Railway Right of Way Monitoring and Early Warning System (RailMEWS) Based on Satellite and Aerial Imagery

Description: In this Phase-I, one-year project the research team proposes to conduct feasibility studies and provide recommendations for the development of a Railway Right of Way Monitoring and Early Warning System (RailMEWS). The feasibility study will answer the following questions: How can we use drones and satellites to monitor the railway infrastructure? What infrastructure components can be monitored effectively and what are the potential limitations of a RailMEWS in each case? What railway Infrastructure Monitoring Systems (IMS) are available today for integration with satellite and drone data? What are the desired functions and design parameters of an Early Warning System? (e.g. connectivity to the signaling system, real-time vs. centralized processing, etc) What is the incremental investment needed to develop the RailMEWS system? Intellectual Merit: The team proposes to process information obtained from commercially available satellite and aerial imagery and combine with information obtained by conventional monitoring systems to develop maps that show the kinematic behavior of the railway infrastructure at the terrain, sub-structure and track scales Broader Impacts: The proposed work will set the foundations for the development and implementation of a RailMEWS to the railway network, its expansion to other transportation modes and its implementation to the transportation network statewide and beyond. This research will set the framework for larger research projects with diverse research partners and will be ex-tended in future studies to monitor the roadway network, ports, and inland ports simultaneously and will be integrated with their respective signaling systems.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $75045
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3551747117

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  University of South Carolina, Columbia

  502 Byrnes Building
  Columbia, SC  United States  29208
• Managing Organizations:

  Center for Connected Multimodal Mobility

  Clemson University
  Clemson, SC  United States  29634
• Project Managers:

  Rizos, Dimitris

• Performing Organizations:

  University of South Carolina, Columbia

  502 Byrnes Building
  Columbia, SC  United States  29208
• Principal Investigators:

  Rizos, Dimitris

  Mullen, Robert

• Start Date: 20171002
• Expected Completion Date: 20190430
• Actual Completion Date: 20190430
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Monitoring; Railroad rails; Safety analysis; Satellite communication; Warning systems
• Subject Areas: Maintenance and Preservation; Railroads; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01913005
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Center for Connected Multimodal Mobility
• Contract Numbers: 69A3551747117
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Mar 25 2024 3:46PM