Kawasaki Extends Autonomous Track Geometry Monitoring with BNSF
September, 2024
Over the past year during testing, Kawasaki has provided BNSF approximately 50,000 miles of data regarding the condition of their track by Kawasaki’s locomotive mounted autonomous track geometry monitoring system (LATGMS). After the first phase enhancements were completed to provide more valuable data, Kawasaki and BNSF agreed to extend the program. Kawasaki is excited to continue the program providing valuable data to BNSF while being very accurate, reliable and cost efficient.
The Kawasaki system utilizes sensors and cameras providing near real time track geometry data for BNSF to utilize for track maintenance planning. Kawasaki began field testing of the system in North America in 2018 and production units have been in service since 2021 with approximately 1,000,000 miles of geometry data provided to railroads. With this innovative technology, any time the locomotive is hauling freight, it is testing track and providing a frequent, valuable, and cost efficient data. This is another building block for Kawasaki’s vision of providing a complete suite of autonomous track inspection systems along with predictive data modeling and platform to provide our customers the ability to be safer and more efficient with their track maintenance.
