Pantograph-Catenary Contact Force Estimation from Linear Camera Images

Traditional contact force measurement methods are expensive and impractical for regular train operation.This study proposes estimating pantograph-catenary contact force using linear camera images of collector head vertical movement and artificial intelligence tools such as artificial neural networks.The whole procedure is based on experimental measurements performed on a pantograph test bench.From the linear camera images taken of the contact strip, two methods were proposed to obtain the collector head acceleration.Then, in the second step, the contact force is estimated.The results obtained show an overall excellent accuracy when compared to the measured magnitudes on the test bench with a root mean square error of 4.8 N. To obtain this accurate contact force prediction is preferable to take longer acceleration intervals before the prediction time step.