UNIVERSITI TEKNIKAL MALAYSIA MELAKA

RAILWAY CRACK DETECTION SYSTEM USING

ULTRASONIC SENSORS AND ARDUINO UNO

This report submitted in accordance with requirement of the Universiti Teknikal

Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) for the Bachelor’s Degree in Electronics Engineering

Technology (Industrial Electronics) with Honours

by

WONG WEI QING

B071310560

931215145457

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY

2016

UNIVERSITI TEKNIKAL MALAYSIA MELAKA

BORANG PENGESAHAN STATUS LAPORAN PROJEK SARJANA MUDA

TAJUK: RAILWAY CRACK DETECTION SYSTEM USING ULTRASONIC SENSORS AND ARDUINO UNO

SESI PENGAJIAN: 2016/17 Semester 1 Saya WONG WEI QING mengaku membenarkan Laporan PSM ini disimpan di Perpustakaan Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) dengan syarat-syarat kegunaan seperti berikut:

1. Laporan PSM adalah hak milik Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka dan penulis. 2. Perpustakaan Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka dibenarkan membuat salinan

untuk tujuan pengajian sahaja dengan izin penulis. 3. Perpustakaan dibenarkan membuat salinan laporan PSM ini sebagai bahan

pertukaran antara institusi pengajian tinggi.

4. **Sila tandakan ( )

SULIT

TERHAD

TIDAK TERHAD

(Mengandungi maklumat yang berdarjah keselamatan atau kepentingan Malaysia sebagaimana yang termaktub dalam AKTA RAHSIA RASMI 1972)

(Mengandungi maklumat TERHAD yang telah ditentukan oleh organisasi/badan di mana penyelidikan dijalankan)

Alamat Tetap: 63, JALAN JATI SD4/4, BANDAR BARU SRI DAMANASARA, 52100 KUALA LUMPUR, W. PERSEKUTUAN. Tarikh: ________________________

Disahkan oleh:

Cop Rasmi: Tarikh: _______________________

iv

DECLARATION

I hereby, declared this report entitled “Railway Crack Detection System Using

Ultrasonic Sensors and Arduino UNO” is the results of my own research except as

cited in references.

Signature : ………………………………………….

Author’s Name : WONG WEI QING

Date : 12 DECEMBER 2016

v

APPROVAL

This report is submitted to the Faculty of Engineering Technology of UTeM as a

partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Electronics

Engineering Technology (Industrial Electronics) with Honours. The member of

the supervisor committee is as follow:

…………………………………

(IR MOHAMMAD ‘AFIF BIN KASNO)

vi

ABSTRAK

Report ini menerangkan pembangunan of sistem pengesanan rekahan landasan

kereta api yang kos efektif. Sistem ini menggunakan ultrasonik sensor dan Arduino

UNO. Rekahan landasan kereta api berlaku pada masa kini kerana ada tekanan antara

roda dan permukaan landasan kereta api. Hal ini sedemikian, rekahan akan membawa

kerugian yang banyak kepada nyawa manusia dan harta benda. Pembangunan Sistem

ini akan mengurangkan rekahan landasan kereta api. Pendekatan sistem ini

menggunakan dua ultrasonik sensor untuk mengesan rekahan yang berlaku di

landasan kereta api, iaitu di landasan KTM. Ultrasonik sensor berkomunikasi dengan

Arduino dan memaparkan mesej kepada pasukan penyelenggaran supaya landasan

kereta api dapat membaiki dengan masa yang cepat. Selain itu, pasukan

penyelenggaran boleh berinteraksi dengan sistem ini melalui satu sistem Graphical

User Interface (GUI) bahawa sistem ini bergerak dalam mod keselamatan atau mod

biasa. Arduino UNO ialah satu cip kawalan utama, pembalakan data dapat dicapai

dengan penggunaan monitor siri dan LCD berfungsi sebagai paparan mesej kepada

pasukan penyelenggaran. Hasil ujian ini menunjukkan pembangunan sistem

mempunyai perwatakan yang kos efektif dan akan digunakan secara meluas. Interaksi

dengan penguna dapat dicapai melalui sistem GUI untuk sistem pengesan rekahan

landasan kereta api. GUI ini mempunyai mod keselamatan dan mod biasa bahawa

sistem ini akan bergerak dengan kelajuan yang ditetapkan dalam program.

