International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics

Volume 118 No. 24 2018

ISSN: 1314-3395 (on-line version)
url: http://www.acadpubl.eu/hub/
Special Issue
http://www.acadpubl.eu/hub/

RAILWAY CONDITION
MONITORING USING WIRELESS
ZIGBEE NODES
Mrs. S. S. Gayathiri1 , Atharva Vitekar2 ,
Karthik Padmanabhan3 , Bharat Arya4
1
Assistant Professor,2,3,4 Student,
Department of ECE,
SRM Institute of science and technology,
Chennai, India.

May 23, 2018

Abstract
Indian railways have emerged as the predominant mode
of transport for mid to long distance travel. The current
system poses a lot of safety threats due to irregular checks
and the manual nature of the system. This paper proposes
a system of monitoring whereby IR, humidity, temperature
and directional sensors are used to ensure track safety. An
added novelty is the implementation of well-known energy
harvesting methods such as piezo plates and Peltier disks as
well as a newer technology called magento levitation energy
harvesting. The low cost, manufacturing ease, and suitable
implementation make this setup ideal for the Indian Railway
system and other similar systems in the vicinity.
Key Words:Piezoelectric effect, Peltier effect, Magneto
Levitation energy harvesting, Wireless Sensor Networks

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1 Introduction
This paper describes the range of sensing technologies has expanded
rapidly, whereas sensor devices have become cheaper. This has led
to a rapid expansion in condition monitoring of systems, structures,
vehicles, and machinery using sensors. Key factors are the recent
advances in networking technologies such as wireless communica-
tion and mobile ad hoc networking coupled with the technology to
integrate devices.
It can be used for monitoring the railway infrastructure such
as bridges, rail tracks, track beds, and track equipment along with
vehicle health monitoring such as chassis, bogies, wheels, and wag-
ons. Condition monitoring reduces human inspection requirement
through automated monitoring, reduces maintenance through de-
tecting faults before they escalate, and improves safety and relia-
bility. This is vital for the development, upgrading, and expansion
of railway networks. Human negligence and human error have be-
come the primary cause for train accidents in India. The expanded
development in the railroad area has brought about an expansion
in the train activity thickness over the world. This has brought
about the expansion in the quantity of mischances including trains.
A train accident also occurs due to natural crises. Currently ma-
jor train accident occurs in Madhya Pradesh at Harda. Second
train accident occurs in Mumbai local train overshoots platform at
Churchgate. First train accident occurred due to natural crises &
human negligence. Second train accident occurred due to human
error. To overcome all these limitation we develop new system such
as Railway Track Monitoring and Accident Avoidance Using Smart
Sensor Network (SSN).

2 LITERATURE REVIEW
The base paper uses a Magnetic Levitation Energy Harvester using
their own design, which produces a peak-peak Voltage of 2.3V [1]
when the train travels at the rate of 105 km/hr. In this paper, a
new Design for a Magnetic Energy Harvester is used along with the
use of other alternate Energy Harvesting devices which will use the
other forms of inputs to convert into energy, i.e., Peizoelectric En-
ergy Harvesting [2] and Peltier Plate (Thermo Electric Harvestor)

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Harvesting [3].
Zigbee nodes [4] are used for the communication of the sensor
data to the mainframe (computer in this case) which will further
send the information to the concerned personnel.The various rail-
way track signaling systems [5] and event detection and its signal
characterization [6] was studied, helping in better understanding
of the Indian railway system, on which the prototype has to be
implemented.

3 SETUP AND NOVELITY

The system is based upon a basic peripheral interface based upon
a Programmable Interface controller. Here, the sensors act as pe-
ripherals which collect information and the energy harvesting units
collect and store energy in the battery. The novelty here is that
energy is harvested through 3 independent mechanisms and one of
these is the magneto levitation unit which is relatively new and
unused. The circuit is powered by the energy harvested via the 3
methods making it self-sustaining. The system design is given in
Figure 1.

