Wireless Railway Condition Monitoring

Final Report Summary - WIRAILCOM (Wireless Railway Condition Monitoring)

Executive Summary:
Advancements in wireless communication, energy harvesting technologies and the increase in capacity for localised processing, underpin the design of condition monitoring networks suitable for retrofitting to vehicles with minimal levels of cost and effort. Such systems have a number of potential applications including semi-permanent installation for ongoing monitoring of high value assets; or temporary installations that can be used to troubleshoot or provide a localised “health check” for a lower value asset where a longer term installation may be more difficult to justify financially. The objectives achieved in WiRailCom will overcome one of the main limiting factors for the monitoring of railway assets which is the costly and technically prohibitive installation of cables to carry power and data signals from vehicle to vehicle and to the wider railway infrastructure. The primary function of the WiRailCom system is as a lightweight monitoring solution for temporary freight and passenger rolling stock monitoring, extending to more permanent applications as required. This report summarises the project context and the primary objectives of the work undertaken. It goes onto cover the technical and scientific objectives achieved which include the successful delivery of a wireless inspection system consisting of a wireless module, sensor module, energy harvesting module and controlling application. The report concludes with a summary of potential impacts that the project has generated and may proceed to generate through further exploitation
Project Context and Objectives:
In line with the pan-European policy to cut carbon emissions from road vehicles, the European rail network is targeting a considerable expansion with an estimated 43% increase in commercial passenger travel and a 70% increase in freight by 2020. Achieving these targets requires increased reliability and availability of vehicles and track whilst maintaining the same level of safety. Railway operators rely on remote condition monitoring (RCM) of assets to enable continued safety and efficiency. It is not currently cost effective to monitor every asset; some assets do not use any technology and are therefore difficult to append with modern electronic systems. Usually, the power and the data systems already present are not available or inadequate to interface with a new monitoring system. In particular, cable installation is a barrier to technology uptake because the costs can be prohibitive. This creates a block to external stakeholders, such as monitoring system providers, as they find it difficult to enter the market. There is a requirement for a cost effective solution that overcomes these technical barriers. The application of wireless sensor networks addresses the problems faced by SMEs in the sector as it removes the requirement for data cabling. Appending this technology with energy harvesting further reduces the need for cabling to power the equipment. The wireless technology market is rapidly expanding in many sectors and wireless inspection and monitoring is now commonplace. However, there is still a significant opportunity for SMEs to penetrate the European railway market.

The objectives achieved in WiRailCom will overcome one of the main limiting factors for the monitoring of railway assets which is the costly and technically prohibitive installation of cables to carry power and data signals from vehicle to vehicle and to the wider railway infrastructure. Modern railway vehicles incorporate a significant level of built-in condition monitoring. The component condition monitoring systems are interfaced to vehicle management units to support whole life operation, cross fleet learning, fault detection and management, knowledge acquisition and decision support for vehicle operators and maintainers. Such systems are made possible by the close incorporation of the component systems with the vehicle infrastructure, including core data communication busses, train management units and remote communications equipment. Retrofitting condition monitoring systems to existing rolling stock can bring a number of similar benefits. Railway freight locomotive/wagon operators employ preventative maintenance regimes which involve costly dismantling and inspection of components such as axles, bearings and gearboxes. The cost of extracting a wheelset and dismantling an axle housing or gear assembly represents a significant part of the cost of freight maintenance. For example, a maintainer will routinely remove a gear set from a power train to test the integrity of bearings. This requires dropping the gear box out of the locomotive and fitting it into a test rig. The test rig allows the gearbox to be driven enabling relatively easy diagnosis of condition of the internal components. However, the significant effort required to extract the gear box means that the cost of inspecting a good bearing is comparable with repairing a bad one. Therefore, there is an opportunity to make significant savings in this, and other maintenance activities, through the implementation of condition monitoring.

Advancements in wireless communication, energy harvesting technologies and the increase in capacity for localised processing, underpin the design of condition monitoring networks suitable for retrofitting to vehicles with minimal levels of cost and effort. Such systems have a number of potential applications including semi-permanent installation for ongoing monitoring of high value assets; or temporary installations that can be used to troubleshoot or provide a localised “health check” for a lower value asset where a longer term installation may be more difficult to justify financially.

During the interaction with industry stakeholders it was established that there was potential in the development of standardised, yet extensible, framework for rolling stock condition monitoring. This proposed solution promises rapid deployment of a wireless network without significant installation, set up and configuration effort by the user. Extending this network with the capability to ‘plug and play’ various transducers and sensors provides the operator with additional flexibility to measure and monitor their rolling stock. The high level objective of WiRailCom was to develop a wireless condition monitoring solution to open up a market for the European SMEs involved. The key technological developments include the introduction of state of the art concepts such as energy harvesting and wireless data transfer technology. Exploitation of the project results will lead to the development of a supply chain based on RCM equipment, wireless systems, energy harvesting systems, condition monitoring software and hardware and systems integration with legacy railway systems. The high level objective was to deliver improvements through the application of advanced technology to the design of assets and the associated maintenance cycle.

