Train wheel bearing temperature detection

1. A system for sensing a condition of a rail vehicle undercarriage component comprising:

a sensor comprising an array of infrared sensing elements, each of the elements aimed at a different region of a target area of at least one rail vehicle undercarriage component to generate respective scanning waveform signature data corresponding to each different region, the sensor oriented so that at least one of the elements receives unobstructed infrared emissions from the at least one undercarriage component of a rail vehicle passing the sensor, wherein the at least one undercarriage component includes an inner wheel bearing of a rail wheel axle, wherein the inner wheel bearing is inwardly positioned relative to the rail wheel;

a memory for storing characteristic waveform signature data corresponding to known undercarriage components; and

a processor in communication with the sensor and the memory and configured to process the scanning waveform signature data with respect to the characteristic waveform signature data stored in memory to identify a type of one or more of the at least one rail vehicle undercarriage component being scanned, including identifying the inner wheel bearing and identifying the type of another component inwardly positioned relative to the wheel, the processor being further configured to extract information indicative of a health condition of at least one of the rail vehicle undercarriage components being identified,

wherein the extracted information indicative of the health condition includes an infrared temperature profile, and

wherein the infrared temperature profile includes a relationship between a temperature of the at least one rail vehicle undercarriage component versus temperature sampling points over time of an infrared emission from the scanned component.

2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a wheel sensor generating wheel passage data for use by the processor to correlate wheel position with the scanning waveform signature data.

3. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a rail deflection sensor generating rail deflection data for use by the processor to correlate sensed rail deflection with the scanning waveform signature data.

4. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a transmitter for transmitting health information to a device remote from the processor.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the transmitter comprises a receiver for receiving information from the remote device.

6. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a database in communication with the processor for providing train reference information for a train being scanned by the system.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the sensor is disposed to aim the elements at an acute angle with respect to an orientation of the component of the rail vehicle undercarriage.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the sensor further comprises a calibration element receiving infrared radiation from a temperature standard for use in calibrating the other elements of the sensor.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the different regions at least partially overlap one another.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the sensor is disposed between parallel rails of a railway over which the rail vehicle travels.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the sensor is disposed in a railbed of a railway over which the rail vehicle travels.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the sensor is disposed in a sleeper embedded in the railbed.

13. The system of claim 1 , wherein processing the scanning waveform signature data with respect to the characteristic waveform signature data stored in memory to identify a type of one or more of the at least one rail vehicle undercarriage component being scanned includes identifying the inner wheel bearing and identifying a gear box inwardly positioned relative to the wheel.

14. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor processes the scanning waveform signature data based at least in part on the speed of the rail vehicle.

15. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to determine an adjustable detection window in the scanning waveform signature data with respect to a target area of a respective undercarriage component, the adjustable detection window configured to impede an unwanted source of infrared emission from affecting the scanning waveform signature data for the component.

16. The system of claim 1 , wherein identifying the inner wheel bearing and identifying the type of another component inwardly positioned relative to the wheel includes using curve-matching techniques to identify the components.

17. A method for determining a condition of a rail vehicle undercarriage component exhibiting a scanned waveform signature corresponding to a type of the component in response to being scanned by a sensor, the method comprising:

acquiring scanned waveform signature data corresponding to radiation from at least one rail vehicle undercarriage component being scanned by a sensor, wherein the at least one undercarriage component includes an inner wheel bearing of a rail wheel axle and the inner wheel bearing is inwardly positioned relative to the rail wheel;

identifying a type of one or more of the at least one rail vehicle undercarriage component based on the received scanned waveform signature data, including identifying the inner wheel bearing and identifying the type of another component inwardly positioned relative to the wheel; and

processing the acquired scanned waveform signature data to determine a condition of at least one of the components based on the identified type of component,

wherein processing the acquired scanned waveform signature data includes creating an infrared temperature profile, and

wherein the infrared temperature profile includes a relationship between a temperature of the at least one rail vehicle undercarriage component versus temperature sampling points over time of an infrared emission from the scanned component.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein identifying a type of one or more of the at least one rail vehicle undercarriage component comprises comparing the acquired scanned waveform signature data to at least one of a plurality of known characteristic waveform signatures.

19. The method of claim 17 , wherein processing the acquired scanned waveform signature data comprises filtering the data to remove information not characteristic of the identified type.

