AirView and Mosaic mounted a camera onto a train to capture georeferenced imagery of railway corridors.
The health and function of a country’s railway network is often indicative of the broader economic health of the region. Trains are a vital piece of Europe’s infrastructure network, as they stitch local and international economies together to efficiently move people and goods.
As a result, railway infrastructure receives substantial investments from organizations like the World Bank and the European Union. According to the World Bank’s analysis of the International Union of Railways, out of the top-ten densest high-speed railway networks around the world, seven are in Western Europe. A robust and active railroad network is also a crucial pillar of the European Green Deal for climate action.
Viewing railways from every angle
AirView is a Czech company at the forefront of drone reality capture for infrastructure construction projects, including train tracks. Their team captures and processes geospatial data throughout a project’s lifecycle for mapping, surveying, and marketing.
Over the past two years, AirView has developed its proprietary AVAG cloud platform, which enables clients to work directly with drone data, including point clouds, orthophotos, and digital terrain models. This allows their clients to make informed decisions about infrastructure projects that may be hundreds of kilometers from their offices.
However, in a recent railway reconstruction project in the Czech Republic, AirView needed more imagery than a drone could offer.
The Mosaic X vs. the Ladybug6
Their client, Správa železnic, requested high-resolution panoramic imagery taken at fixed intervals along the tracks. Správa železnic is the Czech Republic’s national railway infrastructure manager. Their goal was to create a detailed photographic record that could support project documentation and compliance checks.
Správa železnic has very strict criteria for data collection. They require high positional accuracy of photographs as well as data from the IMU unit. AirView conducted a market survey, and the shortlist came down to the Mosaic X and Ladybug6 cameras. Unlike the Mosaic X, the Ladybug6 requires additional equipment, such as an in-vehicle laptop, on-site processing, and extra data storage.
After a detailed comparison of both solutions, AirView chose the Mosaic X system — a 360° high-resolution mobile mapping camera designed for the final documentation of Správa železnic’s project.
The Mosaic X for infrastructure inspections
The AirView and Mosaic teams mounted the Mosaic X onto a small locomotive to drive down the newly reconstructed tracks. The camera captured panoramic images at specified intervals so AirView could create comprehensive visual documentation of the completed railway.
The process was especially rewarding as AirView’s team and Mosaic’s experts were able to test the system’s functionality under real conditions. Besides, who wouldn’t want a ride in the conductor’s cabin?
Building passports and as-built documentation
Incorporating the Mosaic X into AirView’s workflow is mainly for as-built documentation, or a building passport, after the project’s completion. Much like your personal passport, a building passport has all of the information a governing body, investors, or other stakeholders may want to know about a construction project upon completion.
Information in the documentation includes the dimensions of the project, materials, and a full 3D replica of the construction (sometimes at various stages of completion). Building passports are important for scheduling maintenance, managing building lifecycles, retrofitting existing structures, and building additions in the future.
The future of railway documentation
AirView received positive feedback for its addition of street-level (or, in this case, track-level) imagery to its existing offerings of drone imagery to clients. Collaborating with Mosaic has expanded AirView’s technical capabilities and is driving further development in its documentation solutions.
“For our customer, it was necessary to transform the coordinate system, create vector trajectories, and meet other specified standards. The Mosaic X’s imagery far exceeded their requirements and greatly improved our project’s quality.”
– Marek Růžek, CTO at AirView
This railway project’s success sets a firm foundation for continued cooperation between AirView and Mosaic. AirView’s next big move is the largest highway construction project in the Czech Republic.
By complementing their expertise in geospatial data with Mosaic X’s high-resolution imagery, AirView is opening doors to efficient, high-quality documentation solutions that support evolving industry needs across the Czech Republic and beyond.
Cloud platform AVAG
Working with the Mosaic X has also led AirView to accelerate development within the AVAG software to accommodate the camera’s ultra-high-resolution imagery. This compatibility allows clients to view and interact with Mosaic’s panoramic images and track data within the platform more easily.
Conclusion
Projects like AirView’s keep us on our toes as we look for new ways to meet the ever-changing needs of our customers. If you have a similar challenge, let’s have a chat!
Mosaic mobile mapping systems help keep your railway construction and inspection projects from going off the rails!
Let’s talk about your project.
Learn more about Mosaic at https://www.mosaic51.com/
Mosaic 360 Camera Systems
928
