Social relevance and usefulness of the project

1. Safety

Utilizing drones for railway inspections has numerous benefits that can quickly become cost
multipliers for any organization. One of the most important benefits realized is safety. Because
trains are scheduled daily along most railways, placing a human on the track in a specially
equipped vehicle can be as dangerous. The precautions necessary to ensure safety can be
mitigated by using drones, as they are not occupying the same space as trains and stay well
above vital activity for almost all railway inspection use cases.

2. Time Savings

The ability of flying drones over railways is also a savings to the overall effort in terms of time,
as the drone can collect more than one railway at once, performing the task fully autonomously
without human intervention. And as the drone ascends to higher altitudes, multiple tracks (up to
three or four at a time) can be easily collected simultaneously. This scenario creates a portable,
repeatable, and efficient method for data collection.

3. Preparing Plan

The applications of drones in railways include preparing contour maps of the area where new rail
lines are proposed, 3D models of stations for visualization and 3D models of the terrain to draw
accurate plans.