Claims:We claim:

1. A railway track monitoring and fault locating system for real time oscillation measurement based on GPS/GPRS, the system comprising:

• a computer run by using any operating system and supplied with power from a rechargeable power supply unit;

• a GPS/GPRS modem locating the system position in real time and for sending SMS to concerned personnel and/or devices;

• a transducer-cum-signal conditioning unit for recording and conditioning oscillations and to calculate and transmit the acceleration values; and

• a control unit between the transducer-cum-signal conditioning unit and the computer, which is pre-stored with relevant pole-database;

wherein the transducer-cum-signal conditioning unit is mounted on the axle or axle pivot point of the railway coach in a true horizontal and vertical position.

2. Railway track monitoring and fault locating system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the transducer-cum-signal conditioning unit comprises an acceleration sensor or accelerometer having a predefined range of measurement of the oscillations for computing vertical and lateral accelerations.

3. Railway track monitoring and fault locating system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the transducer-cum-signal conditioning unit comprises a signal conditioning circuit with built-in initial offset voltage adjustment of the accelerometer to make it compatible to the accelerometer. The transducer is based on microcontroller and MEMS technology accelerometer sensor DUAL axis accelerometer.

4. A railway track monitoring and fault locating system for real time oscillation measurement based on GPS/GPRS, the system comprising:

• a computer run by using any operating system and supplied with power from a rechargeable power supply unit;

• a GPS/GPRS modem locating the system position in real time and for sending SMS to concerned personnel and/or devices;

• an accelerometer equipped with signal conditioning unit for obtaining lateral and vertical acceleration values for comparison with the threshold values thereof from the track oscillations; and

• a control unit between the accelerometer and the computer, which is pre-stored with relevant pole-database;

wherein the accelerometer is directly mounted on the axle or axle pivot point of the railway coach in a true horizontal and vertical position.

5. Railway track monitoring and fault locating system as claimed in claim 4, wherein the system is equipped with a printer for printing of peak output of vertical and lateral accelerations as well as Ride Index (RI) for further analysis and preparing relevant reports for the concerned railway officials.

6. A method for railway track monitoring and fault locating by using the railway track monitoring and fault locating system as claimed in claims 1 to 5, wherein the method comprises the steps of:

• switching on the system and checking and configuring the same;
• entering the details of the train under testing/inspection and presetting the relevant threshold values;
• checking the train speed and values of the oscillations in real time;
• calculating the lateral and vertical acceleration using oscillation values;
• updating the computer database by recording the calculated acceleration values;
• calculating the Ride Index (RI) for the relevant railway track block, preferably a 200m block;
• displaying the Ride Index for the relevant railway track block on the computer;
• optionally displaying the calculated ‘g’ on the LCD of the transducer-cum-signal conditioning unit;
• comparing the lateral and vertical ‘g’ values and confirming whether these value/s equal/s or exceed/s the preset threshold g values; and
• issuing an alarm in case of a positive result and indicating on the computer screen by suitable indication;
• or repeating the above process for the next track block in case of a negative result.

7. Method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the GPS location of the said track block is captured in case of the calculated ‘g’ value/s being equal to or exceeding the set threshold ‘g’ values.

8. Method as claimed in claim 7, wherein, the pre-stored pole-database is sorted to find out two closest poles of the track block between which calculated ‘g’ value/s equals/exceeds the preset threshold values and the GPS longitude and latitude in real time.

9. Method as claimed in claim 8, wherein, the system issues SMS to the concerned railway division/authority/personnel about the exact location in terms of the real-time GPS longitude and latitude of the relevant poles.

10. Method as claimed in claim 8, wherein, the system continually calculates, records, transmits through SMS and/or displays the Ride Index (RI) to the concerned authorities/officers to take preventive/remedial measures, if necessary.

11. Method as claimed in claim 9, wherein, the above process is continued for the entire selected railway track and the complete data is pushed on the web-server with proper identification of the relevant test run on completion of the test run for future reference and analysis.

