Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) Platform for Railway Condition Monitoring

In recent years, the sensors are cheaper and are widely available, and also many sensing technologies are rapidly emerging. Sensors are available in a compact size and hence can be installed at inaccessible situations with less effort. They are deployed on a large scale in various industries because of their low cost and discrete varieties. Due to their broad range, there is a rapid expansion in the condition monitoring of the rail systems, for instance, bridges, rail tracks, signaling, etc. Condition monitoring reduces the risks and time involved during human inspections by automated condition monitoring, and it also reduces the maintenance by identifying faults before they get worse and improves safety and reliability. With the rapid improvements in wireless communications, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are used to monitor these infrastructures effectively using MEMS sensors. WSN condition monitoring reduces the risks, increases the reliability and provide secure communication using the IEEE 802.15.4 protocol. The paper summarizes a background and a literature survey on the WSNs in remote condition monitoring. This paper presents the application of remote condition monitoring by using the ADXL 335 MEMS accelerometer sensor. The sensor records the acceleration of the train and the signal is pre-processed before sending it to the WSN. The output is received at the base station wirelessly via WSN.