There are hundreds of thousands of kilometres of rail track in Europe, of which, each year thousands are found to be broken. Broken rails are the biggest cause of derailments, leading to loss of life and major disruption to services. Annual maintenance costs for member states of repairing broken rails are a significant part of on going life cycle costs. With the rapid increase in train traffic, train speeds and load carried, there is an urgent need to optimise the maintenance regime and increase reliability of rail infrastructure. The purpose of the Autoscan action is to enable more frequent and convenient inspections of rail track aiming to significantly reduce lifecycle costs by enabling more efficient flaw detection and intervention. One significant operational advantage is the reduced need for personnel to spend time in the hazardous track area and therefore improving the safety. Acting through various joint industrial projects, the consortium behind this action has developed an autonomous robotic evaluation system that performs non-destructive testing (NDT) of railhead for accurately detecting defects, their position and size so that accurate assessment and scheduling of repair work can be made by the network operator. The overall objective of AutoScan is to increase the efficiency of railway track defect inspection through the launch of RCF Scanner: an autonomous, efficient and affordable inspection system that is lightweight and therefore easily deployable. The proposed solution will reduce the time required to undertake inspection, therefore reducing the time that personnel are exposed to the potentially hazardous railway environment. The technical specification of the system will lead to increased accuracy and repeatability of detection of defects in the rail head.
The overall objectives of the project are:
• Exploit a rapid non-contact ultrasound NDT technology (EMAT) capable of accurately sizing faults detected for large area scanning and robotic ACFM raster scanning for more detailed defect characterisation
• Enhance an existing, autonomous lightweight prototype inspection cart capable of identifying track faults through a rapid detection system.
• Demonstrate the capability to operate the cart autonomously and remotely
• Undertake real world testing at trial site representing typical railway infrastructure and challenges and validate approach.
• To demonstrate autonomous operation for the cart, with ability to detect and record a variety of defects with required accuracy
• Implement a suitable commercialisation strategy
The primary objectives of the project for users resulting from the commercialisation of AutoScan are:
• Improved levels of safety due to increased probability of detection of defects
• Reduce track maintenance costs
• Increased availability of the network due to increased reliability and a data driven maintenance regime
• Extended asset life time and reduced Life Cycle Cost, as cracks occur during service may be detected at an early stage in their growth cycle, allowing an RBI approach
• Track access time reduced and therefore personnel safety increased
All of the technical objectives of the project have been met. The consortium partners are in the process of delivering the operational objectives for stakeholder companies.
