Wireless Sensor Networks for Condition Monitoring in the Railway Industry: A Survey

Abstract

In recent years, the range of sensing technologies has expanded rapidly, whereas sensor devices have become cheaper. This has led to a rapid expansion in condition monitoring of systems, structures, vehicles, and machinery using sensors. Key factors are the recent advances in networking technologies such as wireless communication and mobile ad hoc networking coupled with the technology to integrate devices. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) can be used for monitoring the railway infrastructure such as bridges, rail tracks, track beds, and track equipment along with vehicle health monitoring such as chassis, bogies, wheels, and wagons. Condition monitoring reduces human inspection requirements through automated monitoring, reduces maintenance through detecting faults before they escalate, and improves safety and reliability. This is vital for the development, upgrading, and expansion of railway networks. This paper surveys these wireless sensors network technology for monitoring in the railway industry for analyzing systems, structures, vehicles, and machinery. This paper focuses on practical engineering solutions, principally, which sensor devices are used and what they are used for; and the identification of sensor configurations and network topologies. It identifies their respective motivations and distinguishes their advantages and disadvantages in a comparative review.

Promoting the Quality Level of Signaling in Railway Transportation System Taking Advantage from Wireless Sensor Networks Technology

“…The wireless sensor network is a distributed, autonomous and self-organizing system comprised of large number of small sensor nodes whose operation requires low energy [5].…”

“…The wireless receiver network collects information about safety of railway infrastructure when the train is moving along rail lines and then transmits it to the base station [4]. Figure 2 indicates the situation monitoring by a wireless sensor network [5]. As you can see, sensor nodes located on board are also connected to related objects such as rails, tunnels, locomotive, wagons and bridges, and transmit the collected data by Bluetooth or Wi-Fi technology to the base station.…”

State-of-the-Art Review of Railway Track Resilience Monitoring

“…It is noted that wired systems seem to be commonly used at large scales. However, due to their own limitations, this technique requires high cost and complex installation processes that are inconvenient [12] and have led to the adoption of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) as an alternative approach [13]. Besides providing real time monitoring and alert for preventing damage and failure [14], this technique can improve the decision making process in maintenance based on failure prediction rather than on routine operations or execution of work after failure.…”

“…In terms of time, the wireless sensing units can be installed with ease and completed in approximately half the time of the wired monitoring system because they require less labor-intensive work and no special care to ensure safe placement of wires on the structure [17]. However, it is preferable to combine periodic visual inspection and a WSN condition monitoring system for maintaining railway structures, as this enables an effective periodic inspection of structures depending on the degree of importance of each monitored component based on the detailed data supplied by the WSN [13].…”

Comprehensive Bridge Health Evaluation Method Based on Information Fusion

“…Most methods depend on accurate structural model and known excitation system heavily. The safety assessment is achieved with reduction degree of structural stiffness [1,2]. The health safety assessment of bridge always regards structural damage identification as premise, namely firstly determine existence of damage and locate it, then evaluate safety status of structure with stiffness reduction.…”