Automatic Full Weld Inspection System for High Speed Rail(TrackBot) Theme: 37

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Our railways are vital for the smooth operation of internal and trans border markets, and for the development of a sustainable and clean transport system. Building modern, competitive railway networks is therefore becoming a top priority for the UK, China and the rest of the world. To build and maintain safe high speed networks brings its own challenges. According to Scientific American, most rail accidents are due to broken rails and welds. Failure generally initiates from defects in the weld such as fatigue cracks, dead zones and flat spots. Despite these worrying statistics, some countries such as China still rely mainly on manual weld inspections, which is a slow, inconsistent and inadequate approach that is prone to human error. For defect detection in rail, the most common methods are ultrasonic and magnetic induction, which are slow and lack the ability to inspect the full volume of the weld. Phased array ultrasonic testing (PAUT) is an advanced NDT technique, with the capability to detect any faults within a weld. The consortium will develop TrackBot, an advanced automated universal weld inspection system that is based upon proprietary PAUT technology and systems developed by each of the consortium partners. TrackBot can rapidly detect all types of flaws in the full weld volume, increase inspection speeds, and reduce the number of skilled persons required to deliver efficient inspection and rail networks. In doing so, the consortium partners will generate combined revenue of £22.6million and deliver significant (>5x fold) return on investment.