Rail Vision Ltd
Israel Railways Orders 10 Rail Vision Main Line Systems
This article first appeared in the Railway-News magazine, Issue 1 2023.
Israel Railways has ordered 10 Main Line Systems – and related services – from Israeli-based tech company Rail Vision.
The contract, valued at 1.4 million USD (1.3M EUR), is Rail Vision’s largest to date and heralds the first major commercial deployment of AI-based vision technology for main line rail industry operations.
AI-Based Vision Technology for Main Line Rail Operations
Rail Vision’s Main Line System is a cutting-edge 28 solution that detects and identifies objects and obstacles near, between or on the railway.
This can help reduce downtime and delays, increase safety and improve traffic volume and to date it is the only system on the market that will be installed on commercial passenger and freight trains.
The system combines sensitive imaging sensors with artificial intelligence and deep learning (DL) technologies to quickly and accurately detect and classify obstacles within its extended visual range of up to two kilometres in diverse weather conditions and any light conditions.
This includes obstructions such as humans, vehicles, large animals such as cows, horses, wild boars and more.
The system then generates real-time visual and acoustic alerts for the train operator and as an option to the command-and-control centre. And it doesn’t end there. Rail Vision’s advanced image processing capabilities can also enable image-based navigation, predictive maintenance and GIS mapping.
Pilot Proves Solution Meets Israel Railways’s Requirements
Israel Railways currently operates around 700 trains daily, travelling along 1,138 kilometres of track and Rail Vision’s Main Line System will be deployed on intercity passenger trains and freight trains.
The Israeli railway operator ran a pilot of Rail Vision’s Main Line System on a freight rail locomotive operating in southern Israel, which tested the system in a wide range of weather conditions.
Drivers were taught how the system works and provided feedback throughout the trial, which proved the system met all of the operator’s necessary requirements.
