Intelligent Infrastructure

As the rail industry emerges from the impact of Covid and enters a new period of economic uncertainty, the pressure to operate existing assets and resources more efficiently, in order to reduce unnecessary spending and to act in smarter ways, is greater than ever

In the UK, many programmes have been instigated by operators to act more intelligently and this is seen as the start of an entirely new era for railway operations. For example, Network Rail’s ‘Intelligent Infrastructure Programme’, is a five-year transformation programme (2019-2024), where an important objective is to turn data into intelligent information, so front-line and supporting teams can work safely, smarter, and seamlessly.

Like many others, r2p believes that onboard CCTV has a key role to play in assisting operators to extract maximum value from their assets. CCTV technology is rapidly evolving and one area – video analytics –is widely seen as having the potential to be especially impactful in the new era of intelligent railway operations.

There is a wealth of information being captured by CCTV cameras which to date has not been exploited by operators. Video analytics can transform simple recorded footage stored for post-event evidence into actionable intelligence to assist operations, in near-real-time. Operators can therefore use CCTV to remotely monitor infrastructure and improve operations at a fraction of the current cost.

r2p has therefore spent the past few years exploring the market, technologies and optimal environment needed to deliver improved analytical software functionality in a secure way. The company has made it its goal to bring enhanced automated remote monitoring to passenger trains for the benefit of operational railways.

Working with experienced analytics application specialists and its own software developers, r2p has created its on-board Video Analytics Platform to host analytical software applications from a variety of suppliers, operating alongside r2p’s product portfolio to make the most of the currently deployed systems.

The r2p Video Analytics Platform is a modular solution, enabling a wide range of use-cases and provides infrastructure owners and train operators with the opportunity to select specific analytics applications to provide them with the information that serves their particular needs.

For a linear asset such as a railway, a vast amount of information needs to be captured and analysed to assess the overall condition, maintenance, and inspection of the rail infrastructure and its surroundings. Today, this information is routinely collected by survey trains monitoring the infrastructure.

However, the low frequency of these survey trains covering the rail network could delay or miss detection and identification of potential risks on the rail infrastructure.

Deploying analytical software that automatically and continuously monitors infrastructure on-board passenger trains and freight services would allow for a far more flexible and sustainable monitoring service of the rail network.

Collectively, increased survey frequency and automated near realtime analysis can substantially assist in preventing operational or safety-related incidents on and around the rail infrastructure.

One good example is pantograph analytics. The pantograph is a vital part of many trains but is also one of the parts most susceptible to damage, especially the carbon contact strip, which when damaged, can lead to expensive replacements. Thus, pantographs need regular checkups which are resource intensive and can take place too late to spot critical faults.

r2p’s Video Analytics Platform can enable a constant automated monitoring system for pantographs that can spot issues better than the human eye, which vastly reduces human resources while maximizing maintenance efficiency. With pantograph height, stagger, arcing and obstruction monitoring functionality as well, this is a must-have analytical tool for trains and trams running on an OverheadLine Equipment (OLE) infrastructure.

Forward-facing CCTV (FFCCTV) Analytics

FFCCTV today is standard equipment onboard most trains and primarily used to view incident footage post-event for causal and evidential purposes.

However, with automated real-time monitoring and continuous analytics of FFCCTV, live alert notifications can be provided to frontline operational staff and asset maintainers to take action before a risk becomes a reality. There are literally hundreds of use-cases for this.

Examples can include identifying dangers alongside the track to operational staff and trains such as encroaching tree foliage, obstructed safe working areas along access routes, unsafe waste materials, identifying unauthorised track access hotspots by detecting recent graffiti or vandalism or measuring deviations in track geometry.

By monitoring trackside assets in realtime staff will have more time to plan the necessary actions, thus significantly reducing the potential cost and human impact of an incident.

Of course, a move towards widespread analysis of CCTV footage will benefit enormously from higher quality video footage. r2p has itself recently launched its new i-series cameras to complement its existing portfolio. These high image quality and high frame-rate cameras have now opened up a new range of opportunities and use-cases for analytics.

With the development of on-board CCTV analytics, it is also important to remember that on-board CCTV (whether saloon, FFCCTV or DCO/DOO) captures images of the travelling public, which are deemed “personal data” and must be protected by law. The security of this footage must not be compromised and nor must the integrity of video files stored on the DVR. Therefore, one must consider how analytics for multiple use-cases operating in parallel can be undertaken in a single secure environment on-board.

The r2p Video Analytics Platform is designed with this in mind. CCTV footage is stored securely in an encrypted format in the DVR for evidential purposes. In addition, subject to the solution design for analytics, live video can be streamed into a separate secure area on-board the train and analysed in real-time. The video footage is passed through the analytics applications but is not stored, thus avoiding additional security and data privacy risks. Instead, data is generated by the analytics applications that is used to produce metrics, alerts and video bookmarks, which can be passed off- board with minimal delay. If specific video footage is required to be viewed in full post-alert, this can be downloaded remotely from the DVR using r2p’s latest Horizon 2.0 video management web tool by authorised individuals. Horizon 2.0 also provides the ability to securely view live camera feeds if needed and authorised to do so.

This approach maintains the integrity of the video on the DVR and avoids unsecured video stored elsewhere on-board. It is much lower risk and more practical than analysing historic video footage off-board and also avoids a delay of any analysis, the significant cost and impact of network transmission and duplicate video storage off-board.

Adding r2p’s Video Analytics Platform to an already deployed or newly installed onboard train CCTV solution is a cost-effective way of moving towards improving the operational objective of mass infrastructure monitoring on both passenger and freight train networks.

Are you ready to make the most of your data? To learn more about the possibilities of analytical software or r2p’s solution portfolio, you can get in touch with r2p via the contact information below.

Email: ukrail@r2p.com Visit: www.r2p.com