INDIA: Indian Railways intends to establish a Railway AI Centre of Excellence to support the emergence of what railway officials are describing as ‘a future-ready AI ecosystem’ for the sector.
The centre will create a ‘future roadmap’ which includes a strategic framework that is intended to meet the challenges of data quality and interfaces with legacy systems. The facility will also address the need for skilled AI professionals, integration with safety-critical systems, and cybersecurity and ethical concerns.
Across its various zonal railways, business units and R&D subsidiaries, IR has already begun deploying some forms of AI, including machine learning, computer vision, natural language processing and robotics. While these technologies are being deployed widely across the railway value chain, from operations to customer service, asset management and condition monitoring is a particular area of focus. IR said in July that it expected to make particular use of computer vision techniques to support predictive maintenance of the recently completed rail link to Kashmir, for example.
The AI hub is expected to draw on existing resources within IR, in particular the RDSO research and innovation business unit, and CRIS, the Centre for Railway Information Systems. However, IR also expects to seek support from independent bodies from across Indian universities and technology institutes, as well as start-ups and international rail technology partners.
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