Ensuring railway infrastructure safety and reliability requires inspection tools that are accurate, efficient and objective.
To meet these requirements, a leading company in the railway infrastructure monitoring and maintenance sector selected ADTS as technology partner for the development of a Track Imaging System installed on a railway inspection trolley, dedicated to advanced track condition monitoring.
The challenge
A solution able to:
- perform comprehensive visual inspections of rails, fasteners and sleepers;
- operate with high flexibility, without the need for dedicated inspection vehicles;
- reduce dependence on manual, on-track inspections;
- transform visual inspection into a digital, data-driven process supporting maintenance planning.
The ADTS solution
ADTS developed a Track Imaging System for Railway Inspection Trolley, configured in Full Track mode, capable of acquiring high-resolution images of the entire track area during trolley operation.
The system integrates:
- n. 3 high-resolution HRSW imaging units;
- distance-based synchronization via encoder;
- proprietary Ahmes software for acquisition, analysis and diagnostics;
- Artificial Intelligence algorithms for automated defect detection.
The result is a compact yet powerful inspection platform, designed for real operational field use.
From acquisition to analysis
During inspection runs, the system continuously acquires images synchronized with the travelled distance.
The proprietary Gilgamesh software manages the entire acquisition process, ensuring:
- accurate spatial consistency of data;
- real-time system status monitoring;
- structured and secure storage of images and metadata.
The acquired data is then analyzed using Ahmes, the ADTS diagnostic platform, which enables:
- high-resolution visual review;
- position-based navigation along the railway line;
- AI-driven automatic detection and classification of defects;
- generation of digital reports ready for sharing and decision-making.
What is inspected
The system automatically detects and classifies:
- rail surface defects (cracks, squats, wheelburns, abnormal rail gaps);
- missing, damaged or rotated fasteners;
- deteriorated, missing or partially covered sleepers.
AI models can be further customized and trained according to the customer operational requirements, continuously improving detection accuracy over time.
Benefits
The implemented solution enabled the Client to:
- perform faster and safer inspections, eliminating the need for on-track personnel;
- achieve higher objectivity and repeatability in inspection results;
- support preventive and predictive maintenance strategies;
- deploy a flexible platform easily integrated into existing workflows.