Monitoramento do Conforto e da Qualidade Viária Baseado em Sensores de Baixo Custo: Investigação Exploratória no Transporte Ferroviário

This paper presents the tests for the development of a low-cost system for comfort and rail track quality monitoring. The method is based on the following aspects: a) the collective use of low-cost inertial sensors aboard trains for vibration recording; and b) the use of the procedures established in ISO-2631 standard for comfort characterization and, indirectly, track quality description. Tests performed within the São Paulo Metropolitan Trains Company and the Italian Railway Infrastructure Manager demonstrate the coherence within the sensor population and the consistency of the values obtained, with average correlation coefficient between sensors equal to 0.91 (Brazil) and to 0.82 (Italy, for similar configuration) for vertical acceleration. Moreover, the validation through comparison with the geometry parameters shows the relevance of speed variation in the proposed technique’s performance for track quality characterization.