Systems and methods for visualizing and analyzing a rail surface
Inventors
Dick, Matthew • Liu, Zhipeng • Yilma, Samson
Assignees
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Publication Number
US-11001283-B2
Publication Date
2021-05-11
Expiration Date
Abstract
A system for analyzing a railroad track comprises a transport device, a camera coupled to the transport device, an electronic display device, a memory device, and one or more processors. The camera is disposed adjacent to a rail of the railroad track and generates image data reproducible as one or more images of at least a portion of a surface of the rail. The processors can produce an image of the rail surface, which includes a plurality of elongated portions. The image is analyzed to identify any defects that exist within each elongated portion of the rail surface. The processors determine a value of a metric for each elongated portion of the rail surface. The metric is associated with the identified defects. The electronic display device displays a graph indicative of the metric for each elongated portion, the image of the rail surface, or both.
Core Innovation
A system for visualizing and quantifying surface damage of a railroad track uses a camera disposed adjacent to a rail and coupled to a transport device traveling along the railroad track. The camera generates image data reproducible as an image of at least a portion of a surface of the rail, and the system includes an electronic display device and a memory device for receiving and storing the generated image data.
One or more processors produce, based on the image data, an image of the surface of the rail including a plurality of elongated portions. The processors analyze the image to identify one or more defects within each of the plurality of elongated portions, where the identified one or more defects include one or more cracks, pitting, or both, and determine one or more metrics associated with the identified one or more defects, including crack density, average crack angle, average crack width, pitting density, surface damage density, a surface region index, or any combination thereof.
The processors determine a value of at least one metric for each of the plurality of elongated portions and cause the electronic display device to display a graph indicative of the at least one metric for each of the plurality of elongated portions of the surface of the rail. In implementations using first and second cameras, the system divides first and second rail images into regions, analyzes the divided images to identify defects within each region, determines information associated with the defects, and causes the electronic display device to display at least a portion of each image and first and second graphs indicative of the determined information.
Claims Coverage
The independent claims include 6 inventive claim sets covering a single-rail elongated-portion damage metric system with graph display, and a multi-rail region-divided damage metric visualization system with graph display. The independent claim sets define defect identification for cracks and/or pitting and compute region- or elongated-portion level metrics including crack density, crack angle, crack width, pitting density, surface damage density, and a surface region index.
Rail surface image capture for repeatable visualization
A camera configured to be coupled to a transport device such that the camera is disposed adjacent to a rail and configured to generate image data reproducible as an image of at least a portion of a surface of the rail, the transport device being configured to travel along the railroad track.
Elongated rail portions for defect-based damage metrics
Produce, based on the image data, an image including a plurality of elongated portions; analyze the image to identify one or more defects within each elongated portion, including one or more cracks, pitting, or both; and determine metrics including crack density, average crack angle, average crack width, pitting density, surface damage density, a surface region index, or any combination thereof.
Graph indicative of metric values per elongated portion
Determine a value of at least one metric for each of the plurality of elongated portions and cause the electronic display device to display a graph indicative of the at least one metric for each of the plurality of elongated portions.
Width-based region division with overlapping regions
Divide the first image into first plurality of regions including a first region having width less than the portion width, a second region having width less than the portion width, and a third region having width equal to the portion width, the third region overlapping with both the first region and the second region, wherein a sum of the width of the first region and the width of the second region is equal to the width of the portion of the surface.
Two-rail region-divided defect identification and dual graph display
Use a first camera adjacent to a first rail and a second camera adjacent to a second rail, divide the first image and the second image into regions, analyze the divided images to identify defects within each region, determine information associated with identified defects, and cause the electronic display device to display at least portions of the first and second images and a first and second graph indicative of the determined information.
Region-based metric definitions for cracks and pitting
Define crack density generally equal to a ratio of summed crack area to region area, average crack angle generally equal to an average angle of identified cracks within the region with respect to a reference axis, average crack width generally equal to an average cross-sectional width within the region, pitting density generally equal to a ratio of summed pitting area within the region to the region area, surface damage density generally equal to a ratio of summed defect area within the region to the region area, and surface region index generally equal to a weighted sum of at least two of these metrics.
Across the independent claims, the system captures reproducible rail surface images from cameras on a transport device, identifies cracks and/or pitting within segmented elongated portions or divided regions, computes defined defect-related metrics, and displays graph(s) indicative of the determined metric values for the analyzed portions of the rail surfaces.
Stated Advantages
Documented Applications
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