Automatic Detection of Train Arrival Through An Accelerometer

L. Angrisani1, D.Grillo2, R. Schiano Lo Moriello1

1

Giovanni Filo
Ansaldo STS Via Paolo Mantovani 3/5, 16152, Genova, Italia. Filo.Giovanni@asf.ansaldo.it

Dipartimento di Informatica e Sistemistica 2 Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica Universit di Napoli Federico II Via Claudio 21, 80125 Napoli, Italia.

AbstractThe paper deals with the problem of train arrival detection in tracks maintenance sites. Worker safety has, in fact, to be guaranteed and injuries due to undetected train transits are, unfortunately, very common. Several solutions have already been presented based either on human sentinels or automatic detection systems. They, however, suffer from high operating costs and long assembly time, respectively. To overcome the aforementioned problems and provide workers and maintenance factory with a safety system suitable also for short time operations, the authors propose hereinafter a new method for train detection based on the use of an accelerometer mounted on the track. Thank to a suitable data acquisition system and a proper digital signal processing algorithm, the method is capable of sensing the train transit about 1 km apart from the accelerometer installation site. Several tests carried out on actual tracks highlight the reliability of the method, thus suggesting its implementation in an automatic track warning system. Keywords: Train detection, Accelerometer, Signal processing, Power measurement.

As for the solutions based on automatic detection systems [1]-[4], they all share the common features of involving two or more devices that have to be disseminated along the tracks. The most simple solution accounts for mechanical switches activated by the train wheel during the transit. They have to be placed at a distance at least equal to 900 m from the maintenance site and are connected via radio with the alarms. The main drawback results in the long installation time of the switches. Other solutions provide a more sophisticated monitoring, involving many substations spread along the tracks and exchanging data with one another. Apart from the huge time required for mounting all the necessary substations, data transmission through the tracks may generate harmful interference with the signaling adopted for train-to-docks communication. To overcome the aforementioned drawbacks, the authors present hereinafter a new digital signal processing method for the detection of train arrival capable of assuring the adequate protection for workers on railroad maintenance sites. The method is based on an accelerometer adopted to sense the vibrations generated by the arriving train and transmitted along the tracks. Thanks both to the right tradeoff between acceleration sensitivity and bandwidth and a suitable digital signal processing algorithm applied to the signal acquired through the accelerometer, the system allows the detection of an arriving train when its position on the track is about 1km away from the accelerometer installation site. The paper is organized as follows: the measurement method underlying the automatic detection system is given in Section II, a measurement station for performance assessment is presented in Section III, the results of a number of experimental tests on actual tracks are given in Section IV, and conclusions are, finally, drawn. II. PROPOSED METHOD

I.

INTRODUCTION

Safety in working environment is more and more becoming of fundamental importance throughout the civilized world. Avoiding injuries and/or accidents is, in fact, an unchallengeable right of each worker, but it results in more costs to be sustained. This is particularly true if the railroad working environment is taken into account; maintenance works on the tracks are almost always conducted without interrupting the usual transit of the trains. Workers on maintenance sites are thus exposed to the danger of injury or crash in the presence of undetected train transit. To assure a suitable protection level for workers on railroad sites, some solutions are actually available based either on human operations or automatic detection systems. With regard to the human operations based solutions, the men deputed to work on the tracks have usually to operate in the presence of a couple of sentinels mandated to catch sight of the arrival of trains on both directions. These solutions present two main disadvantages: (i) the sentinels, located on the tracks at a distance from the maintenance site suitable for advising the workers, can suffer from a lack of attention, thus giving rising to very dangerous situations, (ii) the costs are susceptible to worsen due to the presence of a couple of persons that are inactive from a maintenance point of view.

