Ceit unveils rail maintenance solutions at Intelligent Rail Summit 2021
The event, organised by the RailTech platform, will feature a talk on low-cost sensory monitoring in the context of the SIA European project, given by the technology centre
The summit will be held over 21-23 September at Bilbao’s Euskalduna Conference Centre, and will focus on the latest breakthroughs in rail infrastructure management and maintenance
Flooding, unusually warm summers and other extreme climate phenomena have highlighted just how vulnerable rail infrastructures and rolling stock are against these eventualities. In this context, it is no wonder that predicting the unpredictable has become a priority for the rail sector. But, what are the next steps to be taken to ensure correct train management and maintenance in times of unforeseeable changes?
This and other questions concerning rail infrastructure management, supervision and maintenance will be tackled at Intelligent Rail Summit 2021, organised by online media RailTech and to be held over 21-23 September at the Euskalduna Conference Centre in Bilbao.
Over three days, key players in the international rail industry, including Adif, ÖBB, Network Rail and SBB will present their latest developments relating to asset management, current projects and new technologies applied to rail infrastructure maintenance and intelligent management.
Ceit Technology Centre, a member of the Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), will play a major role, with a talk on methods that can be used to support catenary maintenance using readings obtained from low-cost sensors installed on vehicles in operation. It will be given by Unai Alvarado, a researcher and director of the CEIT Railway Group, and can be followed live and via streaming on Wednesday 22 September from 11.30 am.
Low-cost monitoring
In his talk “Methodologies for the low-cost monitoring of overhead contact line systems based on inertial measurements”, Alvarado will analyse how inertial sensors installed on pantograph collector strips can be used to detect deviations in overhead contact lines (OCL) geometry.
Alvarado will also unveil the SIA_PANT prototype, a “system installed on the pantograph to monitor interaction with the catenary”, a solution developed by CEIT as part of the European SIA project. This project, financed by EUSPA (the European Union Agency for the Space Programme), aims to develop a system to supervise the health status of all assets that interact between the train and the rail infrastructure, with the aim of reducing maintenance costs.
As well as being held live at the Bilbao Euskalduna Conference Centre, all Intelligent Rail Summit 2021 talks can be followed by streaming from anywhere around the planet. For more information and to register, please see the event website.
