A new flexible laser beam profiler for the inspection of train wheels

Abstract

In this paper, a flexible laser beam profiler is proposed to easily measure the profile of a train wheel for railway inspection. It only requires two laser beams (together and in parallel) to obtain two three-dimensional point-clouds based on the laser triangulation principle. Either the laser beam profiler or the wheel can be freely moved. The motion need not be known. The wheel profile will be obtained in two steps. First, the wheel axis position and orientation are obtained by minimizing the distance between one of the point-clouds and the other translated point-cloud, and translation is defined as a rotation of any point on the point-cloud around the wheel axis until it lies on the other point-cloud's laser plane. In the second step, the wheel profile is extracted by selecting one of the point-clouds and rotating it about the wheel axis and by finding the intersection of rotating points and a perpendicular plane, the perpendicular plane is defined as any arbitrary plane which passes through the wheel axis. This method is useful particularly for obtaining geometrical parameters of a wheel such as flange height, flange slope and flange thickness. In order to commission the proposed method, a prototype system was designed and manufactured. The performance of the system, evaluated in different circumstances, shows a measurement error of up to 2%. Compared with classical methods utilizing a caliper or those which use expensive equipment or additional parts such as reference guides, the proposed method is easy to use and flexible. Also, a novel calibration method is utilized to calibrate the system accurately and freely.