A Framework for Railway Maintenance Function Allocation

the demands for reliable, well-maintained rolling stock systems have been increasing. Automation has become the smarter solution in various railway applications to enhance the capacity, reliability, and efficiency of the railway system. Automation systems such as visual inspection and industrial robot arms play a critical role in heavy manipulation and dangerous operations. Maintenance efficiency and overall safety would be greatly improved. There is a research gap for systematic approaches to making decisions on which certain maintenance tasks are suitable for automation. This paper presents a generic railway maintenance function allocation framework, which helps decision making in allocating maintenance tasks at the early stages of introducing automation solutions into modern rolling stock maintenance depot. Depot working environments are analysed and an example of robotic wheelset inspection is presented.