MEMS-based Inertial System for Railway Track Diagnostics

This paper presents an inertial system for railway track diagnostics. The key element of the system is a set of inertial measurement units (IMUs) based on MEMS gyros and accelerometers, which are mounted directly on the axle-boxes (bearing covers) of the wheel pairs. The system made it possible to investigate how the car-track dynamic interaction affects measurements of geometrical deformations and to determine parameters, such as defects of rail treads.