Project Radius
Welcome to the future of railway signalling asset monitoring and maintenance using drones
RADIUS introductory video
Please look our introductory video to get acquainted with our project in just 3 minutes.
The railway maintenance challenge
There is currently no optimal solution to inspect, monitor and maintain railway signalling assets
Human inspection
Human inspection activities are highly demanding in terms of costs and operational constraints (tracks being inspected have to be closed or limited) and impose safety concerns
Wired solutions
Very expensive and prone to failures. Cables have to be maintained, increasing the maintenance burden. Limited bandwidth of the solution implies that only a limited number of features can be monitored
Diagnostic trains
Diagnostic trains run at lower speed than commercial trains impacting track capacity. Trains and their monitoring equipment are complex equipment that require high investments and operational costs
That is why RADIUS proposes a completely new paradigm
The RADIUS approach
RADIUS will design, develop, test and demonstrate a complete monitoring and maintenance system using unmanned aerial systems (UAS)
UAS Design
- Define and integrate the sensors required to collect and process the relevant data
- Establish a secure communication between the UAS and the communication node of the asset being monitored using wireless technology for contact-less diagnostic and software maintenance/update
- Implement an enhanced navigation solution using EGNOS (SBAS) and Galileo to provide accurate and safe navigation positioning
Adaptation or redesign of signalling assets
- Analyse assets most affected by low Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) to define new design requirements to maximize inspection by UAS
- Determine the maintenance actions with a high frequency that can be carried out by UAS
- Design a docking station to couple the UAS with signalling assets and recharge its batteries
Interaction with IAMS and TMS
- Guarantee a seamless integration of RADIUS with current railway maintenance operations
- Optimise the processing power in the RADIUS system (UA and ground station) by using the off-line processing power of Intelligent Asset Management Systems (IAMS)
- Interface with the current Traffic Management System (TMS) to integrate UAS flights with commercial train traffic
Practical demo
- Perform an aviation risk safety assessment for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations
- Ensure regulation compliance (aviation and railroad related)
- Conduct a practical demonstration of the proposed solution in a railway relevant environment (TRL 6)