Measurement and analysis of train motion and railway track characteristics with inertial sensors

This paper presents measurements of train motion with a low-cost inertial measurement unit (IMU) based on micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS). The measurements were recorded on-board a train during normal passenger transport service on a network with dense urban railway environment as well as a rural, regional network environment. Sensor measurements from several train runs were therefore analyzed and the data is presented with a discussion on typical characteristics, noise and dynamics. As the train motion is dependent on the track, local track characteristics are inferred from the train motion measurements. Finally, the inertial measurements are analyzed toward track feature detection for feature based localization purposes.