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A locomotive emissions reduction kit and method of earning emission credits enables an auxiliary power unit dedicated to a locomotive diesel engine allowing shutdown of such engine in all weather conditions, thereby significantly reducing exhaust emissions. An auxiliary power unit made up of a secon

A locomotive emissions reduction kit and method of earning emission credits enables an auxiliary power unit dedicated to a locomotive diesel engine allowing shutdown of such engine in all weather conditions, thereby significantly reducing exhaust emissions. An auxiliary power unit made up of a secondary engine with substantially lower exhaust emissions coupled to an electrical generator is provided. An automatic control system shuts down the locomotive engine after a period of idling and the auxiliary power unit provides electrical power for heating and air conditioning. In cold weather, the auxiliary power unit maintains the locomotive engine coolant and lube oil warm to facilitate engine restart. The coolant system is kept warm using a heat exchanger and electrical heaters. The lube oil system is kept warm using a recirculating pump and electrical heaters. A geographic position determination unit generates locomotive location information. Data recording instruments process and record information concerning locomotive engine and auxiliary engine activity for monitoring geographical position, emissions, and fuel levels of the locomotive engine and its corresponding auxiliary unit.

대표청구항 ▼

A locomotive emissions reduction kit and method of earning emission credits enables an auxiliary power unit dedicated to a locomotive diesel engine allowing shutdown of such engine in all weather conditions, thereby significantly reducing exhaust emissions. An auxiliary power unit made up of a secon

A locomotive emissions reduction kit and method of earning emission credits enables an auxiliary power unit dedicated to a locomotive diesel engine allowing shutdown of such engine in all weather conditions, thereby significantly reducing exhaust emissions. An auxiliary power unit made up of a secondary engine with substantially lower exhaust emissions coupled to an electrical generator is provided. An automatic control system shuts down the locomotive engine after a period of idling and the auxiliary power unit provides electrical power for heating and air conditioning. In cold weather, the auxiliary power unit maintains the locomotive engine coolant and lube oil warm to facilitate engine restart. The coolant system is kept warm using a heat exchanger and electrical heaters. The lube oil system is kept warm using a recirculating pump and electrical heaters. A geographic position determination unit generates locomotive location information. Data recording instruments process and record information concerning locomotive engine and auxiliary engine activity for monitoring geographical position, emissions, and fuel levels of the locomotive engine and its corresponding auxiliary unit. Will, "Docking in Self-Reconfigurable Robots," in International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2001, Hawaii. Nilsson, M. "Why Snake Robots Need Torsion-free Joints and How to Design Them," in Proceedings of International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 1998. I.-M. Chen and J. Burdick, "Enumerating the Non-isomorphic Assembly Configurations of Modular Robotic Systems," in Proc. IEEE/RSJ Intl. Conf. Intell. Robots Systems, pp. 1985-1992, 1993. S. Farritor, S. Dubowsky, N. Rutman, and J. Cole, "A Systems-level Modular Design Approach to Field Robotics," in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Robotics Automat., pp. 2890-2895, 1996. A. Castano, W.-M. Shen, and P. Will, "CONRO: Towards Deployable Robots with Inter-robot Metamorphic Capabilities," Autonomous Robots Journal, vol. 8, pp. 309-324, Aug. 2000. Yim M., (1994) "New Locomotion Gaits," in Proc. IEEE Intl. Conf. Robot. Autom., 2508-2514, 1994. Poi G., Scarebeo C., Allota B., (1998) "Traveling Wave Locomotion Hyper-redundant Mobile Robot," in Proc. IEEE Intl. Conf. Robot. Autom., 418-423, 1998. I.-M. Chen and J. Burdick, "Determining Task Optimal Modular Robot Assembly Configurations," in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Robotics Automat., pp. 1132-1137, 1995. G. Chirikjian and J. Burdick, "Kinematics of Hyper-redundant Robot Locomotions with Applications to Grasping," in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Robotics Automat., pp. 720-725, 1991. K. Furuta and M. Sampei, "Path Control of a Three-dimensional Linear Motional Mechanical System Using Laser," IEEE Trans. Industrial Electronics, 35(1): 52-59, Feb. 1988. R. Wallace and J.M. Selig, "Scaling Direct Drive Robots," in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Robotics Automat., pp. 2947-2953, 1995. G. Chirikjian, A. Pamecha, "Bounds for Self-Reconfiguration of Metamorphic Robots," Proceedings of the 1996 IEEE International