Today's Edition
MAYS IBRAHIM (ABU DHABI)
Digital tools, automation, and advanced sensing technologies are bound to transform the day-to-day operations of rail networks - enhancing safety, efficiency, and sustainability. The Innovation Hub at Global Rail 2025 offered a glimpse into this future as it provided a platform for researchers and companies to showcase their work.
Manual inspections across railway networks that span hundreds of kilometres can be both time-intensive and costly. In the UAE, the Technology Innovation Institute (TII) has developed a railway network monitoring system that uses smart sensors to flag issues automatically.
Speaking with Aletihad at Global Rail 2025 in Abu Dhabi, Abdulaziz Buabdulla, senior engineer at TII’s Advanced Materials Research Centre, said the system is now in its final testing stages with Etihad Rail.
“This is a sustainable, autonomous system that detects defects and sand contamination in real time,” Buabdulla explained. “It sends live notifications to operators and maintenance teams so they can respond immediately.”
Using smart sensors mounted on wagons, the system gathers continuous data that is transmitted to live servers and analysed by advanced algorithms.
The results are relayed to operator dashboards and databases, instantly flagging any anomalies.
Buabdulla said the solution could save “hours and hours” of labour, significantly reducing inspection costs.
Sand contamination – common in desert climates – can reduce traction, increase wear on rails and wheels, interfere with track sensors, and raise maintenance costs.
“With this smart, autonomous technology, we can transform inspections from a manual, time-consuming task into an efficient digital process,” Buabdulla said, noting that the team aims to expand deployment across the wider GCC region.
Creating a Digital Twin of UAE
Space 42 is taking monitoring to an even broader scale with its geospatial platform, GIQ, powered by radar satellite (SAR) data.
Senior data scientist Vincent Markiet said the platform creates a digital twin of the UAE’s landscape with millimetre accuracy, enabling users to track ground movement over time.
“Companies like Etihad Rail are very interested in knowing how the ground shifts around critical assets, whether it’s sinking due to water extraction or rising from construction,” Markiet told Aletihad. “Our platform can highlight those changes with a time series of up to eight years of data.”
With 17,000 monitoring points already mapped, Space 42 plans to make its digital twin platform publicly accessible in the coming months.
The technology can also support flood detection, sand accumulation monitoring, and broader infrastructure applications.
Robots Ready for Duty
Meanwhile, NYU Abu Dhabi’s (NYUAD) research team is showcasing how robotics and AI can enhance rail operations.
Under its memorandum of understanding with Etihad Rail, NYUAD has developed autonomous robots for inspection and asset management, according to research scientist Nikolaos Evangeliou.
On display was the Boston Dynamics quadruped robot, adapted for rail environments to detect gas leaks, perform mapping, and generate inspection reports.
Alongside it stood a humanoid robot capable of reaching higher areas and assisting workers with tooling tasks.
Both machines are equipped with sensors, 360-degree cameras, and autonomous navigation.
“These robots are safe for industrial use, avoid humans automatically, and can carry out inspections without putting workers at risk,” Evangeliou explained to Aletihad.
The NYUAD team also exhibited an autonomous helicopter capable of two-hour flights even in harsh desert conditions.
Tested in the Arctic and in the Middle East, the helicopter supports industrial rooftop inspections and environmental monitoring projects, including hyperspectral surveys of Abu Dhabi’s coral reefs in collaboration with Mubadala, Evangeliou said.