Project Results:
During the early period of the project some significant work was undertaken to analyse the requirements for wireless monitoring from the SME's perspective. From this analysis three scenarios for monitoring were identified to align the technical contribution from the tasks. In conjunction with this analysis the capability of current energy harvesting technology was reviewed along with the likely sources of energy for the proposed application. This included the estimation of the amount of power that is likely to be required during measurement and data transfer.

An investigation of the specification for testing the wireless network in the context of the proposed scenarios was undertaken. This work is based on an existing wireless protocol designed by project partner Senceive and built upon the IEEE 802.15.4 standard. In order to avoid commercial crossover with Senceive’s technology the decision was made to implement their existing proprietary interface and develop a wireless network that can integrate sensors through a common interface as shown below.

During the second phase of the project work some baseline testing was performed to assess the amount of energy that could be generated from typical engine and wagon arrangements. This involved the application of prototype test equipment and developed circuits. The outcome of this work is the information necessary to enable the complete prototype design for the energy harvesting and power management system. This work forms the groundwork for the successful delivery of WP5 – ‘Development of Energy Harvesting System’.

A prototype specification for the development of hardware that will measure vibration and acoustic signals from bearings and gearboxes has been completed. The earlier stage of the project allowed the researchers to gain an appreciation of the characteristics of the physical domain that could impinge on the performance of the resulting system. This included the amount of potential energy available, the performance of the network in the infrastructure environment and any safety implications. Further to this early work the partners have collaborated to undertake the following technical progress:

* Energy Harvesting: Two independent energy harvesting systems were developed with the purpose of enabling generic energy harvesting and also a specific design for WiRailCom. The earlier design was aimed at either thermoelectric generation, vibration energy harvesting, or a combination of the two using a lithium ion battery for storage. A circuit design was developed and fabricated as a printed circuit assembly. This system supported early stage assessment of the potential energy available. As the technical characteristics of the wireless monitoring solution for the project matured, more accurate estimates of the power demands became available. This resulted in a design iteration and a refinement of the power management function of the harvester. A second energy harvesting circuit made provision for communication with the sensor modules of the network resulting in increased efficiency of operation. The refined circuit design resulted in a smaller footprint and also utilised super capacitor storage resulting in a lower maintenance solution and an overall smaller package. A robust housing for enclosing the hardware and interfacing to the wireless network function was designed and manufactured.

* Network development: The wireless backbone was further developed to interface the sensor module under development. A technical interface was developed to enable the wireless modules to communicate with the sensor module. The technical specification of the interface between the two components is part hardware and part embedded software. The specification of this design was key to enabling stakeholders to take up the technology and implement their own solutions. This interface specification has therefore been published for use in general applications by project stakeholders.

* Sensor module hardware development: A circuit design for an embedded controller was undertaken and populated as a printed circuit assembly. This unit enabled the development of the embedded code that would ultimately provide the interface between the wireless network and the sensor functions. The key to this design was a device that allowed for flexible control of the power demands through efficient code design, sleep/wake up functions and also control of the frequency of operation.

* Sensor module embedded code development: since the design of the harvester was dependent on the power demands of the sensor module, the development of the embedded code became an important driving factor. The algorithms developed to be deployed on the wireless architecture were required to provide the necessary level of measurement and monitoring while also maintaining an achievable level of power demand. Some significant experimentation was undertaken through early lab integration of the sensor and energy harvesting modules to achieve an effective solution for WiRailCom.

* Integration of the component parts of the system was performed at a test site in the UK using working locomotive on an existing test track. The system was mounted on the vehicle and a number of facets of the design were checked for satisfactory functionality. This enabled the consortium to assess any deficiencies in the design with respect to the prospective deployment in the field. The lessons learned from field testing were subsequently implemented in further laboratory based trials.

* Interface and user display Software: In order to provide demonstration of the overall function of the working system a software interface was required. The purpose of the software interface was to support the demonstration of the plug and play nature of the sensor modules, coordinate the wireless network and channel messages from sensor modules up to a centralised communication platform for wider distribution. The partners put together a lab based exercise that included the assessment of faulty assets and allowed the demonstration of the three working scenarios devised in the early stages of the project. These scenarios are defined as: 1) Structural health monitoring of older model freight locomotives, 2) Temporary monitoring of wagon components such as axle components using a wireless network chain between adjacent vehicles. 3) Installation of a semi-permanent system on a fleet of passenger trains to help diagnose bearing and gearbox faults.

