Automatic Wear Measurement of Pantograph Slider Based on Multiview Analysis

Pantograph slider is a critical component of the electrical equipment to obtain power sources for the electric locomotive, whereas the interaction between the slider and the overhead contact line can cause persistent surface wear of the collector strip. The condition monitoring for the level of abrasion of the pantograph slider is significant to avoid major damage. In this article, an innovative approach based on multiview analysis is proposed for monitoring the surface wear of the slider in a running train, accurately measuring the residual thickness of the slider, and locating the wear defects appearing. Especially, the 3-D reconstruction technology is used for detecting the wear quantity between the upper and lower edges of the slider. First, the target edges of the slider are determined using the proposed subpixel edge detection algorithm. Second, mutual matching of the edge points between the multiview images is finished using the epipolar geometric constraint. Moreover, the 3-D reconstructions of the matching points are computed with the principle of triangulation. Finally, the wear volume of the slider can be determined. Experimental results show that the proposed method can successfully measure the abrasion of the pantograph slider under complex conditions, which demonstrate the applicability, effectiveness, and good performance of the proposed approach.