A Mobile Robot for Undercarriage Inspection on Standard Railway Tracks

Abstract

In this work we present design, development and preliminary evaluation on the field of a mobile robot designed for undercarriage inspection of railway vehicles on the field of Condition Based Maintenance (CBM). Its aim is to allow remote inspection of certain critical elements of the train which nowadays require trained personnel to visually inspect the train. The inspection has be accomplished on special raised rail tracks, located only in certain maintenance plants. We propose a railway inspection robot with peculiar design of the rolling system and of the folding robotic arm, allowing its operation on ordinary railway tracks. It exploits the tiny free space left between the train wheels, the railway tracks on the sides, and the ground. A depth-camera sensorized head allow the remote operator to visually inspect the undercarriage, with the possibility of moving the sensor around obstacles and closer to target inspection points. The ability to perform undercarriage inspection on conventional railway tracks is a novel and unique feature of the proposed system. In the work we present design of the system and validation of the prototype: in order to evaluate its functions, a set of test and simulated inspection on real railway tracks and trains has been performed, the last session on ordinary tracks in a scenario that would not allow direct inspection by human personnel.