Last February, the Sentinel project came to an end. Its main objective was developing a new pilot prototype for a smart system for managing railway infrastructure by using structured big data.
The project, which began in July 2016, aimed to integrate a data-capturing device into maintenance vehicles for railway lines and feed a database with a corresponding system of geographical information. That way, it can update an automatic or semi-automatic inventory of railway assets, at the same time as it reviews and evaluates parts of the railway, thereby optimizing maintenance operations. Its development has drawn on technology related to Industry 4.0, including big data, machine learning, artificial intelligence and artificial vision, models and simulations, European GNSS, and satellites.
About the pilot test
The prototype’s validation tests, which were done in April 2018 on the high-speed Amussafes – Javea line and then in November of the same year on the high-speed Madrid – Chamartín y Torrejón de Velasco line which is currently under construction, consisted in integrating Lidar systems (which obtain 3D maps and images of the railway though dynamic scans by using technology called mobile mapping systems), GPS, cameras, and high-precision recorders, lighting… All this allowed digitalizing this new infrastructure at a traveling speed of 80 km/h on a maintenance vehicle equipped for the tests.
Collaboration and funding
Sentinel is a collaborative project that includes Ferrovial Agroman (leader), Adif, Alstom, and Insitu. With a budget of €1.44 million, it was jointly financed with €646,000 from the EDRF (European Regional Development Fund) through CDTI’s Innterconecta program.
Learn more about the Sentinel project
