Developments, challenges, and perspectives of railway inspection robots

• Published in: Automation in construction Vol. 138; p. 104242
• Main Authors: Jing, Guoqing, Qin, Xuanyang, Wang, Haoyu, Deng, Chengcheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.06.2022; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Autonomous inspection; Bridge inspection; Catenaries; Inspection platform; Inspection sensor; Maintenance; Railway infrastructures; Railway tracks; Railway tunnels; Robot; Robots; Railway infrastructures; Autonomous inspection; Maintenance; Robot; Inspection sensor; Inspection platform
• ISSN: 0926-5805; 1872-7891
• DOI: 10.1016/j.autcon.2022.104242

Railway inspection robots have been developed and used to gradually replace human inspectors in recent years. This paper reviews the recent developments on railway inspection robots and identifies the critical barriers to their widespread acceptance and applications. The inspection sensors, methods, and platforms used in railway inspection are first introduced and inspection robots used for various subjects are reviewed, including inspection for tracks, bridges, tunnels, and catenaries. To further analyse the feasibility of railway inspection robots, a prototype of a typical track inspection robot is tested in a railway line and test results are presented. After that, the current limitations of railway inspection robots are discussed and future developments for railway inspection robots are provided. [Display omitted] •Reviewed the inspection methods and inspection platforms used for railways.•Reviewed the recent development in railway inspection robots.•Presented the field measurement of a prototype of a track inspection robot.•Discussed the railway inspection robots used in track inspection, bridge inspection and tunnel inspection respectively.•Discussed the challenge and perspective of railway inspection robots