Automatic Inspection of Railcar Wheels Using Laser and Image Sensor

Periodic condition monitoring of railcar wheels is crucial for smooth operation and passenger or goods safety. Currently, most periodic inspections are conducted by skilled field technicians. Manual measurements can have errors; therefore, to reduce the maintenance cost and improve the accuracy of measurement, developing an automatic inspection system is essential. In this study, we propose an automatic inspection system of railcar wheel condition monitoring using laser sensors and image data. The system is developed to replace the existing manual monitoring process for accurate measurements and monitoring. Experiments were performed using a 20% scaled model of the wheel to simulate the actual wheel condition.