Track Inspection by Autonomous System (TrakSys)

Traksys combines Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) and remote control technologies to perform high-speed inspections on rail tracks. The solution enables Alternating Current Field Measurement (ACFM), ultrasonic and visual inspection capabilities integrated with autonomous control at speeds greater than 20km/h over multiple miles.

Overview

The project aimed to address the need in the rail industry to increase the speed and efficiency of inspection to cater for ever increasing demands on the availability of the railway infrastructure. The project addressed these requirements through a proposal to design an autonomous vehicle capable of inspecting the volume and head of the rail for defects to the appropriate UK/EU standards.

Objectives

To reduce personnel present on rail tracks when performing inspections.
To provide a non-destructive solution that can perform surface and volumetric defect detection in rail tracks.
To produce a solution that enables targeted repair and supports the introduction of predictive and preventative maintenance regimes.

Solution

Innovate UK’s Accelerating Innovation in Rail funding builds on developmental work undertaken by TWI, TSC and CATER-EU, to combine ACFM, ultrasonic and visual inspection systems. The inspection system is mounted on an autonomous cart, combining inspection and position data to form scanned area maps. This approach enables a richer and more accurate depiction of track condition to be provided to the decision maker.

TWI’s role as system integrator delivered industry standard hardware, embedded systems and radio controllers to manage the control and flow of messages and data between the track side application (Figure 1) and the cart (Figure 2). This successful project conclusion has opened a number exploitation routes in autonomous rail inspection for the SME partners.

Conclusion

The rail sector invests huge sums in annual maintenance, while continually making difficult decisions in relation to repair or renewal of track. TrakSys delivers an agile, mobile inspection system that provides continual track inspection coverage supporting a regime of targeted repair. Further work aims to close the loop between inspection, decision making and repair actions supporting better defect and damage management, improved safety for inspection personnel, whilst contributing to increased maintenance efficiency in the rail network.

Figure 1: The application used to control the TrakSys inspection cart

Figure 2: The complete TrakSys inspection cart

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