Development of a Wireless Track Recording Vehicle with a Low Environmental Impact: An Approach for Enhancing Railway Track Safety Standards

Abstract

Transportation is a vital component of contemporary civilization since it improves mobility that is a key indicator of a society's success. Cars, trucks, aircraft, and trains are among the various forms of transportation utilized across the World. Rail transportation, like other means of transportation, has grown in popularity over the years. The International Energy Agency has addressed the benefits and the railways' future as a potential one in a debate. Keeping in view the growth of environmentally friendly utilities that are now capturing the market. Mehran UET, NCRA-CMS lab has designed a Track Recording Vehicle (TRV) prototype as a replacement for the current Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) driven Track Recording Vehicles in accordance with the present need for green goods that can meet green market needs. Traditional Track Recording Vehicles (TRVs) are trains with Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) that use gallons of fossil energy to run. The newly created TRV runs on a rechargeable battery and can detect track defects such as squats and turn out frogs more effectively than previous ICE-based TRVs using an accelerometer module and logistic regression. Practically, the designed instrument was tested on actual track. Due to its optimal wheelset design, the TRV can successfully detect railway track surface faults like squats that were not possible by using the traditional ICE based TRVs due to their large wheel diameter. The results demonstrated that an instrument may be deployed to evaluate the railway track's serviceability; implying that this method supports safety requirements.