Potential Impact:
It is expected that the output from the project will create significant impact and economic value for the consortium SMEs through the development of an innovative wireless condition monitoring technology for monitoring rolling stock. The owners and operators of railway installations are large, privately owned utilities or government institutions. Recent business trends have seen these companies outsourcing their entire condition monitoring and inspection requirements to SME companies. A large percentage of monitoring equipment manufacturers in Europe are SMEs. Thus SMEs survey, inspect, repair and maintain railway components and structures on behalf of the owner and operators. The project will give the consortium SMEs a competitive edge in the European rail industry inspection business and will enable significant technological progress towards a new market opportunity. A successful outcome of the project will open up market opportunities for the SME partners in their respective technical areas by enabling safer transport of freight throughout Europe. The experience and developments gained in WiRailCom will place the SMEs in good stead to access emerging markets in USA, Asia and India.

The wider benefits of the project are both direct and indirect. The direct benefits to the European Union are:
• new market opportunities for European SMEs in the face of growing competition from American and Far Eastern competitors (Estimated €100s millions)
• increase in income for the SME partners through sales and licensing of project deliverables (Estimated €10s millions)
• new job opportunities suited to both male and female employees (estimated 100s)
• increased security for existing employees (estimated 100s).

The indirect benefits to the European railways are:
• the project has made significant technical progress in a challenging area. Evidence that other providers are moving in to this domain demonstrates that the project aligns with industry needs and that there are opportunities for significant impact. The successful outcome will benefit the European railway community since it will allow the players to implement a flexible solution in an ad-hoc manner, moving away from the rigidity of hardwired legacy systems. This is in the spirit of the “internet of things” where technology developers are leading users along a route towards ubiquitous networking and complete monitoring. While the rail network could not tolerate such an architecture in totality, because the sensitivity and security of measurement data, there are facets of such technology which promise huge advantages in operational cost savings.

The primary function of the WiRailCom prototype is as a lightweight monitoring solution for temporary freight and passenger rolling stock monitoring, extending to more permanent applications as required. There is also no reason why the system could not be targeted at infrastructure applications though some additional assessment and development may need to be made regarding infrastructure energy harvesting. The expected outcome is a working prototype that can be used to demonstrate to potential stakeholders for further development to a high TRL solution.

The modular architecture followed in WiRailCom is a proposed benefit because the modules can be independently exploited. The beneficiaries can take a network module, sensor module, energy harvesting module or a combination of these facets to suit their own requirements. However, the key selling point that the project targeted was the wireless backbone, that allows a stakeholder to acquire a system and deploy it in a manner that suits their monitoring requirements. The project posed a number of demonstration scenarios that aligns with the concept of plug and play sensor network.

A major incentive for the industry and therefore the feature offering the greatest impact is the opportunity to deploy the technology without additional cabling installation. As discussed in the original proposal for the project, the installation of cabling is prohibiting factor for monitoring technology uptake. This is because the stakeholders cannot justify the installation and ongoing maintenance of cabling which subsequently has to endure the rigours of the railway environment.

* Dissemination: the project manager supported the project through ongoing dissemination and planning for exploitation. The dissemination included presentation of the project at industry events (including the IETs Railway Condition Monitoring conference, Birmingham, 2014) and through other mechanisms such as poster and flyer presentation at a stand hosted by the University of Birmingham at Innotrans 2014. Two publications were generated during the project development covering the general project concept (“An extensible framework architecture for wireless condition monitoring applications for railway rolling stock”) and the more specific technical developments (Low-power embedded system approach for axlebox bearing condition monitoring) at the IET Railway Condition Monitoring Conference, 2014. A third paper has been generated for presentation at the IMechE - The Stephenson Conference - Research for Railways. A general article summarising the project scope was published on the European Railway Review’s Website in November 2014. In additional to these specific activities, a number of other mechanism have been utilised to disseminate the project results including internal and external communications from TWI’s own network and poster presentation at TWI stand at the Advanced Engineering Event 2014.

TWI also hosted a website on behalf of the consortium with the domain name www.wirailcom.eu. The website provides a public area for dissemination of information about the WiRailCom project. The website includes a “Contacts” page; when information is requested via this page the enquiry is sent to all the partners.

* Exploitation: The WiRailCom project will deliver an integrated monitoring solution that will meet the condition monitoring requirements of the European railway community. Exploitation of the project results will lead to the development of a supply chain based on RCM equipment, wireless systems, energy harvesting systems, condition monitoring software and hardware and systems integration with legacy railway systems. This system can be marketed by its subsystems or as a complete solution depending on the requirement. This means that the WiRailCom system can be commercialised as a complete system through a joint effort by the partners, or by individual exploitation by the relevant partners. The high level objective is to deliver improvements through the application of advanced technology to the design of assets and the associated maintenance cycle.

An agreement still has to be finalised but it expected that sales of the WiRailCom system in the market between Senceive, Reuschling, BK-Telematics and Airtren. The terms of the agreement for sales and terms and obligations for ongoing support to customers will be devised on full commercialisation of the project results.

List of Websites:
www.wirailcom.eu

Final Report Summary - WIRAILCOM (Wireless Railway Condition Monitoring)

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