RAIL CAR IDENTIFICATION USING PATTERN RECOGNITION TECHNIQUES

Identification of rail car numbers is a basic function needed to check train consists at classification and interchange points throughout the system. Visual car number reading and verification has traditionally been the method used to accomplish this. Recently a number of automatic techniques have been tested for car identification, and a colored label system has been widely implemented but found to be inadequate in the railroad environment. A car imaging and automatic pattern recognition approach is discussed in this paper which attempts to read the painted block numbers on all car sides. A method for detecting the presence of the car number block in a scan of the car side is discussed in detail.