vii

ABSTRACT

This report present the development of Design a Cost Effective Railway Crack

Detection System Using Ultrasonic Sensors and Arduino UNO. Railway crack

continues to occur in modern architecture due to contact stresses between the wheel

of the train and the surface of the railway. Thus, it will bought huge losses to the

people’s lives and property. In order to reduce railway crack in railway track, a railway

crack detector device installed into an essential. The approach of railway crack

detection system is by using two ultrasonic sensors to detect crack for that occurs in

railway track such as in KTM komunter train area. The ultrasonic sensors then

integrated with Arduino itself and display message to the maintenance team so that

the maintenance could done faster. Besides, the maintenance team can interact with

the crack detector system and the system will continue to scan for any defect at the

railway tracks by Graphical User Interface (GUI) program whether is in safety run

mode or normal run mode. Arduino UNO is adopted as main control chip, data logging

are achieved by using Serial Monitor and LCD functions as display message. The

result of test shows this design has characters of cost effective, and will be widely

used. Communication with the users is fulfilled through the GUI in this crack

detection system. Its consists of safety run mode and normal run mode, which the

device will run at its speed according to the mode.

viii

DEDICATION

This thesis is dedicated to:

My beloved family,

My Parents,

My Supervisors,

My lectures,

And all my friends,

Thank you for their encouragement and support.

ix

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I convey my gratefulness to my supervisor, IR Mohammad ‘Afif Bin Kasno

as my supervisor for giving me the precious chance to have my final year project under

their supervision. Besides that, I appreciate all the guidance, motivation and

invaluable throughout the project. Despite he is being extraordinarily busy with their

jobs and duties, he still managed to guide me along, apart from suggesting me the best

solutions to almost every challenge. I would also like to thank all my friends that

support me during working on this project.

Besides, we would like to thank to Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka

(UTeM) especially to the Department of Electronics & Computer Engineering

Technology (JTKEK), Faculty of Engineering Technology (FTK) for providing us

with good environment and facilities to complete this project. Thanks also to the

Perpustakaan Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) librarian and related staff

for providing us valuable information throughout the project.

Most important, I wish to dedicate my special appreciation to my family for

the support and attention in my entire study. Their endless support has extended to me

throughout these four years’ study and my life in general.

Without helps of the particular that mentioned above, I would face many

difficulties while doing this project. Through this final year project, I gained valuable

knowledge and I hope I able to apply it in the future.

x

LIST OF CONTENT

Declaration iv

Approval v

Abstrak vi

Abstract vii

Dedications viii

Acknowledgement ix

Table of Content x

List of Tables xiii

List of Figures xiv

List of Symbols and Abbreviations xvi

CHAPTER

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background 1

1.2 Problem Statement 3

1.2.1 Factor of Crack in Rails 4

1.3 Objective 5

1.4 Scope 5

1.5 Structure/Summary of this report 6

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction 7

2.2 History about railway crack detection system 8

2.3 Existing Techniques 11

2.3.1 LED-LDR Assembly Inspection 11

2.3.2 Ultrasonic Inspection 11

2.3.3 Laser Beam Inspection 12

2.3.4 Eddy Current 13

xi

2.4 Proposed Method 14

3. METHODOLOGY

3.1 Project Implementation 15

3.1.1 Project Planning 16

3.1.1.1 Data Collection 16

3.2 Hardware Development 16

3.2.1 Electronic hardware 17

3.2.2 HC SR04 Implementation 17

3.2.3 Object Positioning 18

3.2.4 LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) 18

3.2.4.1 LCD operation 19

3.2.5 Motor Driver L298N H bridge 19

3.2.5.1 The DC motor control by Motor driver 20

3.3 Program for hardware 21

3.3.1 Arduino IDE 21

3.3.2 Microsoft Visual C# 2010 Express 21

3.3.3 Fritzing software 21

3.4 Flowchart of the project flow 22

3.4.1 Flowchart of whole process 23

3.4.2 Programming Flow chart 24

3.4.3 Normal Run Mode 25

3.4.4 Safety Run Mode 26

4. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Introduction 27

4.2 Discussion 30

4.3 Analysis Result 31

4.3.1 Result Obtain from Serial Monitor based on Different Types of

Crack 31

xii

4.3.1.1 Result obtained from Serial Monitor which sensor measure

distance in Centimeter (cm) 32

4.3.1.2 Result obtained from Serial Monitor which sensor measure

distance in Millimeter (mm) 33

4.3.2 Result Obtain from Motor Log of the GUI Program 34

4.3.2.1 Normal Run Mode 34

4.3.2.2 Safety Run Mode 34

4.4 Calculation 35

4.4.1 Distance Measurement 35

4.4.1.1 Centimeter (cm) distance measurement for the sensor 35

4.4.1.2 Millimeter (mm) distance measurement for the sensor 35

4.4.2 PWM Value 36

4.4.2.1 PWM Duty Cycle and time of the motor for Normal Run mode

36

4.4.2.2 PWM Duty Cycle and time of the motor for Safety Run mode

37

5. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Introduction 38

5.2 Conclusion 38

5.3 Recommendations 38

REFERENCES 39

APPENDICES 43

xiii

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1 Condition of railroad that can cause accidents 4

