Reflecting on this year’s ‘The Rise of IoT and Big Data in Rail’ event

Last week, members of the Machines With Vision team were out in Cologne at this year’s ‘Rise of IoT and Big Data in Rail’, and an exciting week was had by all. 

It was great to meet with friends from across the industry and forge new connections, to discuss all things rail innovation and more. A particular draw was our Fault Navigator demonstration, with our stand attracting delegates from across the event to experience the innovation in action. 

Fault Navigator is a pocket version of RailLoc designed for track workers. This operates in the same way as RailLoc. Using a standard mobile phone, it enables a worker to navigate precisely to a defect found by a measurement train, even in areas where GNSS is denied or degraded. It was widely acknowledged by delegates at the event to be a key piece of technology that would improve the day-to-day lives of track workers and improve overall efficiencies. 

It was particularly poignant to see our message about the importance of accurate positioning for railway infrastructure monitoring, and in particular, the problem with Global Navigation Satellite Systems such as GPS, resonating with so many rail professionals. This message was further conveyed in Anthony Ashbrook’s (Co-Founder and CEO) presentation on the second day, on the subject of “The IM data positioning problem you don’t know you have, and how to solve it!”

Thank you to Ben and the event team for having us and doing an excellent job in gathering rail professionals from so many different companies and countries across the world. We look forward to exploring the opportunities we discussed further over the course of 2024 and beyond. 

The Machines With Vision team can next be found at Rail Live from 19th – 20th June. Experience their Fault Navigator app in action and discuss how their technology is driving the rail industry forward, at stand M246.