Importance

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Abstract

A system (10) for sensing a condition of a rail vehicle undercarriage component (e.g., 18) includes a sensor (e.g., 12) comprising an array of infrared sensing elements (29). Each of the elements may be aimed at a different region of a target area (e.g., 32) of a rail vehicle undercarriage component to generate respective scanning waveform signature data corresponding to each different region. The sensor may be oriented so that at least one of the elements receives unobstructed infrared emissions (e.g., 33) from the undercarriage component of a rail vehicle passing the sensor. The system also includes a memory (42) for storing characteristic waveform signature data corresponding to known undercarriage components. In addition, the system includes a processor (40) for processing the scanning waveform signature data with respect to the characteristic waveform signature data stored in memory to identify a type of the rail vehicle undercarriage component being scanned and to extract information indicative of a health condition of the rail vehicle undercarriage component being identified.

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First Claim