Traditional pantograph detection technology has installed a large number of various types of sensors on the pantograph, which is not conducive to the flow characteristics of the pantograph. Traditional detection technology can neither monitor the operation status of the pantograph in real time, nor guarantee the safe operation of the entire train. The existing schemes are only manual solutions, and intelligent real-time monitoring is performed without error, and a lot of labor costs are required. Focusing on the shortcomings of traditional pantographs in sliding plate wear and sliding plate crack detection, an improved mean filtering algorithm is proposed to optimize the image of pantograph, and the adaptive Canny edge detection technology is used to accurately calculate the skateboard wear. Firstly, the improved image algorithm is used to pre-treat the pantograph slide wear and crack length, then the improved mean filtering algorithm is combined with adaptive Canny operator for image optimization detection, and finally the edge calculation is used for crack identification. An optimized real-time on-line detection technology is proposed, which can accurately measure the wear and tear of skateboards and cracks. For different experimental environments, the optimization algorithm proposed in this paper is used to detect pantographs in real time. The experimental results show that, compared with the traditional detection algorithm, the detection accuracy of sliding plate wear can reach 0.5 mm, and and that of sliding plate cracks can reach 0.4 mm. The crack recognition accuracy of skates is as high as 93%.INDEX TERMS Adaptive canny edge monitoring, dynamic calibration filtering, pantograph failure detection, second generation curve wave, edge computing.