20. The method of claim 17 , wherein processing the acquired scanned waveform signature data comprises determining when a portion of the data exceeds a preset threshold.

21. The method of claim 17 , wherein processing the acquired scanned waveform signature data comprises correlating a sensed rail wheel position with corresponding waveform signature data acquired for undercarriage components associated with the wheel.

22. The method of claim 21 , further comprising generating a window of desired waveform signature data based on a correlation of the sensed rail wheel position with the corresponding scanned waveform signature data.

23. The method of claim 22 , further comprising ignoring portions of the scanned waveform signature data outside the window.

24. The method of claim 17 , wherein identifying a type of one or more of the at least one rail vehicle undercarriage component based on the received scanned waveform signature data includes identifying the inner wheel bearing and identifying a gear box inwardly positioned relative to the wheel.

25. The method of claim 17 , wherein processing the acquired scanned waveform signature data includes processing the acquired scanned waveform signature data based at least in part on the speed of the rail vehicle.

26. The method of claim 17 , further comprising:

determining an adjustable detection window in the scanning waveform signature data with respect to a target area of a respective undercarriage component; and

configuring the adjustable detection window to impede an unwanted source of infrared emission from affecting the scanning waveform signature data for the component.

27. The method of claim 17 , wherein identifying the inner wheel bearing and identifying the type of another component inwardly positioned relative to the wheel includes using curve-matching techniques to identify the components.

28. A method for determining a condition of a rail vehicle undercarriage component comprising:

scanning at least one rail vehicle undercarriage component with an array of sensors, each sensor aimed at a different region of a scanned target area of the at least one component, to generate respective scanned waveform signature data corresponding to each different region, wherein the at least one undercarriage component includes an inner wheel bearing of a rail wheel axle and the inner wheel bearing is inwardly positioned relative to the rail wheel;

processing the data to identify a type of one or more of the at least one rail vehicle undercarriage component being scanned, including identifying the inner wheel bearing and identifying the type of another component inwardly positioned relative to the wheel, wherein processing the data includes creating an infrared temperature profile, and wherein the infrared temperature profile includes a relationship between a temperature of the at least one rail vehicle undercarriage component versus temperature sampling points over time of an infrared emission from the scanned component; and

filtering the data according to the identified type of at least one of the components to remove information not characteristic of the identified type.

29. The method of claim 28 , wherein filtering comprises truncating information corresponding to an undesired region of the target area.

30. The method of claim 28 , wherein the different regions at least partially overlap one another.

31. The method of claim 28 , further comprising:

determining an adjustable detection window in the scanning waveform signature data with respect to a target area of a respective undercarriage component; and

configuring the adjustable detection window to impede an unwanted source of infrared emission from affecting the scanning waveform signature data for the component.

32. A system for sensing a condition of a rail vehicle undercarriage component from a location between parallel rails of a railway over which a rail vehicle travels, the system comprising:

a sensor disposed between parallel rails of a railway for scanning at least one undercarriage component of a rail vehicle for travel on the railway proximate the sensor and for generating scanning data corresponding to the at least one undercarriage component being scanned, wherein the at least one undercarriage component includes an inner wheel bearing of a rail wheel axle and the inner wheel bearing is inwardly positioned relative to the rail wheel; and

a processor in communication with the sensor for processing the scanning data to extract information from the data indicative of a health condition of one or more of the at least one undercarriage component, the processor being configured to use the scanning data to identify a type of one or more of the at least one rail vehicle undercarriage component being scanned, including identifying the inner wheel bearing and identifying the type of another component inwardly positioned relative to the wheel,

wherein the extracted information indicative of the health condition includes an infrared temperature profile, and

wherein the infrared temperature profile includes a relationship between a temperature of the at least one rail vehicle undercarriage component versus temperature sampling points over time of an infrared emission from the scanned component.

33. The system of claim 32 , wherein the sensor is disposed in a railbed of the railway between the parallel rails.

34. The system of claim 33 , wherein the sensor is disposed in a sleeper embedded in the railbed.

35. The system of claim 32 , wherein the sensor comprises an infrared sensor for receiving the infrared emission from the scanned component.

36. The system of claim 32 , wherein the processor is configured to determine an adjustable detection window in the scanning waveform signature data with respect to a target area of a respective undercarriage component, the adjustable detection window configured to impede an unwanted source of infrared emission from affecting the scanning waveform signature data for the component.