This invention consists in a wayside monitoring system for automatic identification of vehicle instability situations (global assessment) and automatic identification of wheel defects (local assessment), by using Artificial Intelligence (AI) tecniques. This low cost monitoring system can identify the location, the type and the severity of the wheel defect, as well as, possible unbalance loads causing hunting movement from dynamic rail responses with a very reduced number of accelerometers/strain gauges. The system is composed by a sensor device designed to simplify the sensors installation, cables, acquisition system, gateway and a PC with the developed AI software.
The wayside control system market is a rapidly growing sector in the global economy, driven by advancements in railway engineering and the increasing demand for reliable, efficient, resilient and safe rail operations. Also, the adoption of advanced technologies such as AI and machine learning is pushing up the market’s growth. The proposed monitoring system is an intelligent wayside control system that can automatically monitor vehicle instabilities and the wheel condition, preventing derailments and optimizing the track availabity and reliability and maintenance costs. With this system it is possible to monitor both critical abnormal situations associated with rail transport operation, wheel geometric defects and load and hunting instability situations.
The proposed technology is able to identify multi-damage situations besides diagnosing the type, the severity and the location of the wheel defect and also detect vehicle instability situations, such as unbalanced loading and hunting movement. This monitoring system is a low-cost solution, easy to install, adaptable to the customer's needs that can monitor all types of railway vehicles, after calibration. The capability to detect and classify wheel defects and vehicle instability situations both separately and in combination represents a novel feature in the market.
This technology will result in a product: a low cost wayside monitoring system for automatic identification of the wheel condition and the vehicle instability in vehicle operation by using AI techniques. The developed sensor device designed to simplify the sensors installation is modular and clamped into the rail with no requirement for track structure modifications. Therefore, this system is adjustable to the needs of the customers. Both companies directly involved with the transportation sector of railway and metro systems and also manufacturers of railway equipment can benefit with this monitoring system.
