DETECTION OF TRACK GUIDED GROUND VEHICLES USING THE TRACK AS AN ELECTRO MAGNETIC SURFACE WAVEGUIDE

The importance of vehicle detection and communication in mass transportation systems is discussed in this report, along with the advantages of track guided systems and the use of atuomation. Present and proposed methods of tracked vehicle detection are reviewed. An innovative method is proposed for detecting or communicating with tracked vehicles in which the track is used as an open waveguide. The characteristics of a rail as a communication channel are determined and suggestions for analyzing other parts of the system are discussed. The problem of distinguishing the desired modes for non-physical spurious and other modes is discussed and the complete set of programs is listed and described. History, definitions, and applications of electromagnetic surface waves are reviewed and behavior of 2 types of surface waves are presented so that results may be more easily understood. In order to verify the above procedure, determine the limitations and gain insight, relatively simple structures are considered for which some analytical results are available. The numerical procedure was applied to a steel rail augmented by a strip of dielectric material, resting directly on the ground. Results indicate that the proposed method is technically feasible for vehicle detection and suggestions are made for further study. References, tables, figures and appendices are included.