An extensible framework architecture for wireless condition monitoring applications for railway rolling stock

Modern railway vehicles incorporate a significant level of built-in condition monitoring. Interfacing these systems to vehicle management units supports powerful fault detection and decision support facilities for the vehicle operators and maintainers. The benefits of such systems are attained through close incorporation of the component systems with the vehicle infrastructure including core data communication busses, train management units and remote communications equipment. Retrofitting condition monitoring systems to existing rolling stock introduces potential equivalent benefits, but installing such systems is prohibited by the cost and complexity of installing power and communications cabling to support the monitoring equipment. Recent advancements in wireless communication, localised processing capacity and energy harvesting technology present an opportunity to address this challenge and test the market potential. This paper describes the development of a multi-hop mesh network as a standardised framework for railway rolling stock monitoring. The network uses localised processing elements for user configurable sensing applications to provide temporary and semi-permanent monitoring functions. The system is made fully wireless through the provision of energy harvesting power management functionality.