This year marks five years of Arc Infrastructure’s in-house Asset Monitoring Vehicle (AMV) operating on the network, transforming the way data is collected, interpreted and used to engage in maintenance and long-term planning along the Arc network.
The Asset Monitoring Vehicle (AMV) is a custom gauge-convertible road-rail Mack Truck, which has track geometry testing equipment mounted onboard. The vehicle can be used as a conventional heavy rigid vehicle on the road and while on the rail, operates as a bi-directional dual cab diesel rail car capable of travelling at 80km/h.
The equipment on board the AMV is a mix of lasers, cameras, accelerometers and gyroscopes to capture highly accurate data about the rail system, specifically geometry and rail wear, including rail profile and condition. The system has demonstrated consistent sub-millimetre accuracy in its measurements.
During in-house fit out of the vehicle, Arc’s team installed a high accuracy GPS and track centreline mapping system. The enhanced precision of the GPS ensured the data output from the AMV could feed directly into our Digital Twin – the interactive model of the network and a core pillar of the business’ Asset Management Strategy.
Arc’s AMV has clocked up some impressive stats since it began operating on the Arc network in March 2020:
- 7.3 billion measurements recorded
- Data recorded over 57,000 kilometres
- 16 campaigns completed (a campaign is one circuit of the whole network, standard and narrow gauge)
Arc’s Senior Asset Engineer and AMV Systems Lead Mark Richardson has been involved with the AMV project from the outset and said looking back and marking this milestone was important for a number of reasons.
“We’ve built impressive capability across various teams throughout the course of the past five years, from the initial fit out of the vehicle to its current operation,” Mark said.
Head of Asset Management Michal Golinski said the AMV data recorded and fed into Arc’s platforms has been able to provide the business with the most accurate picture of the asset to date.
“The data that’s in the Digital Twin and Traceview, the foundation of those platforms, has come from the AMV. The accuracy of the data we get from the system is incredible, better informing our long-term planning for the asset, from maintenance to capital projects,” Michal said.
The first campaign, surveying the South West region from Collie to Picton, commenced in March 2020, just as COVID-19 restrictions were coming into place and borders were closed.
In recalling his experience during that first campaign, to where the AMV is today and in his current role as Head of Maintenance Support, Tim Underwood said the level of detail that’s able to be obtained from the vehicle and its operation by Arc’s Plant Maintenance team is second to none.
“In terms of maintenance support, the data the AMV captures helps enormously in the sense that it points you to where to go first,” Tim said.
“Like rail profile for example, we’ve used data from the AMV to give us forecasts of rail wear. Where we used to take three manual measurements of a curve, on a network where there’s thousands of curves, there’s now a process whereby the AMV’s data pinpoints ‘here’s the location we need to go and verify and address if needed’, rather than spending months taking manual measurements.”
In addition to capturing data along the network, the AMV has also played a role in several other projects and events during the years at Arc, including:
- Acting as the support vehicle during the mainline trials of the Hiivr autonomous wagon in October 2024.
- Mounting test equipment onboard for radio signal testing along the network.
- A Family Day attraction for children across our regional network.
As AMV Systems Lead and someone who has been extremely close to the project since inception, Mark thanked the many teams involved with the AMV over the last five years.
“The way this vehicle and its data brought together so many teams, and continues to this day, from the Plant, Planning, Assets and Maintenance teams, shows just how much collaboration between teams is involved,” Mark said.
“It’s a credit to all involved and here’s to many more years of data, teamwork, and keeping the network moving.”
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