A feature engineering framework for online fault diagnosis of freight train air brakes

Abstract Automatic air brake systems are widely used in freight train braking to ensure railway operation safety. Various types faults pose an enormous threat to freight operations. Existing algorithms lack a unified framework for generating key features. In this research, we propose a novel feature engineering framework for the fault diagnosis of freight train air brakes. First, experimental data are collected through a three-car in-lab experimental platform. Second, a peak detection method combined with first-order difference function to partition and classify the air pressure time series into the braking phase and releasing phase. Third, a divided-and-integrated framework is designed for feature engineering. Feature selection is carried out via a modified reinforcement learning method. Finally, multiple machine learning algorithms are explored and the results indicate that random forest method shows the best performance. The proposed model achieves about 99% accuracy for car-level fault detection and over 94% accuracy for component-level fault diagnosis.