Dated: this day of 28th December, 2016. SANJAY KESHARWANI
APPLICANT’S PATENT AGENT , Description:FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to a railway track monitoring for preventing accidents and derailments. In particular, the present invention relates to a railway track monitoring with oscillation based acceleration. More particularly, the present invention relates to a railway track fault locating device with oscillation based acceleration measurement in real time by using Global Positioning System (GPS)and General Packet Radio Service (GPRS).

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The railway networks usually extend over large distances and it is quite a challenging task to keep monitoring these long railway tracks throughout the day and night and particularly in the presence of a huge number of passenger and goods trains operating on busy routes.

At present, different railway track monitoring systems are deployed by different railway authorities all over the world and none can claim to be foolproof in terms of train derailment prediction and prevention.

One of the existing railway track monitoring system for avoiding derailments is a PC-based system having transducer connected directly to the computer. The position cannot be adjusted as per the needs of the users. Here, the distance travelled is manually fed into the PC by an operator, who may or may not get power supply at a particular place. So, it is advisable to keep enough distance between the transducer and PC. This system is inaccurate due to the likeliness of occurrence of inadvertent human errors. By the time, the railway personnel (e.g. Khalasi) assisting the track inspectors announce the number of pole for pressing the keys, the train already has travelled further. The transducer (accelerometer) measures the peak values for vertical and lateral accelerations and supplies these values to the PC, which displays the real-time values on the display/screen. However, such a PC-based system is quite large, heavy and often faces space constraints.

DISADVANTAGES OFTHE PRIOR ART

The following are the disadvantages with the conventional railway track monitoring systems:

• The existing system requires direct connection to transducer disposed on the pivot point itself; or

• The existing system is inconvenient to be accommodated on the pivot point; or

• The existing system is difficult to operate, when there is no power supply at the pivot point; or

• In the existing manual acceleration monitoring system, the recording and pole data cannot be sorted in real time; and

• The existing system required more manpower.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION

Some of the objects of the present invention - satisfied by at least one embodiment of the present invention - are as follows:

An object of the present invention is to provide a railway track monitoring system to remotely capture track defect location and send information via SMS.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a user friendly Real time GPS-GPRS based OMS system.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a railway track fault locating device, which requires substantially smaller installation and operational space than the conventional systems presently available for this purpose.

Yet another object of the present invention is to generate soft copy/hardcopy printout of the reports km-wise or as per the requirement.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a railway track fault locating device, which generates safest and secure data logging on web server if the user requires it.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide a railway track fault locating device, which enables more number of users, such as the testing teams to view data in their own devices apart from the main computer.

A yet further object of the present invention is to provide multiple channels of transducers for monitoring the track, if required in future.

These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description, when read with the accompanying figures of drawing, which are however not intended to limit the scope of the present invention in any way.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a railway track monitoring and fault locating system for real time oscillation measurement based on GPS/GPRS, the system comprising:

• a computer run by using any operating system and supplied with power from a rechargeable power supply unit;

• a GPS/GPRS modem locating the system position in real time and for sending SMS to concerned personnel and/or devices;

• a transducer-cum-signal conditioning unit for recording and conditioning oscillations and to calculate and transmit the acceleration values; and

• a control unit between the transducer-cum-signal conditioning unit and the computer, which is pre-stored with relevant pole-database;

wherein the transducer-cum-signal conditioning unit is mounted on the axle or axle pivot point of the railway coach in a true horizontal and vertical position.
Typically, the transducer-cum-signal conditioning unit comprises an acceleration sensor or accelerometer having a predefined range of measurement of the oscillations for computing vertical and lateral accelerations.

Typically, the transducer-cum-signal conditioning unit comprises a signal conditioning circuit with built-in initial offset voltage adjustment of the accelerometer to make it compatible to the accelerometer. The transducer is based on microcontroller and MEMS technology accelerometer sensor DUAL axis accelerometer.

A railway track monitoring and fault locating system for real time oscillation measurement based on GPS/GPRS, the system comprises:

• a computer run by using any operating system and supplied with power from a rechargeable power supply unit;

• a GPS/GPRS modem locating the system position in real time and for sending SMS to concerned personnel and/or devices;

• an accelerometer equipped with signal conditioning unit for obtaining lateral and vertical acceleration values for comparison with the threshold values thereof from the track oscillations; and

• a control unit between the accelerometer and the computer, which is pre-stored with relevant pole-database;

wherein the accelerometer is directly mounted on the axle or axle pivot point of the railway coach in a true horizontal and vertical position.

