Drones, digital twins and AI: inside Ferrovie dello Stato’s ground-breaking project

“This project is evidence of the huge shift in mentality that we’re currently experiencing.” 

Federica Santini, Chief of Strategy and Innovation at Italian engineering firm Italferr is describing the cultural change that her company is undergoing, and the extraordinary project that is enabling it. 

The offshoot of national rail infrastructure manager Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Group, Italferr is specialized in engineering and construction works in the rail sector. Over the past year, the company has been pioneering the use of artificial intelligence, augmented reality and drone technology to better oversee and manage its construction sites. 

“Our key goal is to improve and modernize the way we manage and oversee rail construction processes,” she says. “And we believe that this project can play a fundamental role in achieving it.”   

Kicked off in late 2019, this groundbreaking project is bidding to transform the industry at a time where optimizing costs and time is essential. 

It’s also marking the start of a new era for Italferr. “Until a few years ago, innovation was something that we had to import from outside,” she says. 

“But with this project, we’re finally showing that we can drive it from within and innovate in our own way.”

A century-old company with a modern vision

Established in 1905, FS Italiane is one of the largest industrial organizations in Italy, counting 83,000 employees, more than 10,000 daily trains and around 750 million rail passengers per year. 

A company with a long-standing, deeply rooted history, Ferrovie dello Stato is also a loud advocate of innovation and digital transformation across its many branches – and Italferr is no exception.

With some 195 construction sites spread across Italy, and 650 people involved in them, Italferr knows how critical technology can be in supporting its operations. 

“Our construction department has one main priority,” says Lucia Stellin, Italferr’s Project Manager for the Developing and Standardization Construction Projects Division. “And that is migrating from traditional construction management to digital processes.

“We believe that moving to digital will help us drive efficiency, reduce costs, and be more reactive to the needs and changes required during the construction activities.” 

From proof of concept to multi-year project

In 2019, Italferr found a match for their ambitions while leading the construction project of a high-speed rail line between the southern cities of Napoli and Bari. And saw the opportunity for innovation they were waiting for. 

“We had been looking for a site to test out the use of drones for remote monitoring and inspection,” says Stellin. “And this line gave us exactly that.”

By the end of the year, Italferr and FSTechnology (FS Italiane’s Digital Factory) had put in place a proof of concept that looked at using a combination of drones and augmented reality to inspect the construction site.

During the trial, the drones helped to collect data for construction process controls and to spot superficial defects in the construction. It was the deal-sealer that Italferr was waiting for. 

“We were so impressed by the results of the proof of concept that we decided to turn it into a multi-year project running until 2022,” says Federico Sablone, Director of BU Railway Infrastructure at FSTechnology.

 “And at the same time, we’ve asked Microsoft and drones solutions specialist Seikey to help us set up a workflow to optimize the collection, analysis and storage of data between the sites and our headquarters.”

The solution in a nutshell  

In collaboration with Microsoft and partner Seikey, Italferr and FSTechnology are now using the drones to monitor various construction sites across the country, and record different types of data on the state of the works. 

This part of the project is mainly carried out by Seikey, whose role is to keep track of the surveys, perform efficient and safe drone onsite missions, and then work on post-processing data surveys on Microsoft Azure.

“We are honored to bring our cutting-edge technology to the rail sector, allowing companies to monitor site construction progress through drones,” says Cristiano De Leonardis, CEO at Seikey.

“We believe that digital transformation represents a key change of paradigm for data valorization and quality assurance in this field.” 

Using Azure Data Factory, the data is gathered, combined and stored in Azure Data Lake, which scales and classifies mission data. “We use all the data gathered by the drones to create a 3D model, or digital twin, of the construction site,” says Marcella Faraone, Head of Competence Center BIM-GIS at FSTechnology. “And then match it against our original plans to identify areas of intervention.” 

Engineers working offsite can use this digital twin to keep track of works and visualize it with the Microsoft HoloLens. “By using the HoloLens and Microsoft Teams, our engineers are able to see the sites in real time,” she continues. “And communicate with remote personnel through its voice, video and augmented reality functionalities.”

Meanwhile, photos taken by the drones are gathered and processed through multiple Azure Functions that use Microsoft Artificial Intelligence capabilities. The data is gathered through Azure Synapse and visualized on Power BI Dashboards. With help from Azure Data Explorer, Italferr and FSTechnology can then move on to analyze the mission photos.

“Thanks to our Azure Platform and Azure Cognitive Services, we can analyze all the data coming from the drone inspections and generate key insights,” she adds. 

“Crucially, we are then able to shape the behavior of artificial intelligence to tackle environmental pollution. We use machine learning algorithms on the dataset that we obtained from the surveys to spot automatically critical details of the work site like illegal landfills, danger or leakage or chemical waste – and that’s groundbreaking.” 

The solution to fast and efficient monitoring

The project comes at a crucial time for the rail sector. A recent European Commission report has found that some 20% of total budgets for large construction projects is spent on fixing issues that arise during the construction. And with more and more passengers now returning to the railways, time is of essence for many companies. 

As Luigi Evangelista, Director of Infrastructural Projects Division at Italferr says, projects like this are a key to achieving it. “This new modern approach, the digitalization of old processes that we’re carrying out, is crucial to reaching a range of targets, from efficiency to cost savings,” he says. “But more than anything, it allows us to reduce time spent on actual monitoring and use it where it’s needed more.”

Being able to automate parts of their work is a huge advantage for Italferr, which is now freer to use its expert capabilities elsewhere. “This way, we can use our best brains for the more strategic parts, allowing them to carry out risk-free inspections and make decisions based on all the data insights that we have,” he adds.

Next steps

As they plan the next steps in their project, Italferr and FS Italiane are determined to further embed their solution in their activities. 

From viaducts to tunnels, embankments and trenches, the team believes that more and more projects will require their technology. They are also exploring the possibility of using it for monitoring and maintenance activities of the rail network even post-construction. 

But as Federica Santini, Chief of Strategy and Innovation, states, there are great opportunities also awaiting Italferr beyond Italian construction sites. 

“We are the largest Italian engineering company in the world and we’re eager to lead by excellence abroad,” she says. “So we’re looking to export our knowledge and everything we’re learning through this project to other companies outside the country.

“We hope this will help us make the world more aware of Italian railway technology.”