Development and evaluation of a ground coil monitoring system using semi-passive sensor tags

This paper presents a ground coil monitoring system for the superconducting Maglev. We developed an RFID based monitoring system for workers on a maintenance vehicle to detect ground coil defects at the early stage. The semi-passive sensor tags of UHF band were used for ground coil monitoring, and the monitoring results were collected by a reader on the maintenance vehicle. The vehicle running tests of the system were conducted on the Miyazaki Maglev Test Line. We succeeded in collecting the ground coil identification number and monitoring results at a vehicle speed of 55 km/h. These results will be useful for efficient maintenance of the superconducting Maglev system.