Typically, the system is equipped with a printer for printing of peak output of vertical and lateral accelerations as well as Ride Index (RI) for further analysis and preparing relevant reports for the concerned railway officials.

In accordance with the present invention, there is also provided a method for railway track monitoring and fault locating by using the railway track monitoring and fault locating system, wherein the method comprises the steps of:
• switching on the system and checking and configuring the same;
• entering the details of the train under testing/inspection and presetting the relevant threshold values;
• checking the train speed and values of the oscillations in real time;
• calculating the lateral and vertical acceleration using oscillation values;
• updating the computer database by recording the calculated acceleration values;
• calculating the Ride Index (RI) for the relevant railway track block, preferably a 200m block;
• displaying the Ride Index for the relevant railway track block on the computer;
• optionally displaying the calculated ‘g’ on the LCD of the transducer-cum-signal conditioning unit;
• comparing the lateral and vertical ‘g’ values and confirming whether these value/s equal/s or exceed/s the preset threshold g values; and
• issuing an alarm in case of a positive result and indicating on the computer screen by suitable indication;
• or repeating the above process for the next track block in case of a negative result.

Typically, the GPS location of the said track block is captured in case of the calculated ‘g’ value/s being equal to or exceeding the set threshold ‘g’ values.

Typically, the pre-stored pole-database is sorted to find out two closest poles of the track block between which calculated ‘g’ value/s equals/exceeds the preset threshold values and the GPS longitude and latitude in real time.

Typically, the system issues SMS to the concerned railway division/authority/personnel about the exact location in terms of the real-time GPS longitude and latitude of the relevant poles.

Typically, the system continually calculates, records, transmits through SMS and/or displays the Ride Index (RI) to the concerned authorities/officers to take preventive/remedial measures, if necessary.
Typically, the above process is continued for the entire selected railway track and the complete data is pushed on the web-server with proper identification of the relevant test run on completion of the test run for future reference and analysis.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In the GPS/GPRS-based Oscillation Measurement System (OMS) configured in accordance with the present invention, the global positioning system automatically calculates the speed and distance travelled in km. These two parameters are required for calculating the ride index. It is an important parameter in the OMS.

GPS/GPRS-based real time OMS is configured for monitoring the quality of the railway tracks through the measurement of the ride-index (R.I.) and lateral and vertical accelerations at the axel box level captured by means of the acceleration sensor, i.e. a waterproof accelerometer (IP65 Standard Box).

It performs online analysis, reports the result and on capturing the acceleration to be than threshold values, issues SMS alerts in real time for indicating the exact locations of the track faults, where urgent attention is required.

It provides a GPS based real time solution for the asset and safety management of the railway tracks to provide an accurate location of track defects with reference to the TPs (poles). In GPS and GPRS-based system, the pole numbers are stored route-wise in the locational database of the railway track.

Whenever an observed peak acceleration value is more than or equal to the set threshold value, the system captures the real-time GPS longitude and latitude to quickly sort the database to find out the accurate defect location, which includes the two pole numbers between which this defect is detected and thus also calculates and records the distance between these two poles.

OMS is fully automated and eliminates the assisting team subsequent to configuring the details of the train inputs before starting the application. However, there is also an option provided for making requisite manual intervention whenever necessary, e.g. when the satellite communication fails due to non-functionality of GPS/GPRS.

OMS system is robust, compact, easily portable and so rugged that it can work even in non-air-conditioned environment. It is cooled by natural air and withstands vibrations. The unit is supplied with a suitable carrying case and is packaged to withstand bumps and jerks encountered in normal road/rail journey including handling during transit.

This OMS system uses an accurate method for capturing the railway track fault locations. The mobile number/s of the respective railway division is already stored in the system. As soon as a defect is found, the system automatically generates the severity of the track defect involved and sends SMS to the concerned authorities/officers to take preventive/remedial measures about this. This is made possible by the highly accurate remote tracking of the fault location using the GPS and GPRS systems in conjunction with the track’s pole data.

