle and a geometrical characteristic specific to said track; calculating an abscissa of said vehicle on said track by means of a convergent algorithm based on a non-linear observer, from known values of the measured approximate speed of said vehicle at different times preceding the time at which said vehicle is to be located, said measurements of said inertial magnitude and a database in which said geometrical characteristics specific to said track and its spatial derivative are stored for different curvilinear abscissae, said database being obtained by a learning process conducted beforehand.