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How does Network Rail use drone technology for track inspection?

 

With a three-year contract signed and sealed last year worth £2.6million, Network Rail is introducing Drone technology for track inspection.

Heliguy, who is a partner of DJI, the world leader of camera Drones, have undertaken the rail track inspection.

Heliguy are using a fleet of Matrice 200 series V2 and Phantom 4 RTK mapping Drones to carry out 20,000 miles of rail track, 40,000 bridges and tunnels throughout the network.

So what are the benefits?

With the inclusion of Drone technology, this will not only limit the level of danger staff can be exposed to, but now that traffic will not have to be interrupted to carry out track inspections, it will most certainly reduce the financial impact.

According to Network Rail’s website, the addition of Drones gathers data of the railways to better understand problem areas and repair them in a more cost effective way.

The website continues: ‘Using drones for close-up inspections means we can reach areas that are usually difficult to access. These include roofs, bridges, coastal areas, the overhead wires that power electric trains and communication masts. Inspecting the railway by air means we can keep lines open to train services and keep our people safe because we’re not sending engineers out on track unnecessarily.’

As we have already touched on, Drones have increased safety. NetworkRail.co.uk states: ‘One of the major benefits of our new flight management system will be removing the potential for human failure, which poses safety risks. With the number of drone flights at the level it is and only going to climb higher in the future, we need a system like this to manage the load to ensure we are as efficient and safe as possible. The [flight management system] will show drone pilots if another drone is operating nearby, as well as alert the pilot to other potential ground or air hazards in the area of the flight..’

One area that has shown how beneficial Drones are was with the Edenbridge landslip in 2019.

The landslip closed down the railway but using Drones created a greater overview of the damaged caused and this meant: ‘The engineers could see how they needed to respond, helping them plan the site's recovery much more quickly. It also meant we could show passengers the scale of the damage and why it would be impossible to run trains for months..’

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