Industry 4.0 Technologies Applied to the Rail Transportation Industry: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Background: Industry 4.0 technologies have been widely used in the railway industry, focusing mainly on maintenance and control tasks necessary in the railway infrastructure. Given the great potential that these technologies offer, the scientific community has come to use them in varied ways to solve a wide range of problems such as train failures, train station security, rail system control and communication in hard-to-reach areas, among others. For this reason, this paper aims to answer the following research questions: what are the main issues in the railway transport industry, what are the technologic strategies that are currently being used to solve these issues and what are the technologies from industry 4.0 that are used in the railway transport industry to solve the aforementioned issues? Methods: This study adopts a systematic literature review approach. We searched the Science Direct and Web of Science database inception from January 2017 to November 2021. Studies published in conferences or journals written in English or Spanish were included for initial process evaluation. The initial included papers were analyzed by authors and selected based on whether they helped answer the proposed research questions or not. Results: Of the recovered 515 articles, 109 were eligible, from which we could identify three main application domains in the railway industry: monitoring, decision and planification techniques, and communication and security. Regarding industry 4.0 technologies, we identified 9 different technologies applied in reviewed studies: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Cloud Computing, Big Data, Cybersecurity, Modelling and Simulation, Smart Decision Support Systems (SDSS), Computer Vision and Virtual Reality (VR). This study is, to our knowledge, one of the first to show how industry 4.0 technologies are currently being used to tackle railway industry problems and current application trends in the scientific community, which is highly useful for the development of future studies and more advanced solutions. Funding: Colombian national organizations Minciencias and the Mining-Energy Planning Unit.

Recent Development of Air Gauging in Industry 4.0 Context

“…Industry 4.0 is considered to be the main strategy applied in order to strengthen the competitiveness of the manufacturing sector, triggered by the requirement of shortened development and innovation cycles, and driven by advancements in information, communication and automation technologies, primarily the internet of things, artificial intelligence, big data, collaborative and cooperative robots, as well as modeling and simulation [ 39 ]. Moreover, crucial roles in Industry 4.0 play such technologies as cyber-physical systems (CPS), additive manufacturing (AM), and cloud computing (CC) [ 40 ], as well as cybersecurity, computer vision and virtual reality, smart decision support systems [ 41 ]. Examples of novel application of Industrial Internet of Things technologies involve an additive manufacturing experimental setup with monitoring of both production and post-production phases with a sensor network, potentially enabling application of innovative measurement systems [ 42 ].…”

The Impact of the Use of Technology in International Rail Freight Transport on Transport Processes

“…Industry 4.0 encompasses a wide range of both legacy and new technologies that can work together to create one big digital world. For a systematic analysis of the various defined elements of Industry 4.0, see "Industry 4.0 Technologies Applied to the Rail Transportation Industry: A Systematic Review" [4].…”

Awareness, adoption readiness and challenges of railway 4.0 technologies in a developing economy

“…Industry 4.0 technologies and their use in railway administration and construction have recently become the focus of study in developed countries [ 23 ]. Industry 4.0 technology acceptance is more prominent in other industries, such as manufacturing, but less so in the aspect of railway.…”