“ Cloud Technology Partners is helping us build an enterprise-class IoT solution on AWS that enables RailPod to be a global leader in infrastructure information production to ensure safer railroads across the global railroad market .”
- Brendan English Founder and CEO , RailPod
The US railroad industry has one of the most sprawling and immensely critical pieces of infrastructure in North America . When failures or other issues occur , maintenance is highly manual and primarily reactive . When a failure is identified , a maintenance crew must be physically deployed to correct the problem . These maintenance corrections take time , causing delays and potentially large penalties for the railroad operator due to unmet SLAs , loss of productivity or other contracted stipulations between the industry and its customers .
These penalties can range from thousands to millions of dollars for unexpected downtime scenarios . Consequently , both the operations and business sides of the industry suffer the high costs associated with reactive maintenance . As the railroad and shipping industries continue to see decreased margins and increased regulation , it is critical to reduce excess costs and increase efficiency to stay competitive in the marketplace . from low cost sensors and trackers that allow for better control and placement of field equipment , to self-operating drones that run up and down the railways scanning for anomalies and providing information to maintenance crews . These new technologies ensure that the US railroad infrastructure meets the mandates of federally required inspections . As these technologies continue to evolve and are dropping in cost , more opportunities are arising for railroads to cost-effectively transition from preventive maintenance to predictive maintenance .
From Reactive to Proactive
Due to regulations , safety requirements and lack of real-time data across its vast infrastructure , the US railroad industry has historically been forced to follow a reactive maintenance strategy . This approach has a number of significant challenges , primarily around the cost of mobilizing parts and labor , as well as the direct and indirect effects of equipment being down or unnecessarily unavailable . But , there is a transformation occurring within the US railroad industry ; one that is moving from a predominantly reactive operating model to one that is forward-looking and proactive .
This transformation is being greatly accelerated by the introduction of new technologies . These range
A RailPod Drone
A New Kind of Predictive Technology
RailPod , a Boston-based infrastructure inspection system provider , is looking to make global rail infrastructure safer and more cost effective to maintain , operate and monitor through the use of automated ‘ inspection ’ drones . RailPod drones increase the frequency and quality of day-to-day railroad track inspections through advanced sensing technologies and data as a service . These daily track inspections are performed in an automated fashion with a high degree of precision and accuracy – saving both time
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