A variety of prescribed reports in different formats can also be generated and shared with the concerned authorities. These reports can be securely placed on the dedicated web-servers by the safe data logging facility of this system.

The system configured in accordance with the present invention measures the change in acceleration of the running train by capturing the gravitation horizontal and vertical g values by using a transducer, i.e. an accelerometer.

This uses a MEMS technology sensor placed on the axle or axle pivot point for measuring the real-time gravitational g factor. Both vertical and lateral g are measured and whenever these values cross the preset threshold value, a real-time GPS location is captured and subsequently, the database is sorted to correlate with the pole number database already stored in the system as a part of the overall database. Therefore, the track defect can be detected in terms of the two poles disposed closest to the track defect to calculate the distance of the track defect from these two poles.

This is the most accurate method for locating the railway track faults. The ride index parameter requiring the train speed can also be calculated. It is automatically obtained by using GPS. The calculations are made for each 200m block of train travel. Numerous types of reports are generated according to the railway section travelled or as per the distance covered in kilometers.

GPS based portable system configured in accordance with the present invention for acceleration measurement at axle/ axle pivot point fulfills the objects of the present invention enumerated above.

Accordingly, a customized railway track fault locating device is configured to remotely capture and transmit accurate track fault location, which includes a processor with data storage and display with user-interactive software for real time data acquisition, analysis and reporting captured track-fault related data and is suitable for electric/diesel locomotives, EMUs, MEMUs, DEMUs coaches, wagons, Guard-van and any other self-propelled vehicle treated as train.

The customized device includes both online and offline software. The online software is based on windows 7, however configurable to any other operating system as well, e.g. Android, Linux or Mac, which can perform the following functions:

• Input of initial parameters for identification of recorded data, such as –

Railway, Division, Section, Sectional Speed, Route tape of track features file name, Machine Number, Electrified or non-electrified route, run number, Date, Time, Up/ down, Train number, Coach Number, Type of coach, Site location, Start km, Threshold values for peak information for vertical peak and Lateral Peak.

• Acquisition of raw vertical and lateral acceleration data in time domain at every 10mS.

• Acquisition and storage of vertical and lateral acceleration data automatically.

• Display of acceleration data acquired in graphical form in a split window on display screen. If peak values are in the range the background color is green and if peak is greater than threshold, then RED background will make operator alert to view peak value. A feature of continuous graph will be provided on the screen.

The offline software performs the following functions from stored raw data:

• Display and printing of peak output of vertical and lateral acceleration,

• Display and printing of reports containing the relevant information.

Moreover, the device can work both on electrified and non-electrified sections. It can measure acceleration at the axle/axle pivot point for all types of passenger coaches e.g. ICF, LHB etc. to run from the 110 Volt AC power supply available therein, as and when required. It shall be of robust, rugged and compact construction and can be easily mounted on any rail track inspection coach. It can record both vertical and lateral accelerations at axle level on both left and right side of axle on straight, curved and station yard tracks. It is universally suitable for all types of sections of railway tracks, e.g. single line, double line, twin single line, multiple lines etc. to capture vertical and lateral acceleration peaks.

The device is suitable for train speeds up to 160 kmph. This system is well protected against any electromagnetic interference. No false peaks are reported, even if walky-talky equipment is operated in the inspection room of coaches equipped with the device. In addition, the device also issues SMS alert to all concerned officials for peak acceleration values above the specified threshold value. The communication between transducer and PC will be wired /RS232/ Rs485/ or wireless wi-fi / Bluetooth as per running conditions suitability and the distance of the operator from the transducer. The location of track defects is captured and relayed in terms of pole numbers by integrating GPS data of the poles on the track. The CPU unit is handy and can store data of at least 3000 track km run. It can also display and transfer data online in PDF/XLE/CSV format to any other device through USB port.

