Evaluation of Sensing Technologies on Railway Vehicles—With Focus on Optical Sensors

Abstract

Sensing technology covers a wide range of functionalities, such as electromagnetic sensors (radar), optical sensors (imaging technologies, lidar, laser and infrared) as well as acoustic sensors (ultrasound), each of which are applied for specific uses. In recent years, sensing technologies have been widely adopted in various sectors, including the automotive, aviation and railway industries. Within the scope of this work, an investigation is carried out in order to determine the requirements, as well as potential applications, for the use of sensing technologies in the monitoring of railway vehicles, infrastructure and the areas surrounding railway vehicles. An advantage of optical sensors is their ability to monitor the status of detail-rich systems. The applications of high-dynamic-range CMOS imagers (HDRC®) cover a large range of fields with high reliability and performance. In contrast to the traditional discrete contact sensors, which require installation at several detection points, HDRC® cameras are capable of monitoring multiple components simultaneously with a smaller number of contactless optical sensors. In specific, the application and development of a photometric sensing system for railway vehicles will be proposed and investigated in this paper. The system is to be focused on temperature measurement, safety supervision in industrial manufacturing and vibration detection. In addition, requirements and cases of optical sensor application will be specified. The implementation of this technology seeks to achieve more efficient and economical processes for the production of railway vehicles (e.g. monitoring of highly-dynamic welding and cutting procedures with PyroCam), safety supervision in industrial manufacturing, and condition based maintenance (CBM).