A Miniature Non-Contact Rail Temperature Sensor

This SBIR project will develop a low cost sensor to obtain rail temperatures from a moving train. The two innovative parts of the proposed sensor are (1) a rugged four wavelength high frequency sensor that accurately measures the natural radiation emitted by the rails, and (2) an advanced algorithm that provides a emissivity compensated temperature from these measurements. The feasibility of the sensor was established during the Phase I research. For the Phase II work, a prototype sensor will be designed, fabricated and evaluated under field conditions. There are four tasks planned for the Phase II work. (1) Design and fabrication of a prototype sensor, (2) Optimization of software for the sensor, (3) Field evaluation of the prototype sensor, and (4) additional modifications/improvements to the senor based on the field evaluations. The field evaluations of the sensor will at the end of the Phase II work, a rugged sensor will be provided to the Department of Transportation for continued experimentation and evaluation.