Quantum-Systems supplies drone technology to inspect Deutsche Bahn’s infrastructure

In order to monitor BVLOS (Bejond visual line of sight) infrastructures, DB relies on drones from Quantum-Systems for the “Urban Air Mobility” project in Ingolstadt.

Ingolstadt strives to become one of the competence centers for drones and autonomous mobility in general. Thus the model project “Urban Air Mobility”, which is also supported by the EU Commission, was launched.

Deutsche Bahn is a partner in this project and has been using numerous drones in pilot projects since 2015 to test their suitability for inspection tasks. UAVs from Quantum-Systems were always present at these tests, such as the Tron 2016 in the picture above.

The Urban Air Mobility project now strengthens the will to continue research into the suitability of drone technology for monitoring infrastructures such as Deutsche Bahn’s rail network and to take advantage of the benefits for DB and (rail) customers.

This will make it possible to react much more quickly and cost-effectively to operational disruptions. The (cost) advantages of using drones are also obvious during routine inspections, for example of vegetation in the track area.

On January 17th The Minister of State for Digitisation Dorothee Bär, DB Board Member for Digitisation and Technology Prof. Dr. Sabina Jeschke and the Mayor of Ingolstadt Dr. Christian Lösel signed a declaration of intent. In model tests, the use of drones and flying taxis as well as the necessary framework conditions are to be investigated (second row right: Dr. Reinhard Brandl, CSU Member of Parliament for Ingolstadt constituency).

The drone in the foreground is the Trinity F9, which was newly introduced in 2018. Thanks to PPK for position determination, it is possible to make high-resolution image material available here at low cost for a wide range of evaluations.

The signing took place on the margins of a meeting of the “Innovation Council” of the Minister of State, which took place at the invitation of Sabina Jeschke at the DB headquarters in Berlin. The aim of the committee is to promote digitisation in Germany through close exchange between politicians, companies and start-ups.

Quantum-Systems is proud to provide its unmanned aerial expertise for this project.

For us the exchange with the involved parties is important to optimize processes and scenarios in the daily use of our UAV systems and to adjust them as well as possible to the requirements of the users and authorities.

The newest UAV by Quantum-Systems, the Trinity F9