The device is also equipped with facilities for manual punching or includes various track features such as bridges, culverts, tunnels, stations etc. in the track location file. The device can be designated as a tool for PWI tool. Therefore, for its portability, it is made compact, light-weight and of a robust design. Usually, the weight of the entire unit including battery is of the order of maximum 19 kg, except for optional features thereof. Weight could be reduced further by using tablet instead of PC.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS

The present invention will be briefly described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 shows the GPS/GPRS-based Oscillation Measurement System (OMS) for railway track fault locating device configured in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 2 shows a flow diagram of the operation of the GPS/GPRS-based Oscillation Measurement System (OMS) for railway track fault locating device depicted in Fig. 1 and configured in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS

In the following, the GPS/GPRS-based Oscillation Measurement System (OMS) for railway track fault locating device configured in accordance with the present invention will be described in more details with reference to the accompanying drawings without limiting the scope and ambit of the present invention in any way.
Figure 1 shows a GPS/GPRS based OMS train fault locating system. It includes a personal computer (PC) 10 supplied with power from a power supply unit 12, a GPS/GPRS modem 20 (to capture the longitude, latitude and speed of the running train and to send SMS to the relevant personnel/ authorities), which is connected to another power supply unit 22, a Transducer unit 30 having a liquid crystal display (LCD) is connected to the Power supply / battery charger 32. Transducer 30 is also connected to PC 10.

Figure 2 shows a flow diagram of the operation of the GPS/GPRS-based Oscillation Measurement System (OMS) 100 for railway track fault locating device depicted in Fig. 1. OMS system 100 is switched on at step 102, followed by checking and configuring the peripherals thereof at step 104. At step 106, details of the train under testing/inspection and threshold values of various important characteristics are entered. At step 108, the configuration is accepted and system is started, followed by the step 110 of checking train speed as well as lateral and vertical acceleration values in real time. At step 112, PC database is updated to record these observed real time values. Subsequently, Ride Index (RI) is calculated and g values are displayed at step 114, which may also be displayed on the transducer screen. At step 116, Ride Index for the relevant 200 m block is displayed on PC/tablet screen and the desired reports may be generated at step 140. At step 118, the system checks for the lateral and vertical g values and confirms at step 120 whether the observed g value/s equal/s or exceeds the set threshold g values (gth). If the query is replied affirmatively, an alarm is issued and indicator on the PC screen is turned RED at step 122. If the query is replied negatively, the process described above is repeated from step 110 for the next 200 m block of the track. On observing the g value/s being equal to or exceeding the set threshold g values at step 122, the GPS location of this block is captured at step 124 and subsequently, pre-stored pole database is sorted at step 126 and two closest poles of this block between which the g values equaled/exceeded the preset threshold values are accurately located at step 128. At step 130, the system issues an SMS to the concerned railway division/authority/personnel about the exact location (real time GPS longitude and latitude) of these two poles.
The above process is continued for the railway track on the selected route and on completion of the test run, the complete data is pushed on the web-server with proper identification of this test run for future reference and analysis.

WORKING OF THE INVENTION

The GPS/GPRS-based Oscillation Measurement System (OMS) for railway track fault locating device configured in accordance with the present invention is operated in the following manner:

• Continuously monitoring the speed and distance travelled by the train on the train route preloaded in the OMS system;

• Comparing the peak value with the predefined threshold value for checking whether peak value is equal to or more than threshold value;

• If yes, capturing the real-time GPS longitude and latitude;

• Sorting this captured data to find out the track fault location;

• Accurately pinpointing the track fault location with reference to two poles nearest to this location on railway track route pre-stored in OMS system;

• Generating mandatory reports about the track-fault location as prescribed by the relevant authorities/officials of the railways; and

• Pushing these reports into the railway serves for safe data logging.

The railway track fault locating device based on oscillation measurements and using Global Positioning System (GPS) for transferring the captured data through General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is provided with a Laptop/Tablet PC with accessories for monitoring parameters to be recorded and displayed during the Run in real time mode.

These parameters are as follows:
a. Block Number of a running kilometer.

b. Vertical and lateral Ride Index (RI) of the block.

c. Continuous display of vertical /lateral acceleration values as digital real-time value on screen,
d. Block color indication of green and Red light symbol on screen based on the presence/absence of peak = set threshold of lateral and vertical peak values.

