AUTOMATED SURVEY PROCESSING FOR RAILWAY STRUCTURE GAUGING

Currently the track side infrastructure such as platform, viaduct, tunnel etc. are scanned using laser measurement systems for Network Rail and categorized into structure types manually before storing in a National Gauging Database (NGD). The NGD stores information about the railway infrastructure and is used to calculate clearances between trains and infrastructure. Currently processing of survey data is a major bottle neck in structure gauging, with it taking years rather than months before data collected reaches the database in a useable format for gauging calculations. As a result much of the data is out of data in needs further human input to manage clearances and determine actions required to manage clearances for new train introductions. In some cases, this includes manual resurveying of platforms and other structures to obtain current information. This Atkins research and development project aims to improve data processing and availability by applying machine learning techniques using our expertise in developing Artificial Intelligence (Specifically Convolutional Neural Networks) processes to automatically classify the scanned data, as well as identifying any vegetation. The infrastructure data will be considered in a 3D Corridor Projection Space instead of 2D sections to provide better performance. This method will provide more greater confidence in the data leading to more accurate understanding of the clearances between structure and track. This will be achieved by the efficiency increases to process the data once the method is fully developed. This will lead to an NGD with more up to date, consistent and accurate survey data. A result there will be a reduction of survey data processing time with overall reduced costs and timescales for the introduction of new trains or cascading trains to new lines. SNC-Lavalin’s acquisition of the Atkins group of companies created a global fully integrated professional services and project management company. Together, we have over 50,000 employees. Through integrating our workforce we deliver a compelling offer to our clients in the Railway and Transportation sector. This project will combine the skills of SNC-Lavalin’s Gauging and Infrastructure teams and Atkins Software and Data Science teams, bringing together a technical team with all the key area.