A Low Cost Sensor for Mid-Chord Offset Measurements

This Phase I SBIR project will evaluate the feasibility of utilizing low cost and high accuracy local position sensors and transmitters to autonomously estimate Mid-chord offset in rails. The two innovative parts of the proposed system are (1) a set of miniature and highly accurate local position sensors and transmitters for estimating the absolute positions of the mid point and end points of a 62 feet or 124 feet long segment of a rail in a Cartesian coordinate frame, and (2) a user interface that enables a single user to utilize the system to estimate the Mid-chord offset distance with an error of less than 2 mm. There are three tasks that are planned for the Phase I research. The three tasks are: (1) design and fabrication of the local position sensor system that can be easily mounted onto a rail by a single person, (2) development of the hardware and user interface that assists in positioning the sensors accurately on the rail, and (3) a rigorous evaluation of the absolute accuracy obtained by the system in a laboratory setting. It is anticipated that the feasibility of the system will be demonstrated during the Phase I work. A prototype system will be developed and evaluated during the Phase II work. At the end of the Phase II work, the system will be ready for commercialization.