Intelligent Aerial Drones for Traversability Assessment of Railroad Tracks: Year 2

Efficient railroad infrastructure monitoring and assessment is a critical issue for safe and sustainable operations. Apart from scheduled inspection and routine maintenance, there is a need for rapid assessment of the rail network after major events. For example, a storm can affect the traversability of a line (downed trees, rocks or flooding can block the line). Since it is impossible to continuously monitor the whole network before and after a major event, there is always the risk of an accident for a train crossing a blocked line, if the obstacle\damage ahead is realized too late. Current practice for the rail industry is to shut down traffic until the line has been inspected and any potential obstacles have been removed. This is, however, a process that may take a significant amount of time and imposes significant costs on top of the financial losses created by the track downtime. In this project, the research team aims to develop intelligent aerial drones capable of identifying and following railway lines, while assessing the traversability and providing an early warning whenever needed. The drone system can be carried and deployed by the locomotive, with the mission to fly ahead of the train within the railway right of way for a distance that is safe to provide this early warning (2-3 miles). The main characteristics of this system are: (i) Visual based identification and autonomous following of the line; the system will be able to work even in global positioning system (GPS)-degraded environments (tunnels, dense forests); (ii) Collision avoidance capability where the drone senses and avoids obstacles; (iii) Track centering capability where the drone follows the same line regardless of the number of tracks in the field of view; and (iv) Identification and mapping of any obstacles identified blocking the line.

• Record URL:
  • https://www.utrgv.edu/railwaysafety/_files/documents/research/operations/exhibit-d_utcrs_usc_intelligent_drones_for_track_traversability_assessment_vitzilaios_2024.pdf

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $64968
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3552348340

• 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:

  University of South Carolina, Columbia

  502 Byrnes Building
  Columbia, SC  United States  29208
• Project Managers:

  Stearns, Amy

• Performing Organizations:

  University of South Carolina, Columbia

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

  Vitzilaios, Nikolaos

  Rizos, Dimitris

  Qian, Yu

• Start Date: 20240601
• Expected Completion Date: 20250531
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Detection and identification systems; Drones; Monitoring; Railroad safety; Railroad tracks; Unmanned aircraft systems
• Subject Areas: Railroads; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01925307
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: University Transportation Center for Railway Safety
• Contract Numbers: 69A3552348340
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Jul 25 2024 9:56AM