An Automated, Drone-Based Inspection System
- Federal Railroad Administration
MTRI Inc. and Michigan Technological University developed and demonstrated a drone-based system for automated inspection of grade crossings. The prototype system can determine whether vertical approach grades create a risk for vehicles to get stuck on tracks, assess the adequacy of visual sight lines at a crossing, and locate relevant assets such as gates, lights, signage, etc. It uses high-resolution images collected via drone/unmanned aerial system that are the processed into 3D data for analysis.