| Project Title | Railroad Track Performance Monitoring by Advanced Sensor Network & Big Data |
| University | Penn State, Altoona |
| Principal Investigator(s) | Hai Huang, Penn State Altoona |
| PI Contact Information | Huh16@psu.edu |
| Funding Source(s) and Amounts Provided (by each agency or organization) | Penn State Altoona Federal - $50,169.00 Match $50,665.00 University of Delaware Federal - $48, 323.00 Match $48,381.00 |
| Total Project Cost | $197,538.00 |
| Start and End Dates | 3/1/19—3/1/21 |
| Brief Description of Research Project | Therefore, the objective this research is to develop a program of hardware and software to: (1) quantify, in the field, the ballast condition and failure criteria; and (2) offer a platform for the future “real-time ballast stability evaluation and monitoring program.” Efforts will be spent on the following specific areas: 1. Development of advanced SmartRocks with (a) an onboard programmable ballast condition assessment criteria; and (b) power management program to significantly extend the monitoring period; 2. Field instrumentation of the advanced sensor networks at different locations under different traffic and maintenance conditions; 3. A Big Data algorithm to analyze the SmartRock data and further improve the accuracy of ballast condition assessment criteria mentioned in area 1. |