Localisation and Navigation Framework for Autonomous Railway Robotic Inspection and Repair System

Rahimi, Masoumeh; Liu, Haochen; Rahman, Miftahur; Ruiz-Cárcel, Cristobal; Durazo-Cardenas, Isidro Sergio; Starr, Andrew; Hall, Amanda; Anderson, Robert

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3945953

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Although the conversion between off-track and on-track navigation is performed manually, this is a unique capability of RIRS, which changes the kinematics of the whole system [145]. Moreover, different navigation strategies are required for off-track and on-track navigation [146]. RIRS has multiple sensors such as IMU, wheel encoder, PTZ environment camera, monocular wrist camera, RGB-D camera, LiDAR, and RTK-GPS.…”

Section: Case Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review on the Prospects of Mobile Manipulators for Smart Maintenance of Railway Track

et al. 2023

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Inspection and repair interventions play vital roles in the asset management of railways. Autonomous mobile manipulators possess considerable potential to replace humans in many hazardous railway track maintenance tasks with high efficiency. This paper investigates the prospects of the use of mobile manipulators in track maintenance tasks. The current state of railway track inspection and repair technologies is initially reviewed, revealing that very few mobile manipulators are in the railways. Of note, the technologies are analytically scrutinized to ascertain advantages, unique capabilities, and potential use in the deployment of mobile manipulators for inspection and repair tasks across various industries. Most mobile manipulators in maintenance use ground robots, while other applications use aerial, underwater, or space robots. Power transmission lines, the nuclear industry, and space are the most extensive application areas. Clearly, the railways infrastructure managers can benefit from the adaptation of best practices from these diversified designs and their broad deployment, leading to enhanced human safety and optimized asset digitalization. A case study is presented to show the potential use of mobile manipulators in railway track maintenance tasks. Moreover, the benefits of the mobile manipulator are discussed based on previous research. Finally, challenges and requirements are reviewed to provide insights into future research.

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Section: Case Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review on the Prospects of Mobile Manipulators for Smart Maintenance of Railway Track

et al. 2023

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“…The proposed Railway Inspection and Repair System (RIRS), shown in Fig. 1, consists of a mobile manipulator and a trolley which will perform two tasks: inspection and repair [11], [12], [13]. The overall system weigh 450kg and has a dimension of 1400mm x 1300mm x 1800 mm.…”

Section: Railway Inspection and Repair System (Rirs)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges for a Railway Inspection and Repair System from Railway Infrastructure

Rahman

Rahimi

Starr

et al. 2022

2022 10th International Conference on Control, Mechatronics and Automation (ICCMA)

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Robots and automation techniques are used in many industries for a long period because of the economic advantages and efficiency. Though the railway has a long history compared to other transportation systems, it still lacks wide application of modern technologies such as robots and AI. Track maintenance using robotic technologies has gained some attraction from both infrastructure managers and researchers due to safety and cost benefits. A Railway Inspection and Repair System (RIRS) has been proposed using commercially available Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGV) and an industrial manipulator for the railway track inspection and repair tasks. The use of a specially designed trolley enables the on-track and off-track navigation capability of RIRS. The infrastructure in railway is very diversified and unique in size, shape, and remoteness compared to other industries. This research investigates the unique challenges to the operation of RIRS imposed by the railway infrastructure.

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“…The main criteria about these objects is that they should be easily captured, and also have a fixed size. The scenario in this paper is that a RIRS (robotic inspection and repair system) which is equipped with various on-boards sensors including RTK-GPS, IMU, wheel odometer, and RGB-D camera, is moving on a railway track [4]. The vehicle is aimed to find the defect location which is previously specified on the railway track, based on the on-board sensors and the track-side objects.…”

Section: Problem Definitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On-track Localisation based on Object Detection

Rahimi¹,

Rahman²,

Durazo-Cardenas³

et al. 2022

UK-RAS Conference for PhD and Early Career Researchers Proceedings

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Railway vehicle positioning is a task of fundamental importance in providing an accurate and reliable localisation information for railway control and safety operation. Acquiring the vehicle's position in absolute level is also important to the maintenance sector, as it would lead the maintenance tasks to be done more accurate, and faster. In this paper object detection based on feature matching technique is proposed to improve onboard train positioning systems to achieve higher levels of positioning performance. An RGB-D camera is integrated to the front-base of the vehicle for this purpose. This localisation technique examines the vehicle position on the railway track by extracting features from trackside infrastructure and comparing them with a predefined database.

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Localisation and Navigation Framework for Autonomous Railway Robotic Inspection and Repair System

Cited by 9 publications

References 13 publications

A Review on the Prospects of Mobile Manipulators for Smart Maintenance of Railway Track

A Review on the Prospects of Mobile Manipulators for Smart Maintenance of Railway Track

Challenges for a Railway Inspection and Repair System from Railway Infrastructure

On-track Localisation based on Object Detection

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