Towards automated and cost-efficient track maintenance. Final developments of the ACEM-Rail project

This paper presents the latest developments of the FP7 project ACEM-Rail. It focuses on the development of techniques and tools to automate track maintenance tasks. It covers developments in inspection techniques, systems and tools to manage and organize all the information together with data analysis and decision support tools and definition of Maintenance Performance Indicators to evaluate the sustainability of the maintenance process. The results of the embarked on commercial trains inspection technologies have been very promising as well as the benefits of the comprehensive tool to manage the railway infrastructure maintenance. The combination of the above concepts (inspection, data management and Decision Support Tools) is not reported in previous experiences/research projects.