REGISTER

Paul Furniss BEng (Hons) CEng MIEE

Omnicom Engineering Pty Ltd

Following the privatisation of the UK rail industry in 1994, resource migration to the devolved business units caused knowledge of the railway infrastructure to be lost from the core. Acquiring quality track-based asset information has historically been both a slow and dangerous process that involved track possessions or working between operational traffic. With line speeds and train frequency increases new methods of gathering this information was required and prompted development effort to provide a solution.

The OmniSurveyor3D system, developed by Omnicom Engineering, has taken the lead by providing a world class solution that is safe, due to users collecting information from their desktop PC, and cost effective because the raw data is collected from a rail vehicle that can operate at line speeds.

This paper describes the methods used to collect the raw data, how it is processed and made available to the end user. The paper goes on to examine the requirements for such a system and its increasing number of varied uses within the rail industry.