Network Rail needs for Robotic Inspection &

Maintenance:

RIMA Seminar 5th February 2019

Mark Gaddes, R&D, Network Rail

mark.gaddes@networkrail.co.uk

+44 (0) 7710 958081

Who are we?

We own, operate and develop Britain’s railway infrastructure; that’s 32,000Km of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We manage 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are managed by the country’s train operating companies.

We employ >38,000 people and have an annual budget of ~€7Bn

What we do?

• Provide passenger and freight train operators with railway track access

• Manage train timetabling, train planning and signalling

• Maintain and renew the infrastructure and undertake major capital programmes

Creating the CP6 (Apr19-Mar24) R&D Plan

SBP

£440m + £375m• Industry wide

• RSSB coordinated

• Poor substantiation

Updated Plan

£245m + £112m

• Network Rail focused

• Network Rail coordinated

• Specific

• Substantiated

• Endorsed – Chiefs & DRAMs

• Awarded in Final Determination

CP5

£200m + £68m

Direct 3rd Party

Direct 3rd Party

Direct 3rd Party

Compared with

ORR Challenge

400+ Pipeline Projects -> 129 Priority Projects

Prioritisation based on benefits, strategic

alignment, likelihood of success and sponsors’

prioritisation

We evaluated the benefit cost ratio of the R&D plan at 2.83 to 1 over 20 years

The Network Rail CP6 R&D plan (April2019 – March 2024)

Programme Level View

• Five R&D Programmes and in-flight Shift2Rail programme

• Programme definition and scoping workshops underway

• Shift2Rail programme will be aligned to the 5 programme to prevent duplication, align outcomes and provide full visibility at the programme review meetings

Track, Maintenance and Plant

New technology for monitoring & analysis

Optimising maintenance planning

More resilient assets

Robotics and automation

Civils and Sustainability

New technology for monitoring & analysis

Optimising maintenance planning

More resilient assets

Robotics and automation

Sustainable railway

Reliable & Sustainable Power

New technology for monitoring & analysis

Optimising maintenance planning

More resilient assets

Energy strategy

Safety, Security and Operations

Safe & secure railway

Mitigating disruption

Safe & reliable Level Crossings

Improving workforce safety

Future Communications &

Train control

ETCS L3

Robotics and automation (ATO)

Communications

Optimising timetables and service recovery

Shift2Rail

IP01 - Trains

IP02 - Control Systems

IP03 - Infrastructure

IP04 - IT Solutions

IP05 - Freight

Track Inspection

Have things changed?Where is the knowledge retained?

Tunnel Inspection

Have things changed?Where is the knowledge retained

Existing activity

Prometheus: A reconfigurable robotic platform(s) with advanced sensing for confined spaces

Pervasive sensing for buried pipes

Autoscan: Rapidly deployable track defect inspection that is autonomous in its operation

www.esmera-project.eu/challenges/Vegetation Management

S2R-OC-IPX-01-2019: Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) for the railway sector

Call Open – Deadline June 2019

Systems Engineering Approach

Existing activity

Existing activity

Track Maintenance – RIMV – Rail Inspection and Maintenance VehicleAbility to confirm presence of defects, repair and quality assure• enable robotic arm to remove defect and repair the railhead• conduct immediate quality inspection to confirm effectiveness of repair.

Assumptions• Possession operation only• No personnel onboard• Operator supervision from a lineside position initially (ultimately centrally supervised)

Challenges

https://www.networkrail.co.uk/industry-commercial-partners/research-development-technology/research-development-programmes/challenge-statements/

Bridges - Establishing condition of hidden critical elements

Bridges - Scour prevention and management

Buildings - Provide a safe and efficient method to enable building facade inspections

without impacting on the operation of the environs

Structures - Health monitoring and prognosis

Drainage - Safe and efficient drainage inspections and monitoring

Earthworks - Detection of asset failure by means other than train drivers

Tunnels - Alternative methods for patch repairs in tunnels

Tunnels - Capability assessment tool for tunnel masonry linings

Electrical power - Intelligent assets and condition monitoring

Robotics - Automating inspection and maintenance activities

Lineside - Safe and effective lineside inspections

Track - Plain line rail head squats

Track - Visual Track Inspections

Track - Ultrasonic Rail Inspection

Track - Rail Running Surface Inspections

Third rail de-icingOLE inspection – Height and StaggerSuicide / Trespass spots

Challenges

5M sq. Metres of surface area

Challenges

- Measures track condition at 200km/h.- Surveys 32,000 Km of track every two weeks.- Carries out shifts of up to 1600km at a time- Covers 185,000km in a year.- 14 sensors on board – from linear variable differential transformers and lasers to gyroscopes and accelerometers.- Each Plain Line Pattern Recognition image file, recorded by seven cameras on the NMT, is 2048 pixels wide and 30 miles long.- Captures around 10TB of image data every 700km

Challenges

- 50-60 people on a track relaying site during renewals- 600 people working on Saturday nights at peak times- Typically, 0.4km track replaced in 7.5 hours- Track handed back at up to 125mph after renewals

Each night, High Output (HO) teams replace up to 1.6km of ballast, and renew rails and sleepers over 1.2km, on the plain-line (straight) track.

- 0.8km mile BCS – longest train on the network- 800 tonnes of new ballast carried on BCS every night

Challenges