Importance and applications of robotic and autonomous systems (RAS) in railway maintenance sector: a review

Maintenance, which is critical for safe, reliable, quality, and cost-effective service, plays a dominant role in the railway industry. Therefore, this paper examines the importance and applications of Robotic and Autonomous Systems (RAS) in railway maintenance. More than 70 research publications, which are either in practice or under investigation describing RAS developments in the railway maintenance, are analysed. It has been found that the majority of RAS developed are for rolling-stock maintenance, followed by railway track maintenance. Further, it has been found that there is growing interest and demand for robotics and autonomous systems in the railway maintenance sector, which is largely due to the increased competition, rapid expansion and ever-increasing expense

Guidelines and Standard Operating Procedures for IDDE and Pollution Prevention/Good Housekeeping

In April 2003, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) issued a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) General Permit for Stormwater Discharges from Small Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4s). A total of 45 New Hampshire communities (six fully regulated and 39 partially regulated) became subject to Stormwater Phase II regulations based on their designation as Urbanized Areas according to the 2000 US Census

The public health risk posed by Listeria monocytogenes in frozen fruit and vegetables including herbs, blanched during processing

A multi-country outbreak ofListeria monocytogenesST6 linked to blanched frozen vegetables (bfV)took place in the EU (2015–2018). Evidence of food-borne outbreaks shows thatL. monocytogenesisthe most relevant pathogen associated with bfV. The probability of illness per serving of uncooked bfV,for the elderly (65–74 years old) population, is up to 3,600 times greater than cooked bfV and verylikely lower than any of the evaluated ready-to-eat food categories. The main factors affectingcontamination and growth ofL. monocytogenesin bfV during processing are the hygiene of the rawmaterials and process water; the hygienic conditions of the food processing environment (FPE); andthe time/Temperature (t/T) combinations used for storage and processing (e.g. blanching, cooling).Relevant factors after processing are the intrinsic characteristics of the bfV, the t/T combinations usedfor thawing and storage and subsequent cooking conditions, unless eaten uncooked. Analysis of thepossible control options suggests that application of a complete HACCP plan is either not possible orwould not further enhance food safety. Instead, specific prerequisite programmes (PRP) andoperational PRP activities should be applied such as cleaning and disinfection of the FPE, water control,t/T control and product information and consumer awareness. The occurrence of low levels ofL. monocytogenesat the end of the production process (e.g.<10 CFU/g) would be compatible with thelimit of 100 CFU/g at the moment of consumption if any labelling recommendations are strictly followed(i.e. 24 h at 5°C). Under reasonably foreseeable conditions of use (i.e. 48 h at 12°C),L. monocytogeneslevels need to be considerably lower (not detected in 25 g). Routine monitoring programmes forL. monocytogenesshould be designed following a risk-based approach and regularly revised based ontrend analysis, being FPE monitoring a key activity in the frozen vegetable industry

Planning long-term maintenance for electric vehicle charging infrastructure using the Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) method

Electric vehicles (EVs) are mainly known for their advantages as emission free, energy efficient and noiseless transport, but electric mobility has never matured in the automotive market and it remains in the shadow of the internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. The EV penetration depends so much on the availability of the charging facilities. The availability and the performances of the charging infrastructure will have a major impact on the satisfaction of electric vehicle drivers and therefore on the future viability and successful of the technology. In this context, maintenance will play a key role to ensure appropriate levels of availability and reliability and also to keep the expensive infrastructure in good conditions for a long time: it will need to have a long and trouble free life, if it is to persuade the typical car user to change his behavior and choices. This paper will provide a long-term maintenance plan, in which the preventive maintenance tasks will be defined based on the Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) approach, starting from the definition of the electric vehicle charging infrastructure and explaining how it works and by which components it is constituted

