Toward intelligent railways: evolution of smart sleeper technology

To date, the application of self-sensing or other structural health monitoring technologies in railway sleepers has been limited. The value of sleeper instrumentation is twofold: obtaining smart sleepers to inform maintenance and replacement decisions, and collecting support condition data to provide insights into the health of the track substructure. This chapter offers a comprehensive review of recent developments related to smart railway sleepers and outlines the primary challenges to their wider adoption. Currently, most smart sleeper technologies employ diagnostic sensors either embedded within or attached to the sleepers’ surface. The use of smart sleepers faces challenges, including their production cost and the limited data on long-term performance, which may not align with the sleepers’ expected service life. This chapter also discusses potential solutions for overcoming these challenges, such as the use of intrinsic self-sensing concrete, leveraging recent wireless sensing developments, and integrating with the burgeoning Internet of Things technology. The opportunities to expand smart sleeper deployment for condition monitoring and real-time management of track assets are underscored by the comprehensive review of relevant applications contained within this manuscript.