Fiber Optic Train Tracking -Phase 1

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) sponsored a test conducted by Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI), in September 2017, to evaluate the capability of Fiber-Optic Acoustic Detection (FOAD) to track trains and identify track occupied in multiple track territories. Testing results showed that FOAD is capable of tracking a train, but spatial resolution can be largely influenced by speed and weight of the train. The ability of FOAD to identify the occupied track by the train is currently not possible without a secondary data input such as wheel sensors. Due to the known limitation of FOAD to be used for track identification, the participating FOAD vendor installed wheel sensors at the crossover points between the Railroad Test Track (RTT) and the Transit Test Track (TTT) to provide supplemental data set to the FOAD. The intention of the wheel sensor data is to provide the FOAD system with definitive data about the track being occupied by the train. Once the occupied track was determined, the FOAD system could then track movement of the train. At the time of testing, the two systems were not yet integrated, so only standalone FOAD data were provided to TTCI by the participating vendor. TTCI worked with FOAD vendor engineers to analyze and verify data results from testing. All data were collected by the FOAD vendor and then shared with TTCI. Part of this project included the vendor working to improve upon current train tracking algorithms. Once the vendor made improvements to the tracking algorithm the data were reprocessed with the “optimized” algorithm and reported.

• Record URL:
  • https://www.fra.dot.gov/eLib/details/L19963#p1_z5_gD
• Record URL:
  • https://www.fra.dot.gov/eLib/details/L20135#p1_z5_gD
• 
• Summary URL:
  • https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/42693
• Record URL:
  • https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/42692
• Publication Date: 2019-4

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Photos;
• Pagination: 3p
• Serial:
  • Research Results
  • Issue Number: RR 19-12
  • Publisher: Federal Railroad Administration
• Publication flags:

  Open Access (libre)

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Algorithms; Railroad wheels; Sensors
• Uncontrolled Terms: Fiber optic acoustic detection; Train detection systems; Train tracking
• Subject Areas: Operations and Traffic Management; Railroads;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01704676
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: NTL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
• Created Date: May 15 2019 6:40PM