The final goal of the research activity is the realization of an automatic system capable of assuring workers safety in temporary railway maintenance site. To this aim, the system have to be characterized by high easiness to handle and straightforward installation and use. Its scheme is given in Fig.1; the core of the system will be either a microcontroller or a digital signal processor capable simultaneously of (i) coordinating and managing the different hardware/software

978-1-4244-2833-5/10/$25.00 2010 IEEE

Figure 1. Block diagram of the automatic system for detection of train arrival.

modules and (ii) processing the acquired samples coming from the sensors mounted on the tracks. More specifically, the accelerometer senses the vibrations, generated by the arriving train and transmitted through the track, and converts them in a suitable voltage difference. The adopted accelerometer has to satisfy the right tradeoff between sensitivity and bandwidth. Such features, in fact, clash with one another; the higher the required sensitivity, the more narrow the range of detectable input frequencies. The first step of the proposed method consists of digitizing the output signal of the sensor. To this aim, a data acquisition system capable of granting the needed sample rate, resolution and memory depth has to be used. Due to the low amplitude of the signals usually involved, particular attention has to be paid on the resolution of the adopted analog-to-digital converter. The usage of proper techniques for resolution improvement, such as oversampling and samples averaging, should be advisable. Obtained samples are processed according to a suitable algorithm capable of extracting from the acquired signal the information directly correlated with the arrival of the train. In particular, specific frequency bands, associated with the higher spectral content, are continuously monitored. To this aim, two different strategies can be pursued: continuously filtering the received signal by means of a digital filter whose bandwidth is equal to that of interest; particular attention has to be paid on the features characterizing the digital filter such as ripple in pass band, bandwidth and stop band attenuation; evaluating the power of the acquired signal in the desired frequency range starting from its power spectrum.

(1000 mV/g), (ii) frequency range from 2 Hz up to 10 kHz, (iii) measurement range equal to 5g, and (iv) a very low resolution (0.08 mgRMS). As stated above, some studies already presented in literature suggest higher frequency ranges as the optimal ones in order to detect train vibrations through the tracks; the authors have preferred sensor sensitivity to the detriment of the bandwidth. Moreover, thanks to the ICP manufacturing technology, it can assure: fixed voltage sensitivity, regardless of connection cable length and type; low-output impedance signal, which can be transmitted over long cables in harsh environment with virtually no loss in signal quality.

Both features are fundamental in order to assure reliable measurements also in critical conditions. Particular attention has been paid to sensor connection to the track. Characteristics like location, ruggedness, amplitude range, accessibility, temperature and portability are extremely critical. Moreover, the most important and usually overlooked consideration is the effect the mounting technique has on the high-frequency performance of the accelerometer. Magnetic mounting has thus been chosen, since it can simultaneously assure negligible bandwidth reduction and fast operation of installation on the track. The accelerometer has been connected to the data acquisition system (DAS) NI-USB-9233 by National Instrument, characterized by up to 4 input channels, maximum sample rate equal to 50 kSamples/s, and 20-bit resolution analog-to-digital conversion. Digitized samples have been routed to the control and process unit through a standard USB connection. The measurement station has been completed with a proper system, based on photocells, capable of detecting the train transit at a distance equal to 1 km from the installation point of the accelerometer. Photocells have been connected to a signal generator, which triggers the acquisition of the signal through the accelerometer or marks the transit if the train is at the desired distance. IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

Even though the former solution would be preferable from a theoretical point of view, the latter proves to be more feasible and can be easily tailored to a successive implementation on a microcontroller or DSP. It, in fact, results in a more agile solution, characterized also by a lower computational burden. Once detected the arrival of the train, the unit control activates a set of suitable actuators, in form both of acoustic and visual alarms. III. MEASUREMENT STATION

In order to gain useful information for the selection of the final hardware components of the system, several tests have been conducted through a suitable measurement station, sketched in Fig.2. The principal element of the station has been an accelerometer, model 352B by PCB Piezotronics. Its main characteristics are: (i) very high acceleration sensitivity

Several tests have been conducted by means of the considered measurement station, with a sample rate equal to 25 kSamples/s. As an example, in Fig.3 a typical acquired signal is shown along with its amplitude spectrum. The signal refers to vibrations generated by the arrival of the train on the same track where the accelerometer has been installed; more specifically, the train is located 800 m apart from the sensor. The amplitude spectrum highlights the existence of two frequency ranges, in the following referred respectively to as

Figure 2. Measurement station adopted for preliminary tests on actual railway.

