LiDAR and its use in railway infrastructures

Why LiDAR technology and its use in railway infrastructures are a success?

LiDAR systems provide a means of mapping the environment with high accuracy. One of the main uses of LiDAR technology within the civil engineering world is transportation infrastructure mapping. However, there are many other applications such as road surface measurements, city modeling, rapid capture of bulk material storage areas, topographic surveying, GIS mapping and asset management.

In this article, we will focus only on the application of LiDAR technology in transport infrastructures to obtain 3D georeferenced point clouds that allow us to inspect them, in order to determine the current state and possible existing variations.

Depending on the type of infrastructure and the measurements to be performed, there are two working modes, static or dynamic. When we take off a LiDAR sensor in dynamic working mode, it is essential to integrate it into a motorized platform, such as an automobile, a railroad, or an airplane.

WHAT INFORMATION CAN I BE INTERESTED IN EXTRACTING FROM A GEO-REFERENCED POINT CLOUD?

All the information collected by the point cloud can be used to extract geometric information such as superelevations, alignments, gauge interferences, clearances, pickets, etc. Another data point collected is areal density. This data is useful for building meters under watercourses or roads.

HOW DOES GRUPO ÁLAVA HELP THE RAILWAY SECTOR?

We have a wide range of solutions for the digitization of infrastructures and we have an expert team in 3D scanning, BIM modeling, digital twin and predictive maintenance of structures. More about us.