Innovative Stormwater Treatment Technologies: Best Management Practices Manual

Urban stormwater carries a number of pathogens, nutrients, heavy metals, sediment, and other contaminants as surface runoff flows over land. The increase in impervious or paved surfaces associated with development in urban areas reduces the natural infiltration of precipitation into the ground. With impervious cover, precipitation collects and carries contaminants before draining into nearby surface waters. Stormwater runoff from paved surfaces in developed areas can degrade downstream waters with both contaminants and increased volumes of water. This publication aims to make information on innovative stormwater treatment technologies more available to New Hampshire’s urban planners, developers, and communities. Traditional runoff management techniques such as detention basins and infiltration swales may be preferable, but are not always practical for treating urban stormwater. Lack of space for natural solutions is often a problem in existing developed areas, making innovative treatment technologies an attractive alternative. Mostly designed for subsurface installation, urban “retrofits” use less space than conventional methods to treat stormwater. This manual provides information on the innovative stormwater “retrofit” technologies currently available for use in developed areas in New Hampshire

Public entities driven robotic innovation in urban areas

Cities present new challenges and needs to satisfy and improve lifestyle for their citizens under the concept “Smart City”. In order to achieve this goal in a global manner, new technologies are required as the robotic one. But Public entities unknown the possibilities offered by this technology to get solutions to their needs. In this paper the development of the Innovative Public Procurement instruments is explained, specifically the process PDTI (Public end Users Driven Technological Innovation) as a driving force of robotic research and development and offering a list of robotic urban challenges proposed by European cities that have participated in such a process. In the next phases of the procedure, this fact will provide novel robotic solutions addressed to public demand that are an example to be followed by other Smart Cities.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Combining edge and cloud computing for mobility analytics

Mobility analytics using data generated from the Internet of Mobile Things (IoMT) is facing many challenges which range from the ingestion of data streams coming from a vast number of fog nodes and IoMT devices to avoiding overflowing the cloud with useless massive data streams that can trigger bottlenecks [1]. Managing data flow is becoming an important part of the IoMT because it will dictate in which platform analytical tasks should run in the future. Data flows are usually a sequence of out-of-order tuples with a high data input rate, and mobility analytics requires a real-time flow of data in both directions, from the edge to the cloud, and vice-versa. Before pulling the data streams to the cloud, edge data stream processing is needed for detecting missing, broken, and duplicated tuples in addition to recognize tuples whose arrival time is out of order. Analytical tasks such as data filtering, data cleaning and low-level data contextualization can be executed at the edge of a network. In contrast, more complex analytical tasks such as graph processing can be deployed in the cloud, and the results of ad-hoc queries and streaming graph analytics can be pushed to the edge as needed by a user application. Graphs are efficient representations used in mobility analytics because they unify knowledge about connectivity, proximity and interaction among moving things. This poster describes the preliminary results from our experimental prototype developed for supporting transit systems, in which edge and cloud computing are combined to process transit data streams forwarded from fog nodes into a cloud. The motivation of this research is to understand how to perform meaningfulness mobility analytics on transit feeds by combining cloud and fog computing architectures in order to improve fleet management, mass transit and remote asset monitoringComment: Edge Computing, Cloud Computing, Mobility Analytics, Internet of Mobile Things, Edge Fog Fabri

Evaluation of the Overheight Detection System Effectiveness at Eklutna Bridge

The Eklutna River/Glenn Highway bridge has sustained repeated impacts from overheight trucks. In 2006, ADOT&PF installed an overheight vehicle warning system. The system includes laser detectors, alarms, and message boards. Since installation, personnel have seen no new damage, and no sign that the alarm system has been triggered. Although this is good news, the particulars are a mystery: Is the system working? Is the presence of the equipment enough to deter drivers from gambling with a vehicle that might be over the height limit? Is it worth installing similar systems at other overpasses? This project is examining the bridge for any evidence of damage, and is fitting the system with a datalogger to record and video any events that trigger the warning system. Finally, just to be sure, researchers will test the system with (officially) overheight vehicles. Project results will help ADOT&PF determine if this system is functioning, and if a similar system installed at other bridges would be cost-effective.Fairbanks North Star Boroug