{"id":92046,"date":"2019-04-16T13:58:26","date_gmt":"2019-04-16T13:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.microsoft.com\/?p=432341"},"modified":"2019-04-16T13:58:26","modified_gmt":"2019-04-16T13:58:26","slug":"australias-downer-uses-ai-intelligent-cloud-and-iot-to-optimize-train-maintenance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2019\/04\/16\/australias-downer-uses-ai-intelligent-cloud-and-iot-to-optimize-train-maintenance\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s Downer uses AI, intelligent cloud and IoT to optimize train maintenance"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/australias-downer-uses-ai-intelligent-cloud-and-iot-to-optimize-train-maintenance.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p><button class=\"cookie-consent-btn\">Click here to load media<\/button><\/p>\n<p>Mike Ayling has trains in his blood; both his grandfathers were train drivers and told stories about the old steam train days when bacon and egg breakfasts could be cooked on a coal shovel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf my grandfathers could see what we\u2019re doing now, I think they\u2019d be blown away in terms of the phenomenal advancement in technology,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe improved safety aspects alone align to the real focus that we have on zero harm and making sure our employees get home safely,\u201d says Ayling who is the General Manager of Digital Technology and Innovation at Downer which in 2011 commenced a 30-year contract with the NSW Government to manage and maintain the fleet of 78 Waratah trains.<\/p>\n<p>In December 2016 the NSW Government ordered 24 Waratah Series 2 trains under its Sydney Growth Trains Project and in February 2019, announced its decision to order an additional 17 Waratah Series 2 trains and providing more passengers with improved safety and comfort due to enhanced air-conditioning systems, more CCTV cameras and improved accessibility.<\/p>\n<p>Building on the success of the original Waratah trains which continue to show exceptional performance in terms of reliability and availability, Waratah Series 2 represents a new opportunity to leverage additional sensor data from the fleet.<\/p>\n<p>As each Waratah train pulls in and out of a Sydney station, more than 300 Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and almost 90 cameras are silently capturing data and recording video.<\/p>\n<p>Every ten minutes 30,000 signals are sent from the train to Downer. Those 30,000 signals represent the train\u2019s digital DNA.<\/p>\n<p>Ayling says; \u201cWe pretty much check everything on the train, from the bottom up, from the wheels \u2013 obviously the wheels are the most important thing in terms of the train, because that\u2019s the thing that keeps them on the tracks. We\u2019re very conscious of making sure the wheels are always safe, and then the bogies and traction systems, the interiors as well, making sure the CCTV cameras are always working and operational. Then at the top of the train the pantographs are making sure it gets electricity to the train.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEssentially these are trains with brains. We\u2019re getting 30,000 signals from each train every 10 minutes. You extrapolate that out, we now have billions of data points since the inception of the fleet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re using those sensors to tell us about the health of the train \u2013 it\u2019s almost like having a blood pressure reading,\u201d which, Ayling says, provides Downer with the insights it and its engineers need to ensure trains continue to operate safely and reliably.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s helping to automate inspections, and also the opportunity to optimise operations and introduce predictive maintenance, saving time and money. The platform puts the information directly into the hands of engineers, streamlining process and reducing the risks of miscommunication or delay.<\/p>\n<p>Ayling explains that in the past although the company had the raw data, it struggled to make sense of it or get it to the people who needed it, when they needed it. That means that; \u201cwe can\u2019t take advantage of all the raw data coming off the train to optimise our decision making.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He knew that the right technology platform would be able to turn the raw data into actionable insights. There have been a number of attempts over the years \u2013 however it\u2019s taken a Microsoft Azure based solution, developed by Downer, to deliver real change.<\/p>\n<p>Downer entered into a strategic alliance with Microsoft in 2017 to co-operatively develop and market cloud-based solutions and services for specific industry sectors. The alliance, which sees both parties bring their technology and sector specific know-how to the table, was designed to help accelerate the rate at which transformational value could be unlocked for business.<\/p>\n<p>Jason Pearce, General Manager Technology for Downer Digital Data Services, says that the rollingstock services business of Downer was one of the early adopters of its Azure based data platform, used as a backend for their TrainDNA solution. The platform has been deployed to capture and store all Downer\u2019s IoT data, along with other important data feeds, overlaid with data analytics and visualisation tools to make sense of the information and allow Downer engineers to act on it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Click here to load media Mike Ayling has trains in his blood; both his grandfathers were train drivers and told stories about the old steam train days when bacon and egg breakfasts could be cooked on a coal shovel. \u201cIf my grandfathers could see what we\u2019re doing now, I think they\u2019d be blown away in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-92046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-microsoft-news","tag-recent-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}