Table 2.1 Comparison of the existing techniques of the railway inspection 14

Table 4.1 Table Analysis of sensor based on different types of crack and cm

measurement 32

Table 4.2 Table Analysis of sensor based on different types of crack and mm

measurement 33

xiv

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1.1 Horrific Accident at Batu Anam station, near Segamat 2

Figure 1.2 Train Derailment at Bukit Timah road near King Albert Park 3

Figure 1.3 Loosening Bolt 4

Figure 1.4 Crack On RailRoad 4

Figure 1.5 Non-junction on track 4

Figure 1.6 Serious Crack on Railroad 4

Figure 2.1 Block Schematic of Rail Crack Detection Scheme 7

Figure 2.2 Railroad Hand-Pump Section Car 8

Figure 2.3 The 3-wheeled Velocipede Hand Car 9

Figure 2.4 Wolverhampton Divisional Engineer's Inspection Saloon 10

Figure 2.5 A rail inspection car with the capability of detecting transverse fissures

10

Figure 2.6 A Prototype Vehicle at a test track in Gettysburg 12

Figure 2.7 Dimension of eddy current sensor probe 13

Figure 3.1 Schematic Circuit of the system 16

Figure 3.2 Operation of HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Sensor 17

Figure 3.3 Sensor Positioning 18

Figure 3.4 Pin configuration of LCD 19

Figure 3.5 Working of the LCD 19

Figure 3.6 Schematic diagram of Motor driver L298N H bridge 20

Figure 3.7 Flow chart of whole process of the system 23

Figure 3.8 Programming Flow chart of railway crack detection system 24

Figure 3.9 Process of Normal Run Mode 25

Figure 3.10 Process of Safety Run Mode 26

Figure 4.1 Development of design of the Railway Crack Detection System 27

Figure 4.2 The Condition when Left and Right sensor detect crack at the railway

track 27

Figure 4.3 The Condition when Right sensor detect crack at the railway track 28

Figure 4.4 The Condition when left sensor detect crack at the railway track 29

Figure 4.5 Graphical User Interface of the Motor Control System in Microsoft

Visual C# 29

Figure 4.6 Data Logging of the GUI of the measurement and Status of Motor when

the command is send. 30

Figure 4.7 Distance measurement if the sensor mounted on low position. 30

Figure 4.8 Bit of Crack which the rail diameter size is 1.9 cm 31

Figure 4.9 Track Hole which indent in 0.9 cm 31

Figure 4.10 Track Bent in about 1.2cm 31

Figure 4.11 Serial Monitor of the No Crack Condition 32

Figure 4.12 Serial Monitor of the Left Crack Condition 32

Figure 4.13 Serial Monitor of the Right Crack Condition 32

Figure 4.14 Serial Monitor of the No Crack Condition 33

Figure 4.15 Serial Monitor of the Left Crack Condition 33

Figure 4.16 Serial Monitor of the Right Crack Condition 33

Figure 4.17 Command 0 and 2 of the Normal Run Mode 34

Figure 4.18 Command 3 and 4 of the Safety Run Mode 34

xv

Figure 4.19 Formula of the distance (mm) of the sound wave sent by sensor 1 and 2

35

Figure 4.20 Formula of the distance (mm) of the sound wave sent by sensor 1 and 2

35

Figure 4.21 The percentage of one period in which a signal is active 36

Figure 4.22 Controlling the 25% duty cycle motor 1 and 2 by PWM techniques 36

Figure 4.23 Controlling the 29.41% duty cycle motor 1 and 2 by PWM techniques

37

xvi

LIST OF SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS

KTM – Kereta Tanah Melayu

LCD – Liquid Crystal Display

FRA – Federal Rail Administration

SMS – Short Message Service

B & E – Ex-Bristol and Exeter

GSM – Global System for Mobile Communications

IR – Infrared

PIC – Peripheral Interface Controller

LED – Light Emitting Diode

PWM— Pulse Width Modulation

USB— Universal Serial Bus

ICSP— In-Circuit Serial Programming

AC— Alternating Current

DC— Direct Current

MCU— Memory Controller Unit

TX— Transmit

RX— Receive

EN— Enable

IDE— Integrated Development Environment

LDR – Light Dependent Resistor

P— Power

f— Frequency

t— Time

GUI – Graphical User Interface

RF – Radio Frequency

IoT— Internet of Things

cm— centimeter

mm— millimeter

LiPo— lithium battery

1

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Transport plays a vital role because it enables the action of buying and selling good

