Rail-SIT

Railway Inspection with Laser Mobile Mapping -> Download the Brochure

Rail-SIT is the module of the Road-SIT Survey Suite developed for the railway inspection with the Laser Mobile Mapping. Its main features are the automatic rail detection, the track and catenary feature extraction and geometry generation,  the clearance interference analysis, the section, plan and profile creation, and the report generation.

Railroad line inspection with Mobile Mapping System

Mobile Mapping systems are more and more successfully implemented and exploited in the railway sector, as they allow the line detection with minimum effort and great efficiency, results not achievable with traditional tools. The Rail-SIT application has been developed to optimize the analysis and inspection activities for railroads, providing effective tools and automatically producing reports on the infrastructure status.

Railhead detection - Track and catenary geometry generation
The point cloud and the trajectory produced with the MMS are automatically processed, to identify the railheads, on the line run and also on the parallel line in the case of double-track. Rail-SIT automatically calculates the track center line, gauge, superelevation, and catenary. All geometries can be integrated and edited with the graphic functions provided by the Road-SIT photogrammetry application.

Dynamic generation of clearance outlines and interference calculation

Among the various objectives that can be attained with a railway inspection, the check of the interferences is one of most important. Rail-SIT automatically generates the profile of each section, at a constant rate, customizable by the user (50 cm by default).
The clearance is calculated parametrically as a function of the radius of curvature, the speed rank, and the uncompensated acceleration. The clearance definition is carried out according to the most widespread international standards, in special external files., which can be edited by the user.

Cylindrical views of tunnel vaults

For the tunnel inspection, the system generates cylindrical views of the point cloud developed on a plane. The laser-scanner color intensity or the distance from the clearance outline can be represented by using different color ramps. The cylindrical views thus obtained, clearly show the maintenance status of the vault and the actual and potential interferences.

Checks and inspections – Fixing the end track position

The Rail-SIT provides features for checking the following:

• Sections where the track position is uncertain or not detectable (i.e. switches)
• Out-of-range track gauge or inconsistent superelevation with respect to previous or following sections
• The user can change manually the track position and fix the detected issues.

Automatic generation of documents and reports

Rail-SIT automatically generates the these documents:

• Sections with dimensions
• Cylindrical views
• Track plans , with the indication of the generated sections and relating curvature radius
• Records with the analysis of the interferences and the track geometry.

User Interface 

The main graphic window shows the rail cross section at the current chainage, two side graphic views allow the check of the track position, by zooming the point cloud. The rectangular area below the main window displays the cylindrical view of the inspected railroad section. Here the user can select graphically a point where to view the cross section to be investigated.
A 3D view is also available for the realistic representation of the point cloud with the positioning of rails, catenaries and clearance outlines.