Edu-leaders

The students of Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur have come up with yet another innovation. They have designed a matchbox-sized device to monitor wear and tear of railway tracks and prevent derailment. The new device is aimed at replacing a bulky, box-like contraption that is currently used by Indian Railways.

This tiny device is a supplementary system for monitoring track health, making it simpler to integrate with the existing railway infrastructure. The new device has been designed and developed by a team of IIT-Kanpur's mechanical engineering graduates, under the guidance of NS Vyas, professor and head, mechanical engineering, and the Railways' Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO), Lucknow.

The device, based on micro-electro mechanical system, can monitor track health more comprehensively and enable efficient track maintenance. The extremely handy device locates and logs track faults accurately with the help of the GPS (global positioning system), eliminating human errors and making train journeys safer.

The device once placed on the floor of a running train's coach measures and records vibrations. Any fault or irregularity on the tracks changes the pattern of vibrations. The device feeds all such data and local faults into a fingernail-sized data storage card with the help of a GPS receiver.