MEDES: Contact wire wear measuring system used by the Spanish National Railway (RENFE)

Abstract

Measuring systems that detect automatically the degree of wire wear are necessary in order to carry out an efficient infrastructure management and maintenance based on the contact wire condition. An automatic inspection system for overhead wires will be described in this paper. This system has been designed by UPM-DIE (División de Ingeniería Electrónica, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid) and funded by RENFE (Spanish National Railway). Currently, the MEDES system is installed and operative in laboratory coaches used by RENFE (Spanish National Railway) and SNCF (French Railway Company). It is based on a computer vision system taking advantage of good reflecting characteristics of the wearing track of the overhead wire. The wearing track is illuminated using laser diodes at 810nm. Charge coupled device (CCD) linear cameras capture the reflected light. A brief contact wire wear measuring systems overview will also be presented.