Device and method for detecting railway equipment defects

A method of detecting railway equipment defects, the method comprising:

• receiving a plurality of detections from at least three diagnostic modules mounted on a railway vehicle, said detections including:
• a first detection received from a geometrical module, said first detection indicative of a level defect, which is a gap between rail height and surrounding rolling plain;
• a second detection received from an acceleration module, said second detection indicative of anomalous vertical acceleration at the vehicle axles;
• and
• a third detection received from a visual module, said third detection indicative of a visual
• anomaly recognized by the visual module;
• determining a position of the railway vehicle associated with each of said plurality of detections;
• calculating, for each detection received from each module, a severity index representative of the deviation of the detection relative to a standard condition of a railway track without defects, by:
• a) calculating for each detection of each module an initial severity index (hi) indicative of the amplitude of the deviation of the detection relative to the standard condition;
• b) associating to each initial severity index (hi) a parameter (di) indicative of the kind of the defect;
• c) associating each initial severity index (hi) and respective parameter (di) indicative of the kind of the defect with the position (xi) of the railway vehicle when the detection was received, thereby defining a defect characterized by:
• a position (xi), a kind parameter (di) and an initial severity index (hi);
• d) calculating for each defect defined in point c) a global severity index (ht), as a function of:
• i) said parameter (di) indicative of the kind;
• ii) said initial severity index hi);
• iii) the relative distances (xij) with respect to other detected defects;
• and iv) the kind parameters and the initial severity indices of said other detected defects;
• and
• e) comparing said global severity index (ht) with a threshold to determine if said potential defect needs a maintenance operation or not.