Recently, the “railroad switch cleaning robots”, a technological innovation project of the Zhunchi Line of Xinshuo Railway, completed testing, marking another major achievement in the application of new technology in intelligent railway construction.
Railroad switches are important devices in railway transportation. Ensuring the smooth transfer and accurate placement of railroad switches are crucial to railway safety. Dirty and smudged railroad switches may cause problems such as higher transfer resistance, deformations, and incomplete switching. The newly developed railroad switch cleaning robots are a kind of automatic, intelligent equipment using technologies such as advanced sensing, motion control, smart control, man-machine interfacing, and machine learning. The robots can automatically move onto and off the tracks, transfer from one line to another, and clean and lubricate railroad switch sliding boards. Moreover, they have functions including independent identification of cleaning scope, automatic obstacle avoidance, and automatic cleaning according to preset routes. The application of the railroad switch cleaning robots is of great significance for accelerating the advancement of railroad maintenance and repair technologies and helping the Zhunchi Line go smart.
The successful testing results indicated that the railroad switch cleaning robots have met expectations in terms of functional and technical indexes. The company will further improve relevant supporting facilities to enable the robots to be officially used in railway equipment maintenance as soon as possible.
