The Indian Railway’s Central Zone has developed a robot powered by artificial intelligence to take pictures and record videos of the under-gears of trains and send them to engineers for repairs and maintenance, PTI reported on Wednesday.
The mechanical branch of Central Railway’s Nagpur division has developed the robot, which has been named USTAAD, an acronym for Undergear Surveillance Through Artificial Intelligence Assisted Droid. It will use a high-definition camera to scrutinise parts of train coaches in real time and transmit them over a WiFi connection.
“The engineers can see these videos on big screen as well as record them,” said Central Railway spokesperson Sunil Udasi. “The camera of the robot can be rotated in any direction as per command given by the engineers.”
Udasi said the robot is capable of zooming into a spot in case of any doubt. “It is equipped with LED floodlight and is able to capture the videos in low light as well as in dark mode,” he added. “By use of this robot, the chances of mistake and any deficiency overlooked by human eye can be eliminated, thus reducing chances of human error.”
Engineers will be able to easily examine hard-to-reach areas, such as cramped and narrow spaces between under-gear parts, Udasi said, adding that the Railways is considering using the robot across its several zones once it has been tested in detail.
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