SMARAGD – Using drones to detect damage to railway overhead lines at an early stage

In the SMARAGD project, researchers are working on methods that will enable drones to be used for automated condition monitoring of critical railway infrastructure in the future.

Railway infrastructure structures must be maintained and subjected to regular visual inspections. Inspections of elements on overhead lines such as insulators, suspension cables or weights are not only dangerous, but also very time-consuming and require specialised equipment and line closures. The SMARAGD project aims to improve this labour-, time- and cost-intensive process. In future, drones will fly over the infrastructure as flying sensors and simplify and speed up this work. The unmanned aircraft will take high-resolution images, which will be analysed and evaluated by software. This could prevent road closures in future and optimise the inspection and maintenance process.

A camera drone from Copting GmbH flies over a line of Havelländische Eisenbahn AG in Elstal near Berlin.
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Specifically, the project participants are investigating the methods by which drones can be used for largely automated condition monitoring of critical railway infrastructure. Ideally, both the aerial survey and the image analysis for recognising damage will be automated. The following challenges, among others, are being considered in the project:

  • A great deal of image data is generated during aerial surveys. The recognition of the objects to be analysed and the classification of different types of condition and damage are to be automated. Various methods for automatic image and video analysis are being researched for this purpose. Artificial intelligence methods are also being used.
  • In order to be able to take pictures at close range, even of small elements such as insulators, the aerial survey must take place as precisely as possible at the objects to be examined. To this end, the project partners are investigating methods for trajectory planning along railway lines and for precise control of the aircraft.
  • They are also examining how potential risks can be minimised and under what conditions flights are permitted along railway lines.

Project title:
SMARAGD - Smart Maintanance of Rail infrastructure by using Analytical Georeferenced Data Services

Duration:
08/2018 to 07/2020

Project volume:
€ 1.1 million (75% of which was funded by the BMVI as part of the mFund)

Contracting authority:
Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI)

Project participants:
Siemens Mobility GmbH (Network coordinator)
German Aerospace Center (DLR) - Institute of Transportation Systems
German Aerospace Center (DLR) - Institute of Flight Systems
Copting GmbH

Downloads:

Aerial image data with annotated insulators:

Data set 1:
63 MB
Link to download

Data set 2:
97 MB
Link to download

The data is licensed under Creative Commons 4.0 Attribution. Link

This project is managed by the department:

Research Cooperative Systems

The department is pioneering new autonomous mobility solutions by researching, designing, and demonstrating connection, automation, cooperation, and coordination for vehicles, system networks, and us humans.

Contact

Sten Ruppe

Acting Head of Department
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Institute of Transportation Systems
Research Cooperative Systems
Rutherfordstr. 2, 12489 Berlin