Songling Industry Application | Rail Inspection OEM Solution won the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers Merit Award

Industry Background

With the expansion of rail transit operation scale, traditional manual inspection methods can no longer meet the increasingly strong maintenance requirements. Long-distance and highly repetitive inspection operations have become a major pain point in the operation and maintenance of subways and urban rail transit. Exploring an intelligent, information-based, low-manpower or even unmanned maintenance model will explore greater development space for rail transit maintenance.

01Scenario Pain Points

Inspection work takes a long time and needs to be done at night at specific times. Working in the early morning is already a common occurrence. When inspecting precision instruments late at night, mistakes are inevitable, and the probability of wrong inspections and missed inspections increases accordingly.

The inspection operation environment is complex. In a closed track environment, the noise is high, the space is small, manual maintenance is difficult, and continuous operations for a long time are not possible.

So, facing such industry demands, what kind of solutions can we provide?

02Solution ​

Double-arm lifting inspection robot

The double-arm lifting inspection robot is a kind of inspection robot designed for under-track scenes. The advantages of the robot such as durability, strong environmental adaptability and precise detection can provide strong guarantee for track maintenance.

According to the functional requirements of inspection, the robot can be divided into the following functional modules.

Software: Self-developed NAVIS navigation system (including mission planning)

Hardware:

| Implementing functions

●Autonomous navigation + autonomous obstacle avoidance

● Autonomous charging (with timing and adjustable threshold)

● Task mode supports point setting (control of robot arm , lifting column, linear slide movement)

● http and webbsocket interfaces support all platform calls

● Lifting mechanism and linear module ensure a wide range of working space

● Front and rear dual 32-line radar + visual camera to fill in blind spots

● Lithium iron phosphate battery power supply supports quick replacement

● Dual 6-axis long reach robotic arms

| Key technical parameters

| Solution Advantages

● Exquisite industrial design

● Dual robotic arms equipped with six-dimensional force sensors

● Industrial-grade four-wheel drive four-turn chassis

● Ultimate integration of business logic and navigation control strategy

● Full platform compatible with secondary development interface

03Application Cases

A subway operation and maintenance company's under-track inspection robot

After the subway finishes its run and returns to the station, it needs to be manually inspected under the tracks at midnight.

Manual inspection takes a long time, has high workload and low inspection efficiency.

The introduction of robots for under-track inspection operations can reduce manpower, improve work efficiency, and better ensure the safety of subway operations.

| Description

According to the inspection requirements, the hardware design of the inspection robot adopts a four-wheel drive four-turn RANGER MINI 3.0 robot chassis, a dual robotic arm system, a linear module (including lifting columns and translation modules), dual 32-line laser radars, and a charging module to better complete the inspection of the sub-track environment; the software part is the self-developed intelligent NAVIS navigation system (including task planning) to achieve accurate detection.

| Operation Logic

The overall operation logic is as follows: after the subway enters the depot and stops steadily, the intelligent patrol robot is started, and the task is issued through the WEB platform. The intelligent patrol robot starts to perform the task after stopping charging at the charging pile.

The robot uses front and rear dual laser radars to accurately locate the under-track environment and begins the vehicle inspection. The lifting column, robotic arm and slide rail link the terminal equipment to perform inspection operations and transmit information to the local area network device terminal through the on-board routing module.

After completing the task, the robot drives out of the detection area and automatically navigates back to the standby charging position to charge, waiting for the next task to be issued.

Demonstration of some work processes

| Project Benefits

The under-track inspection robot operates in the subway maintenance channel and can replace manual labor to complete the undercarriage inspection tasks in the daily maintenance of the subway. It solves the problems faced by manual maintenance, such as long operation time, large inspection workload, and difficulty in comprehensive inspection. It saves inspection manpower costs, improves inspection efficiency, and explores a new model for subway maintenance.

| Project Information

The autonomous dual-arm multi-tasking inspection and maintenance robot won the Merit Award in the Innovation Category of the "HKIE MIS Industry Award 2023" of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers.