Clustering Algorithms for Direct Current Track Coded Signals

Abstract

Designed for detecting train presence on tracks, track circuits must maintain a level of high availability for railway signaling systems. Due to the fail-safe nature of these critical devices, any failures will result in a declaration of occupancy in a section of track which restricts train movements. It is possible to automatically diagnose and, in some cases, predict the failures of track circuits by performing analytics on the track signals. In order to perform these analytics, we need to study the coded signals transmitted to and received from the track. However, these signals consist of heterogeneous pulses that are noisy for data analysis. Thus, we need techniques which will automatically group homogeneous pulses into similar groups. In this paper, we present data cleansing techniques which will cluster pulses based on digital analysis and machine learning. We report the results of our evaluation of clustering algorithms that improve the quality of analytic data. The data were captured under revenue service conditions operated by Alstom. For clustering algorithm, we used the k-means algorithm to cluster heterogeneous pulses. By tailoring the parameters for this algorithm, we can control the pulses of the cluster, allowing for further analysis of the track circuit signals in order to gain insight regarding its performance.