Nexus, a public transport operator in the North East of Newcastle upon Tyne, uses an industrial drone to monitor the infrastructure on 77-kilometer Tyne & Wear Metro lines.

Railway infrastructure monitoring drone in Newcastle
Picture: Nexus

The Matrice 300 RTK is equipped with L1 sensors for lidar shooting, P1 sensors for photogrammetry and H20T sensors for thermal imaging and visual imaging.

This was reported by the railway magazine Railway Supply.

The software provides the operator with video with more detailed information than a visual inspection can provide.

The use of the drone changes the technology of the current maintenance, providing monitoring of the condition of infrastructure objects (from artificial structures and the superstructure of the track to the catenary) and reducing the need for time-consuming visual inspections.

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