Observations on track evolution from onboard inertial measurements

Abstract

Distance estimation is necessary in railway track condition monitoring to evaluate the state of the track and locate faults. To do that, this paper proposes a novel method that combines an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) to estimate distance and then correct it using track geometry features such as crosslevel as a reference. This correction is used to align the track data accurately, which helps to observe the evolution of the track over a year and to evaluate the effects of track features such as tunnels, bridges, or switches and crosses, demonstrating that the distance estimation method is reliable and allows supervision of the track.