Name: Enhancing Worker Line-of-sight With Agonics Technology
Uploaded: 2024-05-14T04:54:02.441Z
Description: Meet David Presley, director at Agonics, as he unveils their groundbreaking LiDAR point cloud solution for improving rail safety and worker line of sight.

Dave Presley export 2.vtt

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David: Hi everyone, my

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name's David Presley.

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I'm a director at a

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company called Agonics.

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A G O N I C S.

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And I'm a surveyor

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by profession.

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I've worked in the

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rail industry for the

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last 15 or 20 years.

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Tuan: Just for our

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audience, if you could

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just give an overview of

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what LiDAR technology is.

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David: Sure, so LiDAR

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technology is really a fancy

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way of talking about lasers

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and most of us are familiar

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with lasers and you know, you

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go to a concert and you'll

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see people pointing lasers at

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something or at a kid's party.

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So when you attach a clock

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to the laser, what you are

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then able to do is when you

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project that ray of light

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onto the surface of an asset

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or a feature, you can record

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the time that it takes for

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that light to be reflected

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back to the laser itself.

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So once we know the time

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of that pulse, then we

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know the speed of light.

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So then we can know

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the distance that the

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reflecting feature is

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from the laser source.

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So we use a system that is

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comprised of a spinning laser

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and you can think of it as

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rotating a couple of hundred

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thousand times a second.

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And we're able to capture a

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million of these distances

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or points each second as we

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travel through a network.

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So we generate what is

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called a point cloud from

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that data acquisition.

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Tuan: Can you tell me

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a bit about Agonics

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line-of-sight workflow

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solution and what inspired

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your company to build it?

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David: Sure, about three

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years ago we completed a

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network survey for Metro

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Trains Melbourne and that

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required us to build up

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an asset database of their

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infrastructure and track.

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And we did that by firstly

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capturing a laser or a

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LiDAR point cloud over their

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network with digital imagery.

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The LiDAR point cloud is

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now being used by MTM to

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address engineering problems

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around vehicles integration,

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platform compliance, but

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the team at MTM who are

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responsible for their GIS,

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their geographic information

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system recognize that the

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point cloud could be exploited

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to help assess worker line

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of sight issues on the track.

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Because line of sight hadn't

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really been done across the

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network for several years

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and with the changes that

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are happening in Metro there

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was a requirement to look at

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using technology to update

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line of sight information

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and then Metro came to us.

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We were working together

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at the time and they knew

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that we were the company

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that had generated the

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original laser point cloud.

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Tuan: What were some

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of the challenges in

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developing this solution?

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David: Well point clouds have

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been used in industry for

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the best part of 15 20 years.

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People and organizations,

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they were always finding

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new ways to exploit them and

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laser or LiDAR systems these

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days are far more powerful

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in terms of the volume of

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data that they can collect.

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So challenges come about

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by storing the data in an

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efficient way so that cloud

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computing software can

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interrogate or display the

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point cloud information.

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If you imagine a really

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large photo, it does take

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you know seconds to open

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that photo on your laptop

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computer, while we're

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dealing with millions and

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millions of points in a point

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cloud, terabytes of data.

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And similarly we need

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to be able to render

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those points very quickly

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on a worker computer.

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So data storage is

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always a challenge.

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The metro network as well

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is very complicated in that

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it has underground sections,

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lots of urban canyons.

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There were positioning

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challenges around referencing

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the point cloud back into a

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real world coordinate system

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and then there were business

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rules that the Metro GIS and

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Safe Working Team wanted us

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to implement into the line

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of sight project so that we

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could replicate whereabouts

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a train would be at a certain

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time from a worker's position.

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So we needed to be able to

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trace back along the track

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alignment and render a train

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10, 20, 30 seconds away from

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where the worker was based

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on 80 kilometers an hour,

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100 kilometers an hour.

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And the challenge in that

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Melbourne also has a lot

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of crossover tracks of

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course, so there are a

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number of different paths

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that a train can take as it

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approaches a worker location.

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Tuan: What's your view

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on rail safety and how

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technology is currently used?

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David: Oh I think

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it'll keep growing.

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I guess there's less

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people that want to make a

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career of walking on track.

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Technology when it's proven

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to the operator can offer

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a very auditable data set.

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So there is a digital

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record of what decisions

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have been made.

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Technology and machine

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learning as well can speed

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up the process to identify

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defects on a network.

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So I think technology

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is here to stay.

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The challenges come about when

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organizations are developing

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or configuring software that's

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come off the shelf and the

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outputs of that software

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don't exactly align with an

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organization's business rules.

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Also data, particularly large

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data when it's held in a

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proprietary format by either

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a third party provider, the

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railroad or the state, the

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franchisee, that data needs

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to be in a shareable and open

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format and not locked into a

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proprietary format which then

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limits how widely it can be

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used across the organization.

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So I'd say software

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configuration and open

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data are key challenges.

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Tuan: Does it take a lot of

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time and cost to invest and

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implement these technologies?

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And how do you kind

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of influence people

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to take it on board?

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David: Well of course it

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does take time and cost.

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We probably like most people

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suppliers like to de risk

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the projects that we take on

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through delivering a small

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pilot phase of a project.

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So if a client comes to us

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with a particular problem,

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it might be really focused

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on one part of their network.

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But then over time, the

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solution can be scaled to pre

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empt, I suppose other problems

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elsewhere on the network.

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So probably not a, not

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an uncommon answer to try

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and bite off small chunks

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of a project to prove

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up a workflow and to de

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risk any big initiatives.

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Tuan: What advice would you

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give for rail organisations

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to be technology ready?

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David: Well that really

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comes around being smart

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in terms of ordering

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solutions that are scalable

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and that can be configured

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within an organization

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and mandating open data.

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So where a project such

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as we delivered to MTM a

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few years ago relied on

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point clouds, the point

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clouds weren't locked

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into a solution standard.

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They can be shared across

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all of MTM and then within

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that organization other

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eyeballs will identify

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other problems that those

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point clouds can solve.

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So open data and

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configurable software again.

Rail Safety

Expert Insight

Meet David Presley, director at Agonics, as he unveils their groundbreaking LiDAR point cloud solution for improving rail safety and worker line of sight.