Identifying and recording amount of vertical / lateral accelerations exceeding a lower threshold value is done in the following manner:

• Providing distance in meters from a reference point (generally a km post).

• Ascertaining the reference from which GPS starts.

• Automatically providing the speed of the train and longitude and latitude of current position of train via GPS by continuous display on the screen.

• Calculating the speed, distance / time and location from data directly captured from the GPS module.

• Measuring these acceleration value at every 10 milliseconds.

• Instantaneously displaying the peaks at an interval of one second continuously (even below the lower threshold value).

• Comparing the exceeded values w.r.t. the threshold values.

• Accurately identifying and pinpointing the track fault location.

• When the exceeded values are = set threshold, the GPS longitude and latitude values are acquired.

• The longitude-latitude of this location is compared in real-time by sorting through the pole database of the relevant route.

• The two nearest pole nos. are pinpointed in terms of the GPS longitude-latitude of these two pole numbers containing this track defect.

• Recording the position of two pole numbers from the time of peak detection to accurately pinpoint the track fault position therebetween.

• Storing the track fault location and printing both the acceleration values above the threshold value and the distance from the last km.

• Calculating the Ride Indices (R.I.) by using the Sperling Index formulae, from the all the peak values of vertical and lateral accelerations measured during every stretch of 200 meters run.

• Displaying and storing these RIs.

• Preparing an executive summary and exception report as well as a copy of the “ONLINE” running data report of the whole stretch tested at the end of the run for obtaining the locations of all the spots, where acceleration value recorded are more than any desired threshold value, preferably in a descending order.

• Calibrating both the vertical and lateral channels automatically done at the transducer end.

• The 4 line x 20 characters jumbo LCD or a Graphics LCD is provided on the transducer itself to monitor the values.

The input signals consist of analog inputs from the accelerometer for vertical and lateral respectively. The transducer also has a microcontroller which converts the analog values to digital values and manipulate exact ‘g’ values and transmit them to PC side by wired or wireless network.

A customized GUI-based data acquisition and analysis software is used for online data capture and real time analysis in a mobile laboratory housed in a railway coach or at the site laboratory for railway R&D works. The software operates under Windows environment by using Microsoft SQL Server database related to the pole information and captured data is displayed in the form of digital values on the screen.

The data acquisition and application Software is compatible with industry standards for full development system such as VC++ capable of running on laptops and having the basic features as described below:

• Data can be exchanged between this software and other applications based on Windows 7/8/10 also can be provided on Android/Mac/Linux Operating Systems as per specifications of users.

• System is modular, menu driven and user interactive.

• Other functions for checking the health of other hardware that means communication ports check is provided in the system.

Oscillation Monitoring System (OMS) is a laptop or tablet PC based system. The system is portable and light weight to facilitate carrying it by a single person. The system consists of two acceleration sensors (for lateral and vertical acceleration), a signal conditioner with suitable low-pass filter and data acquisition system. Appropriate interface is provided for connecting all these sub-systems to obtain desired parameters on the laptop, which are recorded, analyzed, displayed and stored for subsequent analysis of the captured data. OMS system can also print the run data in real time, while simultaneously recording up to the train speed of 160 kmph. While printing, it can also print online reports on the run.

The selected data acquisition system is of the latest technology to make it compatible with the laptop to be used. It uses the requisite wired or wireless technology to acquire the accelerometer data, e.g. transducer, which can be placed on the axle pivot point or the Axle and therefore, the system operator can suitably sit as per the personal convenience even in the next coach. The data is forwarded to PC. The samples are captured at the rate of at least 100 samples per sec. The sensor range is between 0.01g to 1.7g.