Figure 1 System Design

A. PIC Microcontroller
The architectural decisions are directed at the maximization of
speed-to-cost ratio. The PIC instruction set is suited to implemen-
tation of fast lookup tables in the program space. It is also cheap
which is suitable to our objectives. We used the PIC16F877A as it

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was easily available in the market and had an appropriate number

of peripherals.
B. LCD Display
It is a flat-panel display or other electronic visual display that
uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals. This is a 7
segment LCD display and we use it in the project to display our
own board results.
C. Temperature Sensor
The temperature sensor is a basic device which uses the temper-
ature coefficient and the negative temperature coefficient in order
to appropriately identify changes in temperature.
D. Zigbee Module
ZigBee is a wireless networking standard that is aimed at re-
mote control and sensor applications which is suitable for operation
in harsh radio environments and in isolated locations. ZigBee tech-
nology builds on IEEE standard 802.15.4 which defines the physical
and MAC layers.
E. Piezoelectric Plates
A piezoelectric plate is a device that uses the piezoelectric ef-
fect to measure pressure, acceleration, strain or force by converting
them to an electrical charge. Piezoelectricity is the electricity gen-
erated by piezo element by effect called the piezoelectric effect. It
is the ability of certain materials to generate an AC (alternating
current) voltage when subjected to mechanical stress or vibration,
or to vibrate when subjected to an AC voltage, or both.
The calculations for the piezo plates are as follows:-
12 piezo plates were used, a minimum of 1V is required per
step and a maximum of 10.5V could be potentially created per
step. Here a step acts as a mass (person in this example), apply-
ing pressure on the device and creating a subsequent force which
through the inverse piezoelectric effect creates electricity. Using a
50kg dummy, it was calculated that 9600 steps would be required
for a 1V raise over roughly 80 minutes.
The array of 15 peizoplates were designed in a stack of 2, as
shown in the figure 2.

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Figure 2 Peizo Electric Plates Setup

F. Thermo Electric Generator(Peltier Plate)

A Peltier cooler can also be used as a thermoelectric generator.
When operated as a generator, one side of the device is heated to a
temperature greater than the other side, and as a result, a difference
in voltage will build up between the two sides. Peltier is interfaced
with the circuit such that when it is placed in hot environments, the
difference in temperatures on both sides of the plates will induce
the emf that is fed back into the circuit.
According to our calculations, with the temperature difference
of 338.15 K between the 2 sides causes a potential difference of
around 1V. This can be achieved in real time, by using a evapo-
ration based cooling system for one side and the sunlight on the
other. We replicated the environment using a Soldering Iron.
The Peltier Plate model TEC1-12706 is used. The performance
specification for it are given in Table I.

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TABLE I PERFORMANCE SPECIFICATIONS OF TEC1-12706

G. Magnetic Levitation Energy Harvester

A Magnetic Levitation energy harvester generates energy by the
vibrations of the levitating magnet, which develops an emf which
results in generation of electricity.
The magneto unit harvests energy through the movement of the
tracks. As the track vibrates, the movement is carried over to the
levitation unit. Since the position of the magnets are such that like
poles face each other, a natural levitating position is established.
This position is then altered as energy is transferred to the unit and
only the levitating magnet has the freedom to absorb the energy
and move as a result. When this movement occurs, the coil wrapped
around the shaft of the device gets magnetically excited due to its
innate properties as a metal and this causes induction of electro
magnetic force. In turn, a current is formed in the coil which can
then be used to establish circuitry with the battery and that is how
energy is harvested.
Common materials used for magnetic levitation are those con-
taining Neodymium, Iron and Boron in various concentrations.
This provides the ideal conditions for appropriate magnetization
considering the mass of each of the magnets used in the setup. Un-
fortunately, logistical issues did not allow this paper to delve into
those types of ideal magnets therefore local, commercially available
ferromagnets were used.
The chassis of the Magnetic Levitation Energy Harvester was
designed using a 3D printer. The initial design was rejected in
favor of a more streamlined design that was adopted, as shown in
the Figure 3. The rejected chassis is shown in the figure 4.

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Figure 3 Magnetic Levitation Energy Harvester (final design)

Figure 4 Initial design of Magnetic Levitation Energy Harvester

H. Universal Asynchronous Transmitter/Reciever

UART stands for Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter.
Its not a communication protocol like SPI and I2C, but a physical
circuit in a microcontroller, or a stand-alone IC. A UARTs main
purpose is to transmit and receive serial data. One of the best
things about UART is that it only uses two wires to transmit data
between devices.

4 METHODOLOGY
Virtual Simulation of the circuit using software tools such as MPLAB
IDE to check the working of the system and the input and output
of various components. Then the components that are required are
assembled and tested in real time. The designed system is then

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implemented and the output is verified. Using the results from

the prototype and literature review to calculate the performance
in real time scenarios. This is achieved through tabulation and
calculations using real world data and the trends produced in the
prototype.
Evaluating on the setup and whether it is practical to adopt
such a system for Indian or otherwise railways is to be done. Many
factors, such as cost, energy generated and components used are
studied to make this observation. The flowchart of methodology is
given in Figure 5.
As seen in the flow chart, when the train moves over the track,
the sensors detect the data and check whether the threshold is
broken. If not, there is a change in LCD display. But if there
is some issue, it will communicate it to the Zigbee module. This
Zigbee Module will communicate with the Zigbee coordinator and
relay information to the processing center.

