Trains with Brains

With the global rail market crying out for better service reliability, reduced operations and maintenance costs and increased safety, Transmission Dynamics are redefining the status quo

Transmission Dynamics is a UKbased, multi-award winning, global innovator and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) solutions provider, specialising in remote condition monitoring of high-value assets. The company has designed and deployed a range of proprietary technologies over the last two decades and these are now being utilised to monitor rail infrastructure using train-borne sensor technology throughout the global rail industry.

Key to the company’s success is working closely in partnership with rail infrastructure owners, Rolling Stock Leasing Companies (ROSCOs) and Train Operating Companies (TOCs) to develop market-leading solutions that meet specific requirements.

In the UK, Network Rail's digital railway strategy sets out a blueprint for modernisation, states the importance of bringing down operations costs of the network, and outlines the benefits of deploying digital monitoring technology to meet those aims. While many third-party sensor technologies exist to extract inservice data, end users repeatedly stated the need to efficiently collate a holistic picture from multiple sources, determine root causes of underlying issues (through classification of potential faults found) and use this intelligence to inform operations and maintenance planning and ultimately improve asset reliability and service delivery.

The Trains with Brains® IIoT concept was therefore developed in collaboration with several rail stakeholders (Network Rail, Angel Trains and West Midland Trains) to deliver and demonstrate a solution to this need, via the Innovate UK managed First of a Kind competition.

The aim of the Trains with Brains® IIoT concept is to integrate data from a range of existing remote condition monitoring sensors into combined intelligence to inform Network Rail’s monitoring and planning systems/processes. The live demonstration of this innovative approach will be focussed throughout the North West and Central Region.

‘North West and Central’s regional Overhead Line strategy is to use the limited track access we have to repair assets rather than inspect them. Bringing together all the data about our OLE assets is key to this, and is why we were so keen to support this FOAK project.’ said Ndaba Moyo, Senior Engineer [Contact Systems], NW&C region, Network Rail.

These combined technologies will be deployed on routinely operating trains in the North West and Central Region throughout January – March 2023 and the data integrated directly into Network Rail’s platform, delivering a demonstration of one of the most comprehensive and sophisticated IIoT applications developed for the rail industry globally. This will enable operations and maintenance teams to address key cost efficiency and performance priorities via more informed decisionmaking and planning of infrastructure maintenance during possessions.

Jarek Rosinski, Chief Executive Officer, Transmission Dynamics added: ‘The Trains with Brains® concept is a natural extension to our portfolio of rail asset monitoring solutions. Bringing these technologies together will not only monitor individual rail assets and infrastructure, but for the first time we will also have insights into the dynamic interactions between rail and overhead line.’

The technologies being deployed are as follows:

• PANDAS-V®

• Smart Oil Plug®

• SmartBugs®

Overhead line and pantograph monitoring solution technology which synchronises acceleration impacts with a roof-mounted camera to provide footage of impacts on the OHL and pantographs, as well as advanced image processing utilising advanced Machine Learning and providing measurements of pantograph height, OHL wire stagger and carriage sway.

Gearbox temperature, vibration and ferromagnetic debris monitoring sensor. This is a self-learning future-proof IoT sensor technology incorporating advanced onboard analytics. ZF, the UK’s worldleading gearbox manufacturer has just signed a Service Level Agreement to launch this product to the global rail market in 2023.

Ultra-miniature sensors, offer an unprecedented means of fast installation and low-risk devices with some of the most powerful data acquisition and logging and onboard data analytics capabilities available today built in.

These unique and successful devices in their own right will be networked together as the Trains with Brains® concept, forming an even more powerful and innovative proposition. It will enable consideration of the interactions between the rail and overhead line infrastructure, allowing more complex and complete static and dynamic modelling to be accomplished.

The Trains with Brains® solutions allow extraction of intelligence related to damper performance, dynamic motion compensation of pantographs fitted on tilting vehicles, as well as routine reporting on rail quality, ride quality, wheel flats, final drive and cardan shaft performance, and finally overhead line induced faults. Topping it all up with the deviation from the baseline which may be caused by terrain subsidence due to flooding which can be equally applied to rail deviation from the baseline as well as the supporting structures deviation from the baseline.

There are also many advanced asset monitoring insights that could result from this innovative networking of sensors.

For example, it has been a long-standing desire of the rail industry to quantify interactions between rail induced faults and dynamic interactions between pantographs and overhead lines. This applies to both static and dynamic measurements. Static measurements are presently accomplished by time-consuming, manual measurement of overhead line – a task that can be accomplished by this integrated Trains with Brains® approach.

The Smart Oil Plug® Gateway (installed on the bogie) is equipped with accelerometers and gyroscopes allowing extraction of the ride quality of the bogie, just above the primary suspension. Similarly, the gateway servicing the wireless accelerometer (part of the PANDAS-V® hardware) mounted on the pantograph head is also equipped with gyroscopes, allowing the sway of carriages to be monitored and reported on a permanent basis. In addition, ultra-miniature SmartBugs®, offer an unprecedented means of fast installation and low-risk devices with some of the most powerful data acquisition and logging and onboard data analytics capabilities available today built in. Due to their lightweight (60g) and small size (25mm diameter) the device can be glued to the axle boxes and other assets such as electric motor armature for monitoring the integrity of the entire propulsion system.

This innovative combination of networked devices enables significantly more informed maintenance planning within Network Rail, enabling them to reduce delays, unscheduled maintenance and boots on ballast, while improving reliability, safety, and costs.

In addition, the wider supply chain will also benefit from the ‘knock-on effect’.

From West Midlands Trains’ perspective as a Train Operating Company, one of the key perceived benefits of the Trains with Brains® product is the ability to better understand, evidence, and learn from faults found. This will contribute to the continuous improvement of their service.

From a Rolling Stock Leasing Company perspective, Angel Trains feel the Trains with Brains® solution is an excellent approach to ensuring their assets create value, supporting Network Rail to operate more efficiently and safely, which will in turn enable their customers (Train Operating Companies – such as West Midlands Trains) to deliver the best possible service to the passenger. They also believe that the outcome of this product will directly benefit their asset integrity by reducing the number of pantograph related issues, and associated safety benefits.

Tel: 0191 58 000 58

Email: support@jrdltd.co.uk

Visit: transmissiondynamics.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/ company/4002575/admin/

Address: Transmission Dynamics 1 Innovation Way

Northumberland Business Park Cramlington NE23 7FP