Handbook of Advanced Nondestructive Evaluation

Abstract

Railway networks across the world are getting busier and busier; trains travel at higher speeds and carry more passengers or heavier axle loads than ever before. Accordingly, the railway industry calls for new information technologies (ITs) to meet its development. Railway systems have already relied on ITs almost as much as they rely on physical assets, and this dependence is growing as these systems face burgeoning demands in terms of robustness, reliability, and capacity. This chapter will discuss the framework and related technologies for a smart railway based on the Internet of Things (IoT) and big data. On one hand, we present the architecture of a smart railway, which is divided into four layers, i.e., perception and action layer, transfer layer, data engine layer, and application layer, and discuss the advanced and mostly concerned technologies in each layer. On the other hand, we introduce the intelligent rail inspection system, which can be regarded as a case or application of the smart railway. The smart railway shows the potential of improving traditional railway systems with the development of the IoT and big data.