Following a successful trial at Utrecht Central, a nationwide evaluation of the technology will begin in November. The sensors will monitor parameters such as temperature, air pressure, humidity, vibrations, and accelerations to give an accurate picture of how points and point heating systems are functioning.
Prorail will have its own monitoring system for the data generated by the sensors, but data will be supplied via Dual Inventive until the new system is operational.
In addition to the point sensors, Dual inventive will supply a further 500 sensors to monitor other infrastructure systems such as level crossings.
Prorail has been evaluating potential applications for the internet of things for several years, and various tests have been carried out in cooperation with Dutch telecoms provider KPN. Following the success of these projects, Prorail has decided to carry out a national trial with wireless sensors.
Prorail has been working on a new model, the Prorail DataLab, to predict point failures before they disrupt traffic. Prorail claims the model can already predict 20% of disturbances and it is continuing to hone the precision of DataLab.