and service between persons, which is essential for the development of civilizations. Thus,

transportation has throughout history been a spur to expansion as better transport leads to

more trade. The stage in an economic cycle has always been dependent on increasing the

capacity and rationality of transport. But the infrastructure and operation of transport has a

great effect on the land and is the largest drainer of energy, making transport sustainability

and safety a major issue. In Malaysia, the rail transport occupies a prominent position in

providing the necessary transport infrastructure to sustain and quench the ever burgeoning

needs of a rapidly growing economy. Today, Malaysia possesses the fifth largest railway

network in the world and development to make the trains as the main transportation become

true.

In era for development train as a main transportation, one horrific accident which 22

passengers were injured in train accident at the Batu Anam station, near Segamat. According

to the witness, incident at about 11:45 am Monday, the train was going quite fast as when

the it travels from Gemas onwards. In the incident, a Singaporean Mohd Noor Rahmat, 78,

and his wife, Madam Mahawi Sulaiman, 70, a permanent resident, who were also badly

injured. Mr. Mohd Noor suffered a swollen left eye and had to wear a neck brace and need

further check-ups to see if he had broken any bones or injured his neck seriously. During the

incident, a train with eight carriages carry 243 passengers travelling from Kuala Lumpur to

Tampin.

2

Figure 1.:1 Horrific Accident at Batu Anam station, near Segamat.

On this tragedy, a group of Indian students on a youth exchange programme with

Rotary International were not so lucky. Their coach was one those that fell on its side. The

group of eight, including their team leader, Mr Sudhindra Mohan Sharma,43, and four boys

and three girls from ages of 16 to 19. The group later sought treatment from Raffles Hospital

in Singapore.

Another case was record by AsiaOne which incident occurred at the Bukit Timah

road near King Albert Park at about 8:15am on Tuesday morning when the KTM train from

Singapore to Malaysia in the journey carrying 60 passengers aboard the 3 carriages. The first

three carriages that which contains of 20 passenger boarded at the back of the front carriages

disconnected from the connection, causing it to derail and luckily there no casualties have

been reported.

3

Figure 1.2: Train Derailment at Bukit Timah road near King Albert Park

The matter of interest for both this resource is the accident arise from railroad

problem which the train out form the railroad. According to the resource, two major

problems that always have been occurred are crack and loosening bolt on railroad. These

current situation of railway always occur because the temperature on railroad always changes

from hot and cold temperature. From that, the structure of railroad also changed to breakable

and easy to crack and loosening bolt.

1.2. Problem Statement

The existing systems are incompetent in monitoring the surface and near surface

cracks precisely and it is inappropriate in tunnels. Nowadays, the monitoring is by manually

and waste more human energy. The time delay in informing the maintenance team about the

crack is large. It has high cost and is less accurate.

4

Table 1.1: Condition of railroad that can cause accidents

Figure 1.3: Loosening Bolt

Figure 1.5 : Non- junction on track

Figure 1.4: Crack On Railroad

Figure 1.6 : Serious Crack on Railroad

1.2.1 Factor of Crack in Rails

Cracks in rails have been recognized to be the main factor of derailments in

the past, yet there have been no cheap self-acting solutions available for testing

purposes. Hence, owing to the crucial repercussions of this problem, design on

implementing a better performance and cost effective solution suitable for large scale

application. Since the railway was created, rail maintenance had always been a

problem crack or damage rail could lead the train derail from track.

The problem has been the lack of cheap and efficient technology to detect

defects in the rail tracks and of course, the insufficiency of maintenance of rails

which have resulted in the formation of cracks in the rails and other similar problems

caused by anti-social elements which threaten the security of operation 5 of rail

transport. In the past, this problem has influence to a number of derailments resulting

in a heavy loss of life and property. High safety standards need in the management

of railroad lines demand the inspection of railway wheels directly after production in

order to detect the presence of surface cracks and bolt loosening that could seriously

affect the condition of the railway, and therefore passenger’s safety.

5

1.3. Objective

This project is:

I. to study about the solution and the problem of railway cracks

II. to develop a railway crack detection system that able to solve the

railway crack problem.

