ANALYSIS & STUDY OF AI TECHNIQUES FORAUTOMATIC CONDITION MONITORING OFRAILWAY TRACK INFRASTRUCTURE : Artificial Intelligence Techniques

Since the last decade the problem of surface inspection has been receiving great attention from the scientific community, the quality control and the maintenance of products are key points in several industrial applications.The railway associations spent much money to check the railway infrastructure. The railway infrastructure is a particular field in which the periodical surface inspection can help the operator to prevent critical situations. The maintenance and monitoring of this infrastructure is an important aspect for railway association.That is why the surface inspection of railway also makes importance to the railroad authority to investigate track components, identify problems and finding out the way that how to solve these problems. In railway industry, usually the problems find in railway sleepers, overhead, fastener, rail head, switching and crossing and in ballast section as well. In this thesis work, I have reviewed some research papers based on AI techniques together with NDT techniques which are able to collect data from the test object without making any damage. The research works which I have reviewed and demonstrated that by adopting the AI based system, it is almost possible to solve all the problems and this system is very much reliable and efficient for diagnose problems of this transportation domain. I have reviewed solutions provided by different companies based on AI techniques, their products and reviewed some white papers provided by some of those companies. AI based techniques likemachine vision, stereo vision, laser based techniques and neural network are used in most cases to solve the problems which are performed by the railway engineers.The problems in railway handled by the AI based techniques performed by NDT approach which is a very broad, interdisciplinary field that plays a critical role in assuring that structural components and systems perform their function in a reliable and cost effective fashion. The NDT approach ensures the uniformity, quality and serviceability of materials without causing any damage of that materials is being tested. This testing methods use some way to test product like, Visual and Optical testing, Radiography, Magnetic particle testing, Ultrasonic testing, Penetrate testing, electro mechanic testing and acoustic emission testing etc. The inspection procedure has done periodically because of better maintenance. This inspection procedure done by the railway engineers manually with the aid of AI based techniques.The main idea of thesis work is to demonstrate how the problems can be reduced of thistransportation area based on the works done by different researchers and companies. And I have also provided some ideas and comments according to those works and trying to provide some proposal to use better inspection method where it is needed.The scope of this thesis work is automatic interpretation of data from NDT, with the goal of detecting flaws accurately and efficiently. AI techniques such as neural networks, machine vision, knowledge-based systems and fuzzy logic were applied to a wide spectrum of problems in this area. Another scope is to provide an insight into possible research methods concerning railway sleeper, fastener, ballast and overhead inspection by automatic interpretation of data.In this thesis work, I have discussed about problems which are arise in railway sleepers,fastener, and overhead and ballasted track. For this reason I have reviewed some research papers related with these areas and demonstrated how their systems works and the results of those systems. After all the demonstrations were taking place of the advantages of using AI techniques in contrast with those manual systems exist previously.This work aims to summarize the findings of a large number of research papers deploying artificial intelligence (AI) techniques for the automatic interpretation of data from nondestructive testing (NDT). Problems in rail transport domain are mainly discussed in this work. The overall work of this paper goes to the inspection of railway sleepers, fastener, ballast and overhead.

Lokal utveckling och företagssamverkan i träbranschen : Dokumentation och preliminär analys av ett 30-tal fall

Networks and cooperatives have become very common in the woodworking industry during the1990’s. As part of a research project on small enterprise development in the woodworking industry within the Target 6 area (in Sweden) of the European Community, this study follows the development of a dozen cooperative projects during the period 1997-2000. In order to broaden the knowledge base of the study, in 1998 we carried out a survey of cooperative ventures in the woodworking industry in the rest of the country, and collected information about their history, present situation and future strategy. Together with our own material we achieved a body of material consisting of some 30 cases which were subjected to exploratory analysis. We identified the following categories of projects and cooperative ventures; ”Local development projects”, ”Development networks”, ”Producer networks” and ”Development supporting networks”. Most of the producer networks were horizontally integrated but some of them were vertically integrated, along the processing chain from the forest to the customer. Nearly all the local development projects and the networks had been initiated within the last four years. It is, therefore, too early to make any conclusions about their success. Our main finding, so far, is that local development and the establishment of networks requires ”driving forces” in the form of committed individuals, time, money and project organisation. Most of the projects and networks were supported by public funds.

