Railway Track crack detection using Matlab

Abstract

In this project, a computer-based methodology (i.e. image processing in MATLAB) has been discussed which will helped in detecting the cracks on the tracks appropriately with less human intervention. A system will be there to capture the images of the track and send it to the server .i.e. to the computer of the rail employee. The employee just has to browse that image. However, no special knowledge is required to detect cracks which will definitely help the employees of the railway. Also, the overall cost of the project is less with less maintenance. However, no special efforts are needed to detect cracks which will certainly benefit the employees of the railway. In addition,with less maintenance, the project\'s total cost is lower.

 

INTRODUCTION

Most of the people travel by railway and also mostly the goods transportation is also done by railway. The railway is faster than the bus and safer plus economical than an airplane and hence mostly used by all and is the biggest means of transportation. But the problems with the railways are the increasing number of accidents which are caused by the number of reasons such as:-

A. Collision Between Trains

Problems occurring in the signaling Obstacles appear on the rail route. Track failures But mostly the accidents occur are due to the track failures means cracks occur in the tracks which leads to the accidents. This cause loss of lives and property. So there is a need to avoid accidents. Reasons for the development of cracks in railway track can be due to Development of excessive thermal stresses in the track due to temperature variation.

Due to excessive wear and tear on account of repetitive mechanical stresses.

Corrosion in track, on account of adverse climatic conditions.

Trains having more weight than weight sustainability of the track due to the passenger overcrowding in the coaches of the train than the real coach capacity.

B. Proposed Method

In this project, we have proposed a computerized method to detect cracks which require very less cost or even we can say that to detect crack we require no cost at all and also no manual inspection to detect the crack.

This method is based on MATLAB. We have use image processing in MATLAB. In this, first of all a reference image without crack is provided in the MATLAB. This image is always same. Then there is a need to capture the image of the track. This captured image is then provided to the server i.e., somewhere in the nearby station where an employee is sitting to monitor the operation.

This employee has to do just certain operations such as giving a name to the images or browsing the files of the image which requires no special knowledge. After browsing the images in MATLAB, the program file for the crack detection which is already stored there in MATLAB needs to open. Then the image name only has to put in proper format into that program. We can make another arrangement by writing certain different commands for this due to which there will be no need to write the name every time and then the program is run and browse the file of the captured image.