Hi-tech touch for cleaning railway tracks

As Railway Minister Lalu Prasad's railway budget addresses popular concerns and also envisages increased efficiency and cleanliness without making passengers cough up more money, a robot designed by a lecturer at the National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Jalandhar for cleaning the surface beneath the railway tracks can help in giving the platforms a cleaner look, of course, in a high-tech manner.

The robot fitted with a high pressure water jet can be programmed according to the departure and arrival of the trains. Apart from increasing the efficiency in cleaning, it can also prove to be a big leap in withdrawing the manual involvement in removing the filth in the railway tracks.

With successful completion of the project, for which Union HRD ministry had given a grant of Rs 30 lakh, its creator Kuldeep Singh Nagla has also been nominated by the government of India for Commonwealth Scholarship for pursuing his PhD in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence in UK.

"I have studied the cleaning of garbage and the design provided for it at the railway tracks along the platforms. While working over the robot's efficiency, its programming for synchronisation with the train traffic was also a major thrust," Nagla said. "This robot will be an on-line and off-line programmable system combined with various indicators and sirens," he added.

It is a flexible system and can even be controlled through Ethernet from a centralised control," he revealed while adding that to make its control very easy the control panel had been provided with a touch screen operation. "While on one hand it would increase the efficiency of cleaning through high pressure water jet and with optimal trajectory planning of nozzle on the other it would also save water, energy while and over all cost over cleaning," he claimed.

"We have in mind that the controller should be designed according to the world standards," he said while adding that he had also read presented a paper about this robot in International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation held in China last year. It can make the cleaning a hassle free process at stations with heavy train traffic as it can be easily programmed for working between the arrival and departure of two trains and would not work during the halt of a train at platform. "However it can be used for washing trains from outside also, he explained. Dr Mouinuddin, Director of the NIT, who also happens to be the supervisor of this project along with department head R Jha, revealed that they would right to Ministry of Railways for allowing its installation at New Delhi Railway Station for its testing in real life conditions.

"Though a number of features have already been added into it but we think that after testing at the busiest railway station in the country necessary modifications can be made and we shall working to make it more intelligent with sensors," he added.