OPTIMIZATION OF THE CONSERVATION OF RAILWAY INFRASTRUCTURE FOR URBAN TRANSPORT.

Soltel has begun work on a new R&D project called OPTIRAIL. The project aims to develop an intelligent asset management system for the conservation and preventive maintenance of metro and tramway infrastructure, integrating monitoring techniques using onboard devices. This will allow for continuous monitoring of track components during train operating hours, rather than being limited to off-peak service.

The data obtained through this system will be managed by an expert system, including predictive models and BPM technologies, to optimize maintenance activities in accordance with the international standard ISO-55000, reducing costs and increasing the safety and comfort of users.

The project is subsidized by the CDTI and supported by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, with aid co-financed by ERDF funds through the “Smart Growth Operational Programme 2014-2020” and CDTI's own funds, within the framework of the FEDER-Innterconecta programme.

Soltel is participating in this project as part of a consortium led by AZVI, which also includes AGC Market View Services and Rovimática. The Andalusian Association for Industrial Research and Cooperation is also involved in the project as a research organization.

Metro maintenance aims to preserve service in safe and efficient conditions, while minimizing operating and maintenance costs. While this is vitally important, other aspects that advanced management must prioritize include: the social and public service dimension of the metro, including user perception of the service, and the positive environmental impact of its use compared to urban transport using combustion engine vehicles are two good examples. Current maintenance management models do not make these valuable aspects of the infrastructure visible. This project will address, using innovative techniques, the integration of so-called "externalities" into maintenance management systems, such as social benefits, avoided emissions, time saved for users, etc.

Techniques will be developed that make aspects of the operation "visible" to management that were previously hidden. These include the development lines also present in this OPTIRAIL project:

Condition monitoringThe improvement and integration of auscultation and control techniques, the development of which will allow extensive and low-cost monitoring of track elements.

Intelligence and data analysisIntelligent processing of big data allows for the extraction of valuable information and the inference of relationships for management. This is achieved by using both historical data and monitoring data. This increases the capacity for decision-making and the scope of those decisions. Furthermore, the big data processing, management, and inference generation systems will allow this project to introduce, in a completely novel way, the value of externalities into maintenance decisions.