The transducer, signal conditioner-cum-power pack unit consists of the following sub-systems:

a) Transducer & Signal Conditioner: The transducer / acceleration sensor for system is selected with an adequate range of measurement of vertical and lateral accelerations. It is mounted in true horizontal and vertical positions. The mounting arrangements of the transducer / acceleration sensor are properly configured to produce the true electrical output proportional to the acceleration. The unit also has the required amount of signal conditioning circuit with built-in initial offset voltage adjustment of the accelerometer to make it compatible to data acquisition system.
b) The acceleration sensor is housed in a metallic box, preferably the battery (maintenance free) is housed in the acceleration sensor box to impart stability to prevent any change its position during run due to vibrations. The operation of handheld Walky-Talky sets normally used in Railways, mobile sets etc. present in the vicinity, beyond 4 meters from the system does not cause any false peaks being registered by the system. Similarly, no false peaks are observed while charging or operating by using the coach power supply during this operation.

c) Power Supply consists of an SMPS based Multi Input / Output Power Supply (MIPS) system with the inputs in the range of 110-260V AC/DC and a DC output to run the system and another DC output provided for charging the battery pack of adequate capacity. MIPS output for running the system is regulated within ± 5 % of the nominal voltage from no-load to full load condition. However, the battery charging output which is used for charging the battery in offline condition has ± 10 % regulation. Power Supply to the circuitry other than the laptop is provided either by battery pack or by SMPS output. The battery pack is a sealed maintenance-free unit of an adequate capacity to provide working back up for at least 8 hours. Two LED indicators are also provided to indicate the battery status, the first one for fully charge status and the other for low-battery.

d) Optionally, a printer is provided for online printing,

TECHNICAL ADVANTAGES AND ECONOMIC SIGNIFICANCE

The GPS/GPRS-based Oscillation Measurement System (OMS) for railway track fault locating device configured in accordance with the present invention has the following technical and economic advantages:

• More accurate track fault location detection.
• Compact system based on GPS/GPRS, both with Android, or Windows systems.
• Easy and accurate calculations of the ride index (RI).
• Speed entries recorded via GPS.
• Compact system, which can be placed as per operator’s convenience.
• Transducer to PC connection could be a wired or wireless connection.
• Sensor is remote from the track monitoring laptop or PC.
• Transducer can be placed on pivot point as well as on the axle by suitable wiring arrangements
• Simple wiring and uses a battery-operated sensor.
• Provides detailed threshold and run information.
• Pole numbers are linked with the GPS database and are thus accurate.
• Mandatory and optional report (both in Excel and PDF formats) generation made easy.
• Hard copies of different reports can be printed.
• Issues SMS alerts to the respective divisions.

Throughout this specification, the word “comprise”, or variations such as “comprises” or “comprising”, shall be understood to implies including a described element, integer or method step, or group of elements, integers or method steps, however, does not imply excluding any other element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or method steps.

The use of the expression “a”, “at least” or “at least one” shall imply using one or more elements or ingredients or quantities, as used in the embodiment of the disclosure in order to achieve one or more of the intended objects or results of the present invention.

The exemplary embodiments described in this specification are intended merely to provide an understanding of various manners in which this embodiment may be used and to further enable the skilled person in the relevant art to practice this invention.

Although, only the preferred embodiments have been described herein, the skilled person in the art would readily recognize to apply these embodiments with any modification possible within the spirit and scope of the present invention as described in this specification.

Therefore, innumerable changes, variations, modifications, alterations may be made and/or integrations in terms of materials and method used may be devised to configure, manufacture and assemble various constituents, components, subassemblies and assemblies according to their size, shapes, orientations and interrelationships.

The description provided herein is purely by way of example and illustration. The various features and advantageous details are explained with reference to this non-limiting embodiment in the above description in accordance with the present invention.

The descriptions of well-known components and manufacturing and processing techniques are consciously omitted in this specification, so as not to unnecessarily obscure the specification. In the previously detailed description, different features have been summarized for improving the conclusiveness of the representation in one or more examples.

However, it should be understood that the above description is merely illustrative, but not limiting under any circumstances. It helps in covering all alternatives, modifications and equivalents of the different features and exemplary embodiments. Many other examples are directly and immediately clear to the skilled person because of his/her professional knowledge in view of the above description.

The exemplary embodiments were selected and described in order to be able to best represent the principles and their possible practical application underlying the invention. Thereby, the experts can optimally modify and use the invention and its different exemplary embodiments with reference to the intended use.

In the claims and the description, the terms “containing” and “having” are used as linguistically neutral terminologies for the corresponding terms “comprising”. Furthermore, the use of the term “one” shall not exclude the plurality of such features and components described.