Realistic Expectations While Monitoring with Networked Robotic Total Station Systems in Live Rail Environments.

Summary

The CRL project has dedicated more than £150 Million to the complete life cycle of automated optical monitoring of rail assets. These optically based systems have been the primary source of monitoring in the majority of all Crossrail’ s interfaces with existing railway infrastructure and each construction contract has made use of the data on a daily basis.  Due to the absence of any industry standards in this field, as in many other regarding IandM, the authors have found that the design, installation, maintenance and processing of optical systems varies in terms of quality and that the expectations of the interested parties are misguided and not practically achievable in many occasions.

Using one of the longest and more populated networks ever built in the world, the authors will demonstrate the variations that one system of such characteristics would experience, even while not subject to any movements due to construction activities, and the reasons for most of those variations. For the purpose of being able to provide further analysis data from other areas has been as well. This will highlight how important it is to have a good understanding of this specific monitoring system before setting up any kind of specification.  In order to safeguard the reputation of the use of networked RTS data, it is important to understand the limitations of each specific installation, and treat them on case by case bases. For those with the responsibility of specifying optical systems it is imperative that the contract documentation details, the appropriate guidelines, recommendations and levels of workmanship are correct in order to get the most out of this technology. Providing these specifications, and illustrating why each point is relevant, is the main goal of this article.