China is using artificial intelligence in the operation of its 45,000km (28,000-mile) high-speed rail network, with the technology achieving several milestones, according to engineers involved in the project.
An AI system in Beijing is processing vast amounts of real-time data from across the country and can alert maintenance teams of abnormal situations within 40 minutes, with an accuracy as high as 95 per cent, they said in a peer-reviewed paper. “This helps on-site teams conduct reinspections and repairs as quickly as possible,” wrote Niu Daoan, a senior engineer at the China State Railway Group’s infrastructure inspection centre, in the paper published by the academic journal China Railway. In the past year, none of China’s operational high-speed railway lines received a single warning that required speed reduction due to major track irregularity issues, while the number of minor track faults decreased by 80 per cent compared to the previous year. According to the paper, the amplitude of rail movement caused by strong winds also decreased – even on massive valley-spanning bridges – with the application of AI technology. Machine intelligence can predict and issue warnings before problems arise, enabling precise and timely maintenance that keeps the infrastructure of high-speed rail lines in better condition than when it was first built, according to the researchers. Niu and his team said the significant amount of data generated by the sensors embedded in high-speed rail infrastructure was “forcing China to adopt new technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence”. The adoption of these technologies allowed for “more precise and timely assessments and scientific evaluations of infrastructure service status”, they said. According to the paper, after years of effort Chinese railway scientists and engineers have “solved challenges” in comprehensive risk perception, equipment evaluation, and precise trend predictions in engineering, power supply and telecommunications. The result was “scientific support for achieving proactive safety prevention and precise infrastructure maintenance for high-speed railways”, the engineers said. Before construction began on China’s first high-speed rail line 15 years ago, critics argued that maintenance would become an unbearable burden as wires and rails inevitably aged. By the end of last year, the network surpassed the length of the equator, posing an engineering and technological challenge to maintain its safe operation. Across the Pacific, the ageing US railway network is facing the same issue, with lack of maintenance leading to frequent safety incidents. In the past 50 years, the average number of derailments has exceeded 2,800 per year, peaking at nearly 10,000 in 1978. China’s high-speed rail is the fastest in the world, operating at 350km/h (217mph), with plans for an increase next year to 400km/hr (249mph). The network is expected to continue its rapid expansion until it connects all cities with populations over 500,000. But Niu’s team identified a looming problem for the rail network, in the combination of rising incomes, a declining birth rate and the overall ageing of the population – the number of maintenance workers will gradually decrease compared to present levels.
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