ASSETS4RAIL

Assets4Rail project applies cutting-edge technology such as ground penetrating radar, artificial vision and autonomous vehicles to monitor possible defects of the tunnels, as well as the geography and wear of the roads and the noise and vibrations of the bridges with the purpose of obtaining more secure and profitable infrastructures and vehicles.

For the improvement of vehicles, Assets4Rail applies radiofrequency identification technology (RFID) for the identification of problems associated with rolling stock failures.

The Robotics and Automation Unit participates within this project providing a fully autonomous aerial vehicle which is able to map the environment while planning and executing trajectories which maximize the quality and quantity of information captured by the on-board sensors. Thus, it minimizes the path and consequently, it optimizes the inspection of the infrastructure. This project aims to demonstrate the viability of using drones to monitor the status of railway infrastructures, especially tunnels, in order to detect possible defects and increase safety.

In the sector of infrastructures, the project, coordinated by Eurecat, introduces a model with integrated algorithms to gather and analyse the information collected by specific sensors. On the other hand, the project includes the installation of track-side and underframe imaging automated system to collect data for detecting specific types of defects that have non-negligible impacts on infrastructure.

This project counts with the participation of a consortium formed by 19 partners of 10 countries. The members are AITEC, SENER and AIMEN (Spain); EURNEX, TU-Berlin, Witt GmbH IndustrieElektronik, S+V Scherer & Veit (Germany); OLTIS GROUP (Czech Republic); Sapienza Università di Roma, Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane (Italy); University of Leeds (United Kingdom); VILNIAUS Gediminio Technikos Universitets y Lietuvos Gelezinefelial (Lithuania); FCC-Group, AIT (Austria); LORAM Finland (Finland) and ZAG and Bexel Consulting (Slovenia).

More information about the project