FB1 and FB2, that prove to be particularly advantageous for vibrations transmission along the tracks. With regard to FB1, its extension goes from 1000 to 1300 Hz, while FB2 covers the frequency interval from 9.5 up to 9.7 kHz; in particular, FB2 appears as the best frequency range to detect the train arrival. With regard to the evolution of acquired signal power versus time, four different quantities has, in particular, been taken into account: 1. acquired signal power, P1,

P3 = 10 log

2 k =1 xFB 2 (k ) N

P = 10 log 1

k =1 x 2 (k )
N

where x FB1 (k ) and x FB2 (k ) refer to the samples of the filtered signal whose spectral content is respectively within FB1 and FB2. The associated band-pass filters have been generated through the Remez exchange algorithm. The obtained filter exhibits linear phase, moderate equiripple in the pass-band, bandwidth equal

where x(k ) is the kth digitized sample and N is the number of samples covering a time interval equal to 100 ms; 2. power of the acquired signal after being filtered by a bandpass digital filter operating respectively on FB1 and FB2; in particular, both powers are calculated according to the following expressions P2 = 10 log and
Figure 3. Typical signal acquired through the considered measurement station, and associated power spectrum.
2 k =1 xFB1 (k ) N

of a railway consisting of two adjacent and straight tracks, the length of which is about 3 km. As it can be appreciated in Fig.4, the curve corresponding to P1 does not allow the arriving train to be sensed with an adequate advance; a significant variation of power is, in fact, experienced only when the train arrives very close to the sensor. On the contrary, the evolution versus time of P2 and even more P3 proves to be suitable to detect the arrival of trains at a distance from the maintenance site sufficient to assure workers safety. Similar conclusions can be drawn for P4, thus indicating the frequency range FB2 as the optimal one for the detection of train arrival on the same track of the sensor. B. Train arriving on the adjacent track Similar tests have been carried out with trains transiting on the track adjacent to that where the accelerometer has been mounted on. Different evolution of the considered powers has been experimented with the train moving on the track next to that of the accelerometer installation. As shown in Fig.5, the first frequency interval that proves to be sensitive to the generated vibrations, for this measurement condition, is FB1. It is worth noting that the considered behavior can be exploited to discriminate the train direction of arrival, thus contributing to improve workers protection. C. Power spectrum dependency on the train speed Some considerations have, finally, to be drawn on the dependence of useful frequency ranges both on type and speed of the train generating the vibrations. More specifically, it is has been experimentally verified that no dependence exists all over the conducted tests; on the contrary, the amplitude of the spectral components within FB1 and FB2 proves to be sensitive to the speed of the arriving train. As an example, Fig.6 shows the amplitude spectrum associated with two different acquired signals generated by trains moving at a speed equal respectively to 130 and 90 km/h. Both spectra refer to signals covering an observation interval equal to 1 s and acquired 15 s before the train transit on the sensor installation site. It is evident how the faster train generates signals characterized by

Figure 4. Evolution of power versus time when the train is approaching on the same track of the accelerometer installation. The curves refer to different frequency ranges.

respectively to FB1 and FB2, and stop-band attenuation greater than 100 dB [6-8]. 3. power evaluated in the frequency domain and related to the spectral components within FB2
2 k2 2 X (k ) P4 = 10 log k =k 1 N

X(k) stands for the kth coefficient of discrete Fourier transform of the acquired signal, and k1 and k2 are equal respectively to the lower and upper frequency bin in the frequency range of interest, FB2. A. Train arriving on the acceleremeter installation track A first set of tests has been carried out in the presence of a train transiting on the same track where the accelerometer in mounted on. The measurement site has been setup on a portion

Figure 5. Evolution of power versus time when the train is approaching on the track next to that of the accelerometer installation. The curves refer to different frequency ranges.

Figure 6. Power spectra associated with train moving at different speed on the same track of the accelerometer installation.

greater amplitudes. CONCLUSIONS The paper presented a new method, based on the use of an accelerometer and a suitable digital signal processing algorithm, for the detection of transiting trains on railroad maintenance sites. In particular, the method proved to be capable of detecting in several tests the train transit when its position is about 1 km apart from the accelerometer installation site. To this aim, a specific frequency range has been pointed out as the best one for monitoring the train arrival. The power content associated with this range is continuously measured and compared to proper thresholds for alarm activation. Ongoing activities are mainly focused on the realization of an automatic track warning system based on a digital signal processor capable of implementing the proposed method. A performance assessment, mainly mandated to evaluate system reliability and accuracy, are also in progress.
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