Page 25 - 360.revista de Alta Velocidad - Nº 5

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número 5 - junio - 2018. Pág 23 - 31

New technologies applied to railway maintenance

Coca, Marcos

Alstom
1

Abstract
Rarely in the history of rail maintenance has there been such a clear opportunity
to introduce new technology and to leverage information and communication
systems aiming to search for improvements in equipment maintenance,
infrastructure or in maintenance operations.
It is currently possible to find-out in the market a wide range of monitoring
devices, interfaces or communication systems configurable at a moderate cost,
as well as computing technology with sufficient processing capacity to diagnose
in real time and even anticipate the future behavior of the systems.
This initially favorable situation also poses two major challenges: the new on-
hand digital solutions will not bring the desired added-value without suitable
integration and probable adaption to the existing business processes and tools,
which is not usually easy according to the new dimension of the project and
the greater uncertainty in the outcome. On the other hand the wider diagnostic
and interconnection possibilities of digital systems, usually able to provide huge
volumes of data, make the identification of key parameters difficult enough to
draw effective conclusions in terms of maintenance optimization, thus data
structuring, data filtering and prediction algorithms play a fundamental role.
Alstom, with its global experience in railway maintenance and more than 25
years in maintaining Very High Speed Trains, will show few examples of new
technologies brought to equipment maintenance and operational management,
as well as those difficulties and relevant findings in this process.

Keywords: optimal railway maintenance, augmented reality, predictive plataforms, drones, big data, machine
learning, real time equipement diagnostics.

1 Coca, Marcos. Alstom. Email: marcos.coca-sola@alstomgroup.com

International Congress on High-speed Rail: Technologies and Long Term Impacts - Ciudad Real (Spain) - 25th anniversary Madrid-Sevilla corridor 23