Analyzing railway infrastructure using an automated, precise and fast tool is now possible. How ? Thanks to the automation of reverse engineering to find horizontal axes and longitudinal profiles. But then, how does it work?
What is the purpose of Reverse Engineering?
Contrary to the preconceived idea that railway tracks are static, the geometry of the railway track is likely to change depending on the wear of materials, the passage of trains, the instability of the terrain, etc. This is why, for questions of exploitation, safety, maintenance and modernization (such as the installation of the European Rail Traffic Management System, ERTMS), it is more than necessary to have precise knowledge and updated railway track geometry.
But how to obtain this geometry?
Commonly, reverse engineering of the track axis is a complex and time-consuming process for our railway infrastructure managers to the extent that this analysis, consisting of calculating the mathematical parameters of the curves that make up the track, requires carrying out a long iterative process of trial and error, until you succeed in finding the “true” geometry of the axis. This task requires solid know-how (professional knowledge of how to find horizontal axes and longitudinal profiles, statistical regression, and above all good intuition, acquired through experience, to guess which models to choose) and is therefore carried out by expert engineers in railway layout. This is why SNCF Réseau, setec railway and the start-up The Cross Product (TCP) have joined forces to work jointly on software for automated analysis of track geometry using 3D LiDAR data.
This successful pilot project made it possible to generate geometry analyzes (horizontal axes and longitudinal profiles in LandXML format, Civil3D and RailComplete compatible) on the Cannes-Grasse line (~16 km) in just 30 minutes, where a traditional analysis would have taken several weeks. The precision and speed of processing now pave the way for massive and precise network analysis using 3D LiDAR technology and artificial intelligence.
To put it in a nutshell, business knowledge combined with artificial intelligence and 3D LiDAR technology makes it possible to facilitate and improve the daily lives of our railway infrastructure managers. This also helps to guarantee the safety, compliance and modernization of our railway infrastructures thanks to a fast and precise study with the automated reverse engineering solution from The Cross Product (TCP)!
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