III. to analysis the best performance of the system for the railway crack.

1.4. Scope

For the project, the scope is depending the system of railway crack detection that will

be develop. For example,

I. Choosing the suitable electronic items for build up the system. This is because

the electronics component has their own characteristics and limitations for

designing circuit process to avoid this component is burn out during attach on the

circuit. For example, Arduino microcontroller, Motor driver, LCD, Ultrasonic

sensor, DC motor.

II. Understanding all railway crack detection system, apply at which application and

limitation and also to define their classifications The system has their own

limitation than other sophisticated system that develops by other country. For

example, the ultrasonic sensor able to detect the distance in centimetre, but not

in millimetre. The system detect crack and do data logging and give a message

and display out at the monitor so that the maintenance team could quickly done

the repairing of the railway crack.

III. Designing the suitable design for build up the railway crack detection system.

The design of system should be taken in terms of dimension and position of

components, it because the sensors, motor driver and motor will be place on

lower base platform. For the upper base platform, the components will be placed

are Arduino, LCD, and the circuit of connection for all the components in

breadboard.

6

1.5. Structure/Summary of this report

From this report have four chapters. Firstly, in chapter one (i) is discuss about the

objective and scope of the project. Secondly, chapter two (ii) is discusses about the theory

example the literature review related to the project. From this chapter discusses about history

of railway crack detection system. Chapter three (iii) discusses methodology by flowchart

of the programming and the work flow of the system. The result and discussion covered in

Chapter 4. Lastly, Chapter 5 was concluded the overall of this project.

7

Chapter 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

From this chapter, I have been research about theory related to the project. From this

chapter, I started to define the equipment and related law example railway crack detection

system. This chapter covers LCD, motor driver, ultrasonic sensors and Arduino. This chapter

easy to design and constructing the circuit of railway crack detection system. Reinach and

Gertler (2002) state that the train accident and incident rate in railway yards far exceeds the

rates across the entire railroad industry. Train accidents include collisions and derailments

that involve the operation of on-track equipment and that satisfy the certain reporting

thresholds set by the Federal Railroad Administration, (FRA, 2003).

Figure 2.1: Block Schematic of Rail Crack Detection Scheme

8

2.2 History about railway crack detection system

Nowadays, each year has many train accidents reported in worldwide due to railway

defect. Thus, there will be losses of human lives and injury. For example, the need for better

rail inspections came after a derailment at Manchester, New York, in 1911. The particular

accident resulted in the death of 29 people and injuries to 60 others. A railway crack

detection system is using the sensors to detect defect and do data logging for the crack is

detected. Then, the system will inform the maintenance team via GSM or SMS so that the

repairing job could done faster. The Railroad Hand-Pump Section Car is a simple track

maintenance vehicle made up of a platform built on 4 flanged railroad wheels and propelled

by hand power. Rods, gears and cranks are utilized to enable the car to travel along the rails.

These unique vehicles were created in the late 1850's and early 1860's.

Figure 2.2: Railroad Hand-Pump Section Car

The 3-wheeled Velocipede Hand Car became popular and applied on American

railroads during the 1880's. It was specially refashioned for the use of Road Masters, Bridge

Inspectors, Telegraph Line Repairers, and Crosstie Inspectors. However, the Velocipede was

convenient for all types of rail work where one or two men wished to go over the line at will.

Velocipedes were mainly used by railway officials to personally check the portions of the

line that came under their direct authority. The Velocipede permitted the official to stop

wherever men were at work, giving them direction and paying attention to crack in form of

defects he had noted during his journey. In this way, his section of railroad would be assured

of being maintain in the best possible condition. The Velocipede is propelled by one person

and has a seating capacity for two, allowing the driver or inspector to bring along an extra

9

section hand or another official. The vehicle is adjusting into motion by a rowing motion and

auxiliary, foot pedal-power. The frame, wheels and outrigger are made of white ash, the

frame are being firmly held together by bolts. The outrigger is stiffened by an iron brace.

The tires are cast iron, the axles and crank shaft are iron, and the crank and pedals are made

of malleable iron.

Figure 2.3: The 3-wheeled Velocipede Hand Car

Ex-Bristol and Exeter (B&E) Railway coach changed to a Divisional Engineer's

Inspection Saloon by the Great Western Railway in circa 1900 and witnessed at Warwick on

25th January 1954 in its 1920s livery. This saloon carried British Railway's number W14643

and is probably the Wolverhampton Divisional Engineer's Inspection Saloon, which is

understood to be the last of this type of coach to remain in service The coach lighting was

also gas supplied from the cylinder tanks below the frame. When built in 1875, the coaches

had four compartments plus a central luggage area. They also had six wheels, but the centre

set of wheels had already been removed in the late 1880s prior to conversion.