Application of machine learning techniques toward time-based change in track condition using an onboard sensor in revenue-service rolling stock

Condition monitoring of rail infrastructure is an important task to ensure safety and ride quality. The increasing travel demands of the rail network due to higher miles traveled requires regular monitoring of the infrastructure and efficient processing of the data for timely decision-making. Despite the regular data collection on different parameters such as acceleration and track geometry, the data processing is commonly performed to document the track performance and maintenance without further knowledge discovery to realize all the potential from historical data. Motivated by the wealth of historical track data in practice, this paper investigates the feasibility of using onboard data that is repeatedly collected over a period of time on a segment of the track to potentially identify changes to the track. The proposed approach has been envisioned to learn from repeated historical time-series data to identify both the location and timing of unexpected changes to the track system. To account for stochastic nature of the collected data, associated with the temporal mismatch between the time-series across different inspection runs, the research team proposes a framework by adopting the concept of Matrix Profile without relying on time series synchronization. The approach divides the entire data into smaller track segments, performs extensive similarity search of time-series signatures, and associate locations with higher dissimilarity to changes of the track either due to maintenance or a potential defect. To demonstrate the efficacy and potential of the method, evaluation on both synthetic data and the field geometry data from a revenue-service Class I railroad has been conducted. The findings provide promising results in predicting the location of track changes with a reasonably high degree of certainty, with automated offline analysis.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $75000
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3551747132

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg

  Virginia Tech Transportation Institute
  3500 Transportation Research Plaza
  Blacksburg, VA  United States  24061
• Project Managers:

  Ahmedian, Mehdi

• Performing Organizations:

  Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg

  Virginia Tech Transportation Institute
  3500 Transportation Research Plaza
  Blacksburg, VA  United States  24061
• Principal Investigators:

  Jazizadeh, Farrokh

• Start Date: 20190901
• Expected Completion Date: 20230930
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Data analysis; Data collection; Feasibility analysis; Machine learning; Maintenance of way; Railroad tracks; Sensors; Structural health monitoring; Time series analysis
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Maintenance and Preservation; Railroads;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01704513
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: University Transportation Center on Improving Rail Transportation Infrastructure Sustainability and Durability
• Contract Numbers: 69A3551747132
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: May 8 2019 1:30PM