Figure 5 Methodology Flowchart

5 RESULT
The end result is a system which incorporates all the aforemen-
tioned components. This has been demonstrated in the picture

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provided below in Table II. As shown in the figure, the final setup
was an incorporation of various methods of energy harvesting and
this in turn created a self-powered system. The amount of energy
harvested through individual units is shown in the table below (val-
ues are subject to conditions present during testing): -

TABLE II RESULT

Testing was done through means of establishing preset condi-

tions and observing the energy generated as a result. Note here that
the scope of this paper only tests the functionality of the setup and
should therefore not be treated as a final design.
For the piezoplates, the setup shows that several plates were
placed under a long beam. Functionality of the unit as a whole was
therefore tested by applying pressure to the beam and observing
the energy generated across the terminals of the rectifier circuit.
For the peltier plates, heat was applied through means of a
soldering iron. This was done in an effort to replicate the heat
produced by the sun during peak hours and therefore the output
was recorded.
The magneto levitation harvester relies on vibrational kinetic
energy transfer. Therefore, manual vibration was provided to ob-
serve the limits of the system and these were then noted down.

6 CONCLUSION
The design suggested in the paper was proven to be functional
and successful in accomplishing the original goals set forth in the
abstract. A setup has been created which can effectively address

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the lack of safety or energy harvesting in the Indian Railway sys-

tem. The setup is both cheap, compact and scalable however
there are certain pertinent issues with the system which need to
be addressed:-
A. The setup relies on parts which are not easy to
obtain
The setup provided in this paper relies on certain parts which
can only be obtained via means of importing parts. This goes
against the principles of sustainable development and also can prove
to be a liability if adopted to an industrial scale where equipment
is bound to be much pricier.
B. The setup is not industry ready
While several aspects of the design address real life problems,
the overall setup is still not an industrial grade design. In order
to do this, more extensive work and further engineering would be
necessary.
C. The setup does not generate sufficient energy
While the setup maybe adept at generating enough energy to
provide power for the sensing unit, it does not harvest enough en-
ergy for it be considered commercially viable on a larger scale. The
setup needs to satisfy a greater demand of energy and therefore this
project falls short in this aspect.

7 FUTURE WORK
Upon viewing the weaknesses of this project provided in the con-
clusion, certain changes can be implemented in future designs to
properly deal with this issues.
A. Create an industrial grade design
The first task would be to create a design which can readily
be implemented into real life scenarios. This would require more
extensive research and using more robust, quality materials which
could ensure effectiveness while operating in real tracks
B. Use alternate deigns for the piezoplate setup
The usage of a plastic beam on top of the piezo setup was a poor
decision design wise for several reasons which all revolve around
the fact that this provided too much damping. As a result, the
piezoplates, which otherwise could have provided a big boost in

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energy generation, Therefore, a different material for the beam or

perhaps an alternative setup.

References
[1] Mingyuan Gao, Ping Wang, Yifeng Wang, Lingkan Yao. Self-
Powered ZigBee Wireless Sensor Nodes for Railway Condition
Monitoring. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation
Systems, June 2017.

[2] Yasna Schifferli. Maximizing the energy harvested from piezo-

electric materials for clean energy generation. Humanitarian
Technology Conference (IHTC), 2017 IEEE Canada Interna-
tional, 21-22 July 2017

[3] Marco Nesarajah , Georg Frey. Thermoelectric power genera-

tion: Peltier element versus thermoelectric generator. Indus-
trial Electronics Society, IECON 2016, 42nd Annual Confer-
ence of the IEEE 23-26 Oct 2016.

[4] Manoj Tolani, Sunny, Rajat Kumar Singh, Kumar Shub-

ham, Rajesh Kumar. Two-Layer Optimized Railway Monitor-
ing System Using Wi-Fi and ZigBee Interfaced Wireless Sensor
Network. IEEE Sensors Journal, 7 April 2017

[5] P.R. Goundan, A. Jhunjhunwala. Evaluation of relative mer-

its/demerits of different signaling schemes used at a railway
station for an approaching train in Indian Railways today.
IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, 3 May 2002.

[6] Sanjay Singh Negi, Nand Kishor, Kjetil Uhlen, Richa Negi.
Event Detection and Its Signal Characterization in PMU Data
Stream. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics , 2017.

[7] http://peltiermodules.com/peltier.datasheet/TEC1-
12706.pdf

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