Understanding the "black box" of a health-promotion program : keys to enable health among older persons aging in the context of migration

Although the need to make health services more accessible to persons who have migrated has been identified, knowledge about health-promotion programs (HPPs) from the perspective of older persons born abroad is lacking. This study explores the design experiences and content implemented in an adapted version of a group-based HPP developed in a researcher-community partnership. Fourteen persons aged 70-83 years or older who had migrated to Sweden from Finland or the Balkan Peninsula were included. A grounded theory approach guided the data collection and analysis. The findings showed how participants and personnel jointly helped raise awareness. The participants experienced three key processes that could open doors to awareness: enabling community, providing opportunities to understand and be understood, and confirming human values and abilities. Depending on how the HPP content and design are being shaped by the group, the key processes could both inhibit or encourage opening doors to awareness. Therefore, this study provides key insights into how to enable health by deepening the understanding of how the exchange of health-promoting messages is experienced to be facilitated or hindered. This study adds to the scientific knowledge base of how the design and content of HPP may support and recognize the capabilities of persons aging in the context of migration.

Kvinnor i styrelser : Att lyckas i en mansdominerad värld

Kvinnor har länge varit exkluderade från ledarpositioner, såsom styrelser, men utvecklingen mot en mer jämställd könsfördelning går långsamt framåt. Syftet med uppsatsen är att skapa förståelse för hur kvinnor i styrelser kan bidra till utvecklingen mot en jämnare könsfördelning. Genom att intervjua fem kvinnliga styrelseledamöter har vi fått en inblick i deras upplevelser och erfarenheter av styrelsearbete och könsroller. Kvinnorna i undersökningen har, genom många års styrelsearbete i olika former samt genom gedigna arbetserfarenheter, arbetat sig fram till ledande positioner inom olika branscher och företag. Även om de överlag inte anser sig ha behandlats annorlunda i styrelsen på grund av sitt kön kan vissa av kvinnorna ändå uppleva att de ibland förväntas ansvara för specifika uppgifter just för att de är kvinnor, att de behöver tuffa till sig eller att de måste vara mer pålästa och duktigare än männen. De anser att kvotering kan vara det enda sättet att få jämställda styrelser men understryker att det bör vara kompetensen som avgör vem som får uppdraget. För att lyckas bra som ledamot krävs, enligt respondenterna, en viss baskunskap om ekonomi och ledarskap samt ett visst mått av självsäkerhet och att våga stå för sina åsikter. Kravbilden på styrelsemedlemmar i bolagsstyrelser har ökat under de senaste årtiondena och det krävs att medlemmarna som individer har en hög kompetens och att styrelsen i sin helhet besitter en bred kunskapsbas. Denna utveckling kan ha en positiv effekt på könsfördelningen då det är fler kvinnor än män som har universitetsutbildning och eftersom en mer heterogen grupp ger ett bredare spektrum av kunskaper. Kvinnorna i undersökningen har genom sina positioner bidragit till brytandet av normer och gör det därför lättare för andra kvinnor att följa i deras spår. Det råder ingen brist på kompetenta kvinnor men utmaningen ligger i att kartlägga och synliggöra dessa kvinnor och ge dem samma möjlighet som männen att nå ledande positioner.

Using locally available components and local knowledge to build sustainable stand-alone power systems

The aim of this paper is to point out benefits as well as disadvantages associated with the use of locally available, not necessarily standardized, components in stand-alone electrical power systems at rural locations. Advantages and challenges arising when the direct involvement in design, construction and maintenance of the power system is reserved to people based in the area of implementation are discussed. The presented research is centered around one particular PV-diesel hybrid system in Tanzania; a case study in which technical and social aspects related to the particular power system are studied.