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Procuring and maintaining track inspection vehicles and measuring systems is particularly challenging for railway infrastructure managers. Operating track inspection vehicles is often time-consuming and cost-intensive. It requires specialist expertise, both in terms of operation and maintenance. Together with our numerous partners, we now offer access to state-of-the-art measuring and analysis services with “Measurement as a Service” (MaaS).
The Digital Railway Solutions Alliance (DRS Alliance) is a European initiative serving the railway system. Together with its partner companies, it’s becoming the leading provider of digital asset management solutions for railway infrastructure. The partners developed a product called “Smart Design” with the vision of improving efficiency and safety in the railway industry. Combining product expertise with advanced measuring methods and modelling translates into a completely new take on railway infrastructure. With the help of Smart Design, safe and fast planning, monitoring, and implementation of track renewals is possible. For this purpose, the ReferencedTrackGeometry and the AbsoluteTrackGeometry systems by Track Machines Connected GmbH (tmc) are used. These measuring systems record the track geometry and kinematics with a speed of up to 100 km/h without track possessions or reference point network alignment. Based on the comprehensive measuring data, which also include the condition of the ballast and subsoil using Ground Penetration Radar (GPR) by RailTrackAnalyzers (RTA, formerly Ground Control), OBERMEYER Infrastruktur GmbH & Co. KG creates a digital twin (RailTwin). Digital twin is a high-precision BIM model of the track layout and the entire infrastructure, which is provided with the ProVI software. Finally, SOG by IVE mbH can be used to create a model of the construction site process and update progress in real time.
For the Riedbahn high-capacity corridor, which is the first of 40 high-capacity corridors in the DB network, we recorded the main running track and the surrounding area kinematically. We did it with absolute precision in just one day using the EM100VT. There was no need to enter the track area in order to measure the track geometry. We created a digital coordination environment of the line based on the recording of the surrounding area. That was used to keep planning the project. This coordination environment represents an extended digital twin, in which the existing track is mapped and the entire planning is coordinated. Modern planning methods require modern track measuring and sensors. With tmc and the EM100VT, innovative measuring and planning takes place.
Marc Kückmann
Head of the OBERMEYER office in Karlsruhe and Head of the DRS Alliance Smart Design product
Benefits of using MaaS
Technological advances in measuring systems and their combination are progressing rapidly. Due to the increasing shortage of skilled staff, companies often lack the resources to process the wealth of information. In addition, procuring and maintaining measuring systems is often time-consuming and cost-intensive for railway infrastructure operators and maintenance contractors. The Measurement as a Service offering provides a new solution: with MaaS, it is no longer necessary to purchase measuring systems or track inspection vehicles; measuring can be purchased as a service. Not only do we provide actual Smart Design measurements with our machines, but we also offer corresponding analysis software and support in the development of efficient maintenance concepts.
MaaS combines the following benefits:
Various measuring equipment can be freely combined with each other to form a test system and used flexibly depending on the line section and requirements. Each measurement generates standardized reports and we offer interfaces to our tmOS, TracksNet, and InfraScore platforms, and also to partner platforms, such as 3Binfra asset management.
Measurements using the EM100VT and EM120VT track inspection vehicles
We have been offering Measurement as a Service since 2018. The EM100VT and the EM120VT, two of the most modern track inspection vehicles, are part of the current fleet. In addition to relative track geometry measurement using an inertial measurement unit, the vehicles are equipped with a variety of measuring systems, such as the stereo camera system for fixed-point measurement and an advanced video inspection system. This enables the track inspection vehicles to create a virtual image of the existing infrastructure for BIM-compliant planning. In addition to common features, the EM100VT is equipped with a complete automatic turnout inspection system, and the EM120VT is equipped with a track-component video inspection system with subsequent AI-supported evaluation, rail profile measurement, driver's view video, and overhead contact line geometry measurement.
The track inspection vehicles are currently being used mainly in Europe for major renewal and track laying projects.
